Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
24/968 (page 10)
![SPINAL AND CEREBRO-SPINAL POISO.VS. vulsions. They have no acrid burning taste like the corrosive irritants ; and they very rarely give rise to vomiting or purging. When these symptoms follow the ingestion of the poison into the stomach, the effect may be generally ascribed either to the form or quantity in which the poison has been taken, and the mechanical effect on the stomach thereby produced, or to the poison being combined with some irritating substance, such as alcohol. The pure narcotics, or Cerebral poisons, are not found to iiTitate or inflame the stomach and bowels. Notwithstanding the well defined boundary thus apparently existing between these two classes of poisons, it must not be supposed that the substances arranged in each class always act in the manner indicated. Some imtants have been obsened to affect the brain or the spinal marrow, and this may be either a primary or a secondaiy consequence of their action. Arsenic and oxalic acid, although classed as irritants, have in some instances given rise to svmptoms closeh' resembling those of narcotic poisoning; namely, coma, paralysis, and tetanic convulsions. In a case of poisoning by arsenic, which oc- curred to Dr. Morehead, of Bombay, the symptoms of nar- cotism were so strongly marked, that it was believed at first the man had taken a narcotic. (Mod. Gaz. vol. -13. p. lO.io.) I have met with a case of poisoning by arsenic in which there was paralysis of the limbs, with an entire absence of purging, during the eight days that the deceased survived. On the other hand, in a case of poisoning by a large dose of opium, there was an absence of the usual symptoms of cerebral dis- turbance, and the presence of others resembling those of irri- tant poisoning—namely, pain and vomiting. Th\is, then, we must not allow ourselves to be misled by the idea that the symptoms are always clearly indicative of the kind of poison taken. 'J'he narcotic or cerebral poisons are few in number, and belong to the vegetable kingdom. Some of the poisonous gases possess a narcotic action. Niircotiro-Jrriliiiil!'. {Sfiinal ami Ccrcbrfl-spinnl Poison.'.)— Poisons belonging lo this class have, as the name implies, a compound action. They are ehictiv derived from the vegetable kingdom. At variable periods after they liave been swallowed they give rise (o vomiting and ]>urging. like irrit.mts : and sooner or later produce stupor, coma, paralysis and convulsions, owing to their elVects on the brain and spinal marrow. In the state of vcgelables, as leaves, seeds, or root, they po.s.sc.ss the property, like irritants, of irritating and intlaming the stomach and bowels. .As fan\iliar examples we may point to nux vomica, monkshood, hemlock, and poisonous mushrooms. This class of |)oisons is very numerous, embracing a large variety of well-known vegetable substances ; but they rarely form a subject of difficulty to a medical practitioner. The fact of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21935221_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
