Medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

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.

    26/968 (page 12)
    The symptoms of poisoning by nicotina, prussic acid, oxalic acid, or the salts of strj chnia, appear immediately, or generally within a very few minutes after the poison has been swallowed. In one case, in which the dose of prussic acid was small, and insufficient to produce death, the poison was supposed by the patient not to have begun to act until after the lapse of fifteen minutes. (Ed. Med. and Surg. Journ. vol. .59. p. 72.) Thesyrap toms caused by arsenic and other irritants, and, indeed, by all poisons generally, are commonly manifested in from half an hour to an hour. It is rare that the appearance of .symptoms is pro- tracted for two houi's, except under certain peculiar states of the system. It is said that some neurotic poisons, such as the poisonous mushrooms, may remain in the stomach twelve or twentj'-four hours without giving rise to symptoms ; and this is also affirmed to be the case with some animal irritants, such as decayed meat; but with regard to the first point, ii has been shown by Dr. Peddle that mushrooms have produced symptoms in half an hour; and a case has fallen under my own observa- tion, in which the symptoms from noxious animal food came on within as short a time after the meal as is commonly observed in irritant poisoning by mineral substances. In some cases of poisoning by phosphorus, no symptoms have been observed until after the lapse of some hours. Modifijinii conditions. Jiijhicncc of discituF.—A diseased state of the body may render a iiorson comparatively unsus:ceptible of the action of certain poisons, while in other instances it may in- crease their action, and render them fatal in small doses. In dysentery and tetanus a person will take, without being mate- rially affected, a quantity of opium sufficient to kill an adult in average health. In mania, cholera, hysteria, and delirium tre- mens, large doses of opium may be borne with comparative impunity. In a case of hemiplegia, a woman a>t. '2'.K took for six days three grains of strychnia daily without injurious con- sequences—the dose having been gradually raised ((>az. Med. jMai l.H4)); while one grain of strychnia is commonly regarded as a fatal dose to a healthy person. In a case of tetanus. I>u- puytreii gave as much as two ounces of opium at a dose (GO grannnes), without serious consequences. (Flandin. Tniito dcs Poisons, vol. 1. ]). '2:M.) It has also been remarked that persons afFectcd with tetantis are not easily .salivated by mercury. The morbid state ajipear,-; to create the ])ower of resisting the ordinary effects of poisons. (Collcs's Lectures, vol. 1. p. 77.) The effect of certain diseases of the nervous system, a;! well as of habit, either in retarding the appearance of symptoms or in blunting the oiieration of a poison, it is not diHicull to appreciate; they are cases which can present no ])ractical dilTioilty to a medical jurist. On the other hand, in certain diseased states of the system, there may be an increased susceptibility of the ac-