A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers.

Date:: 1870

Credit: A manual of medical jurisprudence for India : including the outline of a history of crime against the person in India / by Norman Chevers. 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.

885/913 page 840

$operation might favour cerebral congestion, and because, when the case has advanced to this stage, the poison has probably left the stomach. In the stages of delirium where this is of an active kind and attended with much excitement of the circula- tion, great relief is usually obtained by the application of a few leeches (one to two dozen) to the temples; the exhibition of the cold affusion once or twice, and the use of small doses of tartar emetic and opium. This combination, in doses of from half a grain of tartar emetic with twenty or thirty minims of laudanum, repeated every two or three hours, generally proves as efficacious as in the analogous state of excite- ment that occurs in delirium tremens. On the other hand, when either the delirium or the sopor is accompanied by coldness of the surface of the body and a small feeble pulse, the use of the stimulants, as ammonia and ether, will be indicated. As it probably occurs in many cases that the action of the poison is prolonged by its being taken with large quantities of food, and that being only gradually absorbed in its passage through the intestinal canal, the early administration of an aperient as castor oil, is obvious. [About two months ago, my own coachman ate, late at night, a considerable quantity of Datura leaves in a mess with brinjal, which some one had recommended for rheu- matism. He was caught in a delirious state, and immediately dosed with sulphate of zinc. He was quite well in the morning, and the pupils were not dilated. I attri- bute this to early emcsis.—N. C.] C. 1.—Page 279. The following very important case of Poisoning by Camphor has been given me by Baboo Kearny Lall Dey, who saw the case about a year ago in consultation with Baboo Juggernauth Sen :— Baboo , aged twenty-two years, a patient of Baboo Juggernath Sen, was advised to take small doses of camphor for gonorrhoea. About 8 p.m. on the evening of , he took about a scruple of the drug. Feeling a pleasant and exhilarating effect therefrom, and considering camphor to be a homely and conse- quently not a very active remedy, he shortly after consumed about 1£ tola {thirteen and- a-half scruples) with a bottle of lemonade. There was nothing worthy of notice till three quarters of an hour afterwards, when he began to feel a slight warmth in the pit of the stomach, and shortly after a severe burning sensation in that organ, as also in the throat. This was soon followed by giddiness, dimness of sight, ringing in the ears, and numbness all over the body. His body became covered with a cold clammy perspiration, and he felt an icy coldness all over. There was a sense of impend- ing suffocation, the respiration was hurried, and the breath surcharged with camphor- ous smell. He lost all control over the limbs, and, when raised up, reeled like a man under the influence of liquor. The tongue was felt as if it were too large for the cavity of the mouth, although there was no perceptible redness or swelling of the organ. Gradually the patient became quite delirious, and began to get convulsions at 11 \ p.m., or two hours and-a-half from the commencement. He continued in this state till the morning, when, after profuse emesis from the treatment adopted, the symptoms began to subside. After ten hours, the patient became relieved from all the urgent symptoms ; but the secondary effects continued for a much longer period, and it was not until three days had elapsed that the patient was restored to perfect health. The treatment adopted was plenty of warm water to drink, in order to excite vomiting, and small doses of tincture of opium. This case, I believe, represents the largest dose of Camphor but one that has ever been taken. Dr. Taylor (ou Poisons, p. 727) has given one which occurred to Wendt of$