A case of poisoning by chloral hydrate ; introducing a new test / by Francis Ogston, Jun.

  • Ogston, Francis, Jr., 1846-1917.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A case of poisoning by chloral hydrate ; introducing a new test / by Francis Ogston, Jun. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    clear serum was found in considerable quantity. (5.) The brain substance appeared somewhat shrunken, but no unusual number of bloody points was noted. (6.) The oesophagus was slightly con- tracted and rugose, and its mucous membrane was softened. (7.) The parts at the top of the larynx were oedematous, and the mucous membrane of the trachea showed fine injection of its bloodvessels. (8.) The lungs were oedematous, and deeply congested. (9.) The right cavities of the heart were filled with blood (10 fluid ounces), and the left were comparatively empty (3 fluid ounces). (10.) The blood in the heart was partly in firm black clots and partly fluid. Here and throughout the body it became on. exposure of a dark cherry-red colour, somewhat darker than that found after death by cold. (11.) The urinary bladder was filled with urine of a pale colour; its walls normal in colour. (12.) The gall-bladder was distended with bile. (18.) The liver was loaded with dark blood. (14.) The kidneys were loaded with dark blood. (15.) The spleen was somewhat soft, and loaded with dark blood. (16.) The stomach showed remarkably the action of the poison, as has been already fully described. (17.) The great and.small intestines showed nothing unusual. These appearances agree pretty closely with those noted by Pro- fessor Falck in some of his cases ; the only ones which diff'er from his—and that only in degree—was the appearance of the stomach, which presented traces of strong irritation, almost approaching to corrosion, and the normal condition of the intestines. In summing up the pathological appearances, 1 cannot quite agree with Professor Falck, that these appearances are not characteristic, which is what he seems to imply ^V.J.S., p. 430); for from the study of his cases, combined with my case, it seems to me that we have clear signs of death by asphyxia; and in addition more or less marked signs, in my case very well marked, of irritation along the digestive tract—signs which place chloral hydrate in the class of poisons known as narcotico-acrids. III.—Chemical Analysis. So far I have assumed that the man I refer to had died from poisoning by chloral hydrate, it now remains for me to show what steps I took to prove this, by demonstrating the presence of the poison in the body. I took two portions of the contents of the stomach. 1. One of these I filtered, and thus obtained a straw-coloured nud, which I concentrated and divided into two parts, a and &. io a was added caustic potash, but no reaction followed. To & was then added a few drops of old ammonium sulphide, when ] ^J^^'''^'^^^^^^'^^ liquor_ was first_ turned greenish (the colour of the (JNHjgS, and after a little time it became again straw-coloured, changing slowly to a dark yellowish brown, and letting fall a very sligiit brownish amorphous precipitate. 2. 1 then dialysed the second portion of the contents of the