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.

    6/8 (page 6)
    stomach, passer! the fluid dialysed tlirough a filter of animal cliar- coal, obtaining a colourless fluid, which T concentrated from 2 oz. to less than 5!., and divided into three parts, a, i, and c. To a I added caustic potash, but got no reaction. h Was still further concentrated to 2rn,, when, on adding caustic potash and heating slightly, a very faint odour of chloroform was perceptible to both my father and myself, but no trace of precipitate appeared. To c was added (NHJgS, when the same result followed as with portion 1 b, only that the colouring was better marked from the re- action taking place in a previously colourless liquid. I then tried the tests on portions of the blood dialysed and filtered through charcoal, but got no reliable result with either ; though the (NHJgS gave some indications of the presence of chloral to me, which, however, my father would not allow to be convincing. With portions of urine I got no result with either test. I thus established the fact that the man had taken chloral hydrate, and probably, from my finding it in the stomach, not a very small amount of it; and this, coupled with the appearances in the body, led me to the conclusion that the case was a true case of chloral poisoning. IV. I shall now, in conclusion, say a few words on the test for chloral by sulphide of ammonium, which I wish to lay before my medico- les:al brethren. The addition of stale sulphide of ammonium to a solution of chloral hydrate of moderate strength, say 10 gr. to the drachm (the strength of the British syrupus chloralis hydratis), causes, in a short time (not immediately)^ the colourless liquid to assume a slight orange-yellow colour, the liquid remaining clear; on letting it stand, the colour gradually deepens to a brown, and now a cloudiness comes over it, which in about half an hour, or perhaps longer, is deposited as an amorphous precipitate of a brown colour, and which appears to consist of sulphur. While the change of colour is going on and the brownness appears in place of the orange, a gas is given off of a most offensive smell, apparently a mixture of chloroform and hydrogen sulphide, with something in addition, in such quantity as to fill a large room in a few minutes. In order to find out the smallest quantity of chloral hydrate which would give a reaction with ammonium sulphide, («) I dissolved 1 gramme of it in 100 cc. of water, took 1 cc. of the solution and added 1 cc. of annnonium sulphide, when the solution became of a canary yellow colour, ])assing through orange- yellow to brown in the course of about six hours, letting fall a slight brown precipitate and giving off a characteristic smell. (h) I then took 10 cc. of the above 1 p.c. solution, which I put into 100 cc. of water, and, on adding 1 cc. of ammonium sulphide