Practical treatise on poisons and asphyxies : adapted to general use, followed by directions for the treatment of burns and for the distinction of real from apparent death / by M.P. Orfila ; translated from the French with notes and additions, by J.G. Stevenson, with an appendix containing the principles of medical jurisprudence and chemical and anatomical considerations addressed to physicians.

Orfila, Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure, 1787-1853. Secours à donner aux personnes empoisonnées ou asphyxiées. English

Date:: 1826

Credit: Practical treatise on poisons and asphyxies : adapted to general use, followed by directions for the treatment of burns and for the distinction of real from apparent death / by M.P. Orfila ; translated from the French with notes and additions, by J.G. Stevenson, with an appendix containing the principles of medical jurisprudence and chemical and anatomical considerations addressed to physicians. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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tharides, the salts of lead, all acrid plants or certain parts of them, such as gamboge, colo- eynth, mezereon, the various species of euphorbia [spurge], the family of ranunculus, or crow- foot [buttercups], the anemones, chelidonium, sedum acre [wall pepper, or stonecrop], the acon- ites [monkshood, wolfsbane], savine, etc. 1. All the poisons mentioned above inflame the parts of the body with which they come in contact, though in different degrees. Some of them produce an inflammation so intense, that they may be considered to be caustics almost as powerful in their action as the hot iron: these are called corrosives, and escharotics, and evi- dently cause death by an action similar to that of burns ; the concentrated acids, most of the al- kalies, lunar caustic, mezereon, etc. are of this nature. There are others which, though their caustic effects are less intense, destroy life with the greatest rapidity; they are probably absorb- ed into the system, mixed with the blood and caried to every part of the body, and destroy the vital powers of the heart, lungs, brain, or nerv- ous system, organs so essential to the preserva- tion of the individual, that death is the inevitable result of any important alteration in them. Ar- senic, tartar emetic, corrosive sublimate, barytes, aconite [monkshood, or wolfsbane] are of this description.

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