The symptoms observed in the various experiments on animals led several physicians to try its therapeutic action in diseases of the nervous system. Sulphate of aniline was the form selected, and chorea the disease on which it was especially tried, although it has also been administered in epilepsy and other nervous diseases. The results are con tradictory; and till further evidence of its value is adduced, it is not likely to supplant other medicines of the same class.
The workmen employed in the fabrication of nitro-benzine and aniline (for the two are prepared in the same works) suffer, for the first day or two after commencing this occupation, from severe supra-orbital headache, frequently accompanied with nausea and vomiting. While some persons suffer so severely that they are compelled to seek another employment, most, after a fortnight's experience, cease to feel the ill effects, except accidentally, as after extra work or intense heat. Till they become seasoned, most suffer from vertigo, which rapidly disappears on exposure to a current of fresh air; and sometimes the vertigo is succeeded by loss of consciousness. Sometimes the face becomes congested, the patient staggers and falls to the ground in a semi-comatose state like a drunken man; in the course of an hour or two lie wakes up, suffering only a feel ing of fatigue. In other cases, regular epileptiform convulsions of the limbs and tetanic spasms of the neck are observed, the patient often remaining in this state for an hour or more before recovery. Such may be regarded as the acute symptoms exhibited by new
hands. Those who have become seasoned, complain of great general languor, a partial loss of sensation in the upper extremities, and constipation of the bowels; and they almost always present a decolorization of the skin and mucous membranes, in conse quence of the impoverished state of their blood, which is said to be rapidly restored by making the patient inhale oxygen gas or compressed air.. In reference to the influence of the aniline colors on the health of those who use them, it may be remarked, that even if they were poisonous, they adhere so tenaciously to the stuffs that are dyed with them, that there is no fear of the detachment of a noxious powder, as in the case of the arsenical greens. But fortunately they seem perfectly harmless even when taken internally, according to Sonnenkelb, provided they are completely freed from the arsenic, lead, mercury, or other poisonous metal that has been employed in the oxidation of the aniline. Hence, when they are quite pure, fuchsine and the allied pigments may be safely employed in coloring sweetmeats, liqueurs, confectionery, ices, etc., which it is very satisfactory to know, seeing how largely they are at the present day employed.