3. As a acid is one of our most energetic poisons, and is fre quently employed both in murder and suicide. When a small poisonous dose (about half a drain of the 2 per cent acid) has been taken, the first symptoms are, weight and pain in the head, with confusion of thought, giddiness, nausea (and sometimes vomiting), a quick pulse, and loss of muscular power. If death result, this is preceded by tetanic spasms and involuntary evacuations. When a large dose has been taken (as from half an ounce to an ounce of the 2 per cent acid), the symptoms may commence instanta neously, and it is seldom that their appearance is delayed beyond one or two minutes. " When," says Dr. A. S. Taylor, " the patient has been seen at this period, he has been 'perfectly insensible, the eyes fixed and glistening, the pupils dilated and unaffected by light, the limbs flaccid, the skin cold and covered with a clammy perspiration; there is convulsive respiration at long intervals, and the patient appears dead in the intermediate time; the pulse is imperceptible, and the respiration is slow, deep, gasping, and some times heaving or sobbing.' The patient survives for a longer or shorter period, accord ing to the dose. According to Dr. Lonsdale, death has occurred as early as the second, and as late as the fortyfftli minute.
The parts specifically affected are the brain and the spinal system. The affection of the respiratory system seems to be due to the influence of the acid on those parts of the nervous system from which the respiratory organs derive their nervous power. The immediate cause of death is, in most cases, the obstruction of the respiration; but in sonic cases, the stoppage of the heart's action.
Where the fatal action is so rapid antidotes are of comparatively little value. Chlo rine, ammonia, cold affusion, and artificial respiration are the most important agents in the treatment. The first two should be used with great caution, and only by the medi cal practitioner. Cold affusion on the head, neck, and down the spine is a valuable remedy, and it is asserted that its efficacy is almost certain when it is employed before the convulsive stage of poisoning is over, and that it is often successful even in the stages of insensibility and paralysis. Artificial respiration (see 1IESPIIIAT1ON, ciAL) should never be omitted. Dr. Pereira states that he once recovered a rabbit by this means only, after the convulsions had ceased, and the animal was apparently dead.