ARSENIOUS ACID. This acts both externally and inter nally, and produces death in a very short time. The exact mode in which it operates on life is not well agreed on, but the general symptoms produced are the following : An austere taste, with spitting, constriction of the throat, grinding of the teeth, hiccup, nausea, and vomiting, the matters being brown or bloody. Then anxiety, fainting, burning heat in the stomach, with inflammation of the mouth and throat, great irritability of the stomach, and black evacuations. The pulse is small, frequent, irregu lar, sometimes slow and intermittent, with a burning heat over the body, and an inward sense of the same ; yet oc casionally there is a feeling of icy cold. Palpitations, thirst, fainting, difficulty of respiration, cold sweats, dysu ria, or bloody urine, may be added to these. The physi ognomy is affected, presenting a lucid circle round the eyes; the body swells, and is covered with a red eruption, sometimes with petechix ; and, to complete this frightful list, we may add prostration of strength, delirium, convul sions, priapism, loss of the hair and epidermis, and finally death. It is rare, however, that many of these effects are present in one patient ; and sometimes death has been pro duced without any other symptom than previous faintings.
The visible effects of arsenic on the body after death resemble those of corrosive sublimate. Erosion, or in flammation of the stomach, is not necessary for the pro duction of death. Such symptoms must not therefore be depended on in cases of judicial examination.
The poison which has been used must be procured in the way recommended for corrosive sublimate, and exa mined by the now well-known tests to be found in the che mical history of this substance.
Treatment of the Patient. No chemical substance yet tried is an antidote to arsenic in its solid state. All solu tions are rendered inert by the hydrosulphurets ; but the poison is so rarely given in this form, that these are of no practical use.
The first part of the treatment is to expel the poison by vomiting, and by the same substances recommended in the case of corrosive sublimate ; to which may be added tick ling the throat by means of a feather. This alone has sometimes proved successful. In all cases, the fuller the stomach is of any fluid, the less violent are the effects of this poison. The metallic emetics only add to the mis chief. Oils and fat substances are injurious, as has been fully proved by experiments on animals. In the liquid state of the poison, lime water may be useful, but not in the solid. Theriaca, and the numerous vegetable anti dotes recommended, are useless, except for the quantity of fluid in which they may be given. The medical treat ment, as in the case of mercury, is formed on the anti phlogistic plan.
The arsenical acid, and the arsenites and arseniates, are all attended by similar symptoms, but they require no far ther remarks.