Phenols form a distinct group in which car bolic acid, creosote, creolin, lysol, resorcin, pyrogallic acid, thymol, guaiacol, naphthaline, salol, etc., belong. They cause symptoms closely resembling one another. Carbolic acid may be taken as. the type. This causes gastro-en teritis, with severe pain, white scar of lips and throat, buzzing, dizziness, smoky to blackish urine, pale, bluish face, weak heart, quick breathing, coma and sometimes convulsions. Treatrnent is by quick washing of the stomach. A mixture of lime and sugar of syrupy con sistency, Epsom salt, milk, white.of eggs, car diac stimulants and artificial respiration are all valuable.
. Another large group of poisons, the anilines, includes many of the modern drugs, such as acetanilid. Closely allied are different aniline dyes. Also phenacetin, antipyrin. In these the characteristic signs of poisoning are somewhat similar to those seen in the phenol group, but in the more pronounced ones of this series the main changes occur in the blood. There is blueness of the skin and lips, difficulty in breathing, sometimes pinkish to purplish urine, rapid and feeble heart action. The chief changes are due to a partial destruction of the red blood-cells. In phenacetin the blood rarely disintegrates as in antifebrin or acetanilid,• whereas in antipyrin there is no real blood action. The' treatment of these forms is by prompt evacuation, cardiac stimulation, oxygen and, most important of all, artificial respiration.
Alkaloidal poisons (see ALKALOIDS) are nu merous. The commonest forms of poisoning from these, the most powerful poisons, are morphine (opium, laudanum, paregoric), strychnine (nux vomica), atropine (bella donna), cocaine (coca), aconitine (aconite) and nicotine (tobacco). In acute opium poison ing the classical symptoms are drowsiness, coma, small pin-point pupils, loss of pain, slow breathing (six to eight to a minute), moist skin, dry mouth, rousing with more or less active consciousness and quick relapse. Treat ment is by washing the stomach with hot strong tea or coffeet by mouth or by rectum, and by artificial respiration. Too much walldng of the
patient about is not desirable.
Strychnine poisoning causes twitching of muscles, cramps, irregular muscular move ments, convulsions at slightest jar or touch, fixation of muscles of breathing, with cyanosis. Treatment is by great quiet, alcohol, chloro form and stimulants.
Belladonna poisoning shows wide-awake, restless consciousness, sometimes active, busy delirium; dry mouth, skin hot and flushed, pupils widely dilated and paralyzed to light and accommodation, rapid feeble heart and rapid respiration. Treatment is by prompt evacuation of stomach, sodium bromide, opium, caffeine or coffee.
Another group of 'glycoside poisons is char acterized by a great similarity in action. Many of these are used in medicine and some were used as arrow-poisons by wild natives. This group contains digitalin (digitalis), strophanthin (strophanthus), convallarin (lily-of-the-valley), bryonin (bryonia), apocynin (dogbane), olean dun (oleander), scillain (squills), etc. These are all heart poisons. They first quicken the heart, then slow and regulate it, hence their use fulness in many heart diseases; but in overdoses they paralyze the heart by overstimulation. As these drugs rarely cause poisoning, the treat ment is omitted.
Tox albumins form a group of special char acter, and all are very violent. • Some are of vegetable and others of animal origin. The most important are abrin (in jequirity-seeds), ricin (from the seed-coats of the castor-oil bean— frequently causing death in children who eat the whole bean), phallin (in poisonous mushrooms), rattlesnake poison, cobra poison, heloderma and the poison of lizards. etc.
The most important of the bacterial toxins, some of which might be classed here, are dis cussed under their respective heads. For the endogenous intoxications see the articles on the infectious diseases, cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, pneumonia, tetanus, typhoid, etc.; also the diseases of metabolism, uraemia, dia betes, Basedow's disease, Addison's disease — thyroidism, myxcedema, cretinism, etc. See