After the view which we have taken of the operation of this salt in large doses, it necessarily follows that copious dilution is the very first object which we have to accomplish, and then the ejection of the fluid by vomiting. _Sydenham_ relates an interesting case of poisoning by this substance, which was successfully treated by copious draughts of water, and repeated vomiting.[276] But it becomes a question of great practical importance to enquire, whether there may not exist some counterpoison or antidote which, by decomposing the salt, will at once disarm it of its virulence? This question has been investigated in a very masterly style by _Orfila_, who has clearly proved by experiment, that neither the _alkaline salts_ and _earths, the sulphurets of potass and of lime_, nor the _martial alkaline tinctures_, as proposed by _Navier_,[277] deserve the least confidence; for although the salt may by some of these bodies be decomposed, yet the resulting oxide will prove as virulent as the original compound; equally inefficient are the other substances which have been proposed as counter-poisons, such as _sulphuretted hydrogen_, _solutions of sugar_,[278] _the infusions of Peruvian bark_,[279] and _metallic mercury_.[280] _M. Orfila_ having observed the facility with which _albumen_ decomposes corrosive sublimate, and gives rise to a triple compound of albumen, muriatic acid, and protoxide of mercury, induced him to ascertain by experiments whether the _white of eggs_ might not prove an antidote to that poison; the result of his inquiry has shewn that this is the case; and that by mixing such albuminous matter, in _large quantities_, with the diluents given to provoke vomiting, the happiest effects may be anticipated. Many examples are recorded of the success of this practice. In the Transactions of the King and Queen’s College of Physicians in Ireland, an interesting case of this kind is related by _Dr. Lendrick_; it is, however, but justice to state, that there are instances also of the failure of this antidote. In the 41st volume of the _London Medical and Physical Journal_, p. 204, the reader will find the case of a girl who was poisoned by a drachm of sublimate, and who, notwithstanding the copious administration of albumen, died in ninety hours afterwards.