In the case of a pregnant woman, a handful of “nitre” taken in mistake for Glauber’s salts produced abortion after half-an-hour. The woman recovered. Sodic nitrate subcutaneously applied to frogs kills them, in doses of ·026 grm. (·4 grain), in about two hours; there are fibrillar twitchings of single groups of muscles and narcosis. The heart dies last, but after ceasing to beat may, by a stimulus, be made again to contract. Rabbits, poisoned similarly by sodic nitrate, exhibit also narcotic symptoms; they lose consciousness, lie upon their side, and respond only to the sharpest stimuli. The breathing, as well as the heart, is “slowed,” and death follows after a few spasmodic inspirations. =Sodic nitrite= was found by Barth to be a more powerful poison, less than 6 mgrms. (·1 grain) being sufficient to kill a rabbit of 455·5 grms. (7028 grains) weight, when subcutaneously injected. The symptoms were very similar to those produced by the nitrate. § 126. The _post-mortem_ appearances from potassic nitrate are as follows:--An inflamed condition of the stomach, with the mucous membrane dark in colour, and readily tearing; the contents of the stomach are often mixed with blood. In a case related by Orfila, there was even a small perforation by a large dose of potassic nitrate, and a remarkable preservation of the body was noted. It is believed that the action of the nitrates is to be partly explained by a reduction to nitrites, circulating in the blood as such. To detect nitrites in the blood, the best method is to place the blood in a dialyser, the outer liquid being alcohol. The alcoholic solution may be evaporated to dryness, extracted with water, and then tested by metaphenylene-diamine. § 127. =Potassic Chlorate= (KClO₃).--Potassic chlorate is in the form of colourless, tabular crystals with four or six sides. About 6 parts of the salt are dissolved by 100 of water at 15°, the solubility increasing with the temperature, so that at 100° nearly 60 parts dissolve; if strong sulphuric acid be dropped on the crystals, peroxide of chlorine is evolved; when rubbed with sulphur in a mortar, potassic chlorate detonates. When the salt is heated strongly, it first melts, and then decomposes, yielding oxygen gas, and is transformed into the perchlorate. If the heat is continued, this also is decomposed, and the final result is potassic chloride.