§ 159. =Criminal or Accidental Alcoholic Poisoning.=--Suicide by alcohol, in the common acceptation of the term, is rare, and murder still rarer, though not unknown. In the ten years ending 1892, only three deaths from alcohol (1 male and 2 females) are recorded as suicidal. Perhaps the most common cause of fatal acute poisoning by alcohol is either a foolish wager, by which a man bets that he can drink so many glasses of spirits without bad effect; or else the drugging of a person already drunk by his companions in a sportive spirit. § 160. =Fatal Dose.=--It is difficult to say what would be likely to prove a lethal dose of alcohol, for a great deal depends, without doubt, on the dilution of the spirit, since the mere local action of strong alcohol on the mucous membranes of the stomach, &c., is severe (one may almost say corrosive), and would aid the more remote effects. In Maschka’s case,[149] a boy of nine years and a girl of five, died from about two and a half ounces of spirit of 67 per cent. strength, or 48·2 c.c. (1·7 oz.) of absolute alcohol. [149] Recorded by Maschka (_Gutachten der Prager Facultät_, iv. 239; see also Maschka’s _Handbuch der gericht. Medicin_, Band. ii. p. 384). The following is a brief summary:--Franz. Z., nine years old, and Caroline Z., eight years old, were poisoned by their stepfather with spirit of 67 per cent. strength taken in small quantities by each--at first by persuasion, and the remainder administered by force. About one-eighth of a pint is said to have been given to each child. Both vomited somewhat, then lying down, stertorous breathing at once came on, and they quickly died. The autopsy, three days after death, showed dilatation of the pupils; _rigor mortis_ present in the boy, not in the girl; and the membranes of the brain filled with dark fluid blood. The smell of alcohol was perceptible on opening the chest; the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes and gullet was normal, both lungs œdematous, the fine tubes gorged with a bloody frothy fluid, and the mucous membrane of the whole intestinal canal was reddened. The stomach was not, unfortunately, examined, being reserved for chemical analysis. The heart was healthy; the pericardium contained some straw-coloured fluid. Chemical analysis gave an entirely negative result, which must have been from insufficient material having been submitted to the analyst, for I cannot see how the vapours of alcohol could have been detected by the smell, and yet have evaded chemical processes.