Poisons, Their Effects and Detection: A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and ExpertsBlyth, Alexander Wynter
Science
Poisons, Their Effects and Detection: A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and Experts
Blyth, Alexander Wynter
Poisons
In another case, a child died from the outward use of a 2 per cent.
solution of carbolic acid. It is described as follows:--An infant of
seven weeks old suffered from varicella, and one of the pustules became
the centre of an erysipelatous inflammation. To this place a 2 per cent.
solution of carbolic acid was applied by means of a compress steeped in
the acid; the following morning the temperature rose from 36·5° (97·7°
F.) to 37° (98·6° F.), and poisonous symptoms appeared. The urine was
coloured dark. There were sweats, vomitings, and contracted pupils,
spasmodic twitchings of the eyelids and eyes, with strabismus, slow
respiration, and, lastly, inability to swallow. Under the influence of
stimulating remedies the condition temporarily improved, but the child
died twenty-three and a half hours after the first application. An
examination showed that the vessels of the brain and the tissue of the
lungs were abnormally full of blood. The liver was softer than natural,
and exhibited a notable yellowishness in the centre of the acini.
Somewhat similar appearances were noticed in the kidneys, the
microscopic examination of which showed the _tubuli contorti_ enlarged
and filled with fatty globules. In several places the epithelium was
denuded, in other places swollen, and with the nuclei very visible.
In an American case,[201] death followed the application of carbolic
acid to a wound. A boy had been bitten by a dog, and to the wound, at
one o’clock in the afternoon, a lotion, consisting of nine parts of
carbolic acid and one of glycerin, was applied. At seven o’clock in the
evening the child was unconscious, and died at one o’clock the following
day.
[201] _American Journal of Pharmacy_, vol. li., 4th Ser.; vol. ix.,
1879, p. 57.
§ 224. =Internal Administration.=--Carbolic acid may be taken into the
system, not alone by the mouth, but by the lungs, as in breathing
carbolic acid spray or carbolic acid vapour. It is also absorbed by the
skin when outwardly applied, or in the dressing or the spraying of
wounds with carbolic acid. Lastly, the ordinary poisonous effects have
been produced by absorption from the bowel, when administered as an
enema. When swallowed undiluted, and in a concentrated form, the
symptoms may be those of early collapse, and speedy death. Hence, the
course is very similar to that witnessed in poisoning by the mineral
acids.
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