An interesting case of poisoning by the vapour is recorded by Taylor.[222] A woman, aged 30, tasted a liquid used for flavouring pastry, which was afterwards chemically identified as pure nitro-benzene. She immediately spat it out, finding that it had an acrid taste, and probably did not swallow more than a drop. In replacing the bottle, however, she spilt about a tablespoonful, and allowed it to remain for some minutes; it was a small room, and the vapour rapidly pervaded it, and caused illness in herself as well as in a fellow-servant. She had a strange feeling of numbness in the tongue, and in three hours and a quarter after the accident was seen by a medical man; she then presented all the appearances of prussic acid poisoning. The eyes were bright and glassy, the features pale and ghastly, the lips and nails purple, as if stained with blackberries, the skin clammy, and the pulse feeble, but the mind was then clear. An emetic was administered, but she suddenly became unconscious; the emetic acted, and brought up a fluid with an odour of nitro-benzene. The stomach-pump was also used, but the liquid obtained had scarcely any odour of nitro-benzene. In about eleven hours consciousness returned, and in about seventeen hours she partially recovered, but complained of flashes of light and strange colours before her eyes. Recovery was not complete for weeks. In this case the small quantity swallowed would probably of itself have produced no symptoms, and the effects are to be mainly ascribed to the breathing of the vapour. [222] _Poisons_, Third Edition, p. 665.