Narcotic Poisoning.--Giddiness, headache, drowsiness, and considerable difficulty in keeping awake. Paralysis of the muscles, convulsions, ending in profound coma and death. The symptoms of narcotic poisoning begin not later than an hour, or at most two hours, after the poison is taken, except in the case of poisonous fungi and spurred rye, when a day or two may elapse. The symptoms of narcotic poisoning advance gradually. The person may, in _most_ cases, be roused from the deepest lethargy. The pupil in opium poisoning is, as a rule, _contracted_. Recovery seldom occurs after twelve hours; in most cases, death takes place in six or eight hours--the shortest time being three hours. Apoplexy.--In some cases apoplexy is preceded by warning symptoms--headache and giddiness. As a rule apoplexy is a disease of old age, and of stout, plethoric people. If the symptoms do not come on for some hours after food or drink has been taken, this disease is to be suspected; but it may occur _at_ or _immediately_ after a meal, too soon to be the result of the action of narcotics--ten to thirty minutes always elapsing before these poisons act. Apoplexy generally comes on suddenly, coma at once present. It is seldom possible to rouse the person when the sopor of apoplexy is fully developed. The pupils in apoplexy are _usually unequal or dilated_; but should the effusion of blood take place into the pons Varolii, the pupils may be contracted, hence closely simulating opium poisoning. Apoplexy may last for days, or death may occur in an hour. Epilepsy.--Loss of consciousness and presence of convulsions mark this disease; and in these it resembles poisoning by prussic acid. Epilepsy is in most cases a chronic disease. Warnings--_aura epileptica_--are often present. The fit begins violently and abruptly. The paroxysm generally lasts for some time, and death rarely occurs during the first attack. Table showing Points of Difference in the Action of Corrosive and Irritant Poisons