The _Symptoms_ common to the action of these acids supervene _immediately_ the acid is swallowed, and consist in a sensation of burning in the mouth and gullet. Dreadful pain is felt in the stomach, attended with constant eructations, and vomiting of a brownish or blackish matter, mixed with blood. Mucus, together with, in severe cases, portions of the mucous membrane of the stomach, may be detected in the vomited matters, which have an intensely acid reaction, changing the colour and destroying the texture of cloth or other material on which they may fall. The act of swallowing is attended with intense pain, and not infrequently is rendered quite impossible. The thirst is intense, the bowels are confined, and the urine is diminished in quantity. The pulse is small and weak, and the skin clammy and cold. Respiration is performed with difficulty, and the countenance expresses the most intense anxiety. Sometimes, when the upper part of the windpipe is implicated, there is more or less cough and difficulty of speech. Death may even result from suffocation--the skin, in this case, presenting a cyanosed appearance. The mouth is excoriated, the lips shrivelled and blistered. In children, when the acid has been poured far back into the mouth, by forcing the bottle backwards before emptying it of its contents, the mouth may more or less escape injury, and the signs in it of corrosive poisoning be absent. The teeth may become loose, and fall out of the mouth. The mental faculties remain clear, death generally coming on suddenly, the patient dying convulsed or suffocated. The period at which death ensues is very variable, and considerable power for locomotion may be retained by the sufferer, though, as a rule, he is found writhing in exquisite agony on the floor or elsewhere. Some cases recover, leaving the coats of the stomach more or less injured, and the general health greatly impaired.