Poisoning by this substance is more common in France than in England. In England, the deaths due to this poison are more frequently the result of accident, from the incautious use of phosphorus paste for the destruction of vermin. These pastes generally contain from 3 to 4 per cent. of phosphorus. Children have also been poisoned by sucking the heads of lucifer matches. In one case, that of a child, death followed from sucking about forty matches. It has most frequently been employed as a means of suicide, but seldom for the purpose of homicide. One case, however, occurred at the Bodmin Assizes in 1857. Kopf relates a case of a young woman, aged twenty-four, who died on the fourth day after swallowing the heads of six packets of lucifers (_Allg. Wien. Med. Ztg._, No. 47, 1819; Schmidt, vol. cv. p. 296). The size of the packets is not stated. In this case the bowels were confined, and the _post-mortem_ revealed only the redness of inflammation in the stomach and bowels. Death has followed inunction of phosphorus paste. _General Characters._--There are two kinds--ordinary waxy, crystalline phosphorus, and a peculiar form known as red allotropic or amorphous phosphorus, prepared by heating waxy phosphorus to a temperature of 240° C., in an atmosphere free from oxygen. The ordinary yellow phosphorus is poisonous, the red or amorphous non-poisonous. As found in the shops, phosphorus is preserved in water in the form of translucent white or slightly yellow-coloured cylinders. It is sparingly soluble in oil, alcohol, and other hydrocarbons, but greatly so in bisulphide of carbon. White vapours are given off when it is exposed to the air, these consisting of phosphorus and phosphoric acids. _Symptoms._--Phosphorus acts as an irritant poison, but some days may elapse after the poison is taken before the injurious effects become apparent. The symptoms occur in three stages. _First stage:_ The patient complains of a garlic-like taste in the mouth, peculiar to poisoning by this substance. This is followed by a burning sensation in the throat, accompanied with severe pain in the stomach, and intense thirst. The belly becomes swollen, and there is vomiting, in some cases, of blood from the stomach, which may continue till death. The vomited matters are of a dark green or black colour, with an odour of garlic, and sometimes appearing phosphorescent in the dark. This condition may also be observed in the motions passed. There is intense thirst. The pulse is feeble, the countenance anxious, and the surface of the body bathed in a cold sweat. In males, priapism is not infrequent. The nervous and muscular debility is intense, and the patient may die in a state of collapse or during a fit of convulsions.