Little is yet known of the effects of bromine on man. Butske found that a drop and a half in half an ounce of water produced a sense of heat in the mouth, gullet, and stomach, and subsequently colic pains; and that two drops and a half in an ounce of mucilage excited, in addition to the preceding symptoms, great nausea, hiccup, and increased secretion of mucus. On the other hand M. Fournet, who gave doses gradually increasing from two to sixty drops daily for many weeks, observed that the lowest doses excited itching in the hands and feet, and sometimes colic; that an increase in the quantity caused heat in the chest and nausea; and that forty-five drops occasioned also severe burning and sense of acidity in the stomach, which however were temporary. The appetite was in general rather improved, and the body became more plump.[376]—Bromine appears on the whole to be a pure local irritant. It acts most energetically when most thoroughly dissolved in water. _Hydrobromic acid_ seems from the experiments of Dr. Glover to be a pure irritant and corrosive, allied in action and energy to hydrochloric acid. The same experimentalist found that _bromine of potassium_ in the dose of forty grains had sometimes little or no effect on dogs when injected into the blood-vessels, while in other instances less doses cause speedy death by paralysing the heart. Barthez observed that half a drachm in solution produced dulness and depression in dogs, but no other bad effect; and that two drachms retained in the stomach by tying the gullet occasioned death in three days with symptoms of irritant poisoning. M. Maillet observed that two ounces of this salt in the form of ointment, administered to a dog by rubbing it over his nose, and letting him lick it off and swallow it, had no effect whatever.[377] CHAPTER V. OF POISONING WITH ACETIC ACID.