ARSENIOUS ACID.

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eyelids, followed by a cutaneous eruption. At other times irritation ofstomach is the leading symptom. In some cases ptyalism is brought on.Marcus ( Ephemeriden , 1809) noticed this effect: as also Dr. Ferriar (Med. Hist, and Refl. iii. 300.) Mr. Furley (Lond. Med. Ga~. xvi.) haspublished five illustrative cases of it. Trousseau and Pidoux (Traits deThtrap. ii. 148) also mention this symptom as produced by the long-continued use of feeble doses of arsenic. This effect acquired some im-portance in the celebrated Bristol case of poisoning. (Lond. Med. Gaz.xv. 519, and Trans. Prov. Assoc, iii. 432.)

The following is an abstract of the symptoms produced by the long-continued employment of small doses of arsenious acid, but which aremore or less modified in different cases :—Disorder of the digestive func-tions, characterized by flatulence, sensation of warmth, or actual pain, inthe stomach and bowels ; loss of appetite ; thirst, nausea, and vomiting ;purging, or at least a relaxed condition of the bowels, and griping; furredtongue, with dryness and tightness of the mouth and throat, or with sali-vation. The pulse is quick, small, and sometimes irregular; the respira-tion oppressed, and accompanied with a dry cough. The body wastes; thestomach being frequently so irritable that no food can be retained in it.Headache, giddiness, and want of sleep, are frequently observed. Thelimbs become painful, feeble, trembling, subject to convulsions; occa-sionally benumbed, and ultimately paralyzed. The cutaneous system is,in some cases, affected, an eruption makes its appearance, and now andthen the hair and nails fall off. Swelling of the feet and of the face isnot unfrequently observed ; and under these symptoms the patient gra-dually sinks, in some cases retaining his consciousness to the last, but atother times delirium or stupor supervening.

y. Of excessive or poisonous doses (acute poisoning.) —The symptomsproduced by the ingestion of a large dose of arsenious acid are not inva-riably alike, but put on three forms. In some cases the principal orleading ones are those indicating gastro-enteritis; the nervous sys-tem being not obviously, or at least only slightly, affected. In others,the gastro-enteritic symptoms are absent, and the principal operation ofthe poison is on the vascular and nervous systems. Lastly, there areother cases in which we have both gastro-enteritic symptoms with anaffection of the nervous and vascular systems.

Form l.s'f: Acute poisoning with symptoms of gastro-enteritis. —In thisform of arsenical poisoning, nausea and vomiting come on soon after thepoison has been swallowed, and are attended with burning pain in thethroat and stomach, and which soon extends over the whole abdomen.Pain and vomiting, however, are not invariably present. The mattersvomited vary in their nature and appearance; sometimes being bilious,at other times tinged with blood. Frequently there is a sense of heat,dryness, tightness, and constriction of the throat, accompanied withincessant thirst, and occasionally with an almost hydrophobic difficultyof swallowing. The lower part of the alimentary canal soon becomesaffected, indicated by the burning pain, which is increased on pressure—■by the hard and tense condition of the abdomen—by the diarrhoea (thestools occasionally being bloody)—by the tenesmus—and by the occa-sional heat and excoriation of the anus. When the lower part of thealimentary canal is powerfully irritated, the urino-genital apparatus be-comes affected ; and thus there may be difficulty in passing the water,with burning pain in the genital organs. The constitutional symptoms