ARSENIOUS ACID.

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by the friends that about a fortnight previous to his death, he made anattempt to destroy himself by swallowing a quantity of powdered arsenic,which they found, on inquiry at the druggists of whom it was purchased,to have weighed half an ounce. It was taken immediately after dinner,and the only effect produced was violent vomiting. Here it is evidentthat the distension of the stomach with food saved the patient’s life.This unfortunate individual repeated the attempt, and death was the result.Another remarkable case of recovery, after the ingestion of half an ounce,has been recorded by Dr. Skillman ( Lond. Med. Gaz. xix. 238, from Amer.Journ. of Med. Sciences, Aug. 1836).

Morbid appearances produced by Arsenious Acid. —When arse-nious acid kills by its narcotic operation (constituting the second form ofarsenical poisoning), no morbid condition is observable after death. Inother cases, however, various alterations are observed, which may bemost conveniently arranged under the following heads :—■

(a.) Morbid appearances of the alimentary canal. —The alterations ob-served in the condition of the intestinal canal vary with the quantity ofthe poison taken, and probably with other circumstances, but they are allindicative of inflammation: thus we have redness as one symptom, some-times accompanied with extravasations of blood into the tissue of thecanal; ulceration is also frequently observed, sometimes softening of themucous coat, effusion (of lymph or blood), and occasionally even gan-grenous spots.

(A.) Morbid appearances of the vascular system. —The blood is some-times, though not invariably, fluid after death, and dark coloured. Theheart is mostly flabby, and it is asserted that on its inner surface (espe-cially the carne* column* and valves, particularly of the left side),is observed redness, sometimes diffused, sometimes in the form of spots,and which penetrates a line in depth into the substance of the heart.The pericardium usually contains serum.

(c.) Morbid appearances of the respiratory system.- —These are neithervery remarkable nor constant, and principally consist in redness of thepleura, effusion of lymph or serum into the cavity of the pleura, red spots,and occasional congestion of the lungs, and redness of the membranelining the air tubes.

(d.) The morbid appearances of other parts deserve little attention.In some cases inflammation, and even gangrene, of the genital organshave been observed ; the conjunctiva is sometimes very vascular, andalterations are occasionally observed in the condition of the skin. Red-ness, extravasation of blood, and effusion of serum, are said to have beenseen in the brain.

In connexion with the morbid appearances produced by arsenic, the fol-lowing remarks, made by Orfila {Diet, de Med. ed. 2, art. Arsenic) deservenotice. “ Under certain circumstances the mucous membrane of the sto-mach and intestines is lined with a multitude of brilliant points, composedof fat and albumen: placed on burning coals these grains decrepitate ondrying, and produce a noise which has been improperly denominateddetonation: they inflame as a fatty body when they contain a notablequantity of fat, and exhale an odour of burned animal matter. Thesefatty and albuminous globules may be met with in the bodies of indivi-duals who have not been poisoned, and require attentive examination .inorder to distinguish them from arsenious acid. The best method of