396

elements of mateeia medica.

tered it successfully to a child only six weeks old, affected with a severetertian ague. Dr. Fowler [Med. Rep. of the Effects of Arsenic) drew upthe following table of doses for patients of different ages:—

Ages. Doses.

From 2 to 4 years.from 2 or 3 to 5 drops.

5 — 7 .. ,, 5 — 7 ,,

8—12 .. „ 7 — 10 „

13 — 18 ..10 — 12 „

18, and upwards.12 ,,

But it may be remarked, that the quantities here indicated are larger thanit will be safe, in most cases, to commence with.

The liquor arsenicalis of the Dublin Pharmacopoeia is one-sixteenthweaker than the corresponding preparation of the London and Edin-burgh Pharmacopoeia.

2. Ceratum Arsenict , Ph . U. S. (arsenious acid, 3j. ; simple cerate,31 j. M.) This preparation, which is used as a dressing to cancerousulcers, should be employed with great circumspection.

Antidotes. -— In cases of poisoning by arsenic, the first object is toexpel the poison from the stomach. For this purpose the stomach-pumpshould be immediately applied. If this be not in readiness, and vomit-ing have not commenced, tickle the throat with a feather or the finger,and administer an emetic of sulphate of copper or sulphate of zinc.Promote vomiting by diluent and demulcent liquids; as milk, white ofegg and water, flour and water, gruel, sugared water, and broths. Char-coal, magnesia, and other inert powders, when swallowed in large quan-tities, may be occasionally of sendee, by enveloping the particles ofarsenic, and preventing their contact with the gastric surface. Olive oil,on which, according to Dr. Paris ( Pharmacologia ), the Cornish miners relywith confidence, can only act mechanically in the way just mentioned.

Hydrated sesquioxide of iron was proposed, in 1834, by MM. Bunsenand Berthold, as an effectual chemical antidote ( Journ. de Pharm. xx.567). Its efficacy was confirmed by the experiments of Souberain andMiquel {Journ. de Chim. Med. i. 2 e . Ser. p. 3); of Orfila and Lesueur{ibid. p. 45); of Bouley, jun. {ibid. 46); and of Borelli and Demaria {ibid.p. 393), as well as by some cases of arsenical poisoning in the human sub-ject, in which this remedy was employed {Journ. de Pharm. xxi. 98& 681; Land. Med. Gaz. xv. 447; xvi. 832; and xix. 177). To beefficacious it must be given in very large doses ; and when the poisonhas been swallowed in a solid form, 15 or 20 drops of liquor ammonia)should be conjoined with each dose of the antidote, to transform the acidinto a soluble arsenite, on which the oxide may act. It may also be ex-hibited in the form of enema. Hydrated sesquioxide of iron may beprocured by adding ammonia or potash, or their carbonates, to a solutioneither of pernitrate of iron (obtained by dissolving iron in nitric acid overthe fire in a pipkin), or of persulphate of iron (prepared by boiling asolution ol the common sulphate of iron with nitric acid): the precipitateis to be washed with water, and swallowed undried. Mr. Brett {Lond.Med. Gaz. xv. 220) denies the efficacy of the antidote, and states, more-over, that carefully prepared arsenite of iron is poisonous.

The subsequent part of the treatment of poisoning by arsenic consistsin neutralizing or counteracting its effects, and which is to be effected ongeneral principles, as we have no counter-poison. When the gastro-