Part 9 (2/2)

_Test._-Chloroform at a red heat is decomposed, and chlorine and hydrochloric acid are formed. Hence, to detect it the substance supposed to contain it may be heated so as to expel the chloroform, which should be conducted away from it by a tube at right angles; to this heat should be applied sufficient to decompose the vapor, and its products searched for by the ordinary tests. The smell is a valuable criterion.

SULPHURIC ETHER.-Sulphuric ether, or ether, is a clear colorless liquid, very inflammable, soluble in alcohol, and less so in water. It is usually obtained by distilling common alcohol with sulphuric acid.

The effects produced by the inhalation of ether are similar to those which result from chloroform. It is, however, without doubt a much safer agent, but its effects are longer in manifesting themselves; it is more irritating to the air-pa.s.sages, and much more of it is required. Deaths have occurred under its influence as under that of chloroform.

AMYLENE.-This is a colorless, volatile liquid, made by distilling amylic alcohol (obtained from crude fusel oil, or oil of potato spirit) with chloride of zinc.

Dr. Snow found that amylene, like chloroform, is capable of causing sudden death by inducing over-narcotism of the heart, and paralysis of this organ. He had two deaths from it, and it has since been entirely given up as an anaesthetic.

NITROUS OXIDE.-Comparatively recently the laughing gas of Sir Humphrey Davy has been introduced as an anaesthetic agent. Its successful use depends on the total exclusion of air from the lungs during its exhibition. It can only be used for a short time, hence it is chiefly employed in dental operations, although it has been given for a considerable length of time consecutively by allowing the patient to return to the verge of sensibility before giving a fresh dose.

CHAPTER XXIV.

INEBRIANTS.

NEUROTICS ACTING ON THE BRAIN AND PRODUCING INTOXICATION.

ALCOHOL-NITRO-BENZOLE-COCCULUS INDICUS-FUNGI, ETC.

ALCOHOL.-Spiritous liquors, when taken in large quant.i.ties, not unfrequently produce fatal effects.

Two winegla.s.sfuls of brandy proved fatal to a boy, seven years old, in thirty hours. Dr. Taylor mentions the case of a man who drank two bottles of port wine (containing eleven ounces of alcohol) in less than two hours. He speedily became intoxicated and utterly helpless, never rallied, and died from congestion of the brain and lungs. Another man who swallowed a bottle of gin for a wager died in half an hour, although much of the spirit was removed by the stomach-pump. A common cause of acute alcohol poisoning is ”sucking the monkey,” as practised in the docks by laborers having access to spirit casks.

The _symptoms_ generally come on rapidly, the individual appearing confused, and unable to walk steadily. This degree of intoxication soon pa.s.ses into the stage of complete stupor and coma, and unless there is vomiting collapse soon sets in. In some cases a remission of the symptoms has occurred, death being postponed for a day or longer.

As the alcohol is eliminated by the lungs, stupor from drink may be detected by the odor of the breath. The countenance is usually flushed, and the pupils are dilated, but in cases of acute poisoning the patient may be deadly pale. The pupils are not contracted, as in poisoning by opium; moreover, the individual may generally be roused for a few moments by a loud noise, &c.; a circ.u.mstance which may prevent intoxication being mistaken for concussion of the brain.

Diluted spirits produce a state of excitement, terminating in stupor. It must be remembered that alcoholic liquids have been frequently made the vehicles of more virulent poisons.

As regards _treatment_, it is only necessary to say that the poison is to be removed as quickly as possible by the stomach-pump. Cold affusion should be employed, and the diluted liquor ammoniae, or carbonate of ammonia, administered. Subsequently warmth must be promoted.

NITRO-BENZOLE AND ANILINE.-A compound, made from the rectified products of coal tar and nitric acid, and known as _nitro-benzole_, is sometimes used as a subst.i.tute for essential oil of almonds. It is sold to perfumers under the name of ”essence of mirbane.” A lad employed in some chemical works in the early part of 1862, finding a syphon did not act, sucked through it some of the fluid, which happened to be nitro-benzole.

No immediate effect resulted, but in a few hours he felt as if he were drunk. Stupor came on, and ended in death twelve hours after swallowing the poison. Another product of the destructive distillation of coal in gas-making is _aniline_ (into which nitro-benzole is converted in the human body) a colorless, limpid, acrid, and poisonous liquid. It has given rise to very alarming symptoms when swallowed, as well as when inhaled in vapor. It produces a remarkable blue or purple discoloration of the body, particularly the lips and nails.

COCCULUS INDICUS.-The kernel of the berry of the Menispermum cocculus, or Levant nut, imported from the East Indies, contains from one to two per cent. of a poisonous principle named _picrotoxine_. Thieves sometimes mix a decoction or extract of the berries with spirits or beer, to give these drinks an intoxicating property (hocussing).

Dishonest publicans, too, first reduce their beer by means of salt and water, and afterwards give it intoxicating properties by adding cocculus extract. The same substance is used by poachers to destroy fish. The symptoms produced appear to be a peculiar stupor, a complete loss of voluntary power, with a consciousness of pa.s.sing events.

DARNEL SEEDS (_Lolium temulentum_).-The seeds of this plant, which is often found growing with corn crops, when accidentally mixed in considerable quant.i.ty with wheat or rye, and ground into flour, have caused gastric pain, severe giddiness, vomiting, and other symtoms of intoxication. The sufferers complained that everything seemed of a green color. A wet season is said to encourage the growth of darnel with the varieties of corn.

CAMPHOR.-This substance is very variable in its action. It has given rise to alarming symptoms on some occasions, and once it has destroyed life. In scruple and half-drachm doses, it seems to have produced giddiness, difficulty in walking, dimness of sight, difficulty of breathing, delirium, and insensibility.

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