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hooklets so well known were seen. As to the stroma, the outer part of the tumour consisted of a structure possessed of the characters of normal areolar tissue with its anastomosing cells: more inwards, where the breaking down began, a fatty and calcareous metamorphosis was seen, commencing in the areolar-tissue corpuscles, and surrounding the echinococci as centres of calcification, the transparent vesicles thus contrasting with the neighbouring dark spots.

The above case is considered by the author as supportive of the view held by Virchow, that sterile echinococci vesicles may exist. He concludes by allusion to the similar cases already published, as by Virchow, Kuhl, Luschka, and Heschl, &c.

HALF-YEARLY REPORT ON FORENSIC MEDICINE, TOXICOLOGY, AND HYGIENE.

By BENJAMIN W. RICHARDSON, M.D., L.R.C.P.

Physician to the Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest, and Lecturer on Physiology and Hygienic Medicine at the Grosvenor-place Medical School.

I. TOXICOLOGY.

Asphyxia from Imperfect Combustion of Gas.-The case of a gentleman found dead in his bath-room, and whose death was attributed to inhaling air rendered impure by a gas stove used to warm the room, was communicated a short time since to the Boston Society for Medical Improvement. The Society appointed a committee to inquire into the matter, which reported that the fatal result was adequately accounted for on the hypothesis aforenamed. In support of this view, the committee relate an experiment in which they exposed a cat to the air of a room heated to 90° Fahr. by one of the gas stoves. The cat was placed in an iron cage elevated two and a half feet from the floor, the room being eight feet square and ten high. The first thing noticed was a "snapping of the eyes" (qy. jaws, but we write as we read) then a crying (as is frequently heard in the night from cats), this becoming in fifteen or twenty minutes loud. In a short time this crying stopped. The mouth moved, but without any noise. She sneezed fifteen or twenty times, and rubbed the nose and face with her paw; afterwards tried to bite the iron grating of the cage. There was a flow of watery fluid from the mouth, but without any frothing. The mouth was open most of the time. While lying down she would try to get on her hind legs, and would fall over immediately. In thirty minutes there was a tremulousness and throwing back of the head. The respiration became long and stertorous. Convulsive movements came on over the epigastrium, which increased over the body generally, and in forty-eight minutes the animal was dead.—American Journal of the Medical Sciences, April, 1858.

[The symptoms produced in this experiment are, as we infer from certain analogous experiments of our own, due rather to exposure to the heated and dry air than to the inhalation of a poisonous vapour arising from imperfect combustion of gas. In our experiments we found the same symptoms in cats where the possibility of any poisonous inhalation was excluded. The symptoms are, moreover, not those of pure asphyxia, while the post-mortem appearances in our observations yielded lungs free from congestion, and a condition of blood in which the venous blood, from its rich redness, could not, by mere examination, be distinguished from the arterial]

Poisoning with Scheele's Green.-Dr. Schroff has performed a series of experiments with this substance. From these inquiries he draws the following conclusions:-1. Commercial Scheele's green and chemically pure arsenite of copper agree in their effects on the animal economy, only the latter is in proportion the more poisonous. 2. The symptoms during life and the appearances after death are those which arise from arsenious acid, while those of copper poisoning are absent. The passage of arsenic into the blood and urine was ascertained in all Dr. Schroff's experiments, both with Scheele's green and with pure arsenite of copper. 3. The influence of the poison is localized chiefly in the stomach, especially when that organ is full and the poison remains a long time in contact with one part of the organ. No great effect was produced in the experiments on the rest of the alimentary canal, which is very different from what occurs in poisoning by metallic arsenic. 4. Compared with other arsenical compounds, arsenite of copper is not the most poisonous if the quantity be taken into

account. A decigramme of Scheele's green or of the pure arsenite of copper did not kill rabbits, while the same quantity of arsenious acid, arsenic acid, and of arsenite of potassa, constantly proved fatal. 5. In regard to the rapidity with which the poisonous effects are produced, arsenite of copper is allied to the soluble preparations of arsenic. The quantity of the poison bears a direct proportion to the rapidity of its operation and the period of death.— Zeitschrift der k. k. Gesellsschaft. der Aerzte zu Wien, Jan. 11th, 1858.

Magnesia as an Antidote in Poisoning by Cobalt and Arsenic.-From a series of compara tive experiments, Dr. Schroff has also arrived at the following conclusions relating to magnesia as an antidote to arsenic:

1. Death followed the administration of cobalt to four rabbits, at periods of from fifty to fifty-six hours, in one case in twenty-six hours. In three animals treated with metallic arsenic the periods of death were eighteen, sixty, and fifty hours. The symptoms arising from the two metals and their duration are not very different, and the occasional difference in the duration is easily explained by the circumstance that death occurs more rapidly in rabbits when diarrhoea has set in. The difference in the symptoms during life depends on the circumstance whether the poisonous powder has adhered to the same part of the stomach or cæcum, so as to have a longer or shorter time for becoming dissolved, and producing a local effect, or whether the whole powder has become distributed over the whole surface of the mucous membrane. In one experiment the local phenomena were less extensive than intense; inflammation ensued, and proceeded to sloughing, and the symptoms were prolonged. In another experiment the local effects extended over larger portions of the alimentary surface, and their intensity was small; nevertheless, death occurred rapidly, either in consequence of the greater extent of surface acted on by the poison, which was thus placed in a more favourable condition for being absorbed, or from the supervention of diarrhoea. The amount of food in the stomach also exerted a great influence on the period of appearance of the symptoms. If the stomach were full, the powder remained in contact with the same part of the mucous membrane; if the stomach were empty, the powder was rapidly spread over the alimentary canal.

2. The quantity of poison does not seem to exercise, within certain limits, any influence on the duration of the symptoms. One decigramme of cobalt produced death in fifty hours in a full-grown rabbit; six decigrammes of the same substance killed a rabbit four months old in fifty-six hours. Thus death was produced in a strong animal by a sixth part of the dose which was fatal to a weaker animal. In comparing similar quantities of arsenious acid, cobalt, and metallic arsenic, the latter were found to act most intensely, and this markedly with arsenious acid if it were administered in the form of a dry powder. In solution, however, the cobalt surpasses the other two in poisonous properties. Cobalt and metallic arsenic doubtless undergo in the alimentary canal such changes as render them capable of absorption, as is proved by the presence of arsenic in the urine after their administration; but whether arsenious acid or chloride of arsenic be formed, Dr. Schroff does not decide. These experiments bear out Buchheim's statement, that the poisonous properties of arsenical preparations are in proportion to the amount of arsenic which they contain; but account must be taken of their power of being dissolved and absorbed.

3. Magnesia, in the form of hydrated oxide, or calcined, acts without doubt as an antidote to cobalt; the same obtains with arsenious acid if it be not dissolved before being introduced into the stomach. But when arsenic is introduced in the dissolved state it is rapidly absorbed, and antidotes, however speedily given, come too late; nay, when the poison and the antidote are given together, the antidote is of little avail. At least, in all his experiments with solutions of arsenious acid and with arensite of potassa, Dr. Schroff found antidotes of no avail, provided that the quantity of poison were large. In most of these cases death followed sooner than when no antidote was used, while the local changes were less intense. When cobalt and metallic arsenic are introduced into the stomach in the form of powder, and magnesia is administered, the magnesia has sufficient time to form, particle with particle, an insoluble compound, and thus to render the poison innocuous.-Ibid.

Detection of Arsenic in a Body that had been Burned.-A woman, forty years of age, who had long suffered from an insatiable appetite and from diarrhoea, and who lived very unhappily with her husband, died with symptoms of violent pain and repeated vomitings. The husband having been informed of an impending judicial examination of the bouy of his wife, set fire to his house, whereby the body was burned to a shapeless mass. The stomach and oesophagus were nevertheless tolerably preserved. In the interior of the stomach there were present several white granules, which on chemical examination yielded arsenic by the usual tests. Arsenic was also obtained from the oesophagus, stomach (structure of), and duodenum, as well as from some vomited matters which were found lying in the front of the house in which the deceased woman had resided. Some redaened patches were present in

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the esophagus and duodenum, which could not have proceeded from the action of the fire, as parts of the same organs, which from their position were much more exposed to the heat, were almost in their natural state. The husband ultimately confessed both the facts of poisoning and incendiarisin, but died before the trial terminated.-Dr. Schäffer, Vjhrsch. f. ger. Med., Juli, 1858, and Clarus in Schmidt's Jahrbücher, October, 1858,

Arsenicated Wall Papers -Dr. James Whitehead, of Manchester, is of opinion that arsenicated papers which are perfectly smooth and properly glazed are probably harmless, but that it is altogether different with the tufted or flock papers, and also with flat papers which are unglazed. Dr. Whitehead gives the subjoined case, in which symptoms were attributed to arsenical poisoning:

"In the autumn and winter of last year, I attended a youth labouring under symptoms of arsenical poisoning-viz., aphthous ulceration of the gums and tonsils, violent frontal headache, great languor, nausea and occasional vomiting, inappetence, diarrhoea, and disturbed sleep.

"The complaint, mild at its outset, gradually increased in severity, spite of treatment, and at the end of eight or ten weeks, the patient was removed to the country, where he was speedily restored to health. I had repeatedly expressed a suspicion that the symptoms were those of effluvial or other kind of poisoning, and the supply of water and state of the drains were consequently examined; but in these no cause of complaint was found.

"On his return home, perfectly well, he was placed in the same apartment; but in the space of four weeks, was worse than before. He had spongy gums, diphtheritis, violent neuralgia of the forehead and face, great languor, occasional diarrhoea, and emaciation. Attention was next directed to a cistern placed against the wall outside his bed-room, which it was thought might possibly have had a share in producing the mischief, and it was therefore subjected to alteration. This measure necessitated a change of apartment for the space of a fortnight, at the end of which period he was the third time located, again in perfect health, in his own room. In the space of three to four weeks after his restoration, the symptoms reappeared in an aggravated degree of severity, and this time it was believed, as had already been several times suggested, that the cause of all the annoyances would be found in the paper with which the apartment was lined. Such being the conviction, both of myself and the family, the paper was replaced, without loss of time, by one of a totally different tint, and was followed by results every way satisfactory. The youth, who has continued to occupy this room from that time until now, remains perfectly well, having had no relapse of symptoms since the removal of the green paper.

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The apartment in question, formerly used for other purposes, was converted into a sleeping-room in the summer of last year, 1857. Its walls were covered with a rich green tufted or flock paper which was placed thereon about four years ago; and it was remembered that the workman who was engaged to hang the paper had made use of the expression, during the operation, that he disliked working with that sort of paper, as it always made him ill. During the process of papering, the floor of the room was coated with green dust, and since that time, whenever the room was cleansed, the dust which rested on the furniture always imparted to the articles used in the process of cleansing a green tinge, showing that particles were constantly being detached from the wall. When used for a few days in succession as a sitting-room, as it had been formerly, the occupants began to feel uncomfortable, and were, from that circumstance, induced to desert it for a period.

"Having procured a portion of the detached paper, I scraped off from the raised parts a quantity of green powder, which was submitted to chemical examination. Thirty grains were sent to a chemist, with a request that he would ascertain whether the article contained arsenic, and if so, in what proportion. The remainder was examined by myself. The results were as follow:

"1. Note from.the chemist:-'I find the quantity of arsenious acid contained in the thirty grains of substance which you forwarded amounts to about eleven grains.'

"2. A quantity of the green powder thrown upon a hot iron emitted an odour of garlic, characteristic of volatilised arsenic; mixed also with a peculiar metallic flavour.

"Four grains (all that remained of the powder) were boiled in four ounces of water in a glass vessel, and submitted, after filtration, to the following tests:

"3. Ammoniacal nitrate of silver threw down a pale brownish precipitate.

"4. Ammoniacal sulphate of copper gave no result.

"5. Sulphuretted hydrogen gave no result.

"It is highly probable that the quantity of the green powder used in making the solution for the last three experiments was too small; and moreover, by an unfortunate mistake, the solvent employed was not distilled, but spring water. This would be sufficient, probably, to render the tests inoperative.

"The fragment of paper from which the green powder was obtained measured less than a

square foot in extent, and the ascertained superficies of wall covered by the paper was 350 square feet. Allowing, therefore, that eleven grains were held by the portion experimented upon, it follows that the quantity of arsenious acid remaining on the wall-paper, after four years' usage, would amount to at least 3850 grains."

Although the tests Nos. 4 and 5 gave no indication of arsenic, Dr. Whitehead believes that arsenious acid, and probably arseniuret of copper, formed the deleterious agents in this paper. -British Medical Journal, Sept. 25th, 1858.

Identification of Arsenic and Arsenious Acid.-Dr. Guy has introduced a new method for the production and identification of crystals of arsenious acid and crusts of metallic arsenic. By this method the processes of reduction and of conversion from metal into arsenious acid take place in a tube used only for that purpose, and the deposit is received on a flat surface free from any admixture of extraneous matter, and affording complete facilities for microscopic examination. The tube used by Dr. Guy is smaller than the smallest-sized specimen tube in common use, of larger bore than the reduction-tube commonly employed, and about threequarters of an inch in length. The tube is supported in a vertical position by being dropped into a hole punched in a slip of copper foil. Into this short tube the powder or mixture is dropped. The tube suspended in this manner is held by the left hand with its sealed end in the point of the outer flame of the spirit-lamp, while a piece of clean microscopic glass, large enough to cover the mouth of the tube, is adjusted with the right hand. After a few seconds, the glass is covered with a circle of sparkling crystals or with a distinct metallic crust, either of them in a state most favourable for further examination. In regard to the advantages of this plan, as far as the crystals of arsenious acid are concerned, the advantage is limited to the greater ease with which the crystals can be examined and identified under the microscope. When dealing with a very small quantity of the acid, this advantage is a real one, for cases occur in driving a small metallic crust up and down the old form of reduction-tube, and in identifying the coating of the slips of copper used in Renish's process, where crystals which could not be identified by lens or microscope on the inner surface of a small reduction-tube, may be readily recognised on the flat surface of a piece of microscopic glass. But it is in testing for arsenic by the process of reduction, that the advantage of a flat surface for the deposit of the metallic crust chiefly displays itself, for not only does the thin glass coated with arsenic lend itself readily to the further process of identification by the formation of crystals of arsenious acid, but the metallic crusts may often be recognised by distinctive characters when examined under the microscope.

The microscopic appearances presented by the thicker crusts are highly characteristic. When viewed by reflected light, they either present buff-coloured masses in strong relief on a ground of uniform tint and texture, some of these masses being distinctly octohedral, or the surface, though uneven, is less irregular, and consists of small bright spots, sometimes. arranged in a zig-zag pattern on a flat surface variously tinted, from which surface brilliant triangular facettes, and distinct transparent octohedra, project in large numbers, mixed with less-regular shaped spots of blue, brown, grey, yellow, and red. The octohedra in the first variety seem to consist of arsenious acid tinted on the surface by a thin layer of, or powder of metal. In the second variety they evidently consist of arsenious acid which has escaped decomposition. The crusts just described are, it must be understood, obtained from arsenious acid reduced by charcoal, and they are in every case a mixture of the metal with its oxide. The appearance of the metal itself is quite different, and such as even a practised chemist would not be prepared to expect. When the very same mixture of arsenious acid and charcoal is introduced into a specimen tube of the same kind, and covered with bicarbonate of soda, so that the vapour of the metal may be deposited unchanged in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, the resulting crust of pure unmixed metallic arsenic, when examined by the microscope, is found to consist of distinct globules not distinguishable at the thin edges of the crust from globules of mercury, but distinguished at the thicker parts of the crust by resting on a ground of uniform colour and texture, sometimes grey, sometimes copper-coloured, sometimes of the two colours blended. The globules of arsenic behave in every way as do those of mercury. They run together into larger masses, and they undergo the same change of shape when submitted to pressure. The only difference between them is in the temperature necessary to maintain them in a liquid state.

Dr. Guy states that by this means so small a quantity as the thousandth of a grain of metallic arsenic may be readily converted into arsenious acid, and easily and completely identified. Beale's Archives of Medicine, No. III., 1858.

Poisoning by Sulphuric Acid.-An ingenious but somewhat distressed artisan, according to the statement of his wife, took on the 21st of September, 1857, at half-past three in the afternoon, about sixteen drachms of concentrated English sulphuric acid. During the exhibi

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tion of the effects, the symptoms were, sour, acid, bitter, styptic taste; sharp burning heat in the mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, and stomach; unquenchable thirst, hiccup, choking, and violent vomiting. The fluid vomited was of the colour of ink, mixed with flakes and mucous epithelium, and with red colorations, as from arterial or venous blood. Pressure over the stomach produced much pain, and there was very painful spasmodic contraction of the abdomen, and diarrhoea. The urine was entirely suppressed. In the throat and chest there was a dull pricking pain; the voice was peculiarly changed, being at first faint and croupy, and afterwards more and more feeble, until perfect aphonia occurred. The breath exhaled was very offensive; the respiration was embarrassed and stertorons, and during the vomiting there was dyspnoea. The pulse, at first at seventy, rose to ninety, and later to a hundred, becoming more and more feeble, thread-like, and trembling, and eventually imperceptible. The temperature of the body gradually decreased; the face, tongue, and breath became cold; the secretion of the skin cold, clammy, free, and of bad odour; from time to time there was violent shivering and shuddering, with extraordinary restlessness and convulsive movements of the muscles of the face, accompanied by groans and screams. Ultimately, this state subsided into one of collapse with general convulsion, Death took place on the 22nd of September, at three in the morning, the mind remaining entirely undisturbed.

Át the post-mortem (date after death not given), the following appearances were found. There were the bluish-red death-marks on the back; the gums, the lips, the teeth, and cheeks, were covered with a brown sanguineous moisture; the abdomen contracted. The membranes of the brain were thickened, the brain-substance infiltrated with dark blood; in the cavity of the brain was more than an ounce of serum, and a portion of the right hemisphere was changed into a soft mass divided into cavities by serous fluid. On the surface of The heart was contracted; its ventricles the wind-pipe and oesophagus was a black slimy fluid; both lungs were inflated and edema tous. The pericardium contained an ounce of serum.

and the larger vessels were filled with coagulated blood. In the stomach there was about a pound's weight of dirty, reddish, effused matter. The peritoneum covering the stomach was dark-coloured, injected, and ecchymosed; that covering the bowels was here and there in a similar condition; the liver was of dirty red, and bloodless; the gall-bladder contained a pale yellow secretion; the spleen was very small, bloodless, and tough; the duodenum was filled with gas and with a black, dark liquid; its mucous coat was raised, carbonized, and shrivelled; the intestines contained a brownish fæculent matter; the kidneys were of yellowish-white colour, and the bladder was contracted. Dr. F. F. Pellischek, Oesterr. Zeitschrift f. prakt. Heilk., 11-23, 1856; and Clarus, Schmidt's Jahrbücher Sept. 1858.

Effects of Poisons during Hunger and Repletion.-Dr. Köhler, in an interesting and very valuable paper, gives some curious evidence on the above subject. The animals subjected by him to experiment were rabbits, dogs, and pigeons; the poisons employed were strychnine, hydrocyanic acid, emulsion of almonds, and ether; and the absorbing surfaces where the poisons were applied or injected were the alimentary canal, the peritoneal cavity, the respiratory surface, and the cellular tissue. The experiments themselves are arranged in five groups, in each of which is noted the colour and sex of the animal, the duration of the inanition, the weight of the body, the quantity of poison used, the commencement of the action of the the poison, the time of death, and the difference in the period of action in fed and unfed animals. It has been held by all modern writers, that by hunger the energy and activity of all the organs are reduced; but it has also been maintained that hunger favours, strongly, absorption of poisons. In the paper before us, Dr. Köhler, admitting and demonstrating the former of these opinions, disputes the latter, and adduces his experiments in proof that hunger prolongs the absorption and the reaction of poisonous substances. In offering a reason in the way of explanation of this statement, Dr. Köhler argues that during abstinence from food, the absorption of oxygen decreases till death, and the proportion of carbonic acid evolved is correspondingly diminished. The blood cannot, therefore, circulate with its accustomed rapidity during hunger, hence poisonous substances are incorporated and borne along with the blood with corresponding slowness, and exert their influences on the nervous system with proportionate tardiness. Starvation itself, to a certain extent, does not, according to this author, cause any diminution in the quantity of blood. The quantity is made up by the fluids from the tissues, and the blood becomes thinner and altered in quality, but not less in quantity. The same rule obtains after a small venesection. If, however, a large venesection In the experiments referred to, is made, or if inanition is allowed to proceed to a considerable period, then is there a true decrease in the quantity of blood and a contraction of vessel. where the starvation was never made to extend beyond sixty-six hours, the above consideration does not enter.

Regarding the parts of the body into which the poison was thrown, as contrasted in cases of animals well-fed and animals starved, no difference seems to have occurred; the larger the

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