Part 17

Dissolve the soap and borax in 5 ounces of boiling water; when cold add the lavender water and ammonia, and make up to a pint with water.

III.—Methylated spirit 1 gallon Soft water 1 gallon Stronger ammonia water 1 gallon

IV.—Ammonia water 5 pints Distilled water 5 pints Soap 100 grains Olive oil 5 drachms

Cut the soap in shavings, boil with the oil and water, cool, add the ammonia water, and bottle. For use in laundries, baths, and for general household purposes add one tablespoonful to one gallon of water.

V.—The best quality:

Alcohol, 94 per cent 4 ounces Soft water 4 gallons Oil of rosemary 4 drachms Oil of citronella 3 drachms

Dissolve the oils in the alcohol and add to the water. To the mixture add 4 ounces of talc (or fuller’s earth will answer), mix thoroughly, strain through canvas, and to the colate add 1, 2, or 3 gallons of ammonia water, according to the strength desired, in which has been dissolved 1, 2, or 3 ounces of white curd, or soft soap.

«Liquor Ammonii Anisatus.»—

Oil of anise, by weight 1 part Alcohol, by weight 24 parts Water of ammonia, by weight 5 parts

Dissolve the oil in the alcohol and add the water of ammonia.

It should be a clear, yellowish liquid.

«Violet Color for Ammonia.»—A purple-blue color may be given to ammonia water by adding an aqueous solution of litmus. The shade, when pale enough, will probably meet all views as to a violet color.

«Perfumed Ammonia Water.»—The following are typical formulas:

I.—Stronger water of ammonia 6 ounces Lavender water 1 ounce Soft soap 10 grains Water, enough to make 16 ounces

II.—Soft soap 1 ounce Borax 2 drachms Cologne water 1⁠/⁠2 ounce Stronger water of ammonia 5 1⁠/⁠2 ounces Water, enough to make 12 ounces

Rub up the soap and borax with water until dissolved, strain and add the other ingredients. The perfumes may be varied to suit the price.

AMMONIA FOR FIXING PRINTS: See Photography.

ANGOSTURA BITTERS: See Wines and Liquors.

ANILINE: See Dyes.

ANILINE IN PIGMENTS, TESTS FOR: See Pigments.

ANILINE STAINS, TO REMOVE: See Cleaning Preparations and Methods. {92}

ANISE CORDIAL: See Wines and Liquors.

ANKARA: See Butter.

ANNEALING OF STEEL, TOOLS, WIRE, AND SPRINGS: See Steel.

ANODYNES: See Pain Killers.

ANT DESTROYERS: See Insecticides.

«Antidotes for Poisons»

«POISON, SYMPTOMS AND ANTIDOTES.»

When a person has taken poison the first thing to do is to compel the patient to vomit, and for that purpose give any emetic that can be most readily and quickly obtained, and which is prompt and energetic, but safe in its action. For this purpose there is, perhaps, nothing better than a large teaspoonful of ground mustard in a tumblerful of warm water, and it has the advantage of being almost always at hand. If the dry mustard is not to be had use mixed mustard from the mustard pot. Its operation may generally be facilitated by the addition of a like quantity of common table salt. If the mustard is not at hand, give two or three teaspoonfuls of powdered alum in syrup or molasses, and give freely of warm water to drink; or give 10 to 20 grains of sulphate of zinc (white vitriol), or 20 to 30 grains of ipecac, with 1 or 2 grains of tartar emetic, in a large cup of warm water, and repeat every ten minutes until three or four doses are given, unless free vomiting is sooner produced. After vomiting has taken place large draughts of warm water should be given, so that the vomiting will continue until the poisonous substances have been thoroughly evacuated, and then suitable antidotes should be given. If vomiting cannot be produced the stomach pump should be used. When it is known what particular kind of poison has been swallowed, then the proper antidote for that poison should be given; but when this cannot be ascertained, as is often the case, give freely of equal parts of calcined magnesia, pulverized charcoal, and sesquioxide of iron, in a sufficient quantity of water. This is a very harmless mixture and is likely to be of great benefit, as the ingredients, though very simple, are antidotes for the most common and active poisons. In case this mixture cannot be obtained, the stomach should be soothed and protected by the free administration of demulcent, mucilaginous, or oleaginous drinks, such as the whites of eggs, milk, mucilage of gum arabic, or slippery-elm bark, flaxseed tea, starch, wheat flour, or arrowroot mixed in water, linseed or olive oil, or melted butter or lard. Subsequently the bowels should be moved by some gentle laxative, as a tablespoonful or two of castor oil, or a teaspoonful of calcined magnesia; and pain or other evidence of inflammation must be relieved by the administration of a few drops of laudanum, and the repeated application of hot poultices, fomentations, and mustard plasters.

The following are the names of the substances that may give rise to poisoning, most commonly used, and their antidotes:

«Mineral Acids—Sulphuric Acid (Oil of Vitriol), Nitric Acid (Aqua Fortis), Muriatic Acid (Spirits of Salts).»—Symptoms: Acid, burning taste in the mouth, acute pain in the throat, stomach, and bowels; frequent vomiting, generally bloody; mouth and lips excoriated, shriveled, white or yellow; hiccough, copious stools, more or less bloody, with great tenderness in the abdomen; difficult breathing, irregular pulse, excessive thirst, while drink increases the pain and rarely remains in the stomach; frequent but vain efforts to urinate; cold sweats, altered countenance; convulsions, generally preceding death. Nitric acid causes yellow stains; sulphuric acid, black ones. Treatment: Mix calcined magnesia in milk or water to the consistence of cream, and give freely to drink a glassful every couple of minutes, if it can be swallowed. Common soap (hard or soft), chalk, whiting, or even mortar from the wall mixed in water may be given, until magnesia can be obtained. Promote vomiting by tickling the throat, if necessary, and when the poison is got rid of, flaxseed or slippery-elm tea, gruel, or other mild drinks. The inflammation which always follows needs good treatment to save the patient’s life.

«Vegetable Acids—Acetic, Citric, Oxalic, Tartaric.»—Symptoms: Intense burning pain of mouth, throat, and stomach; vomiting blood which is highly acid, violent purging, collapse, stupor, death.

Oxalic acid is frequently taken in {93} mistake for Epsom salts, to which in shops it often bears a strong resemblance. Treatment: Give chalk or magnesia in a large quantity of water, or large draughts of limewater. If these are not at hand, scrape the wall or ceiling, and give the scrapings mixed with water.

«Prussic or Hydrocyanic Acid—Laurel Water, Cyanide of Potassium, Bitter Almond Oil, Etc.»—Symptoms: In large doses almost invariably instantaneously fatal; when not immediately fatal, sudden loss of sense and control of the voluntary muscles. The odor of the poison generally noticeable on the breath. Treatment: Chlorine, in the form of chlorine water, in doses of from 1 to 4 fluidrachms, diluted. Weak solution of chloride lime of soda; water of ammonia (spirits of hartshorn), largely diluted, may be given, and the vapor of it cautiously inhaled. Cold affusion, and chloroform in half to teaspoonful doses in glycerine or mucilage, repeated every few minutes, until the symptoms are ameliorated. Artificial respiration.

«Aconite—Monkshood, Wolfsbane.»—Symptoms: Numbness and tingling in the mouth and throat, and afterwards in other portions of the body, with sore throat, pain over the stomach, and vomiting; dimness of vision, dizziness, great prostration, loss of sensibility, and delirium. Treatment: An emetic and then brandy in tablespoonful doses, in ice water, every half hour; spirits of ammonia in half-teaspoonful doses in like manner; the cold douche over the head and chest, warmth to the extremities, etc.

«Alkalis and Their Salts—Concentrated Lye, Wood-ash Lye, Caustic Potash, Ammonia, Hartshorn.»—Symptoms: Caustic, acrid taste, excessive heat in the throat, stomach, and intestines; vomiting of bloody matter, cold sweats, hiccough, purging of bloody stools. Treatment: The common vegetable acids. Common vinegar, being always at hand, is most frequently used. The fixed oils, as castor, flaxseed, almond, and olive oils form soaps with the alkalis and thus also destroy their caustic effect. They should be given in large quantity.

«Antimony and Its Preparations—Tartar Emetic, Antimonial Wine, Kerme’s Mineral.»—Symptoms: Faintness and nausea, soon followed by painful and continued vomiting, severe diarrhea, constriction and burning sensation in the throat, cramps, or spasmodic twitchings, with symptoms of nervous derangement, and great prostration of strength, often terminating in death. Treatment: If vomiting has not been produced, it should be effected by tickling the fauces, and administering copious draughts of warm water. Astringent infusions, such as of gall, oak bark, Peruvian bark, act as antidotes, and should be given promptly. Powdered yellow bark may be used until the infusion is prepared, or very strong green tea should be given. To stop the vomiting, should it continue, blister over the stomach by applying a cloth wet with strong spirits of hartshorn, and then sprinkle on one-eighth to one-fourth of a grain of morphia.

«Arsenic and Its Preparations—Ratsbane, Fowler’s Solution, Etc.»—Symptoms: Generally within an hour pain and heat are felt in the stomach, soon followed by vomiting, with a burning dryness of the throat and great thirst; the matters vomited are generally colored either green yellow, or brown, and are sometimes bloody. Diarrhea or dysentery ensues, while the pulse becomes small and rapid, yet irregular. Breathing much oppressed; difficulty in vomiting may occur, while cramps, convulsions, or even paralysis often precede death, which sometimes takes place within five or six hours after arsenic has been taken. Treatment: Give a prompt emetic, and then hydrate of peroxide of iron (recently prepared) in tablespoonful doses every 10 or 15 minutes until the urgent symptoms are relieved. In the absence of this, or while it is being prepared, give large draughts of new milk and raw eggs, limewater and oil, melted butter, magnesia in a large quantity of water, or even if nothing else is at hand, flour and water, always, however, giving an emetic the first thing, or causing vomiting by tickling the throat with a feather, etc. The inflammation of the stomach which follows must be treated by blisters, hot fomentations, mucilaginous drinks, and the like.

«Belladonna, or Deadly Nightshade.»—Symptoms: Dryness of the mouth and throat, great thirst, difficulty of swallowing, nausea, dimness, confusion or loss of vision, great enlargement of the pupils, dizziness, delirium, and coma. Treatment: There is no known antidote. Give a prompt emetic and then reliance must be placed on continual stimulation with brandy, whisky, etc., and to necessary artificial respiration. Opium and its preparations, as morphia, laudanum, etc., are thought by some to {94} counteract the effect of belladonna, and may be given in small and repeated doses, as also strong black coffee and green tea.

Blue Vitriol, or Blue Stone.—See Copper.

«Cantharides (Spanish or Blistering Fly) and Modern Potato Bug.»—Symptoms: Sickening odor of the breath, sour taste, with burning heat in the throat, stomach, and bowels; frequent vomiting, often bloody; copious bloody stools, great pain in the stomach, with burning sensation in the bladder and difficulty to urinate followed with terrible convulsions, delirium, and death. Treatment: Excite vomiting by drinking plentifully of sweet oil or other wholesome oils, sugar and water, milk, or slippery-elm tea; give injections of castor oil and starch, or warm milk. The inflammatory symptoms which generally follow must be treated by a physician. Camphorated oil or camphorated spirits should be rubbed over the bowels, stomach, and thighs.

Caustic Potash.—See Alkalis under this title.

«Cobalt, or Fly Powder.»—Symptoms: Heat and pain in the throat and stomach, violent retching and vomiting, cold and clammy skin, small and feeble pulse, hurried and difficult breathing, diarrhea, etc. Treatment: An emetic, followed by the free administration of milk, eggs, wheat flour and water, and mucilaginous drinks.

«Copper—Blue Vitriol, Verdigris or Pickles or Food Cooked in Copper Vessels.»—Symptoms: General inflammation of the alimentary canal, suppression of urine; hiccough, a disagreeable metallic taste, vomiting, violent colic, excessive thirst, sense of tightness of the throat, anxiety; faintness, giddiness, and cramps and convulsions generally precede death. Treatment: Large doses of simple syrup as warm as can be swallowed, until the stomach rejects the amount it contains. The whites of eggs and large quantities of milk. Hydrated peroxide of iron.

«Creosote—Carbolic Acid.»—Symptoms: Burning pain, acrid, pungent taste, thirst, vomiting, purging, etc. Treatment: An emetic and the free administration of albumen, as the whites of eggs, or, in the absence of these, milk, or flour and water.

Corrosive Sublimate.—See Mercury under this title.

«Deadly Nightshade.»—See Belladonna under this title.

«Foxglove, or Digitalis.»—Symptoms: Loss of strength, feeble, fluttering pulse, faintness, nausea and vomiting and stupor; cold perspiration, dilated pupils, sighing, irregular breathing, and sometimes convulsions. Treatment: After vomiting, give brandy and ammonia in frequently repeated doses, apply warmth to the extremities, and if necessary resort to artificial respiration.

«Gases—Carbonic Acid, Chlorine, Cyanogen, Hydrosulphuric Acid, Etc.»—Symptoms: Great drowsiness, difficult respiration, features swollen, face blue as in strangulation. Treatment: Artificial respiration, cold douche, friction with stimulating substances to the surface of the body. Inhalation of steam containing preparations of ammonia. Cupping from nape of neck. Internal use of chloroform.

«Hellebore, or Indian Poke.»—Symptoms: Violent vomiting and purging, bloody stools, great anxiety, tremors, vertigo, fainting, sinking of the pulse, cold sweats, and convulsions. Treatment: Excite speedy vomiting by large draughts of warm water, molasses and water, tickling the throat with the finger or a feather, and emetics; give oily and mucilaginous drinks, oily purgatives, and clysters, acids, strong coffee, camphor, and opium.

«Hemlock (Conium).»—Symptoms: Dryness of the throat, tremors, dizziness, difficulty of swallowing, prostration, and faintness, limbs powerless or paralyzed, pupils dilated, pulse rapid and feeble; insensibility and convulsions sometimes precede death. Treatment: Empty the stomach and give brandy in tablespoonful doses, with half teaspoonful of spirits of ammonia, frequently repeated, and if much pain and vomiting, give bromide of ammonium in 5-grain doses every half hour. Artificial respiration may be required.

«Henbane, or Hyoscyamus.»—Symptoms: Muscular twitching, inability to articulate plainly, dimness of vision and stupor; later, vomiting and purging, small intermittent pulse, convulsive movement of the extremities, and coma. Treatment: Similar to opium poisoning, which see.

«Iodine.»—Symptoms: Burning pain in throat, lacerating pain in the stomach, fruitless effort to vomit, excessive tenderness of the epigastrium. Treatment: {95} Free emesis, prompt administration of starch, wheat flour, or arrowroot, beaten up in water.

«Lead—Acetate of Lead, Sugar of Lead, Dry White Lead, Red Lead, Litharge, or Pickles, Wine, or Vinegar Sweetened by Lead.»—Symptoms: When taken in large doses, a sweet but astringent metallic taste exists, with constriction in the throat, pain in the region of the stomach, painful, obstinate, and frequently bloody vomitings, hiccough, convulsions or spasms, and death. When taken in small but long-continued doses it produces colic, called painters’ colic; great pain, obstinate constipation, and in extreme cases paralytic symptoms, especially wrist-drop, with a blue line along the edge of the gums. Treatment: To counteract the poison give alum in water 1 1⁠/⁠2 ounce to a quart; or, better still, Epsom salts or Glauber’s salts, an ounce of either in a quart of water; or dilute sulphuric acid, a teaspoonful to a quart of water. If a large quantity of sugar of lead has been recently taken, empty the stomach by an emetic of sulphate of zinc (1 drachm in a quart of water), giving one-fourth to commence, and repeating smaller doses until free vomiting is produced; castor oil should be given to clear the bowels and injections of oil and starch freely administered. If the body is cold use the warm bath.

Meadow Saffron.—See Belladonna.

Laudanum.—See Opium.

«Lobelia—Indian Poke.»—Symptoms: Excessive vomiting and purging, pains in the bowels, contraction of the pupils, delirium, coma, and convulsions. Treatment: Mustard over the stomach, and brandy and ammonia.

«Mercury—Corrosive Sublimate» (bug poisons frequently contain this poison), Red Precipitate, Chinese or English Vermilion.—Symptoms: Acrid, metallic taste in the mouth, immediate constriction and burning in the throat, with anxiety and tearing pains in both stomach and bowels, sickness, and vomiting of various-colored fluids, and sometimes bloody and profuse diarrhea, with difficulty and pain in urinating; pulse quick, small, and hard; faint sensations, great debility, difficult breathing, cramps, cold sweats, syncope, and convulsions. Treatment: If vomiting does not already exist, emetics must be given immediately—white of eggs in continuous large doses, and infusion of catechu afterwards, sweet milk, mixtures of flour and water in successive cupfuls, and to check excessive salivation put a half ounce of chlorate of potash in a tumbler of water, and use freely as a gargle, and swallow a tablespoonful every hour or two.

Morphine.—See Opium.

«Nitrate of Silver (Lunar Caustic).»—Symptoms: Intense pain and vomiting, and purging of blood, mucus, and shreds of mucous membranes; and if these stand they become dark. Treatment: Give freely of a solution of common salt in water, which decomposes the poison, and afterwards flaxseed or slippery-elm-bark tea, and after a while a dose of castor oil.

«Opium and All Its Compounds—Morphine, Laudanum, Paregoric, Etc.»—Symptoms: Giddiness, drowsiness, increasing to stupor, and insensibility; pulse usually, at first, quick and irregular, and breathing hurried, and afterwards pulse slow and feeble, and respiration slow and noisy; the pupils are contracted and the eyes and face congested, and later, as death approaches, the extremities become cold, the surface is covered with cold, clammy perspiration, and the sphincters relax. The effects of opium and its preparations, in poisonous doses, appear in from a half to two hours from its administration. Treatment: Empty the stomach immediately with an emetic or with the stomach pump. Then give very strong coffee without milk; put mustard plasters on the wrists and ankles; douche the head and chest with cold water, and if the patient is cold and sinking, give brandy, or whisky and ammonia. Belladonna is thought by many to counteract the poisonous effects of opium, and may be given in doses of half to a teaspoonful of the tincture, or 2 grains of the extract, every 20 minutes, until some effect is observed in causing the pupils to expand. Use warmth and friction, and if possible prevent sleep for some hours, for which purpose the patient should be walked about between two persons. Finally, as a last resort, use artificial respiration, persistence in which will sometimes be rewarded with success in apparently hopeless cases. Electricity should also be tried.

Cooley advises as follows: Vomiting must be induced as soon as possible, by means of a strong emetic and tickling the fauces. If this does not succeed, the stomach pump should be applied. The emetic may consist of a half drachm of sulphate of zinc dissolved in a half pint of warm water, of which one-third should {96} be taken at once, and the remainder at the rate of a wineglassful every 5 or 10 minutes, until vomiting commences. When there is much drowsiness or stupor 1 or 2 fluidrachms of tincture of capsicum will be found a useful addition; or one of the formulas for emetic draughts may be taken instead. Infusion of galls, cinchona, or oak bark should be freely administered before the emetic, and water soured with vinegar and lemon juice, after the stomach has been well cleared out. To rouse the system spirit and water or strong coffee may be given. To keep the sufferer awake, rough friction should be applied to the skin, an upright posture preserved, and walking exercise enforced, if necessary. When this is ineffectual cold water may be dashed over the chest, head, and spine, or mild shocks of electricity may be had recourse to. To allow the sufferer to sleep is to abandon him to destruction. Bleeding may be subsequently necessary in plethoric habits, or in threatened congestion. The costiveness that accompanies convalescence may be best met by aromatic aperients; and the general tone of the habit restored by stimulating tonics and the shower bath. The smallest fatal dose of opium in the case of an adult within our recollection was 4 1⁠/⁠2 grains. Children are much more susceptible to the action of opium than of other medicines, and hence the dose of it for them must be diminished considerably below that indicated by the common method of calculation depending on the age.

Oxalic Acid.—See Acids.

«Phosphorus—Found in Lucifer Matches and Some Rat Poisons.»—Symptoms: Symptoms of irritant poisoning; pain in the stomach and bowels; vomiting, diarrhea; tenderness and tension of the abdomen. Treatment: An emetic is to be promptly given; copious draughts containing magnesia in suspension; mucilaginous drinks. General treatment for inflammatory symptoms.

«Poisonous Mushrooms.»—Symptoms: Nausea, heat and pains in the stomach and bowels; vomiting and purging, thirst, convulsions, and faintings; pulse small and frequent, dilated pupil and stupor, cold sweats and death. Treatment: The stomach and bowels are to be cleared by an emetic of ground mustard or sulphate of zinc, followed by frequent doses of Glauber’s or of Epsom salts, and large stimulating clysters. After the poison is evacuated, either may be given with small quantities of brandy and water. But if inflammatory symptoms manifest themselves such stimuli should be avoided, and these symptoms appropriately treated. A hypodermic injection of 1⁠/⁠62 grain of atropine is the latest discovered antidote.

Potash.—See Alkali.

Prussic or Hydrocyanic Acid.—See Acids.

«Poison Ivy.»—Symptoms: Contact with, and with many persons the near approach to, the vine gives rise to violent erysipelatous inflammation, especially of the face and hands, attended with itching, redness, burning, and swelling, with watery blisters. Treatment: Give saline laxatives, and apply weak sugar of lead and laudanum, or limewater and sweet oil, or bathe the parts freely with spirits of niter. Anointing with oil will prevent poisoning from it.

«Saltpeter (Nitrate of Potash).»—Symptoms: Only poisonous in large quantities, and then causes nausea, painful vomiting, purging, convulsions, faintness, feeble pulse, cold feet and hands, with tearing pains in stomach and bowels. Treatment: Treat as is directed for arsenic, for there is no antidote known, and emptying the stomach and bowels with mild drinks must be relied on.