CHAPTER XIII.

OF POISONING WITH ARSENIC.

The third order of the irritant class of poisons includes the compounds of the metals. These are of great importance to the medical jurist. They are frequently used for criminal purposes; they give rise to the greatest variety of symptoms; and the medical evidence on trials respecting them, while much skill is required on the part of the witness to collect it, is also the most conclusive.

It must not be inferred from their being arranged in the class of irritants that their action is merely local. In fact this is the case with a very few of them only, which produce chemical corrosion. The greater number likewise act indirectly on organs at a distance from the part to which they are applied. Nevertheless the most prominent symptoms generally produced by them are those of violent local irritation; so that they may be justly considered in the place which has been assigned them.

The poisons included in this order are the oxides and salts of arsenic, mercury, copper, antimony, tin, silver, gold, bismuth, iron, chrome, zinc, barium, lead. Many other metals also form poisonous compounds with various acids and other bodies; but these are so rare as to be merely objects of physiological curiosity.

Of all the varieties of death by poison, none is so important to the medical jurist as poisoning with arsenic. On account of the shameful facility with which it may be procured in this country, even by the lowest of the vulgar, and the ease with which it may be secretly administered, it is the poison most frequently chosen for the purpose of committing both suicide and murder. In 1837 and 1838 no fewer than 186 cases of fatal poisoning with arsenic were known to have occurred in England alone (see p. 90). Of 221 cases of murder by poison in France during ten years subsequent to 1829, in which the poison given was ascertained, there were 149 where the substance administered was arsenic.[487] It is fortunate, therefore, that there are few substances in nature, and perhaps hardly any other poison, whose presence can be detected in such minute quantities and with so great certainty.

SECTION I.—_Of the Chemical Tests for the Compounds of Arsenic._

Metallic arsenic has an iron-gray colour, a specific gravity of 8·308, and a crystalline fracture. It is very brittle. It has a strong tendency to oxidate, so that it undergoes this change in air, in water, and even in alcohol. In air, particularly when moist, it becomes rapidly tarnished, a black powder being formed, which some have regarded as a regular protoxide.[488]—When exposed to heat, metallic arsenic is usually said to sublime at the temperature of 356° F.; but according to some late experiments by Dr. Mitchell of Philadelphia this does not happen under a low red heat, luminous in the dark.[489] In close vessels it condenses unchanged; but when heated in the open air, it passes to the state of white oxide, and rises in white fumes. This substance is a sesquioxide, consisting of two equivalents of metal and three of oxygen. Another oxide likewise exists, which contains two equivalents of metal and five of oxygen, and, possessing strong acid properties, is denominated arsenic acid. The sesquioxide and arsenic acid unite with bases, and produce compounds which, with the exception of those they form with the alkalis, are mostly insoluble. Metallic arsenic unites with sulphur in two proportions, forming an orange-red and a sulphur-yellow compound. The compounds of arsenic have very little chemical action with vegetable and animal principles.

Of the compounds which arsenic thus forms, those which it will be necessary to particularize are the following:—1. The protoxide of Berzelius, or _fly-powder_. 2. The arsenious acid, or _white arsenic_. 3. The arsenite of copper, or _mineral green_. 4. The arsenite of potass as contained in _Fowler’s solution_. 5. The arsenite of potass; 6. The various sulphurets, pure and impure, namely, _realgar_, _orpiment_, and _king’s yellow_; and 7. Arseniuretted-hydrogen gas.

_Of the Tests for Fly-powder._

This substance is rarely known as a poison in Britain, but is a familiar poison in France and Germany, under the names of _Poudre à mouches_, and _Fliegenstein_. Of late it has been occasionally used in Scotland for poisoning rats.

It is a fine grayish-black powder, formed by exposing powdered arsenic for a long time to the air; but it also frequently contains fragments of the metal. It is usually considered by chemists to be a mixture of metallic arsenic and its white oxide.

It is acted on by water, the white oxide being found ere long in solution by its proper tests. Oxidation and solution, however, are also effected upon pure metallic arsenic in the same manner. A thousand grains of water take up a grain in the course of half an hour when boiled on the metal.[490]

A very simple and decisive test for fly-powder is derived from the effect of heat. If it is heated in a tube two substances are sublimed, first a white crystalline powder, and then a bright metallic crust, the former being the white oxide, the latter the metal. The metallic crust thus formed possesses physical properties, which distinguish arsenic from all other substances, capable of being sublimed by a low heat: The surface next the tube is very like polished steel, being a little darker in colour, but equal in brilliancy and polish; and the inner surface is either brilliantly crystalline to the naked eye, like the fracture of cast-iron, or has a dull grayish-white colour, but appears crystalline before a common magnifying lens of four or five powers. If these characters be attended to, particularly the appearance of the inner surface, it appears to me scarcely possible to mistake for an arsenical crust any other substance which can be sublimed by any of the methods for subliming arsenic.

If a farther test should be desired, it is only necessary, as was first proposed by Dr. Turner of London,[491] to chase the crust up and down the tube with the spirit-lamp flame till it is all oxidated, when little octaedral crystals of adamantine lustre are formed, on which, either with the naked eye or with the aid of a common lens, triangular facettes may be distinguished.

The niceties to be attended to in applying the preceding tests will be considered presently under the head of the next compound, the sesquioxide.

2. _Of the Tests for Arsenious Acid._

Arsenious acid, the sesquioxide, or white oxide of arsenic, usually called white arsenic, or simply arsenic, is the most common and important of all the arsenical preparations.

It is met with in the shops in two forms,—as a snow-white gritty powder, and in solid masses generally opaque, but sometimes translucent. When newly sublimed it is in translucent or even almost transparent masses of a vitreous lustre, conchoidal fracture and sharp-edged. By keeping it becomes opaque and white. The nature of the change has not been determined; but some alteration is certainly effected, for Guibourt, who has examined both varieties with care, found that the opaque variety is more soluble in water than the other. He adds that the former is alkaline, the latter acid, in its action on litmus paper; but I have always found the opaque variety acid.[492] The powder soon becomes analogous to the opaque variety of the oxide in mass.

The oxide of arsenic has a specific gravity of 3·729, according to the experiments of Dr. Ure,—of 3·529 when opaque, according to Mr. Alfred Taylor, and 3·798, when translucent. Very incorrect notions prevail as to its taste. It was long universally believed to be acrid,[493] and is described to be so in many systematic works and express treatises; but in reality it has little or no taste at all. The reader will find some details on this point in a paper I published in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal.[494] In the present work it is sufficient to observe, that I have repeatedly made the trial, and seen it made at my request by several scientific friends, and that, after continuing the experiment as long, and extending the poison along the tongue as far back, as we thought safe, all agreed that it had scarcely any taste at all,—perhaps towards the close a very faint sweetish taste. It appears to me that the experiments made on that occasion might have set at rest the question as to the taste of arsenic, and corrected an important error long committed by systematic authors in chemistry as well as medical jurisprudence. And accordingly in this country the truth is generally known.[495] Professor Orfila, however, continues to repeat the error; for even in the last edition of his Toxicologie he says it has “a rough, not corrosive, slightly styptic taste, perceptible not for a few seconds, but persistent, and attended with salivation.”[496] These sensations must be either imaginary or the indications of an organ peculiarly constituted. It is impossible to make satisfactory experiments with safety on its impressions on the back of the palate. But we may rest assured that in general it makes no impression there at all; for it has been often swallowed unknowingly with articles of food. Not a few have in such circumstances noticed merely its grittiness, and thought there was sand in their food. Two instances only am I hitherto acquainted with, where an acrid sensation would seem really to have been experienced in the act of eating or swallowing. In one of these, noticed in Rust’s Journal, the individual who was poisoned, could not finish the poisoned dish on account of its unpleasant, very peppery taste.[497] In the other case, which was lately communicated to me by Mr. Hewson of Lincoln, the individual, who was poisoned by arsenic dissolved in his tea-kettle,—happening in the first instance to wash his mouth with the water,—observed at the time to his daughter, that it had a very odd taste; which subsequently was called a burning taste. These facts, however, are evidently not altogether satisfactory. It is not improbable that, in an _ex post facto_ description, the reporters, as others in the same circumstances have clearly done[498], confounded the subsequent inflammation with mere taste in the act of chewing or swallowing. At all events it is absolutely certain that the great majority of people who have been poisoned with arsenic remarked in taking it either no taste at all, or merely a roughness owing to the gritty condition of its powder.

The oxide of arsenic when subjected to heat is sublimed at 380°, or, according to Dr. Mitchell, 425° F.[499] and condenses in the form of a crystalline powder, which, if the operation is performed slowly and on a small quantity proportioned to the size of the tube, evidently consists of little, adamantine octaedres.—When it is mixed with carbonaceous matter and heated, it is reduced, and the metal is sublimed. This constitutes the test of reduction, which, when conducted with due care, may be rendered singly a certain proof of the presence of arsenic.

Water dissolves it. Its solubility is a point of some medico-legal importance; for a doubt may arise whether the quantity of a solution that has been swallowed contained a sufficient dose to cause severe symptoms or death. Different statements have gone forth on this head. Klaproth found, that a thousand parts of temperate water take up only two parts and a half,—and that a thousand parts of boiling water take up 77·75 parts or a thirteenth, and retain on cooling 30 parts or a thirty-third of their weight.[500] Guibourt found a difference between the transparent and opaque varieties; for a thousand parts of temperate water dissolved in thirty-six hours 9·6 of the transparent, 12·5 of the opaque variety; and the same quantity of boiling water dissolved of the transparent variety 97 parts, retaining 18 when cooled, but of the opaque variety took up 115 and retained on cooling 29.[501] More lately Mr. Alfred Taylor observed that temperate water, simply poured on the opaque oxide and left for seventy-two hours, contained one grain in a thousand, but if often agitated, 8·5 grains; that boiling water, occasionally agitated for the same period, contained 9·27 or 9·54 grains; that water, boiling gently for an hour dissolved 31·5, and on cooling and resting for three days retained 17; that with violent ebullition for an hour, it took up 46·3, and retained 24·7 grains on cooling and resting for three days; that a saturated boiling solution after six months contained 24 or 26 grains; and that a saturated boiling solution of the transparent oxide contained 46 or 47·5 grains, and on cooling and resting for two days retained 18·7 or 13·4 grains.[502] It is impossible to account for these discrepancies; for all the experimentalists conducted their investigations with care, and with a view to the medico-legal question stated above. Hahnemann farther remarked, that at the temperature of the blood a thousand parts of water dissolve ten parts with the aid of ten minutes’ agitation;[503] and Navier, that boiling water kept for an hour on it, and decanted off in the way an infusion is usually made, dissolves 12·5 grains in every thousand.[504]

Its solubility is impaired by the presence of organic principles. When mixed with mucus or milk it dissolves, according to Hahnemann, with great difficulty; and I have found that a cup of tea, left beside the fire at a temperature of 200° for half an hour upon two grains of the oxide, does not take up entirely even that small quantity. An important consequence of the fact now mentioned is, that when swallowed in the solid state, little or no arsenic may be found in the fluid contents of the stomach. In a case which occurred to Scheele three grains of solid arsenic were found in the contents, but hardly a trace in solution.[505] It would be wrong, however, to suppose that it is never found in the fluid contents. For, not to mention the observations of others, I have myself often detected it in the fluid part of the stomach in persons poisoned by arsenic.

The solution of oxide of arsenic in boiling water yields minute crystals on cooling, which, when their form is defined, are octaedres. In this state, on account of its whiteness and brilliancy, it exceedingly resembles pounded sugar. By spontaneous evaporation I have procured in twelve months fine octaedres nearly as large as peas. These do not become opaque by keeping, like the sublimed masses.

A difference of opinion prevails as to the action of the oxide on vegetable colours. This is a matter of no great consequence to the medical jurist; but it is right not to leave a disputed point without some notice. Guibourt says the transparent variety faintly reddens litmus, while the opaque variety faintly restores to blue litmus previously reddened.[506] My own experiments are at variance with these statements: I have always found that the solution of the powder, which is of the opaque variety, faintly reddens litmus, and does not alter reddened litmus.

The remaining chemical properties of the oxide, which it is necessary for the medical jurist to know, will be mentioned under what is now to be said of the principal test by which its presence may be ascertained. Under this head will be noticed, first the tests for the solid oxide, secondly, those for its solution, and lastly, the method of detecting it when mingled with vegetable or animal solids and fluids, such as the contents and tissues of the stomach.

_Of the Tests for Arsenic in the solid state._

The most characteristic and simple test for oxide of arsenic in its solid state, either pure or mixed or combined with inorganic substances, is its reduction to the metallic state.

Various methods have been at different times proposed for employing the test of reduction. In the ruder periods of analytic chemistry we find Hahnemann recommending a retort as the fittest instrument, and stating ten grains as the least quantity he could detect.[507] Afterwards Dr. Black substituted a small glass tube, coated with clay and heated in a choffer; and in this way he could discover a single grain.[508] In a paper published in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, I showed how to detect a sixteenth of a grain; and afterwards even so minute a quantity as a hundreth part of a grain.[509]

The process is performed in a glass tube; which, when the quantity of the oxide is very small, should not exceed an eighth of an inch in diameter, and may be conveniently used of the form first recommended by Berzelius, and represented in Fig. 3.—The best material for reducing the oxide is recently ignited charcoal, if the quantity of suspected substance be very small. For when any of the ordinary alkaline fluxes is used, more than half of the arsenic is retained, probably in the form of an arseniuret of the alkaline metalloid. But when the quantity of matter for analysis is considerable, charcoal is inconvenient, as it is apt to be projected up the tube on the application of heat; and an alkaline flux is on that account preferable. For this purpose soda-flux,—made by grinding crystals of carbonate of soda with an eighth of their weight of charcoal, and then heating the mixture gradually to redness, so as to drive off all water,—is better than the more familiar black flux, which contains carbonate of potash; because the latter attracts much moisture when kept for some time.—If the quantity operated on is large it should be mixed with the flux before being introduced into the tube; if it is small, it may be dropped into the tube and covered with charcoal. The materials are to be introduced along a little triangular gutter of stiff paper, if the tube is large; but with a small tube it is preferable to use the little glass funnel represented in Fig. 2, to which a wire is previously fitted, for pushing the matter down when it adheres. The material should not be closely impacted. Heat is best applied with the spirit-lamp, first to the upper part of the material, with a small flame, and then to the bottom of the tube, the flame being previously enlarged. A little water, disengaged in the first instance, should be removed with a roll of filtering paper, before a sufficient heat is applied to sublime the metal. As soon as the dark crust begins to form, the tube should be held steady in the same part of the flame. With these precautions a well defined crust will be procured with facility.

The characters of the crust have been mentioned already under the head of fly-powder (p. 199). They are distinct even in crusts weighing only a 300th of a grain. A crust of this weight, a tenth of an inch broad and four times as long, may show characteristically all the physical characters of an arsenical sublimate a hundred times larger.

The fallacies to which the test has been supposed to be liable (excluding at present that part of it which consists in the oxidation of the metal, and which renders it quite unimpeachable), are the following.— Dr. Paris says he has known an instance where a person, “by no means deficient in chemical address, mistook for it a deposit of charcoal,”[510] and I have known the same mistake happen in the hands of one of my pupils, a beginner in the study of medico-legal chemistry. The outer surface of a charcoal crust may be mistaken for arsenic by a careless person; but with ordinary care it is quite impossible to err if the inner surface be examined, for that of charcoal is brown, powdery, and perfectly dull.—It has been suggested to me and has been stated in print,[511] that the preparations of antimony yield by reduction a sublimate resembling closely an arsenical crust. But in consequence of repeated trials I am certain that no preparation of antimony, reduced either by charcoal or the black flux with the fullest red heat of the blowpipe will yield any metallic sublimate; and the same facts were observed by the late Dr. Turner.—It has even been said by Mr. Donovan that the action of the flux on glass which contains lead causes a stain similar to an arsenical crust.[512] If it be meant by this observation, that the lead contained in the glass usually gives that part of the tube which contains the flux a glimmering appearance and impairs its transparency, the author is correct: but it is impossible that a sublimate can be so formed.—Dr. Mitchell of Philadelphia in an elaborate paper on the process of reduction seems to consider the crust undistinguishable from that formed in similar circumstances by cinnabar.[513] Crusts of cinnabar, however, do not present the peculiar character possessed by the internal surface of arsenic.—Zinc, it is said, may be sublimed in its metallic state; but the sublimation of zinc requires a full white heat; which in the process for arsenic cannot be generated.—Tellurium, cadmium, and potassium sublime at a lower heat; but these metals are so exceedingly rare, that it is quite unnecessary to particularize the characters of their sublimates.—Lastly, it is said that a crust may be produced from arsenic contained in the glass of the tube. A few years ago MM. Ozanam and Idt of Lyons detected arsenic in the remains of a body which had been seven years interred; but subsequently M. Idt imagined he had discovered that the glass used in the analysis contained arsenic, and yielded it by the process of reduction. He accordingly retracted his original opinion; and the person accused of administering the poison was acquitted. An extended inquiry, however, was in consequence undertaken by the Parisian Academy of Medicine at the request of the French government. And the result was that no arsenic could be detected in the glass tubes used by MM. Ozanam and Idt; and that although arsenic is sometimes used in glass-making, and a trace of it may be retained in some opaque glasses or enamels, it cannot be detected by any process of analysis in any of the clear glass met with in commerce,[514] the whole arsenic being volatilized during the manufacture of the glass.

It may therefore be safely laid down that the appearances exhibited by a well-formed arsenical crust, even in the minute quantity of a 300th part of a grain, are imitated by no substance in nature which can be sublimed by the process for the reduction of arsenic.

But should farther evidence be required as to the nature of the crust, this may be obtained by subjecting it to oxidation by heat.

The best method of doing so is to heat the ball containing the flux deprived of arsenic, to attach a bit of glass tube to its end, and to draw this gently off in the spirit-flame, taking care to prevent the flux being driven forward on the crust. This being done, the whole crust, or, if it is large, a portion of it, is to be chased up and down the tube with a small spirit-lamp flame till it is all converted into a white powder. In order to show the crystalline form of the powder distinctly, let the flame be reduced to the volume of a pea by drawing in the wick, and let the part of the tube containing the oxide be held half an inch or an inch above it. By repeated trials sparkling crystals will at length be formed, which are octaedres,—the crystalline form of arsenious acid. The triangular facettes of the octaedres may be sometimes seen with the naked eye, though the original crust was only a fiftieth of a grain or even less; and they may be always seen with a lens of four powers, the tube being held between the eye and a lighted candle or a ray of sunshine, either of which is preferable to diffuse daylight for making this observation.—For the success of the oxidation test it is indispensable that the inside of the tube be not soiled with an alkaline flux: because the alkali would unite with the oxide. It is also requisite not to heat the tube suddenly to redness before the oxide is sublimed; because then the oxide is apt to unite with the glass, forming a white, opaque enamel. The physical characters of the sublimed oxide are so delicate and precise, that they may be accurately distinguished, even when those of the metallic crust are obscure, owing to its minuteness. Sometimes too, the metal may be so scanty that it is oxidated at once in the act of subliming, and never presents the appearance of a metallic crust. Although the characters of the crystalline oxide in either of these cases are very precise and distinctive, it may be right to subject it to a farther test when the metal is not previously exhibited with its characteristic properties. For this purpose it is sufficient to cut away with a file the portion of the tube which contains the sublimate, to boil it in another tube with a few drops of distilled water till the sublimate disappear, and then to test the solution with one of the fluid tests to be presently described, the ammoniacal nitrate of silver.

After all that has been recently written as to the old and newer processes for detecting arsenic, I must nevertheless avow my conviction, that for solid arsenic no test is, for medico-legal purposes, at once so satisfactory, convenient, and delicate as the test of reduction, especially with the addition of the supplementary test of oxidation. That other methods are still more delicate may be readily granted. But where the suspected substance is in the solid form, what possible occasion can there be for a method more delicate than one which will detect a 300th part of a grain? A method ten times less so would meet every case in actual practice.—A variety of supplementary tests have been proposed. But they are all greatly inferior in facility, or conclusiveness, or both, to the process of oxidation, and ought therefore to be expelled from medico-legal practice,—not even excepting the alliaceous odour of metallic arsenic in the act of subliming, a character, the fallaciousness of which was long ago pointed out by myself as well as others, and to which a preposterous importance has been attached in some late inquiries. The reader will find in the last edition of this work an attempt to estimate the value of various tests supplementary to that of reduction. This disquisition is now omitted, as it seems no longer necessary.

_Of the Tests for Oxide of Arsenic in Solution._

Oxide of arsenic in a state of solution may be detected in one of four ways; by what are called the liquid tests; by precipitating it with one of these, and subliming metallic arsenic from the precipitate, which method is usually termed the reduction process; by Marsh’s method, which consists in disengaging it in the form of arseniuretted-hydrogen gas, and decomposing the gas by combustion; or by the method of Reinsch, in which metallic arsenic is deposited on the surface of copper, and then separated by heat for farther examination.

_Process by Liquid Reagents._—The first method is by the employment of several liquid tests, which cause in the solution peculiar precipitates. Many such tests have been proposed; but the most characteristic and precise are _hydrosulphuric acid_, _ammoniacal nitrate of silver_, and _ammoniacal sulphate of copper_. The indications of each of the three tests must concur, otherwise, in a medico-legal case, no one can be entitled to speak with certainty to the existence of arsenic. But when they do concur, the evidence is unimpeachable. When this method of analysis is followed, corresponding experiments ought always to be made with the water that is used for diluting or otherwise preparing the subject of examination, or with distilled water, if the article be already sufficiently aqueous. This precaution is necessary on account of the risk of accidental impregnation of the water or other reagents with arsenic.[515]

_Hydrosulphuric acid_ [sulphuretted-hydrogen] is obtained by decomposing proto-sulphuret of iron with diluted sulphuric acid in such an apparatus as is represented at Fig. 5. And the gas may be either applied directly to the suspected fluid, or condensed in distilled water, and thus kept in store for occasional use in the liquid shape. Before applying this test, the suspected fluid must be acidulated with acetic or hydrochloric acid; because an excess of alkali prevents the action. And if an acid be indicated by litmus in the fluid, neutralization, or slight supersaturation, with potash must be effected, before adding acetic or hydrochloric acid; for if the acidity should happen to be owing to an excess of sulphuric or nitric acid, the test is decomposed, and yellowish-white sulphur deposited.—These precautions being taken, hydrosulphuric acid occasions a sulphur-yellow or lemon-yellow precipitate. If the arsenical solution, however, be very weak, a yellow colour merely is struck, because the precipitate, which is sesqui-sulphuret of arsenic, is dissolved by the excess of the test; but it separates after ebullition, or a few hours’ exposure to the air. Co-existing animal and vegetable principles sometimes enable the fluid to retain a minute portion even after ebullition, so as to acquire a yellow milkiness; but they do not in any case prevent the test from producing the yellow colour. Acidulation with acetic or hydrochloric acid favours its subsidence in all cases; and according to Mr. Boutigny, alkaline sulphates, muriates and nitrates have the same effect.[516] Hydrosulphuric acid is so delicate as to act on the oxide in a hundred thousand parts of water. The proper colour of the precipitate is lemon or sulphur-yellow; which, when vegetable or animal matter is present, acquires a shade of white or brown.

It is not liable to any material fallacy. The salts of cadmium yield with it precipitates nearly of the same colour: but they are exceedingly rare; and the precipitate, unlike sulphuret of arsenic, is insoluble in ammonia.—The salts formed by selenic acid, if decomposed by another acid, also yield yellow precipitates; but these salts are extremely rare.—The salts of peroxide of tin give a dirty grayish-yellow precipitate; which however ammonia turns brown.—A lead solution acidulated with hydrochloric acid gives at first a yellow precipitate; but this becomes brownish-black when more gas is transmitted.[517] The contents of the human intestines sometimes yield a yellowish precipitate though no arsenic be present; and it is dissolved, like sulphuret of arsenic, by ammonia.[518] The tartrate of antimony and potash (tartar-emetic) does not form, as was once thought, any source of fallacy, the antimonial precipitate having always a tint of orange-red; besides it is not, like sulphuret of arsenic, soluble in carbonate of ammonia.—Other fallacies exist, unless the test be used with the precautions mentioned above. But these need not enumeration here.

_Ammoniacal nitrate of silver_ is prepared by precipitating the oxide of silver by means of ammonia, from a solution of nitrate of silver or lunar caustic in ten parts of water, and then redissolving the precipitate nearly, but not entirely, by adding gradually an excess of ammonia. When thus prepared, it causes, even in a very diluted solution of the oxide of arsenic, a lively lemon-yellow precipitate of arsenite of silver; which passes to dark brown under exposure to the light.—The action of this test is prevented by nitric, acetic, citric, or tartaric acid in excess, particularly by the first and last. It is also prevented by an excess of ammonia; and in very diluted solutions by the nitrate of ammonia. These facts will suggest the necessity of certain obvious precautions. Its action is obscured by the co-existence of various salts, which singly cause a white precipitate with nitrate of silver; for the yellow colour is then much lessened in intensity. The only one of these requiring special notice, because it occurs in very many of the fluids which are likely to be subjected to the researches of the medical jurist, is common sea-salt, the chloride of sodium. The best way of getting rid of the difficulty is to use in the first instance, not the ammoniacal nitrate, but the simple nitrate of silver, as long as any white precipitate falls down, to add a slight excess of that test, and then, after subsidence, to drop in ammonia. No arsenic is thrown down by the first steps of this process; but if any be present, it is subsequently thrown down in the form of the yellow arsenite of silver, on the addition of ammonia. This simple mode of getting rid of chloride of sodium was first proposed by Dr. Marcet.[519]—Ammoniacal nitrate of silver is of no use as a test for a moderately diluted solution of the oxide of arsenic, if vegetable or animal matter be present; either the colour of the precipitate is essentially altered, or no precipitate is formed at all.[520]

If the presence of arsenic is to be inferred only when the full lemon-yellow colour of the precipitate is developed, this test is not liable to any material fallacy. The presence of a phosphate, a serious obstacle according to an old way of using the silver test, is not a source of fallacy in the instance of the ammoniacal nitrate; for the yellow phosphate of silver is so soluble in the ammonia of the test, that it is not thrown down unless the phosphatic solution is very strong.—The silver test, which is extremely delicate, was proposed by Mr. Hume, a chemist of London; and in its improved state was suggested by the late Dr. Marcet. Various foreign authors have fallen into the error of supposing that nitrate of silver without an alkali precipitates oxide of arsenic: without an alkali, pure nitrate of silver gives no precipitate, or at most a bluish-white or yellowish-white haze when both solutions are strong.

_Ammoniacal sulphate of copper_ is prepared by the same process with the last test, sulphate of copper being substituted for nitrate of silver. It is a test of very great delicacy. It causes in solutions of the oxide of arsenic an apple-green or grass-green precipitate of the arsenite of copper. The particular tint is altered apparently by trifling circumstances; but after the precipitate has stood some hours it always assumes a tint intermediate between apple-green and grass-green. The operation of this test is prevented by hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric, acetic, citric, and tartaric acids in excess; and also by an excess of ammonia. These difficulties are obviated by manifest precautions. It is also prevented, according to Hünefeld, by muriate, nitrate, and sulphate of ammonia;[521] and by almost all vegetable infusions and animal fluids, when the oxide of arsenic is not abundant: these difficulties cannot be obviated. Even when not prevented by such fluids, its operation is often obscured, the precipitate not possessing its characteristic colour.

Ammoniacal sulphate of copper is more open to fallacies than the silver test. Of these the most important is that in some organic fluids it strikes a green precipitate, like the arsenite of copper, though arsenic be not present.[522] The solution of bichromate of potass is turned green but not precipitated by it.

On reviewing all that has now been stated regarding the liquid tests for arsenic, it will appear that there is no single test on which absolute reliance can be placed; but that the fallacies to which they are liable are generally remote, and each of them applicable to one test only. Hence if each of the three reagents, applied with due care, gives a precipitate of the characteristic tint, the proof of the presence of arsenic is decisive.

This particular view of the indications of the liquid tests, however obvious it may seem, has been often overlooked by the numerous chemists and medical jurists who have written for and against them. The antagonists of the tests have been content with proving how so many fallacies lie in the way of each, that no dependence can be put in any one of them: They have not considered that the fallacies attached to one are obviated by the conjunct indications of the others.

I am of opinion therefore that the analysis for arsenic by liquid reagents has been unjustly neglected in the present day. It is an exceedingly convenient method, and one of extreme delicacy, because by using small tubes it is easy to operate with precision on very minute portions of a suspected fluid. It is also perfectly conclusive, so far as chemical knowledge now goes. On a remarkable trial a few years ago in this country, a distinguished chemist, who, as witness for the prisoner, was made by counsel to throw discredit on the liquid tests individually, nevertheless admitted to the counsel for the prosecution, that no other substance in nature but arsenic could produce the same effects as it with the whole three tests in succession.

_Reduction process._—The process by reduction of arsenic to the metallic state, as applied to the poison in a state of solution, consists in separating the whole arsenic by a liquid test in such a state as to admit of the precipitated compound being subjected to the process of reduction and sublimation. The best method of the kind is a modification of one described by me in 1824.[523] This consists in throwing down the whole arsenic in the form of sulphuret by means of hydrosulphuric acid, converting the sulphuret by the process of reduction to the metallic state, and oxidating the metal thus procured. The hydrosulphuric acid is preferred to other liquid reagents, because the precipitate it forms, while possessing a very characteristic colour, is also more bulky than those caused by the other tests, and is therefore more easily collected,—and because its action is not liable to be prevented or obscured by so many disturbing causes. The steps of the process are the following:—

The fluid to be examined must be acidulated with acetic or hydrochloric acid. If the fluid be neutral or alkaline, the acid may be added at once. If on the other hand the fluid redden litmus, and the acid be either unknown or a mineral acid, potash must first be added in a slight excess, and then the alkali must be supersaturated with acetic or hydrochloric acid. The reasons for these precautions are stated under hydrosulphuric acid as a liquid reagent. The fluid being thus prepared, it is subjected to a stream of hydrosulphuric acid gas for ten or fifteen minutes. The first portions of the gas turn the arsenical solution to a bright lemon-yellow colour, and the subsequent portions throw down a yellow flocculent sulphuret of arsenic. If the proportion of oxide in solution is small, a yellowness or yellow milkiness only is caused, owing to the sulphuret being soluble in an excess of hydrosulphuric acid. But on expelling that excess by boiling, a distinct precipitate and colourless fluid are produced. The precipitate is then to be collected thus. The precipitate is allowed to subside, and the supernatant fluid being withdrawn, the remainder is poured into a filter. When all the fluid has passed through, the portions of precipitate on the upper part of the filter are washed down to the bottom. The filter is then gently compressed between folds of bibulous paper, and the sulphuret removed with the point of a knife before it dries, and dried in little masses on a watch-glass by the side of a chamber-fire, or still better in a vapour-bath. In this way it is very easy to collect a twenty-fifth part of a grain of the sulphuret. Another method which takes more time, but will enable the least skilful person to collect extremely small quantities, is to allow the sulphuret to subside in the original fluid in which it is formed, to pour off the supernatant liquid, and pour the remainder into a small glass tube, Fig. 7. After the precipitate has thoroughly subsided, the supernatant liquid is to be withdrawn, and its place filled up with boiling water. The operation of alternate subsidence and affusion being repeated a sufficient number of times, the last portions of water should be gently driven off by heat, and wiped off the inside of the tube as the drops condense on it. Finally, the bottom of the tube, with the precipitate attached, is to be cut away with the file, and broken into small fragments with the view of preserving the whole sulphuret for the process of reduction. The sulphuret having been collected in either of these ways, it is now to be dropt into the tube, Fig. 3, and covered by means of the funnel, Fig. 4, with soda-flux. The process in other particulars is the same with that for reducing solid oxide of arsenic.

This method of investigation gives extremely precise results, because it presents the poison successively in three distinct forms, as sulphuret, metal, and crystallized oxide, all of which possess very prominent and characteristic external properties. It is also a method which is capable of detecting very minute quantities of oxide of arsenic. And it has the advantage over the process by liquid reagents of being applicable to organic fluids. It was accordingly followed in most medico-legal researches until the recent discovery of the methods of Marsh and Reinsch.

In order to render it quite satisfactory, it is necessary to go through the steps of the analysis at the same time with distilled water, lest any of the reagents used should accidentally contain arsenic.

_Process of Marsh._—This method consists in disengaging arsenic from the solution in the form of arseniuretted-hydrogen gas, burning the gas in such way as to obtain either metallic arsenic or oxide of arsenic, and subjecting the product to various tests.

I have called this beautiful method of analysis Marsh’s process, because it appears to me that injustice has been done its discoverer both by himself and those who have since investigated the subject, when they denominated it merely a test. Medico-legal analysis stood in no need of a new test for arsenic, but very much of an easy and infallible method of detaching minute quantities of it in a state of purity from simple and compound fluids, so as to admit of its being accurately examined. It is this important object, and not strictly speaking a new test, that has been attained through means of the discovery of Mr. Marsh.

His discovery consists in the observation, that, if hydrogen gas be disengaged by the action of sulphuric acid or zinc in a fluid containing arsenic dissolved in any form, arseniuretted-hydrogen gas is disengaged along with the hydrogen; and that if the two gases be burnt together in a fine flame, metallic arsenic is deposited on a white porcelain surface held in the flame, and oxide of arsenic if the porcelain be held immediately above it.[524] The production of a brilliant mirror-like crust in the former case, and of a white powdery one in the other, constituted Marsh’s test as originally proposed; and it was at first conceived to furnish unimpeachable evidence of the detection of arsenic. Afterwards many inquirers, and among them the discoverer himself, became satisfied that certain fallacies stand in the way of a conclusion based on such simple premises. Various supplementary tests were in consequence proposed. And at length it seems to be agreed, that the proper mode of applying Marsh’s discovery is to employ a succession of tests, of which that originally pointed out by him is the first. A vast variety of methods of analysis founded on this principle have been proposed by British and continental chemists. It would be tedious and unprofitable to discuss or even to state them here. The reader will probably be satisfied with a reference to the most important of them[525] and with a description of that process, which appears to me, from repeated trials in medico-legal practice, to be at once most convenient, delicate, and conclusive.

Let the liquid to be examined be introduced into a Döbereiner’s lamp [Fig. 10], or an apparatus constructed with a bottle and a funnel upon the same principle [Fig. 11]; and dilute the liquid with distilled water, until the lower cavity of the apparatus be nearly full, leaving space however for the tube of the funnel, a fragment of zinc, and some sulphuric acid. Put in a cylinder or rod of zinc, _a_; and then add sulphuric acid until a moderate effervescence ensue. Close the junction of the two vessels, and then, allowing a little gas to escape at _c_, shut the stop-cock, and let the gas fill the vessel A, by driving the liquid up into B. Having meanwhile fitted by a cork to the exit-tube, _c_, the glass tube, _d e_, which is loosely stuffed with raw cotton at the end _d g_, and has a bent plate of copper or tinned iron hung over it at _f_,—open the stop-cock, allow a little gas to escape so as to expel the air in _d e_, and then kindle the gas at _e_, which must be contracted to a capillary opening. Keep the flame low, and hold the surface of a white porcelain vessel across the middle of it for a few seconds. If no stain be produced on the porcelain, there is no arsenic in the fluid. If a stain be formed, regulate the escape of gas by the stop-cock so that the fluid may not rise above the middle of the lower vessel of the apparatus, and apply the heat of a spirit-lamp flame to the tube _d e_ on the left hand of the plate _f_, the purpose of which is to prevent the heat being communicated beyond that point. By and by, if there be arsenic in the fluid, a brilliant metallic ring will appear beyond _f_, owing to decomposition of arseniuretted-hydrogen gas. As soon as the crust is thick enough to present its properties characteristically, withdraw the spirit-lamp; place the tube _e h_ so that the flame at _e_ shall be completely within the ball, _i_; let the tube incline very slightly in the direction from _k_ to _l_; and allow a stream of cold water to trickle down upon the portion _k l_, which should be wrapped in a single layer of calico. Oxide of arsenic will gradually condense, partly in white powder or minute sparkling crystals in the ball and between _i_ and _k_, and partly between _k_ and _l_ in the form of a solution, which collects at the bend _l_. The solution which may be increased in quantity by boiling a little distilled water upon the powder in the ball and bend _i k_, is then to be subjected in small portions to the three liquid reagents, ammoniacal nitrate of silver, ammoniacal sulphate of copper, and hydrosulphuric acid.

Some experience is required to apply this process successfully. But with due attention it furnishes conclusive evidence with great delicacy and precision. A solution containing only a millionth part of oxide of arsenic will part with it readily in the form of arseniuretted-hydrogen; and the slightest trace of that gas in the hydrogen is indicated by the method recommended above.—The process is compounded of Mr. Marsh’s original discovery, the supplementary test of reduction in the exit-tube recommended by Berzelius,[526] and the formation and examination of the oxide proposed by myself.[527]—With certain precautions and modes of manipulating, it is applicable to the most complex organic fluids, as well as to simple solutions.

The discovery of Mr. Marsh had not been long made before the test in its original simple form was found liable to divers important fallacies. It appeared, for example, that antimony yields very nearly the same appearance of metallic crust and of white powder, according to the position of the porcelain in the flame; that some porcelains glazed with oxide of zinc are similarly stained by a flame of simple hydrogen gas; that a great variety of metallic salts, if spirted up into the exit-tube, undergo reduction in the flame, and cause imitative stains on the porcelain; that iron-salts seems to form stains from the same chemical action as what occurs in the case of arsenic; and that certain compounds of phosphorous acid with ammonia and animal matter, or even mere animal matters themselves, will in some circumstances produce a stain more or less similar to that which is occasioned by arsenic.

There is no doubt, that the resemblance of most of these spurious stains to an arsenical crust has been much exaggerated. But still the similarity is sufficient to satisfy every impartial judge, that the mere production of a brilliant metallic, or white powdery stain, or both, upon porcelain, is not conclusive evidence of the detection of arsenic in medico-legal inquiries. It is strong presumptive evidence; and the non-production of such stains is absolute proof that arsenic is not present. But in order to obtain irrefragable proof of its presence, the substance which forms the crusts and stains must be subjected to farther examination. And such is the object of the supplementary methods in the process detailed above. That process is perfectly free of fallacy. No substance yet known but arsenic can yield the succession of phenomena which have been detailed. My opinion farther is, that the process may be safely simplified by withdrawing Berzelius’s supplementary test of reduction in the exit-tube, and retaining the test of oxidation only, with the examination of the oxide by liquid reagents. I have retained the former in deference to the opinion expressed by a committee appointed by the French Institute, who examined the whole subject with unwearied zeal, but who, it may be observed, seem never to have had in their view the check-test of oxidation; which, with the consecutive tests, is superior in conclusiveness to the check of reduction only.

_Reinsch’s process_, like the former, has been inconveniently called a new test for arsenic. The fact discovered by Dr. Reinsch is valueless as supplying a mere test; but it forms the ground-work of the best process of all yet proposed for the detection of arsenic in solution. The discovery is, that arsenic in solution is deposited in the metallic state upon copper-leaf, when the fluid is acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and heated till it boils gently or is about to do so; and that by heating the copper gently in a glass tube the arsenic is sublimed from it in the form of oxide or metal according to the quantity present.[528]

This method is so simple and easy as scarcely to require any detailed explanation. The fluid should contain about a tenth of its volume of hydrochloric acid. It must be heated near ebullition before the copper is introduced, otherwise the copper becomes tarnished, though arsenic be not present. Copper-leaf, or copper-plate worn thin by the action of diluted nitric acid, or fine copper gauze, is the best form for use. In the feeblest solutions ten or fifteen minutes elapse before arsenic is visibly deposited, and forty minutes should be allowed for strong deposition; but in strong solutions, the action takes place in a few seconds. The result is a thin, brittle brilliant, steel like coating of metallic arsenic. As soon as the deposit is formed, the copper is to be removed, dried with a gentle heat, cut into small shreds, and heated with a spirit-lamp in the smallest glass tube that will conveniently contain the whole; upon which a metallic ring of arsenic is sometimes sublimed, but more generally a ring of small sparkling crystals. These are first to be examined as to their form with a common pocket lens; and then dissolved in boiling distilled water, after shaking out the copper, so that a solution may be obtained and subjected to the liquid reagents, especially the ammoniacal nitrate of silver as being the readiest and most delicate. In all medico-legal inquiries it is necessary to perform a preliminary experiment with distilled water and the hydrochloric acid used, lest the acid contain arsenic.

The process here described is one which I have followed with great facility, certainty and despatch in several medico-legal cases.[529] It is extremely delicate; for it will detect at least a 250,000th part of arsenic in solution; and it removes from the fluid every particle of arsenic, because none can be afterwards discovered by means even of Marsh’s method. It is not subject to any fallacy. The mere formation of a brilliant coating on the copper is not evidence of arsenic being present; for as Reinsch himself ascertained, solutions of bismuth, tin, zinc, and antimony produce a coating more or less similar to an arsenical one. But the farther steps of the process entirely put aside all these sources of error. The non-formation of a metallic tarnish of copper, however, is perhaps not absolute proof of the absence of arsenic. For, according to a late statement by Drs. Fresenius and Von Babo,[530] “all nitrates, and various salts of mercury and other metals, render the separation of arsenic by copper difficult or even impossible.” The authors of this objection, although the paper is otherwise elaborate and detailed, have not given any particulars in illustration of so important a criticism.

_Of the Tests for Oxide of Arsenic in Organic Mixtures._

The present is by far the most important of the conditions under which it may be necessary to search for arsenic in medico-legal cases; for in nine cases out of ten the subject of analysis is either some article of food or drink, the contents or tissues of the stomach, or the textures of other organs of the body into which the poison has been carried by absorption.

Accordingly much attention has been paid to this subject for some years past, and many valuable methods of analysis have been suggested, more especially since the recent discovery that arsenic, like many other poisons, undergo absorption, and is diffused by the circulation throughout the body generally. It was proved by me in 1824,[531] that the tests for arsenic, at that time in general use, are so fallacious when applied to complex organic mixtures as to be unfit for medico-legal investigations except merely as trial-tests; and a process was proposed, which has since undergone various modifications from others as well as myself. This process, in the form in which it was adopted in the last edition of the present work, is still applicable to a great proportion of cases; and indeed a recent modification of it has been thought by Drs. Fresenius and von Babo to be superior even yet to every other in all circumstances.[532] But two new methods are at present generally preferred, and probably not without reason. At least they have been much employed and with great success in numerous medico-legal researches, where the quantity of arsenic was to all appearance extremely small, and the subject of examination most complex and troublesome to bring within the sphere of analysis. And in particular they have been successfully employed to detect arsenic in those organs of the human body into which it can obtain admission only through the medium of absorption.

In the following statement I shall describe four processes only, that of Reinsch, by which the arsenic is first separated as a crust on copper,—that of Marsh, who first detaches it in the form of arseniuretted-hydrogen,—my own method, which consists in obtaining in the first instance a sulphuret of arsenic,—and that of Drs. Fresenius and von Babo, which has the same foundation.

_Process of Reinsch._—This is the simplest and easiest of all. Remove in the first place any white or gray powder which can be detached from the mixture; and either subject it to the process of reduction by charcoal or soda-flux, as described at p. 203, or dissolve it in boiling distilled water and subject the solution to the three liquid reagents, p. 207, or if there be enough, examine it in both ways. If arsenic be thus obtained, it is seldom necessary to proceed any farther. But if not, cut all soft solids into small fragments, add distilled water if necessary, then add hydrochloric acid to the amount of a tenth of the whole mixture, and more if the subject of analysis be decayed and ammoniacal, so that there may be a decided excess of acid. Boil gently for an hour, or until all soft solids be either dissolved or broken down into fine flakes and grains. Filter through calico; bring the filtered fluid again to the boiling point; and then proceed as described for Reinsch’s method in simple arsenical solutions [p. 214].

The only important precaution to be attended to in employing this process is to take care that the water, hydrochloric acid, and calico are free of accidental impregnation with arsenic. This is guarded against by applying the process to them in the first instance. I have lately employed this method of analysis with success in two medico-legal cases where the bodies had been buried for several months, and where the quantity of arsenic must have been very minute. Satisfactory evidence was obtained from a sixth part of the stomach, and also from the same proportion of the liver.

_Process of Marsh._—The chief difficulties in applying the process of Marsh to complex organic mixtures arise from the tendency of oxide of arsenic to adhere with obstinacy to some organic principles in the solid state, and from the liability of the gas disengaged in the apparatus to raise organic fluids in a fine froth, which breaks up slowly, and is therefore apt to pass over into the exit-tube. Many contrivances have been devised, to meet these difficulties, especially by the French chemists and toxicologists, whose attention was turned earnestly to the subject by the investigations carried on in certain late criminal trials of great interest and importance. The various devices now alluded to were subjected to trial in 1841 by a Committee of the French Institute; who came to the opinion that the following method suggested by MM. Flandin and Danger is the most convenient and comprehensive.[533]

Heat the organic matter with a sixth of its weight of strong sulphuric acid; when complete solution has taken place, concentrate the fluid to a friable almost dry charcoal; add a little concentrated nitric acid gradually to this when cold, and again evaporate to dryness; then act on the residue with boiling distilled water, and a solution of a reddish-brown colour is obtained, which may be used in such an apparatus as that of Döbereiner without risk of obstruction from froth.—The arseniuretted-hydrogen, thus disengaged along with the hydrogen gas, is to be submitted to the succession of tests described in speaking of Marsh’s process for detecting arsenic in a state of simple solution [p. 212].

This method of investigation is exceedingly precise and conclusive. The sulphuric acid aided by heat destroys organic matter sufficiently to prevent frothing in the apparatus and dissolves out arsenic from a state of combination with organic principles; and nitric acid afterwards converts any arsenic in the half-charred mass into the soluble arsenic acid. It has been employed with success in various medico-legal proceedings in France. It answers well for detecting oxide of arsenic in the viscera, muscles, and other parts of the body into which the poison has been conveyed through absorption.

_Process by Hydrosulphuric Acid._—This method may be employed in two ways, according as the object is merely to prove the presence of oxide of arsenic, or to ascertain also its quantity.

a. If proof of its presence be all that is wanted, cut any soft solids into small pieces, add distilled water if necessary, boil for half an hour, let the decoction cool, and filter it. Add a little acetic acid to the filtered fluid, and if any precipitate form, filter again. Evaporate to dryness, first by ebullition, afterwards over the vapour-bath. Dissolve the residuum again in repeated portions of boiling distilled water, and filter the solution. If it be not acid to litmus-paper add more acetic acid, and transmit hydrosulphuric acid gas through the fluid until an excess be indicated by the sense of smell after agitation, Then expel the excess of gas by boiling; and if the precipitate of sulphuret of arsenic do not subside readily add a little of a strong solution of hydrochlorate of ammonia, which will facilitate subsidence. When the precipitate has fallen to the bottom, withdraw the supernatant fluid with the pipette, Fig. 8; and replace it with a little boiling distilled water. Lastly, collect the precipitate on a filter, and proceed as by the reduction process with soda-flux for oxide of arsenic, in a state of simple solution.

This method answers very well for ordinary cases where the quantity of arsenic is not extremely minute. But I have met with instances in medico-legal practice where the process of Reinsch, as well as that of Marsh, succeeded in detecting the poison in sources to which the method by hydrosulphuric acid had been applied without avail; because apparently the organic matter existing in solution prevented the action of the gas, or, as Orfila thinks, because boiling water will not in all circumstances remove oxide of arsenic from the textures of the animal body which are impregnated with it. In particular I doubt whether this method is sufficiently delicate to detect arsenic in those organs and textures into which it has been conveyed in cases of poisoning through absorption into the blood.—Another objection is its tediousness. The first filtration, if the substance to be examined be the stomach or its contents, may take two days; and one way or another the analysis can seldom be completed within four days. Reinsch’s process may be brought to a conclusion in two hours or less, even in the most difficult circumstances.

b. The last process to be mentioned, is one based, like the previous one, upon the precipitation of arsenic in the form of sulphuret, but with very material modifications, the purpose of which is to enable the analyst to separate the whole arsenic in a state of purity, so as to ascertain the exact amount of the poison in the mixture. This method has been recently proposed by Drs. Fresenius and von Babo.[534]

Cut any soft solids into small pieces, put the whole into a porcelain basin, add as much hydrochloric acid as equals the probable weight of the dry matter in the mixture, and then water enough to form a thin pulp. Heat the basin over the vapour-bath, adding every five minutes about half a drachm of chlorate of potass, and stirring frequently, until the liquid become clear-yellow, homogeneous, and thin. Add now two drachms more of the chlorate; filter through linen, washing the residuum on the filter with boiling water; concentrate to a pound; add a strong solution of sulphurous acid till its odour predominates, and expel the excess of it by heat. The liquid is now ready for the transmission of hydrosulphuric acid gas, which should be transmitted in a slow stream for twelve hours. Wash away any sulphuret adhering to the tube by means of ammonia, and add the solution to the principal liquid; which is next to be left at a gentle heat about 80° F., in a vessel covered with paper, till the sulphureous smell entirely disappear. The precipitate, which contains organic matter as well as sulphuret, is then to be collected on a paper filter, washed, and dried with the filter over the vapour-bath. The animal matter is next destroyed, and the sulphuret converted into arsenic acid, by dropping on it fuming nitrous acid till the whole is moistened, drying the product thoroughly over the vapour-bath, moistening the residuum with concentrated sulphuric acid, heating the mixture again in the vapour-bath for two or three hours, and raising the heat afterwards gradually in a sand-bath to 300° F., till a charred brittle mass be obtained. This is to be heated over the vapour-bath with twenty parts of distilled water, filtered, and washed with boiling water on the filter till what passes through ceases to redden litmus. The solution, which ought to be colourless, is next acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and treated as formerly with hydrosulphuric acid gas. When the sulphuret has been collected on a small filter, diluted ammonia is to be sent through the filter as long as it dissolves any sulphuret, and is to be received in a weighed porcelain basin, in which the ammonia and water are to be driven off at a temperature not exceeding 212°. The sulphuret which is alone left may now be weighed by again weighing the basin; and one grain of sulphuret is equivalent to 0·803 of a grain of oxide of arsenic.—The authors add an elaborate process for obtaining from this the whole arsenic by reduction. But such a proceeding is unnecessary. It is sufficient in medico-legal inquiries to ascertain by the simpler method given above [p. 204], that it does yield by reduction with soda-flux a true arsenical crust, and that this yields by oxidation white, sparkling crystals with triangular facettes.

After a comparative trial of the most esteemed process, Drs. Fresenius and von Babo state that they found the one now described as delicate as any other, and the only method by which the quantity of oxide of arsenic can be ascertained with accuracy.—The hydrochloric acid used at the commencement enables the water to dissolve compounds of arsenic which water alone will not act on; and it farther facilitates solution by breaking up or dissolving organic textures. The addition of chlorate of potash prevents the escape of oxide of arsenic during the subsequent evaporation; which is apt to happen when hydrochloric acid is present. The subsequent addition of sulphuric acid converts arsenic acid into arsenious acid, in which shape the sulphuret of arsenic is more readily formed by the action of hydrosulphuric acid gas, when organic matter co-exists in the solution. The steps for destroying organic matter thrown down with the sulphuret at its first formation require no further commentary: They are the most important particulars in the process for its main object,—the determination of the quantity of pure sesqui-sulphuret, and, through it, of the sesquioxide originally in the subject of analysis.

_Of certain alleged Fallacies in the case of Organic Mixtures._

Before taking leave of the detection of arsenic in organic mixtures, it is necessary to notice certain alleged fallacies in the way of every process, arising from arsenic obtaining admission into the subject of analysis through other means than its intentional addition or its introduction as a poison into the body. This topic, one of paramount importance in medico-legal chemistry, has lately undergone careful investigation during and since the notorious trial of Madame Lafarge. The results are the following:—

It has been alleged that arsenic may obtain accidental admission into the subject of analysis, 1, because the reagents used in the processes may be adulterated with arsenic; 2, because the material of the apparatus may contain it; 3, because it may have existed in antidotes administered during life; 4, because it sometimes forms a constituent part of the human body in the natural state; and 5, because it exists in the soil of some churchyards.

1. _Arsenic may exist as an adulteration in some reagents._—It must be apt to occur in _sulphuric acid_, when that substance is prepared with pyritic sulphur, which commonly contains some sulphuret of arsenic; and it has actually been found in abundance in the acid by various experimentalists, and in England for the first time by Dr. Rees.[535] It may be detected by transmitting hydrosulphuric acid gas through the diluted acid; and it may be effectually removed in the same way,[536] the acid being afterwards filtered in a funnel whose throat is filled with asbestus, and the excess of gas being expelled by heat.—_Hydrochloric acid_ may contain arsenic, because it may have been prepared with an arsenicated sulphuric acid. The impurity may be detected and removed in the same way as in that substance. Nitric acid seems not apt to be similarly adulterated;[537] but it may be tested by Marsh’s process, after neutralizing the acid with potash, and adding more sulphuric acid than is required to decompose the nitre thus formed. _Zinc_ occasionally contains a little arsenic, which will be evolved in Marsh’s process. Dr. Clark of Aberdeen says zinc is scarcely ever free of a trace of arsenic; and it has been occasionally detected by others. Orfila, however, very seldom found so much as to be discoverable by Marsh’s test applied continuously for a great length of time.[538] A committee of the French Institute came to the same conclusion.[539] M. Jaquelain, acting under the directions of Professor Dumas, could not detect an atom in any French specimen of zinc, or its carbonate or silicated oxide, as met with in commerce.[540] Lastly, Mr. Brett satisfied himself that no British or foreign zinc he could obtain indicated the presence of arsenic by a process capable of detecting a 5000th of that metal in zinc.[541] It is an obvious inference from all these inquiries that no difficulty can be experienced in obtaining zinc so pure as to exhibit not a trace of arsenic by Marsh’s method. Neither is there any difficulty in obtaining sulphuric, muriatic, and nitric acid free of that adulteration.

But at the same time it is equally obvious, that in medico-legal analyses, unless the reagents used be previously known to be free of arsenic, they ought invariably to be subjected in the first instance to the process, whatever it may be, which the analyst proposes to employ for detecting arsenic in a suspected substance.

2. _Arsenic may be present in some articles of chemical apparatus._—Arsenic has been detected in the metal of cast-iron pots,[542] which Orfila and others have proposed to employ in certain analyses on the large scale, as, for example, when the poison is sought for in the whole soft solids of the human body. It is denied, however, that any of that arsenic can be dissolved out of cast-iron by the process which has been followed in such circumstances.[543]

The primary fact, and the qualification of it, are in my opinion of equally little medico-legal importance. It is not likely that such enormous masses of material will ever be operated on again, as those which were made use of in some late, French trials, and for which great iron pots were found indispensable;—because it has been proved that absorbed arsenic is chiefly to be met with in particular organs or secretions, such as the liver and urine. Besides, a false importance has been attached to the enthusiastic analyses of the whole human carcase, with which some French chemists have been astounding the minds of the scientific world, as well as the vulgar, on the occasion of certain late trials for poisoning. I confess I could not find fault with a jury, who might decline to put faith in the evidence of poisoning with arsenic, when the analyst, after boiling an entire body, with many gallons of water, in a huge iron cauldron, making use of whole pounds of sulphuric acid, nitric acid, and nitre, and toiling for days and weeks at the process, could do no more than produce minute traces of the poison. What man of common sense will believe, that, with such bulky materials and crude apparatus, it is possible to guard to a certainty against the accidental admission of a little arsenic? At all events I am much mistaken if any British jury would condemn a prisoner on such evidence,—or any British chemist find fault with them for declining to do so.

3. _Arsenic may have existed in antidotes administered during life._—It is now generally known, that the only chemical antidote for arsenic is the hydrated sesquioxide of iron. But this substance appears occasionally to contain a little arsenic, obviously derived from the compound of iron whence the oxide is prepared.[544] Such an adulteration must be rare in what is prepared by the ordinary processes, according to which the oxide of arsenic ought to remain in solution. The only effectual mode, however, of guarding against this source of error, when the antidote has been administered, is to examine a portion of the stock whence the patient was supplied, by dissolving it in an excess of sulphuric acid, and subjecting it to Marsh’s test.

4. _Arsenic sometimes exists naturally in the human body._—This startling proposition was first advanced by M. Couerbe, and by Professor Orfila soon afterwards.[545] The latter subsequently stated, that it exists only in the bones, and not in any of the soft solids.[546] It is now clear, however, that both of these experimentalists must have committed an error. Orfila himself admits that his early researches are vitiated by the subsequent discovery of arsenic in some kinds of sulphuric acid;[547] and all recent attempts by others to obtain his results have failed. Thus MM. Flandin and Danger could not detect arsenic in any part of the human body, when it had not been administered:[548] Pfaff was unable to detect an atom of it in the bones of man or the lower animals by Orfila’s own process:[549] Dr. Rees was equally unsuccessful:[550] and in 1841 a committee of the French Institute, who superintended the performance of an analysis in three cases by Orfila, reported that he failed in every instance to find a trace of arsenic, by a process which could detect a 65th part of a grain intentionally mixed with an avoirdupois pound of bones.[551]

There is the strongest possible presumption, therefore, that human bones never contain any arsenic. And besides, supposing they did, the source of fallacy would be utterly insignificant; for, when it becomes necessary to search for arsenic absorbed into the textures of the body, it is never necessary to have recourse to the bones.

5. _Arsenic may exist in the soil of churchyards._—This proposition too was first announced by Professor Orfila, who found a little in the churchyard of Villey-sur-Tille, near Dijon, and of the Bicêtre, Mont-Parnasse, and New Botanic Garden at Paris.[552] And although MM. Flandin and Danger afterwards denied they could ever find any,[553] a committee of the Parisian Academy of Medicine reported that Orfila proved before them the accuracy of his statement.[554] But the arsenic exists in a state in which it cannot be dissolved out by boiling water: It has been hitherto separable only by boiling the churchyard mould with concentrated sulphuric acid. Hence it cannot pass by percolation through a coffin into a body; and consequently it becomes a source of fallacy only when the coffin has been broken up in the course of time, and the mould lies in actual contact with the organs to be analysed.[555]

It plainly appears, then, that most of the fallacies alleged against the validity of the evidence derived from the discovery of arsenic within the human body in cases of poisoning have no real existence; and that those which are real can easily be provided against by simple and obvious precautions.

3. _Arsenite of Copper_.

The arsenite of copper [Scheele’s-green, Mineral-green] deserves notice, because it is in use as a pigment, and has actually been used as a poison. Dr. Duncan once detected it in pills, given to a pregnant female with the view of procuring abortion; in Paris it has been detected in sweetmeats, having been used to give them a fine green colour;[556] and Mr. Ainley of Bingley in Yorkshire informs me he found it to constitute a pigment sold by London pastry-cooks under the name of emerald-green for colouring preserves, and which in his practice had proved poisonous to children who had eaten apple-tarts coloured with it.

It is a compound of arsenious acid and deutoxide of copper, is sold in powder or pulverulent cakes, and has a pale grass-green colour. Its nature may be ascertained by heating it in a glass tube. Crystals of oxide of arsenic sublime, and oxide of copper remains, which, on being dissolved in nitric acid, yields a fine violet-blue solution with ammonia.

The mineral-green of the shops, however, is seldom arsenite of copper. The substance sold in Edinburgh under that name, although believed by colourmen to be a preparation of arsenic, is not the arsenite of copper, but a mixture of hydrated oxide of copper and carbonate of lime; which will be mentioned more particularly under the head of the poisons of copper.

_Process for Organic Mixtures._—The suspected mixture is to be heated with a little hydrochloric acid and well stirred. The arsenite being thus dissolved, the solution is to be allowed to cool and then filtered. A stream of hydrosulphuric-acid gas will now cause a dark-brown or yellowish-brown muddiness or precipitate, which is a mixture of sulphuret of copper and sulphuret of arsenic. The precipitate being separated after boiling, and properly cleansed by the process of subsidence and affusion, or if it is large, by washing on a filter, the two sulphurets are to be separated by ammonia, which dissolves sulphuret of arsenic but leaves the sulphuret of copper; and the sulphuret of arsenic may be recovered from the filtered fluid by expelling the ammonia with heat. The sulphuret of arsenic is next to be reduced as directed at page 211; and the sulphuret of copper examined as recommended under the head of copper.

4. _Arsenite of Potass_.

This salt is an object of some importance to the medical jurist, as it forms the basis of a common medicine, Fowler’s Solution, or the Tasteless Ague Drop. This preparation contains in every ounce four grains of arsenious acid. It has a brownish-red colour, and an odour of lavender. It is strongly alkaline to litmus. When acidulated with hydrochloric acid, hydrosulphuric-acid gas causes in it a dirty brownish-yellow precipitate; and Reinsch’s process will detach arsenic from it upon copper in a state capable of being subjected to the usual tests [see p. 214].

5. _Arseniate of Potass._

This substance is so rarely met with as to be an object of little consequence to the medical jurist: nevertheless I have found in the course of reading two instances of poisoning with it. A very dangerous and tedious case has been related by Professor Bernt, which arose from too great a quantity having been given medicinally by an ignorant druggist;[557] and a case of accidental poisoning with it has been related in the London Medical Repository.[558] A singular account too has been published of the accidental poisoning of seven horses with it at Paris. They all died, most of them with the symptoms and morbid appearances of well-marked inflammation of the alimentary canal.[559]

When solid it forms tetraedral prismatic crystals, acuminated by four planes. It is very soluble in water, fuses at a red heat, and on cooling concretes into a crumbly, foliaceous mass, having a pearly lustre. It is easily known by the effect of the process of reduction—of the nitrate of silver, the salts of copper, and sulphuretted-hydrogen. Heated with charcoal in a tube it gives off metallic arsenic in the usual manner; but a stronger heat is required than for the reduction of the arsenious acid. Dissolved in water and treated with nitrate of silver it yields a brick-red precipitate, the arseniate of silver. With the salts of copper its solution gives a pale bluish-white precipitate, the arseniate of copper. With sulphuretted-hydrogen gas, preceded by acidulation with muriatic acid, and transmitted for a considerable length of time, it yields the yellow sulphuret of arsenic. When in solution it yields arsenic both by Reinsch’s process and the method of Marsh.

6. _The Sulphurets of Arsenic._

In the arts various substances are known which contain a compound of sulphur and arsenic. In the first place, two pure sulphurets are known in chemistry and in painting, the one of a fine orange colour, and known by the name of realgar, the other of a rich sulphur-yellow, and termed orpiment. Secondly, the name of orpiment is familiarly given to a pigment in more general use than either of the former, which has a less lively colour, and consists of pure orpiment with a large admixture of arsenious acid. Lastly, orpiment also forms a great proportion of another common pigment, King’s yellow.

The orange-red sulphuret (realgar, risigallum, Σανδαραχη, sandaracha), is chiefly a natural production. It is solid, of a bright orange-red colour, and composed of small shining scales, so soft as to be scratched with the nail. It is composed of one equivalent of metal and one of sulphur. Its best chemical characters are the disengagement of metallic arsenic when it is heated in a tube with potass or the black flux; and its undergoing sublimation unchanged when heated alone in a tube.

The yellow sulphuret (orpiment, auripigmentum, αρσενικον), is both a natural production, and the result of many chemical operations. The sulphuret thrown down from solutions of arsenic by sulphuretted-hydrogen is quite conformable in physical and chemical characters with the natural orpiment. Natural orpiment, when in mass, consists of broad scales of much brilliancy and of a rich yellow colour. It is composed of two equivalents of metal and three of sulphur. Its most striking chemical characters are the same with those of realgar, from which it is distinguished chiefly by its colour.

It has been stated by Hahnemann in his elaborate work on Arsenic, that the pure sulphurets are somewhat soluble in water,—that native orpiment is soluble in 5000 parts of water with the aid of ebullition, and that artificial orpiment by precipitation is soluble in 600 parts.[560] Hahnemann, however, was mistaken in supposing that the water dissolved these sulphurets. It does not dissolve, but decomposes them. Very lately M. Decourdemanche has found that, by slow action in cold water, and much more quickly with the aid of heat, the arsenical sulphuret is decomposed by virtue of a simultaneous decomposition of the water, hydrosulphuric acid being evolved and an oxide of arsenic remaining in solution. And he has farther remarked, that this change is promoted by the presence of animal and vegetable principles dissolved in water.[561] These facts are interesting, as they explain certain apparent anomalies to be noticed presently in the physiological properties of the sulphurets.

The common orpiment of the shops is not a pure sulphuret like the natural orpiment, but a much more active substance, a mixture of orpiment and arsenious acid. It is made by subliming in close vessels a mixture of sulphur and oxide of arsenic. It is met with in the shops in two forms, in that of a fine powder possessing a yellow colour with a faint tint of orange, and in that of concave masses composed of layers of various tints of white, yellow and orange, commonly also lined internally with tetraedral white pyramidal crystals. Till lately it was accounted a variety of sulphuret, and some ingenious conjectures were made as to the cause of its superior energy over the other sulphurets as a poison. But M. Guibourt has proved that it always contains oxide of arsenic, and is commonly impregnated with it to a very large amount, some parcels containing so much as 96 per cent.[562] The inner surface I have often seen lined with large crystals of pure oxide. In a very interesting account by Dr. Symonds of Bristol, describing the case of Mrs. Smith, for whose murder a woman Burdock was executed in that city a few years ago, it is stated that artificial orpiment was the poison given, that death took place in a very few hours, and that a sample from the druggist’s shop where the poison was bought contained on an average 79 per cent. of oxide of arsenic.[563]

Another impure sulphuret, a good deal used in painting, and a favourite poison in this country for killing flies, is King’s yellow. It is sold in the form of a light powder or in loose conical cakes. It has an intense sulphur-yellow colour. This substance is soluble, though not entirely, in water, both cold and warm, and forms a colourless solution, from which, on cooling, or by evaporation, a yellow powder separates. In this respect it differs essentially from the pure sulphurets. The solution is not acted on by reagents in the same way as the solution of arsenious acid. Lime-water and hydrosulphuric acid have no effect on it, the ammoniacal nitrate of silver causes a copious dirty brown, and the ammoniacal sulphate of copper a scanty, dirty lemon-yellow precipitate. I have not seen any account of the mode of preparing it or an analysis of its composition. But according to my own experiments it contains a large proportion of sulphuret of arsenic, a considerable proportion of lime, and about 16 per cent. of sulphur. Its nature is best shown by the following method of analysis. Let the powder be agitated in diluted ammonia till the colour becomes white. The filtered fluid contains the sulphuret of arsenic, which, on addition of an acid, falls down, and may be separated and reduced in a tube with the black flux. The remaining white powder, well freed from adhering sulphuret by washing, is next to be agitated in diluted acetate or hydrochloric acid and again filtered. The solution on being neutralized precipitates abundantly with oxalate of ammonia and the alkaline carbonates, showing that lime was taken up by the acid: and, as the acid operates without effervescence, the lime must have been in the caustic state. The powder which remains after the action of the acid will be found to fuse with a gentle heat and to burn almost entirely away with a blue flame, emitting sulphureous vapours. These experiments make it obvious that King’s yellow contains sulphuret of arsenic, caustic lime, and free sulphur; and in all probability the lime exists in the form of a triple sulphuret of lime and arsenic.

All the preparations containing the sulphuret of arsenic are interesting to the medical jurist, but particularly the two impure sulphurets last mentioned. The King’s yellow above all should be carefully studied, because on account of its frequent employment as a fly-poison it has been the source of fatal accidents. It was likewise taken intentionally a few years ago in this city, and proved fatal in thirty-six hours. Dr. Duncan also, while he was Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, met with an instance of an attempt to poison by mixing King’s yellow with tea; and at the Glasgow Spring Circuit of 1822 a woman was tried for poisoning her child with it.

_Process for Organic Mixtures._—If sulphuret of arsenic be present in such mixtures in appreciable quantity, the particles, owing to their intense yellow colour, will be visible in any mass which has not the same tint. From this state of admixture they may be removed by adding caustic ammonia which dissolves sulphuret of arsenic; and the solution, on being acidulated with muriatic acid, will deposit the sulphuret sufficiently pure for undergoing the process of reduction.

Sulphuret of arsenic sometimes exists in small quantity in the stomach, although the poison was given in the form of oxide; for a portion of the oxide is subject to be converted into the sulphuret by hydrosulphuric acid gas evolved in the stomach after death.[564] In every instance of the kind yet carefully examined a large proportion of the oxide has remained unacted on, although the intense colour of the mixed sulphuret makes it appear as if that were the only compound present.

7. _Arseniuretted-Hydrogen._

This compound presents the form of a colourless gas, possessing a fetid garlicky odour, a density of nearly 2·7, and great virulence as a poison. It is mentioned here, because accidental poisoning with it has happened occasionally within a few years, chiefly owing to the occasional adulteration of sulphuric acid with arsenic, and the liability of the arsenic to form arseniuretted-hydrogen when such sulphuric acid is used to prepare hydrogen gas. Dr. O’Reilly has mentioned a melancholy instance of a young chemist losing his life in this way.[565] Dr. Schlinder of Greifenberg has related another, which did not prove fatal.[566] And it is well known that the German chemist Gehlen lost his life by accidentally breathing arseniuretted-hydrogen while engaged in examining its chemical properties.[567] It is an inflammable body; and its presence in any other gas is easily detected by burning it according to the method of Marsh.

SECTION II.—_Of the Action of Arsenic and the Symptoms it excites in Man._

It is now generally admitted that arsenic produces in the living body two classes of phenomena,—or that, like the narcotico-acrids, it has a twofold action. One action is purely irritant, by virtue of which it induces inflammation in the alimentary canal and elsewhere. The other, although it seldom occasions symptoms of narcotism properly so called, yet obviously consists in a disorder of parts or organs remote from the seat of its application.

It is also the general opinion of toxicologists, that arsenic occasions death more frequently through means of its remote effects than in consequence of the local inflammation it excites. In some cases indeed no symptoms of inflammation occur at all; and in many, although inflammation is obviously produced, death takes place long before it has had time to cause material organic injury. Nevertheless in some, though certainly in comparatively few instances, the local action, it must be admitted, predominates so much, that the morbid changes of the part primarily acted on are alone adequate to account for death.

Its chief operation being on organs remote from the part to which it is applied, a natural object of inquiry is, whether this action results from the poison entering the blood, and so passing to the remote organs acted on, or simply arises from the organ remotely affected sympathizing through the medium of the nerves with the impression made on the organ which is affected primarily. On this question precise experiments are still wanted. The general opinion has for some time been that it acts through the blood. And this view has of late been strengthened by indisputable evidence, that the poison does enter the blood, and is diffused by it throughout the body.

For a long period chemists sought in vain for arsenic in the animal tissues and secretions at a distance from the alimentary canal. Such was the position of matters at the date of the last edition of this work; in which the failure was ascribed to the methods of analysis then known not being delicate enough to discover the small quantity of arsenic which disappears by absorption in cases of poisoning.[568] That statement is now referred to, because in a late controversy in France an attempt was made, by an erroneous quotation of this work, to deprive Professor Orfila of the honour, which is due to him alone, of having recently been the first to demonstrate the possibility of detecting arsenic throughout the organs and secretions generally of the bodies of men and animals poisoned with it.

This most important discovery, pregnant alike with interesting physiological deductions and valuable medico-legal applications, was first announced by him to the Parisian Academy of Medicine in January, 1839; when he stated that arsenic is absorbed in such quantity in cases of poisoning as to admit of being discovered by an improved process of analysis in various organs and fluids of the body, such as the liver, spleen, kidneys, muscles, blood, and urine.[569] In November, 1840, he proved these facts to the satisfaction of a committee of the academy.[570] And since then they have been confirmed by others, not merely in express experiments, but likewise in the familiar experience of medico-legal practice. The situations where arsenic is met with in largest quantity are the liver, the spleen, and the urine, but above all the liver. The precise circumstances in which it may be found in one or another of these quarters have not yet been determined. But in most cases of acute arsenical poisoning where the search has been made at all, it has proved successful in the liver. In two late instances I have readily found arsenic by the process of Marsh or Reinsch in the liver after four months’ interment.

Since arsenic then is clearly absorbed into the blood, it becomes an interesting question whether the organization of the blood is thereby changed. This question cannot be answered with confidence. But in all probability the blood does undergo some change in its _crasis_; for in most cases of acute poisoning that fluid is found after death in a remarkable state of fluidity [see Section on the Morbid Appearances]; and Mr. James observed that if venous or arterial blood be received into a solution of arsenic, instead of coagulating in the usual way, a viscous jelly first forms, and lumpy clots separate afterwards.[571]

Our knowledge of the affection induced by the remote action of arsenic is in some respects vague. Toxicologists have for the most part been satisfied with calling it a disorder of the general nervous system. When employed to designate the state of collapse which accompanies or forms the chief feature of acute cases of poisoning with arsenic, this term is misapplied. The whole train of symptoms is that not of a general nervous disorder, but simply of depressed action of the heart. That this is the chief organ remotely acted on in such cases farther appears probable from certain physiological experiments, in which it has been remarked, that immediately after rapid death from arsenic the irritability of the heart was exhausted or nearly so, while that of the intestines, gullet, and voluntary muscles continued as usual.[572] As to the singular symptoms which often arise in the advanced stage of lingering cases, the term, disorder of the general nervous system, is more appropriately applied to them. They clearly indicate a deranged state sometimes of the brain, sometimes of particular nerves.

Arsenic belongs to those poisons which act with nearly the same energy whatever be the organ or texture to which they are applied. The experiments of Sproegel,[573] repeated by Jaeger,[574] and by Sir Benjamin Brodie,[575] leave no doubt, that when applied to a fresh wound it acts with at least equal rapidity as when swallowed. Although in such circumstances the signs of irritation are often distinct, yet the symptoms are on the other hand sometimes more purely narcotic than by any other mode of administering it,—Sir B. Brodie in particular having observed loss of sense and motion to be induced, along with occasional convulsions. Arsenic likewise acts with energy when applied to the conjunctiva of the eye, as was proved by Dr. Campbell. It acts too with great energy when inhaled in the state of vapour into the lungs, or in the form of arseniuretted-hydrogen. It farther acts with violence through the mucous membrane of the vagina, producing local inflammation, and the usual constitutional collapse. These facts were determined experimentally by the Medical Inspectors of Copenhagen on the occasion of a singular trial which will be noticed afterwards. Arsenic also acts, as may easily be conceived, when injected into the rectum. And farther, it acts as a poison, when it is applied to the surface of ulcers, yet certainly not under all circumstances. Its power of acting through the unbroken skin has been questioned. Jaeger found that, when it was merely applied and not rubbed on the skin of animals, it had no effect.[576] But some cases will be afterwards mentioned which tend to show that the reverse probably holds in regard to man. According to the last-mentioned author, who is the only experimentalist that has hitherto examined the subject consecutively, arsenic is most active when injected into a vein, or applied to a fresh wound, or introduced into the sac of the peritonæum; it is less powerful when taken into the stomach; it is still less energetic when introduced into the rectum; and it is quite inert when applied to the nerves.

It is a striking fact in the action of that poison that, whatever be the texture in the body to which it is applied, provided death do not ensue quickly, it almost always produces symptoms of inflammation in the stomach; and on inspection after death traces of inflammation are found in that organ. In some instances of death caused by its outward application, the inflamed appearance of the stomach has been greater than in many cases where it had been swallowed. Sproegel met with a good example of this in a dog killed by a drachm applied to wounds. The whole stomach and intestines, outwardly and inwardly, were of a deep-red colour, blood was extravasated between the membranes, and clots were even found in the stomach.[577]

Of the different preparations of arsenic, it may be said in general terms, that those are most active which are most soluble. In conformity with what appears to be a general law in toxicology, the metal itself is inert. It is difficult to put this fairly to the test, because it is not easy to pulverize the metal without a sufficient quantity being oxidated to cause poisonous effects. Bayen and Deyeux, however, found that a drachm carefully prepared might be given in fragments to dogs without injuring them; and they once gave a cat half an ounce without any other consequence than temporary loss of flesh.[578] Its alloys are also inert. The same experimentalists found it inactive when combined with tin; and Renault likewise found it inactive when united with sulphur and iron in the ore mispickel, or arsenical pyrites.[579]

It is probable that all the other preparations of arsenic are more or less deleterious.

A difference of opinion prevails as to the power of the sulphurets. Various statements have been published on the subject. But it may be sufficient to observe, that in consequence of the poisonous properties of the sulphurets having been imputed to the oxide, with which they are often adulterated,—Professor Orfila made some experiments with native orpiment and realgar, and with the sulphuret procured by sulphuretted-hydrogen gas (which are all pure sulphurets); and he found that in doses varying from 40 to 70 grains they all caused death in two, three, or six days, whether they were applied to a wound, or introduced into the stomach.[580] It may appear at first view singular that the sulphurets, being insoluble, should be poisonous; but the apparent anomaly vanishes on considering the experiments of M. Decourdemanche formerly noticed; which prove that in animal fluids the sulphurets are rapidly changed into the oxide (see p. 225). The sulphurets, however, are much less active than the preparations in which the metal exists already oxidated. Yet in sufficient doses they will prove rapidly fatal. In the Acta Germanica there is the case of a woman who was killed in a few hours by realgar, mixed by her step-daughter in red cabbage soup.[581] The common artificial orpiment procured by sublimation is very active, in consequence of the oxide mixed with it. Renault found three grains killed a dog in nine hours.[582]

Among the less active preparations of arsenic may also be enumerated such of the arsenites and arseniates as are not soluble in water. They have not indeed been actually tried. But there can be little doubt that they will prove poisonous; because, though insoluble in water, they are probably somewhat soluble in the animal juices. We may infer from their sparing solubility, even in these menstrua, that they will be less active than the preparations now to be mentioned, which are more soluble.

These are the alkaline arsenites and arseniates, arsenic acid, arsenious acid, the black oxide or fly-powder, and arseniuretted-hydrogen. With regard to arsenic acid, and the alkaline arseniates and arsenites, it is probable, from their effects in medicinal doses, that they are as active as the white oxide, if not more so. But they have not been particularly examined, as they are not objects of great interest to the medical jurist.

The fly-powder or black oxide is very active. Renault found that four grains killed a middle-sized dog in ten hours.[583] It has been likewise known to prove quickly fatal to man. In a French journal there is a case related which ended fatally in sixteen hours;[584] and in the Acta Germanica is an account of four persons, who died in consequence of eating a dish of stewed pears poisoned with it, and of whom three died within eighteen hours.[585] The dose is not mentioned; but it is probable from the collateral circumstances that it was not considerable.

Arseniuretted-hydrogen is probably the most active of all arsenical compounds. The celebrated German chemist Gehlen, having accidentally inhaled a small portion of it, died in nine days with the usual symptoms of arsenical poisoning. In Dr. O’Reilly’s case, which proved fatal in seven days, it was computed that the equivalent of twelve grains of oxide had been inhaled. And Dr. Schlinder’s patient had inhaled a quantity of gas corresponding with only an eighth of a grain of sesquioxide; yet he appears to have made a narrow escape.[586]

It is of some consequence to settle with precision the power of the white oxide. Witnesses are often asked on trials how small a quantity will occasion death? It is obvious that this question admits only of a vague answer: It can be answered at all only in reference to concomitant circumstances, and even then but presumptively. Nevertheless, it is right to be aware what facts are known on the subject.

It has been stated by various systematic authors that the white oxide will prove fatal to man in the dose of two grains. Hahnemann says in more special terms, that in circumstances favourable to its action four grains may cause death within twenty-four hours, and one or two grains in a few days.[587] But neither he nor any of the other authors alluded to have referred to actual cases. Foderé knew half a grain cause colic pains in the stomach and dysenteric flux, which continued obstinately for eight days;[588] and I have related an instance where six persons, after taking each a grain in wine during dinner, were seriously and violently affected for twelve hours.[589] Mr. Alfred Taylor mentions three similar cases occasioned by arsenic accidentally taken in port wine after dinner,—one, an infant of sixteen months who got about a third of a grain, another, a lady who took a grain and a half, and the third, a gentleman, who had two grains and a half,—in all of whom violent vomiting, and prostration, without pain, occurred for three or four hours; and the gentleman of the party did not recover for several days.[590] M. Lachèse mentions his having met with a number of cases of poisoning from small doses taken in bread or soup; whence he concludes, that an eighth of a grain taken in food may cause vomiting;—that a quarter of a grain or twice as much taken once only causes vomiting, colic, and prostration,—that the same quantity repeated next day renews these symptoms in such force as to render the individual unfit for work till three or four days afterwards,—and that four such doses, taken at intervals during two days, that is between one and a half and two grains in all, excite acute gastro-enteritis and may prove fatal, since two individuals who had taken this much died, one in seven weeks, the other three weeks later.[591] The smallest fatal dose I have found recorded elsewhere is four grains and a half; and death ensued in six hours only.[592] But the subject was a child, four years old, and the poison was taken in solution. Alberti mentions the case of a man who died from taking six grains; but I am unacquainted with the particulars, not having seen the original account.[593] Two children, whose cases are alluded to in the Proceedings of the Academy of Medicine of Paris, died, the one in two days, the other a day later, after taking rather less than sixteen grains. The former was four years and a half old, the latter seven years.[594] Valentini alludes to a case where thirty grains of the oxide in powder killed an adult in six days.[595] The effects of medicinal doses, which seldom exceed a quarter of a grain without causing irritation of the stomach, and the fatal effects of somewhat larger doses on animals, Renault having found that a single grain in solution killed a large dog in four hours,[596] must convince every one that the general statement of Hahnemann cannot be very wide of the truth. Mr. Taylor thinks his own cases mentioned above throw doubt over this inference. But it must be remembered, that his patients had dined just before taking the poison.

It is not improbable that the activity of oxide of arsenic is impaired by admixture with other insoluble powders. M. Bertrand, conceiving from some experiments on animals that he had found an antidote for arsenic in charcoal powder, took no less than five grains of the oxide mixed with that substance, and he did not suffer any injury, although his stomach was empty at the time, and he did not vomit.[597] But Orfila afterwards showed, that other insoluble powders, such as clay, have the same effect; that no such powder can be of any use if not introduced into the stomach till after the arsenic is swallowed; and that they appear to act solely by enveloping the arsenical powder and preventing it from touching the membrane of the alimentary canal.[598] Although M. Bertrand’s discovery will not supply the physician with an antidote, the medical jurist will not lose sight of the interesting fact, that, by certain mechanical admixtures, arsenic in moderate doses may be entirely deprived of its poisonous quality. A singular case of recovery from no less a dose than sixty grains, which happened in the case of an American physician, probably comes under the same head with the experiments of Bertrand,—a large quantity of powder of cinchona-bark having been swallowed along with the arsenic. In this case, however, the symptoms were severe for three days.[599]

The tendency of habit to modify the action of arsenic is questionable. So far as authentic facts go, habit has no power of familiarizing the constitution to its use. One no doubt may hear now and then of mountebanks who swallow without injury entire scruples or drachms of arsenic, and vague accounts have reached me of patients who took unusually large doses for medicinal purposes. But as to facts of the former kind, it is clear that no importance can be attached to them; for it is impossible to know how much of the feat is genuine, and how much legerdemain. With respect to the latter facts, I have never been able to ascertain any precise instance of the kind; and so far as my own experience goes, the habit of taking arsenic in medicinal doses has quite an opposite effect from familiarizing the stomach to it.

Oxide of arsenic being sparingly soluble, its operation is often much influenced by the condition of the stomach as to food at the time it is swallowed. If the stomach be empty, it adheres with tenacity to the villous coat and acts with energy. If the stomach be full at the time, the first portions that come in contact with the inner membrane may cause vomiting before it can be diffused, so that the whole or greater part is discharged. One remarkable case of this nature has been quoted in page 29. In another, where severe symptoms did supervene, and recovery was ascribed to the use of magnesia as an antidote, the favourable result seems to have been really owing to the circumstance, that the patient had supped heartily not long before taking the arsenic.[600] An extraordinary case related by Mr. Kerr, in which nearly three-quarters of an ounce were retained for two hours without causing any serious mischief, probably comes under the same category; for the arsenic was taken immediately after a meal, and the stomach was cleared out by emetics.[601]

In the following detail of the symptoms caused by arsenic in man, its effects when swallowed will be first noticed; and then some remarks will be added on the phenomena observed when it is introduced through other channels.

The symptoms of poisoning with arsenic may be advantageously considered under three heads. In one set of cases there are signs of violent irritation of the alimentary canal and sometimes of the other mucous membranes also, accompanied with excessive general depression, but not with distinct disorder of the nervous system. When such cases prove fatal, which they generally do, they terminate for the most part in from twenty-four hours to three days. In a second and very singular set of cases there is little sign of irritation in any part of the alimentary canal; perhaps trivial vomiting or slight pain in the stomach, but sometimes neither; the patient is chiefly or solely affected with excessive prostration of strength and frequent fainting; and death is seldom delayed beyond the fifth or sixth hour. In a third set of cases life is commonly prolonged at least six days, sometimes much longer, or recovery may even take place after a tedious illness; and the signs of inflammation in the alimentary canal are succeeded or become accompanied, about the second or fourth day or later, by symptoms of irritation in the other mucous passages, and more particularly by symptoms indicating a derangement of the nervous system, such as palsy or epilepsy. The distinctions now laid down will be found in practice to be well defined, and useful for estimating in criminal cases the weight of the evidence from symptoms.

1. In one order of cases, then, arsenic produces symptoms of irritation or inflammation along the course of the alimentary canal. Such cases are the most frequent of all. The person commonly survives twenty-four hours, seldom more than three days; but instances of the kind have sometimes proved fatal in a few hours, and others have lasted for weeks. On the whole, however, if the case is much shorter than twenty-four hours, or longer than three days, its complexion is apt to be altered. In the mildest examples of the present variety recovery takes place after a few attacks of vomiting, and slight general indisposition for a day or two.

In regard to the ordinary progress of the symptoms, the first of a decisive character are sickness and faintness. It is generally thought indeed that the first symptom is an acrid taste; but this notion has been already shown to be erroneous. For some account of the sensations felt in the act of swallowing the poison, the reader may refer to what has been stated in p. 200. There is no doubt, that in the way in which arsenic is usually given with a criminal intent, namely, mixed with articles of food, it seldom makes any impression at all upon the senses during the act of swallowing.

In some instances the sickness and faintness, particularly when the poison was taken in solution, have begun a few minutes after it was swallowed. Thus in a case mentioned by Bernt, in which a solution of arseniate of potass was taken, the symptoms began violently in fifteen minutes;[602] in one related by Wildberg, where the oxide was given in coffee, the person was affected immediately on taking the second cup;[603] in one related by Mr. Edwards, the patient was taken ill in eight minutes,[604] in one mentioned by M. Lachèse of Angers, violent symptoms commenced within ten minutes after the poison was swallowed with prunes;[605] in a case communicated to me by Mr. J. H. Stallard of Leicester, the symptoms set in with violence ten minutes after it was taken dissolved in tea; nay, in a case of poisoning with orpiment in soup, mentioned by Valentini, the man felt unwell before he had finished his soup, and set it aside as disagreeable.[606] It is a mistake therefore to suppose, as I have known some do, that arsenic never begins to operate for at least half an hour. Nevertheless it must be admitted, that in general arsenic does not act for half an hour after it is swallowed.—On the other hand, its operation is seldom delayed beyond an hour. The following, however, are exceptions to this rule. Lachèse in the paper quoted above mentions an instance where the interval was two hours, and where the issue was eventually fatal. The arsenic had been in very coarse powder. Mr. Macaulay of Leicester has communicated to me a case where the individual took the poison at eight in the evening, went to bed at half-past nine, and slept till eleven, when he awoke with slight pain in the stomach, vomiting, and cold sweats. In this instance the dose was seven drachms, and death took place in nine hours. M. Devergie has related a similar case of poisoning with the sulphuret, where the symptoms did not begin for three hours; and here too the patient fell asleep immediately after swallowing the poison.[607] Professor Orfila has noticed an instance, to be quoted afterwards, where there appears to have been scarcely any symptom at all for five hours[608] (p. 243). I suspect we must also consider as an instance of the same kind the case which gave occasion to the trial of Mrs. Smith here in 1827. A white draught was administered in a suspicious manner at ten in the evening; the girl immediately went to bed; and no symptoms appeared till six next morning, from which time her illness went on uninterruptedly.[609] In three of the preceding cases it will be remarked that sleep intervened between the taking of the poison and the invasion of the symptoms; and it is therefore not improbable that the reason of the retardation is the comparative inactivity of the animal system during sleep.—In voluntary poisoning, as in a case related by Dr. Roget, a slight attack of sickness or vomiting occasionally ensues immediately after solid arsenic is swallowed, and some time before the symptoms commence regularly.[610]

The observations now made will often prove important for deciding accusations of poisoning; for pointed evidence may be derived from the commencement of the symptoms, after a suspected meal, corresponding or not corresponding with the interval which is known to elapse in ascertained cases. The reader will see the effect of such evidence in attaching guilt to the prisoner in the case of Margaret Wishart, which I have detailed elsewhere.[611] In the trial of Mrs. Smith, the want of the correspondence just mentioned contributed greatly to her acquittal; for the symptoms of poisoning did not begin till more than eight hours after the only occasion on which the prisoner was proved to have administered any thing in a suspicious manner. As I was not at the time acquainted with any parallel case except that recorded by Orfila, I hesitated to ascribe the symptoms to the draught; and consequently, as the other medical witnesses felt the same hesitation on the same account, the proof of administration was considered to have failed. I am not sure that I should have now felt the same difficulty. The intervening state of sleep probably affords an explanation of the long interval; and the cases noticed by Mr. Macaulay and M. Devergie are parallel, though the interval in them was certainly not so great.—There is a limit, however, to the possible interval in such cases. It seems impossible that the action of the poison shall be suspended for three entire days. Yet death has been ascribed to arsenic in such circumstances. A child 3½ years old having swallowed eight grains with bread and butter, but being soon made to vomit forcibly by emetics, presented no decided symptom at the time, or for three days more; but on the fourth day difficult breathing ensued, with anxiety of expression, frequency of the pulse, and heat of the skin; and next day death took place. There was no morbid appearance found in the body.[612] I do not know of any parallel instance of death from arsenic, and cannot admit that the poison was the cause of the symptoms and fatal event.

Soon after the sickness begins, or about the same time, the region of the stomach feels painful, the pain being commonly of a burning kind, and much aggravated by pressure. Violent fits of vomiting and retching then speedily ensue, especially when drink is taken. There is often also a sense of dryness, heat, and tightness in the throat, creating an incessant desire for drink; and this affection often precedes the vomiting. Occasionally it is wanting, at other times so severe as to be attended with suffocation and convulsive vomiting at the sight of fluids.[613] Hoarseness and difficulty of speech are commonly combined with it. The matter vomited is greenish or yellowish; but sometimes streaked or mixed with blood, particularly when the case lasts longer than a day.

In no long time after the first illness diarrhœa generally makes its appearance, but not always. In some cases, instead of it, the patient is tormented by frequent, ineffectual calls: in others the great intestines are scarcely affected. About this time the pain in the stomach is excruciating, and is often likened by the sufferer to a fire burning within him. It likewise extends more or less downwards, particularly when the diarrhœa or tenesmus is severe; and the belly is commonly tense and tender, sometimes also swollen, though not frequently,—sometimes even on the contrary drawn in at the navel.[614] When the diarrhœa is severe, the anus is commonly excoriated and affected with burning pain.[615] In such cases the burning pain may extend along the whole course of the alimentary canal from the throat to the anus. Nay at times the mouth and lips are also inflamed, presenting dark specks or blisters.[616]

Sometimes there are likewise present signs of irritation of the lungs and air-passages,—almost always shortness of breath (which, however, is chiefly owing to the tenderness of the belly),—often a sense of tightness across the bottom of the chest, and more rarely decided pain in the same quarter, darting also through the upper part of the chest. Sometimes pneumonia has appeared a prominent affection during life, and been distinctly traced in the dead body.[617]

In many instances, too, the urinary passages are affected, the patient being harassed with frequent, painful and difficult micturition, swelling of the penis, and pain in the region of the bladder, or, if a female, with burning pain of the vagina and excoriation of the labia.[618] Sometimes the irritation of the urinary organs is so great as to be attended with total suppression of urine, as in a case related by Guilbert of Montpellier, in which this symptom continued several days.[619] During the late contentions among chemists, physiologists, and physicians, occasioned by the case of Madame Lafarge, it was alleged by Flandin and Danger that in animals the urine is always suppressed, by Orfila that it is always secreted, by Professor Delafond of the Alfort Veterinary School, that it is never suppressed, but always diminished, and sometimes even to a sixth of the natural quantity.[620] There is, however, no invariable rule in the matter. And in fact, urinary symptoms are seldom present unless the lower bowels are likewise strongly irritated; but are then seldom altogether wanting. They are rarely well marked in cases of the present variety, unless life is prolonged three days or more.

When symptoms of irritation of the alimentary canal have subsisted a few hours, convulsive motions often occur. They commence on the trunk, afterwards extend over the whole body, are seldom violent, and generally consist of nothing else than tremors and twitches. Cramps of the legs and arms, a possible concomitant of every kind of diarrhœa, is peculiarly severe and frequent in that caused by arsenic.

The general system always sympathizes acutely with the local derangement. The pulse commonly becomes very small, feeble and rapid soon after the vomiting sets in; and in no long time it is often imperceptible. This state is naturally attended with great coldness, clammy sweats, and lividity of the feet and hands. Another symptom referrible to the circulation which has been observed, though, very rarely, is palpitation.[621]

The countenance is commonly collapsed from an early period, and almost always expressive of great torture and extreme anxiety or despair; the eyes are red and sparkling; the conjunctiva often so injected as to seem inflamed; the tongue and mouth parched; and the velum and palate sometimes covered with little white ulcers.

Delirium sometimes accompanies the advanced stage, and stupor also is not unfrequent. Coma occasionally precedes death, as in Mr. Stallard’s case (p. 235), in which the symptoms of irritation, at first very violent, gradually gave place in two hours to complete insensibility, proving fatal in two hours more. Very often, however, the patient remains quite sensible to the last. Death in general comes on calmly, but is sometimes preceded by a paroxysm of convulsions.[622] In some cases it takes place quite unexpectedly, as if from sudden deliquium, as in a case mentioned by Dr. Dymock of this city. The patient, a girl who had taken two ounces intentionally, rose from her bed without help two hours and a half afterwards, went to a chair at the fireside, and had scarce sat down when she expired.[623]

Various eruptions have at times been observed, especially in those who survive several days; but they are more frequent in the kind of cases to be considered afterwards, in which life is prolonged for a week or more. The eruptions have been variously described as resembling petechiæ, or measles, or red miliaria, or small-pox. In the case already quoted from Guilbert a copious eruption of miliary vesicles appeared on the fifth day, and for fifteen days afterwards. They were attended with perspiration and abatement of the other symptoms, and followed with desquamation of the cuticle. Another external affection which may be noticed is general swelling of the body. Several cases of this nature have been described by Dr. Schlegel of Meiningen; and in one of them the swelling, particularly round the eyes, appears to have been considerable.[624]

In some cases of the kind now under consideration a short remission or even a total intermission of all the distressing symptoms has been witnessed, particularly when death is retarded till the close of the second or third day.[625] This remission, which is accompanied with dozing stupor, is most generally observed about the beginning of the second day. It is merely temporary, the symptoms speedily returning with equal or increased violence. Sometimes the remission occurs oftener than once, as in a case related in the London Medical and Physical Journal. The patient, a child seven years old, lived thirty-six hours in a state of alternate calm and excitement; and during the state of calm no pulse was to be felt at the wrists.[626]—So far as at present appears a long intermission is impossible.

In cases such as those now described death often occurs about twenty-four hours after the poison is swallowed, and generally before the close of the third day. But on the one hand life has been sometimes prolonged, without the supervention of the symptoms belonging to a different variety of cases, for five or six days,[627] nay perhaps even for several weeks. And, on the other hand, the symptoms of irritation of the alimentary canal are sometimes distinct, although death takes place in a much shorter period than twenty-four hours. Metzger has related a striking case, fatal in six hours, in which the symptoms were acute colic pain, violent vomiting, and profuse diarrhœa;[628] and Wildberg has related a similar case fatal in the same time.[629] Hohnbaum describes another fatal in five hours;[630] and I met with as brief a case in this city in 1843, where all the usual symptoms of irritation in the stomach and bowels were violent. These symptoms were also present at first in Mr. Stallard’s case, which was fatal in four hours; Pyl has recorded one, where all the signs of irritation in the stomach and intestines were present, except vomiting, and which proved fatal in three hours;[631] and Dr. Dymock met here with a similar instance which lasted only two hours and a half.[632] This is one of the shortest undoubted cases of poisoning from arsenic I have hitherto found in authentic records. Dr. Male mentions one, which was fatal in four hours;[633] Wepfer another equally short;[634] Johnston another fatal in three hours and a half;[635] and I shall presently mention others without symptoms of irritation which ended fatally in two, five, or six hours [p. 242].[636] Wibmer has even quoted a case fatal in half an hour; but there seems to have been some doubt whether the poison taken was arsenic.[637]

Such is an account of the symptoms of poisoning by arsenic in their most frequent form. It will of course be understood, that they are liable to a great variety as to violence, as well as their mode of combination in actual cases;—and that they are by no means all present in every instance. The most remarkable and least variable of them all, pain and vomiting, are sometimes wanting. A case, in which pain was not felt in the stomach, even on pressure, although the other symptoms of inflammation were present, has been briefly described in the Medical Repository.[638] A similar case fatal in fourteen hours and a half, where there was much vomiting and some heat in the stomach, but no pain or tenderness, has been related by Dr. E. Gairdner.[639] Another very striking example of this anomalous deficiency has been detailed by Dr. Yellowly. A lad sixteen years old died twenty-one hours after swallowing half an ounce of the white oxide; and the presence of inflammation was denoted all along by sickness, vomiting, purging, and heat in the tongue; yet he never complained of pain, neither did he ever seem to his friends to suffer any. Another anomaly in the case was, that the pulse, contrary to what is usual, was very slow: twelve hours after he took the poison, the pulse was 40, and two hours before death it was so slow as 30.[640] These deviations from the ordinary course of the symptoms are taken notice of merely to put the practitioner on his guard, and prevent the medical jurist from drawing hasty conclusions. Upon the whole, they are rare; and the symptoms of poisoning by arsenic are in general very uniform.

2. The second variety of poisoning with arsenic includes a few cases in which the signs of inflammation are far from violent or even altogether wanting, and in which death ensues in five or six hours or a little more,—at a period too early for inflammation to be always properly developed. The symptoms are then generally obscure, and are referrible chiefly to the mode of action, which is probably the cause of death in most cases,—a powerful debilitating influence on the circulation, or on the nervous system.

These symptoms occasionally amount to absolute narcotism, as in some of the animals on which Sir B. Brodie experimented. Thus, when he injected a solution of the oxide into the stomach of a dog, the pulse was rendered slow and intermitting; the animal became palsied in the hind-legs, lethargic, and in no long time insensible, with dilated pupils; and soon afterwards it was seized with convulsions, amidst which it died, fifty minutes after the poison was administered.[641] In man the symptoms very seldom resembled so closely those of the narcotic poisons. In Mr. Stallard’s case, however, formerly mentioned, the symptoms of irritation which appeared at first speedily gave place to complete insensibility for two hours before death (pp. 235, 238), a similar instance has been related in Henke’s Journal. A young man who got an arsenical solution from an old woman to cure ague, was attacked after taking it with vomiting and loud cries, afterwards with incoherent talking, then fell into a deep sleep, and finally perished in convulsions in five hours.[642]

In some cases of the kind now under consideration, one or two attacks of vomiting occur at the usual interval after the taking of the poison; but it seldom continues. The most uniform and remarkable affection is extreme faintness, amounting at times to deliquium. Occasionally there is some stupor, or rather oppression, and often slight convulsions. Pain in the stomach is generally present; but it is slight, and seldom accompanied with other signs of internal inflammation. Death commonly takes place in a few hours. Yet, even when it is retarded till the beginning of the second day, the faintness and stupor are sometimes more striking features in the case than the symptoms of inflammation in the stomach.

This variety of poisoning has been hitherto observed only under the three following circumstances,—when the dose of poison was large,—when it was in little masses,—or when it was in a state of solution. The mode in which the first and last circumstances operate is evident; they facilitate the absorption of a large quantity of arsenic in a short space of time, so that its remote action begins before local inflammation is fully developed. But it is not easy to see how any such effect can flow from the arsenic being in little masses. It is also to be observed that none of the circumstances here mentioned is invariable in its operation. An instance is related in Rust’s Magazine, of the customary signs of irritation having been produced even by the solution.[643]

On the whole, the present variety of poisoning is rather uncommon, and indeed, although the attention of the profession was pointedly called to it even in the first edition of the present work, its existence does not seem to be so generally known as it ought to be.[644] It may be right therefore to specify the cases which have been published.

In the Medical and Philosophical Journal of New York,[645] is related the case of a druggist, who swallowed an ounce of powdered arsenic at once, and died in eight hours, after two or three fits of vomiting, with slight pain and heat in the stomach.—A similar case has been related by Metzger. A young woman died in a few hours, after suffering from trivial diarrhœa, pain in the stomach and strangury; her death was immediately preceded by slight convulsions and fits of suffocation; and on dissection the stomach and intestines were found quite healthy. Half an ounce of arsenic was found in the stomach.[646]—A third case similar in its particulars to the two preceding was submitted to me for investigation by the sheriff of this county in 1825. The subject, a girl fourteen years of age, took about ninety grains, and died in five hours, having vomited once or twice, complained of some little pain in the belly, and been affected towards the close with great faintness and weakness. The stomach and intestines were healthy.[647]—A fourth case allied to these is succinctly told in the Medical and Physical Journal. The person expired in five hours; and vomiting never occurred, even though emetics were given.[648]—A fifth has been related by M. Gérard of Beauvais. The subject was a man so addicted to drinking, that his daily allowance was a pint of brandy. When first seen, there was so much tranquillity, that doubts were entertained whether arsenic had really been swallowed; but at length he was discovered actually chewing it. This state continued for nearly five hours, when some vomiting ensued: coldness of the extremities and spasmodic flexion of the legs soon followed; and in a few minutes more he expired.[649]—A sixth and very singular case of the same kind has been described by Orfila. The individual having swallowed three drachms at eight in the morning, went about for two hours bidding adieu to his friends and telling what he had done. He was then prevailed on to take emetics and diluents, which caused free, easy vomiting. He suffered very little till one, when he became affected with constricting pain and burning in the stomach, feeble pulse, cold sweats, and cadaverous expression, under which symptoms he died four hours later.[650] Orfila justly designates this case as the most extraordinary instance of poisoning with arsenic that has come under his notice.—A seventh is related by Mr. Holland of Manchester where death took place in the course of eight or nine hours, and the symptoms were at first some vomiting, afterwards little else but faintness, sickness, a sullen expression, and a general appearance which led those around to suppose the individual intoxicated.[651]—Professor Chaussier has described a still more striking case than any yet mentioned. A stout middle-aged man swallowed a large quantity of arsenic in fragments and died in a few hours. He experienced nothing but great feebleness and frequent tendency to fainting. The stomach and intestines were not in the slightest degree affected during life; and no morbid appearance could be discovered in them after death,[652]—A similar instance not less remarkable has been communicated to me by Mr. Macauley of Leicester, where the individual died with narcotic symptoms only within two hours after taking nearly a quarter of a pound of arsenic.—Another fatal in four hours has been described by Mr. Wright, where the symptoms were vomiting under the use of emetics, great exhaustion, feeble hurried pulse, cold sweating, drowsiness and finally stupor. In this case the quantity of arsenic taken was about an ounce.[653]—Another of the same nature is recorded by Morgagni. An old woman stole and ate a cake, which had been poisoned with arsenic for rats. She died in twelve hours, suffering, says Morgagni, rather from excessive prostration of strength than from pain or convulsions.[654]—The following case related by M. Laborde is most remarkable in its circumstances. A young woman was caught in the act of swallowing little fragments of arsenic, and it afterwards appeared that she had been employed most of the day in literally cracking and chewing lumps of it. When the physician first saw her the countenance expressed chagrin and melancholy, but not suffering. After being forced to drink she vomited a good deal, but without uneasiness. Two hours afterwards her countenance was anxious; but she did not make any complaint, and very soon resumed her tranquillity. Five hours after the last portions of the poison were taken she became drowsy, then remained perfectly calm for four hours more, and at length on trying to sit up in bed, complained of slight pain in the stomach, and expired without agony. A clot of blood was found in the stomach.[655]—Dr. Platner of Pavia describes a case, fatal probably in five hours, where the symptoms were a tranquil, melancholic expression, great coldness, paleness of the features, slow languid pulse, retarded respiration, and suppression of urine, but no pain or swelling of the belly, and no diarrhœa till near death, when there was one copious fluid evacuation.[656]—Lastly, Dr. Choulant has related the case of an elderly female who got a thimbleful of arsenic in soup, and died in eleven hours, affected with occasional, easy vomiting, uneasiness, thirst, and undefinable uneasiness in the chest, but without pain of any kind, or any other complaint.[657]

The cases of which an abstract has here been given, will, it is apprehended, be sufficient to correct the erroneous impression of many,—that arsenic, when it proves fatal, always produces violent and well-marked symptoms. It will of course be understood that cases of the present kind pass by insensible shades into those of the first class,—the following, for example, being intermediate between the two. A young man had frequent vomiting and diarrhœa, which were supposed to depend on indigestion merely, as the countenance was calm, without any appearance of suffering, the appetite tolerable, and the abdomen quite free of tenderness. The pulse, however, quickly sunk, the voice failed, and death took place in eleven hours; and on dissection about twenty grains of arsenic were found in the stomach with strong signs of inflammation.[658]—In a case communicated to me by a former pupil, Mr. Adams of Glasgow, that of a woman who died five hours after taking six drachms of arsenic, there was some vomiting not long after she swallowed it; but subsequently she presented no prominent symptoms except a ghastly expression, redness of the eyes, a fluttering pulse and extreme prostration, until within half an hour before death, when the action of an emetic and the stomach-pump was followed by severe burning pain.

3. The third variety of poisoning with arsenic places in a clear point of view its occasional action on the nervous system. This occurs chiefly in persons who, from having taken but a small quantity, or from having vomited soon after, are eventually rescued from destruction; but it has also been met with in some cases where death ensued after a protracted illness.

In such cases the progress of the poisoning may be divided into two stages. The first train of symptoms is exactly that of the first or inflammatory variety, and is commonly developed in a very perfect and violent form. In the second stage the symptoms are referrible to nervous irritation.

These generally come on when the former begin to recede; yet sometimes they make their appearance earlier, while the signs of inflammation in the alimentary canal continue violent; and more rarely both classes of symptoms begin about the same period. The nervous affection varies in different individuals. The most formidable is coma; the slightest, a peculiar, imperfect palsy of the arms or legs, resembling what is occasioned by the poison of lead; and between these extremes have been observed epileptic fits, or tetanus, or an affection resembling hysteria, or mania. As these affections are of much interest, in respect to the evidence of poisoning from symptoms, it may be well to relate in abstract a few characteristic examples of each.

A good example of epilepsy supervening on the ordinary symptoms of inflammation has been minutely related by Dr. Roget. A girl swallowed a drachm of arsenic, and was in consequence attacked violently with the usual symptoms of irritation in the whole alimentary canal. After being ill about twenty-four hours, she experienced several distinct remissions and had some repose, attended with fainting. In twelve hours more she began to improve rapidly; the pain subsided, her strength and spirits returned, and the stomach became capable of retaining liquids. So far this patient laboured under the common effects of arsenic. But a new train of symptoms then gradually approached. Towards the close of the second day she was harassed with frightful dreams, starting from sleep, and tendency to faint; next morning with coldness along the spine, giddiness, and intolerance of light; and on the fourth day with aching of the extremities and tingling of the whole skin. These symptoms continued till the close of the sixth day, when she was suddenly seized with convulsions of the left side, foaming at the mouth, and total insensibility. The convulsions endured two hours, the insensibility throughout the whole night. Next evening she had another and a similar fit. A third, but slighter fit occurred on the morning of the tenth; another next day at noon; and they continued to return occasionally till the nineteenth day. For some time longer she was affected with tightness across the chest and stomach complaints; but she was eventually restored to perfect health.[659]

A characteristic set of similar cases, which occurred in London in 1815, has been related in a treatise on arsenic by Mr. Marshall.[660] They were the subject of investigation on the trial of Eliza Fenning, a maid-servant, who attempted to poison the whole of her master’s family by mixing arsenic with a dumpling, and whose condemnation excited an extraordinary sensation at the time, as many persons believed her to be innocent. Five individuals partook of the poisoned dish, and they were all violently seized with the usual inflammatory symptoms. But farther, one had an epileptic fit on the first day, which returned on the second, and he had besides frequent twitches of the muscles of the trunk, a feeling of numbness in one side, and heat and tingling of the feet and hands. Another had tremors of the right arm and leg on the first day, and several epileptic fits in the course of the night. During the next fifteen days he had a paroxysm every evening about the same hour; which returned after an intermission of eight days, and frequently for several months afterwards.

In the following set of cases the nervous symptoms exhibited a singular combination of delirium, convulsions, tetanus, and coma, such as is frequently met with in paroxysms of hysteria; but the cases are probably not pure examples of poisoning with arsenic, for liver of sulphur was administered as a remedy to a considerable amount. Three servant girls in one of the Hebrides ate a mixture of lard, sugar, and arsenic, which had been laid for destroying rats. The ordinary signs of irritation in the stomach ensued, but on the following morning were greatly mitigated. They were then ordered twelve grains of liver of sulphur every other hour. Soon afterwards the inflammatory symptoms became more severe, the root of the tongue swelled and inflamed, and in the afternoon two of them lost the power of speech and swallowing, and were attacked with locked-jaw and general convulsions. The third had not locked-jaw, but was otherwise similarly, affected. On the morning of the third day one of the two former was found comatose, with continuance of the locked-jaw and occasional return of convulsions; and on being roused by venesection and the cold affusion, she complained of headache and heat in the throat. The sulphuret of potass, which had been discontinued on account of the locked-jaw, was then resumed. On the evening of the fourth day the headache increased, and the patient became delirious and unmanageable. The cold affusion, however, soon restored her again to her senses, and from that time her recovery was progressive. In the other patients the symptoms were similar, but less violent. In these instances the evidence of an injury of the nervous system was decisive; but it may be doubted whether the symptoms were not, in part at least, owing to the sulphuret of potass, which has been already described as an active poison, capable of inducing convulsions and tetanus. Its properties were not generally known in this country at the time the cases in question happened.[661]

Sometimes the convulsions caused by arsenic assume the form of pure tetanus. At least a case of this affection is noticed by Portal.[662] He has given only a mere announcement of it; and I have not hitherto met with a parallel instance in authors.

A common nervous affection in the advanced stage of the more tedious cases of poisoning with arsenic is partial palsy. Palsy in the form of incomplete paraplegia is a very common symptom even of the early stage in animals, and has been also sometimes observed during that stage in man. The paralytic affection, however, is more frequent in the advanced stage; and in those persons who recover, an incomplete paralysis of one or more of the extremities, resembling lead palsy, is often the last symptom which continues.

Dehaen relates a distinct example of this disorder occurring in a female who took a small quantity of arsenic by mistake. The ordinary signs of inflammation were soon subdued, and for three days she did well; but on the fourth she was attacked with cramps, tenderness, and weakness of the feet, legs and arms, increasing gradually till the whole extremities became at length almost completely palsied. At the same time the cuticle desquamated. But the other functions continued entire. The power of motion returned first in the hands, then in the arms, and she eventually recovered; but eleven months passed before she could quit the hospital where Dehaen treated her.[663]

An excellent account of a set of similar cases has been given by Dr. Murray of Aberdeen. They became the subject of judicial inquiry on the trial of George Thom, who was condemned in 1821 at the Aberdeen autumn circuit for poisoning his brother-in-law. Four persons were simultaneously affected about an hour after breakfast with the primary symptoms of poisoning with arsenic, and some in a very violent degree. But besides these symptoms, in all of them the muscular debility was great; and in two it amounted to true partial palsy. One of them lost altogether the power of the left arm, and six months after, when the account of the cases was published, he was unable to bend the arm at the elbow-joint. The other had also great general debility and long-continued numbness and pains of the legs.[664]

An interesting case of the same nature with these was lately submitted to me on the part of the crown. A man after taking arsenic was attacked with vomiting, purging, and other symptoms of abdominal irritation, which were mistaken for dysentery. Five days afterwards he began to suffer also from feebleness of the limbs; amounting almost to palsy. Subsequently an improvement slowly took place; but he continued to suffer under irritative fever, diarrhœa, and faintness. Several weeks later the diarrhœa abated, but he had great stiffness, numbness, and loss of power in the joints of the hands and feet. Two months after he first took ill, and while he was slowly recovering from this paralytic affection, arsenic was again administered and proved fatal in eighteen hours.

Another, somewhat similar to the preceding, has been related by M. Lachèse of Angers. Two people took about half a grain in soup twice a day for two days, and were attacked with the usual primary symptoms. One of them died in ten weeks, gradually worn out, but without any particular nervous affection. The other was seized with convulsions, and afterwards with almost complete palsy of the limbs.[665]—A well-marked case of the same nature has been noticed by Professor Bernt. It was the case formerly alluded to as arising from an over-dose of the arseniate of potass. The paralytic affection consisted in the loss of sensation and of the power of motion in the hands, and of the loss of motion in the feet, with contraction of the knee-joints. The issue of the case is not mentioned.[666]—Dr. Falconer observes in his essay on Palsy, that he had repeatedly witnessed local palsy after poisoning with arsenic, and alludes to one instance in which the hands only were paralysed, and to two others in which the palsy spread gradually from the fingers upwards till the whole arms were affected.[667]—On the whole, then, local palsy is the most frequent of the secondary effects of arsenic.

It is sometimes very obstinate, as the cases related by Dehaen and Murray will show. But it even appears to be sometimes incurable. For in the German Ephemerides there is related the case of a cook, who after suffering from the usual inflammatory symptoms, was attacked with perfect palsy of the limbs, and had not any use of them during the rest of her life, which was not a short one.[668]

Occasionally, instead of being palsied, the limbs are rigidly bent and cannot be extended.[669] They were contracted, as well as palsied in the case noticed by Bernt.

The last nervous affection to be mentioned is mania. The only instance I have hitherto found of that disease arising from arsenic is related by Amatus Lusitanus. He has not recorded the particulars of the case, but merely observes that the individual became so outrageously mad as to burst his fetters and jump out of the window of his apartment.[670] According to Zacchias, Amatus was not very scrupulous in his adherence to fact in recording cases.

The preceding remarks contain all that is known with certainty of the effect of arsenic on man when it is swallowed. Independently of the obvious nervous disorders which succeed the acute symptoms, other morbid affections of a more obscure character and chronic in their nature have been sometimes observed or supposed to arise from this poison.—Among these the most unequivocal is dyspepsia. Irritability of the stomach, attended with constant vomiting of food, has been occasionally noticed for a long time after. Wepfer has described two cases in which the primary symptoms were followed, in one by dyspepsia of three years’ standing, in the other by emaciation and an anomalous fever, which ended fatally in three years.[671]—Hahnemann farther adds, that in the advanced stage the hair sometimes drops out, and the cuticle desquamates, accompanied occasionally with great tenderness of the skin;[672] and Wibmer mentions a case of the kind, where not the cuticle and hair only, but likewise even the nails, fell off.[673] Desquamation of the cuticle and dropping of the nails are at times produced by the continued use of arsenic in medicinal doses.—Other effects have likewise been ascribed to its employment medicinally. Thus passing over what was stated by its opponents at the time when its introduction into the materia medica was made the subject of controversy over Europe, Broussais maintained that it causes chronic inflammation of the stomach or intestines;[674] and Dr. Astbury inferred, from an instance which fell under his notice, that it may bring on dropsy.[675] Neither of these ideas is supported by the general experience of the profession; and although some persons even of late have alleged that those, who take it medicinally to any material amount, invariably die soon after of some chronic disease,[676] there cannot be a doubt, that, under proper restriction, it is both an effectual and a safe remedy.—A case where salivation, with fetor and superficial ulceration of the gums, seemed to have been produced by arsenic, was lately published in an English Journal.[677]

In the present place may also be considered the supposed effects of the celebrated _Aqua Toffana_ or _Acquetta di Napoli_, a slow poison, which in the sixteenth century, was believed to possess the property of causing death at any determinate period, after months for example, or even years, of ill health, according to the will of the poisoner.

The most authentic description of the aqua Toffana ascribes its properties to arsenic. According to a letter addressed to Hoffman by Garelli, physician to Charles the Sixth of Austria, that Emperor told Garelli, that, being governor of Naples at the time the aqua Toffana was the dread of every noble family in the city, and when the subject was investigated legally, he had an opportunity of examining all the documents,—and that he found the poison was a solution of arsenic in _aqua cymbalariæ_.[678] The dose was said to be from four to six drops. It was colourless, transparent, and tasteless, like water.

Its alleged effects are thus eloquently described by Behrends, a writer in Uden and Pyl’s Magazin. “A certain indescribable change is felt in the whole body, which leads the person to complain to his physician. The physician examines and reflects, but finds no symptom, either external or internal,—no constipation, no vomiting, no inflammation, no fever. In short, he can advise only patience, strict regimen, and laxatives. The malady, however, creeps on; and the physician is again sent for. Still he cannot detect any symptom of note. He infers that there is some stagnation or corruption of the humours, and again advises laxatives. Meanwhile the poison takes firmer hold of the system; languor, wearisomeness and loathing of food continue; the nobler organs gradually become torpid, and the lungs in particular at length begin to suffer. In a word, the malady is from the first incurable; the unhappy victim pines away insensibly, even in the hands of his physician; and thus is he brought to a miserable end through months or years, according to his enemy’s desire.”[679] An equally vigorous and somewhat clearer account of the symptoms is given by Hahnemann. “They are,” says he, “a gradual sinking of the powers of life, without any violent symptom,—a nameless feeling of illness, failure of the strength, slight feverishness, want of sleep, lividity of the countenance, and an aversion to food and drink and all the other enjoyments of life. Dropsy closes the scene, along with black miliary eruptions, and convulsions, or colliquative perspiration and purging.”[680]

Whatever were its real effects, there appears no doubt it was long used secretly in Italy to a fearful extent, the monster who has given her name to it having confessed that she was instrumental in the death of no less than six hundred persons. It has been already stated, however [p. 40], that she owed her success rather to the ignorance of the age than to her own dexterity. At all events, the art of secret poisoning cannot now be easily practised. Indeed even the vulgar dread of it is almost extinct. Partly on account of the improvement in general knowledge and chiefly in consequence of the subtility and precision, which the refinement of modern physic and chemistry have introduced into medico-legal inquiries, it is rare that the suspicious scrutiny of the world now “recognizes in the accounts of the last illness of popes and princes the effects of poison insidiously introduced into the body.”[681]

I may add in conclusion, that I was consulted a few years ago on the part of the crown in a case which considerably resembled the effects ascribed in former times to the aqua Toffana, except that it was more acute in its character and swifter in its progress. As this case will probably be found to represent pretty nearly the usual effects of moderate doses frequently repeated, it is here given in some detail.

A woman of indifferent character married a young man in circumstances which led to a breach between him and his relatives; but the pair appeared to live on good terms with one another. Eighteen months after the marriage she was attacked with sickness and faintness; and on the fourth day of this illness, while she was recovering, the symptoms unexpectedly increased, and she seemed very unwell. On the fifth day she became extremely weak, and suffered much from yellow vomiting. On the seventh, when she was first visited by a medical man, she had frequent vomiting, burning in the stomach, a yellow tongue, flushed countenance, hot skin, and hurried pulse. On the ninth the throat was sore and red, and the expression anxious; and next day the soreness was greater, affected the nose and mouth also, and was attended with excoriation of the lips and nostrils, swelling of the glands of the throat, dimness of sight, and great exhaustion. On the eleventh day, while previously again getting better, she became much worse, and suffered greatly from excessive vomiting, pain in the stomach, and an increase of the other symptoms. On the thirteenth she was very hoarse, and despaired of recovery. Next day she was occasionally incoherent, and had twitches of the facial muscles; the hands and face were swelled, the eyelids dingy, the conjunctivæ injected, and the nails blue. On the morning of the fifteenth there was for two hours violent delirium and fierce maniacal excitement, which were succeeded by coma, and this by death in the course of the evening. There was no diarrhœa, or urinary complaint, and no paralysis or eruption on the skin. A variety of circumstances of a general nature, which it would be out of place to enumerate here,—the detection of arsenic in various articles of which the woman had partaken, and in which the arsenic had been dissolved sometimes simply, sometimes with the aid of an alkali,—together with the fact, that the body five months after death was found preserved from decay, as it is now well known to be in most cases of arsenical poisoning,—left little doubt that the woman died of the effects of arsenic taken in several small doses at distant intervals, although none could be detected in the stomach or intestines. The case did not go to trial, owing to the death of an essential witness.

The effects of arsenic on man, when introduced into the living body through other channels besides the stomach, will now require some observations. It is necessary for the medical jurist to be well acquainted with them, because there is hardly an accessible part of the human body to which this poison has not been applied either accidentally or by design. When some account was given of its comparative action on the different tissues of animals, it was observed that arsenic acts when applied to a wound or ulcer, to the peritonæal membrane, to the eye, and to the vagina. On man it has been known to act through an ulcer or wound, the inner membrane of the rectum, the membrane of the vagina, the membrane of the air-tubes, the membrane of the nose, and even the sound skin.

Many persons have been poisoned by the application of arsenic to surfaces deprived of the cuticle, such as blistered surfaces, eruptions, ulcers, or wounds. When applied in this manner it commonly induces both local inflammation and constitutional symptoms. Amatus Lusitanus relates the case of a young man, who, against the advice of his physician, anointed an itchy eruption of the skin with an arsenical ointment, and next day was found dead in bed.[682] A similar case, not so rapidly fatal, has been recorded by Wepfer. A girl, affected with psoriasis of the scalp, had it rubbed with a liniment of butter and arsenic. In a short time she was seized with acute pain and swelling of the whole head, fainting-fits, restlessness, fever, delirium, and she died in six days.[683] Zitmann has noticed the cases of two children, eight and ten years of age, who were killed by the application of an arsenical solution to a similar eruption of the head.[684] And Belloc relates the case of a woman who, trying to cure an inveterate itch with an arsenical lotion, was attacked in consequence with severe erysipelas of the whole body, succeeded by tremors and gradual exhaustion of the vital powers, ending fatally in two years.[685] M. Errard of Injurieux in France lately met with two cases, where, in consequence of a freshly blistered surface being dressed with a cerate made with the stearine of arsenicated candles (see p. 256), local pain, nausea, pain in the stomach, urgent thirst, redness of the tongue, involuntary contractions of the muscles of the extremities, and weakness and irregularity of the pulse came on; and one person died within twenty-four hours, while the other recovered, chiefly because the dressing caused so much pain that the patient could not keep it on long.[686]

Next as to ulcers; M. Roux has noticed the case of a girl, who was killed by the application of the arsenical paste to an ulcer of the breast, and in whom the constitutional symptoms were strongly marked, although the quantity of the poison must have been very small. The preparation used, which contains only a twenty-fourth of its weight of arsenic, was applied for a single night on a surface not exceeding an inch and a half in diameter. Yet she complained next day of violent colic and vomited frequently, the countenance soon became collapsed, and she died two days afterwards in great anguish.[687] Another instance of the like kind is related in the Annales d’Hygiène, where death arose from an arsenical ointment ignorantly applied for scirrhous breast over a large surface of the skin stripped of the cuticle by a blister. The particular symptoms and their duration are not stated; but there was violent irritation of the stomach.[688] Another fatal case, related by Dr. Küchler, arose from the application of Frêre Cosme’s powder to a soft fungoid tumour on the temple, which discharged serum usually and blood upon slight pressure. About a drachm and a half of arsenic mixed with fifteen grains of other powders was applied. Severe inflammation spread round the tumour next day; and soon afterwards, the patient was attacked with great difficulty of breathing, thirst, pains in the belly, and purging, then with difficulty in swallowing from swelling of the base of the tongue, delirium, cold sweating, and extreme debility; and death ensued in four days.[689]

There is a singular uncertainty in the effects of arsenic when applied to ulcerated surfaces. Some persons, like Roux’s patient, are obviously affected by a single application; while others have had it applied for a long time without experiencing any other consequences than the formation of an eschar at the part. Two causes have been assigned for these differences, and probably both are founded on fact. One, which has been assigned by Mr. Blackadder, is the relative quantity of arsenic applied. He says he never witnessed but one instance of its acting constitutionally, although he often applied it to sores; and he imputes this success to his having always used a large quantity. For he considers that by so doing the organization of the part is quickly destroyed, and absorption prevented,—but that if the quantity be small, as in the mode practised by Roux, it will cause little local injury and readily enter the absorbing vessels.[690] Another unequivocal cause is pointed out by Harles in his treatise on arsenic. While treating of its therapeutic properties, and noticing the controversy that prevailed last century throughout Europe respecting the propriety of its outward application, he remarks that it may be applied with safety to the abraded skin, to common ulcers, to wounded surfaces, and to malignant glandular ulcers, even when highly irritable, provided the part be not recently wounded, so as to pour out blood.[691] The reason of this is obvious; the application of the poison to open-mouthed vessels is the next thing to its direct introduction into a vein. It is some confirmation of Harles’s opinion, that Roux, whose patient was so easily affected, recommends that before arsenic is applied to an ulcer, a fresh surface be made by paring away the granulations; and that Küchler’s patient had an ulcer which did not discharge pus, but serum, and was easily made to bleed.

In the cases related above it will be remarked that the symptoms vary in their nature. Sometimes the chief disorder is inflammation, spreading over and around the eruption or ulcer, sometimes inflammation of the alimentary canal, sometimes an affection of the nervous system. In general the sufferings of the patient both from the local inflammation and constitutional symptoms are very severe. But this rule has its exceptions. In Pyl’s Memoirs there is the history of a child who died four days after an itchy eruption of the whole body had been washed with an arsenical solution, and signs of vivid inflammation were found after death in many parts; yet she appears to have complained only of headache.[692] Occasionally too, without exciting either inflammation of the part, or disorder of the stomach, or a general injury of the nervous system, it seems to give rise to partial palsy of the muscles adjoining the seat of its application. An extraordinary case is noticed in an American Journal, in which the prolonged use of an arsenical preparation for destroying a tumour on the right side of the neck, was followed by complete palsy of the muscles of the neck and arm of that side.

In the next place, poisoning has been perpetrated by introducing arsenic into the fundament with an injection.[693] Foderé has noticed a case of this kind, which happened in France, and was communicated to him by a physician of Thoulouse. A lady under medical treatment for some trifling illness, died unexpectedly under symptoms of poisoning; and it was discovered that her servant, after unsuccessfully attempting to despatch her by dissolving arsenic in her soup, had ultimately succeeded by administering it repeatedly in injections.[694] There is no doubt that by this mode all the usual effects of arsenic may be induced; and on account of the facility with which the colon and rectum may be evacuated, it is not likely that the poison will be found in the gut after death, if the individual did not die in a few hours after its administration.

In the third place, women have also died of poisoning by arsenic introduced into the vagina. Two examples of this revolting crime are on record. One of them occurred in 1799, in the Department of the Ourthe in France. A middle-aged female was seized with vomiting, diarrhœa, swelling of the genitals and uterine discharge; and she expired not long after. Before her death she told two of her neighbours, that her husband had some time before tried to poison her by putting arsenic in her coffee, and had at length succeeded by introducing a powder into her vagina while in the act of enjoying his nuptial rights. The vulva and vagina were gangrenous, the belly distended with gases, and the intestines inflamed.[695]

The other case, which happened in Finland in 1786, gave rise to an excellent dissertation on the subject by Dr. Mangor, at that time medical inspector for Copenhagen. A farmer near Copenhagen lost his wife suddenly under suspicious circumstances, and six weeks afterwards married his maid-servant. In a few years he transferred his affections to another maid-servant, with whose aid he endeavoured to poison his second wife. For some time his attempts proved abortive; till at last one morning, after coïtion, he introduced a mixture of arsenic and flour on the point of his finger into the vagina. She took ill at mid-day and expired next morning; and the murderer soon after married his guilty paramour. But a few years had not elapsed before he got tired of her also; and one morning, after the conjugal embrace, he administered arsenic to her in the same way as to her predecessor. About three in the afternoon, while enjoying good health, she was suddenly seized with shivering and heat in the vagina. The remembrance of her former wickedness soon awoke the suspicions of the unhappy woman, and she wrung from her husband a confession of his crime. Means were resorted to for saving her life, but in vain: She was attacked with acute pain in her stomach and incessant vomiting, then became delirious, and died in twenty-one hours. After death grains of arsenic were found in the vagina, although frequent lotions had been used in the treatment. The labia were swollen and red, the vagina gaping and flaccid, the os uteri gangrenous, the duodenum inflamed, the stomach natural. In the course of the judicial proceedings which arose out of these two cases, Dr. Mangor made experiments on mares, with the view of settling the doubts which were entertained as to the likelihood of arsenic proving fatal in the manner alleged; and the results clearly showed that, when applied to the vagina of these animals, it produces violent local inflammation and fatal constitutional derangement.[696]

In the fourth place, poisoning by arsenic through the bronchial membrane or membrane of the air-passages is a comparatively rare accident, which can take place only in consequence of arsenical gases or vapours being incautiously breathed. The effects of oxide of arsenic when introduced in this way are described from personal experience by Otto Tachenius, a chemist of the sixteenth century.

“Once,” said he, “when I happened to breathe incautiously the fumes of arsenic, I was surprised to find my palate impressed with a sweet, mild, grateful taste, such as I never experienced before. But in half an hour I was attacked with pain and tightness in the stomach, then with general convulsions, difficult breathing, an unspeakable sense of heat, bloody and painful micturition, and finally with such an acute colic as contracted my whole body for half an hour.” By the use of oleaginous drinks he recovered from these alarming symptoms; but during all the succeeding winter he had a low hectic fever.[697]

Balthazar Timæus relates a similar case which came under his notice. An apothecary of Colberg, while subliming arsenic, had not been careful enough to avoid the fumes; and was soon after seized with frequent fainting, tightness in the præcordia, difficult breathing, inextinguishable thirst, parched throat, great restlessness, watching, and pains in the feet. He had afterwards profuse daily perspiration and palsy of the legs; and several months elapsed before he got entirely well.[698] The same author says that the famous Paracelsus, being one day put out of temper by an acquaintance, made him hold his nose over an alembic in which arsenic was subliming; and that the object of this severe joke nearly lost his life in consequence. Wibmer quotes the heads of several cases where swelling of the tongue, headache and giddiness, nausea, and an oppressive sense of constriction in the throat, were occasioned by the incautious inhalation of arsenical fumes.[699] The following extraordinary case, closely allied to malignant cholera in its early stage, has been ascribed by the reporter Dr. Welper of Berlin to the inspiration of arsenical fumes,—with what probability I am not prepared to say. A stout healthy man, who in the forenoon had freely and for some time exposed himself to the steam from a vessel where he was boiling several ounces of orpiment in water, was attacked at night with sickness, and next morning with extreme weakness and some difficulty of breathing. These symptoms were greatly relieved by an emetic. But towards evening the extremities became ice-cold and very stiff, the breathing much oppressed, the pulse very hurried, and imperceptible except in the neck, the mouth and throat dry, and the tongue rigid; but the mind remained clear, though anxious and afraid of impending dissolution. His state of collapse was removed in twelve hours by fomentations, and in no long time he recovered entirely except from the dyspnœa, which continued more or less till a few years afterwards, when he died of hydrothorax.[700]

The slighter effects of arsenic are said to have been repeatedly observed of late in this country from inhaling the products of the combustion of arsenicated candles,—an article of recent invention, in which arsenic, to the extent of three or four grains and a half in each candle, is introduced for the purpose of hardening the stearine chiefly used in manufacturing them. It is unnecessary to say, that such candles are prejudicial and ought to be prohibited. In a set of experiments made to try their effects by Messrs. Everitt, Bird, and Phillips in 1838, birds were killed in no long time, and small quadrupeds were severely affected, when kept in an apartment lighted with them.[701]

Analogous to the effects of inhaling oxide of arsenic are those lately observed from the incautious inhalation of arseniuretted-hydrogen gas. Gehlen the chemist died of this accident, but no particular account has been published of the symptoms he suffered. Two cases, however, have been detailed within a few years. In one of these, which has been related by Dr. Schlinder, of Greifenberg, the individual inhaled in forty minutes about half a cubic inch of the gas, which is equivalent to about an eighth of a grain of arsenic. In three hours he became affected with giddiness, and soon afterwards with an uneasy sense of pressure in the region of the kidney, passing gradually into acute pain there and upwards along the back. General shivering ensued, with coldness of the extremities, and gouty-like pains in the knees, shoulders, and elbows. The hands and lower half of the fore-arms, the feet and legs nearly to the knees, the nose and region of the eyebrows, felt as if quite dead, but without any diminution of muscular power. There was also acute pain in the stomach and belly generally, painful eructation of gas, and occasional vomiting of bitter, greenish-yellow mucus. The most tormenting symptom, however, was the pain in the kidneys, which soon became attended with constant desire to pass water, and the discharge of deep reddish-brown urine, mixed with clots of blood. The whole expression of the countenance was altered, the skin becoming dark brown, and the eyeballs sunk, yellow, and surrounded by a broad livid ring. Warm drink brought out a copious sweat and removed the sense of numbness; but next day there was little change otherwise in the symptoms, except that the urine was no longer mixed with clots, and that the hair on the benumbed parts had become white. On the third day the pains had abated, and the urine became clear; but there was hiccup, an excited state of the mind, and a feeling as if a great stone lay in the lower belly. In seven days he was much better. In the third week the whole glans and prepuce became covered with little pustules which were followed by small ulcers. It was not till the close of the seventh week that he recovered completely.[702] Dr. O’Reilly has related the following case, which arose from the inhalation of hydrogen gas impregnated with arseniuretted-hydrogen in consequence of the sulphuric acid used for dissolving zinc having contained arsenic. Mr. Brittan, a Dublin chemist, wishing to ascertain the effects of hydrogen on the body, proceeded to inhale 150 cubic inches of it. Immediately after the second inhalation, he was seized with confusion, faintness, giddiness and shivering, and passed a stool, as well as two ounces of bloody urine, but without any pain. Pain in the limbs followed, and in two hours frequent vomiting and dull pain in the stomach. The pulse at this time was 90, the skin cold, and the voice feeble. Ammonia, laudanum, and emollient clysters gave him little relief. During the subsequent night there was frequent vomiting and no urine; the face became copper-coloured, and the rest of the body greenish; there was tenderness of the epigastrium and hiccup; but he was free of fever. On the third day there was diarrhœa and still no urine; but the jaundice had disappeared. On the fourth the breath was ammoniacal, and somnolency had set in. On the fifth the skin became again deeply jaundiced, and the face was œdematous; no urine had yet been discharged, and the bladder, examined with the catheter, was found empty. On the evening of the seventh day he expired. On examination of the body, two pints of red serum were found in the pleural cavities; the lungs were sound, the heart pale and flaccid, the liver indigo-blue, the gall-bladder distended with bile, the kidneys also indigo-blue, the stomach empty, and its villous coat brittle, with here and there inflamed-like spots on it, the bladder empty, the brain bloodless, the cellular tissue generally anasarcous. Arsenic was detected in the pleural serum. By an approximate calculation it was supposed that the hydrogen this gentleman inhaled had contained the equivalent arsenic of twelve grains of the oxide.[703]

It would appear that arsenic acts with great rapidity and force when respired in any form.

Poisoning through the lining membrane of the nostrils is a still rarer accident than that last mentioned. There is a distinct example of it in the German Ephemerides, which arose from an arsenical solution having been used by mistake as a lotion for a chronic discharge from the nostrils. The individual was attacked with a profuse discharge from the nostrils, and then with stupor approaching to coma. Weakness of sight and of memory continued after sensibility returned; and he died two years afterwards, death having been preceded for some time by convulsions.[704]

Arsenic when applied to the sound skin of animals does not easily affect them. The experiments of Jaeger formerly noticed prove that no effect is produced, if the poison is simply placed in contact with the skin. Nay even when rubbed into it with fatty matters it does not operate with energy; for in that case, according to the experiments of Renault, it causes sometimes a pustular eruption, sometimes an eschar, but never any constitutional disorder.[705] It is more energetic, however, when applied to the more delicate skin of the human subject. Some experiments were made by Mr. Sherwen on himself with the view of proving this;[706] but they are not satisfactory. The following facts, however, will show that it may produce through the sound skin all the ordinary signs of poisoning. Desgranges, a good authority, relates the case of a woman who anointed her head with an arsenical ointment to kill lice, and, after using it several days, was attacked with erysipelas of the head and face, attended with ulceration of the scalp, swelling of the salivary and cervical glands, and inflammation of the eyes. There were likewise violent constitutional symptoms,—much fever, fainting, giddiness, vomiting and pain in the stomach, tenesmus, and ardor urinæ, tremors of the limbs, and even occasional delirium. Afterwards the whole body became covered with an eruption of white papulæ, which dried and dropt off in forty-eight hours. She recovered gradually; but appears to have made a narrow escape. Her hair fell out during convalescence.[707] A similar instance is recorded in the Acta Germanica for 1730. A schoolboy having found in the street a parcel of arsenic, his mother mistook it for hair powder; and as he had to deliver a valedictory speech at school next day, she advised him to powder himself well with it in the morning. This he accordingly did. In the middle of his speech he was attacked with acute pain of the face; and a fertile crop of pustules soon broke out upon it. The head afterwards swelled much, and the pustules spread all around it; he was tormented with intolerable heat in the scalp; and the hair became matted with the discharge into a thick scabby crust. This crust separated in a few weeks, and he soon recovered completely.[708] Schulze, a German physician, has related no fewer than five cases of the same description, all arising from arsenic having been mistaken for hair powder; and one of them proved fatal. Two of the cases were slight. The other persons had the same violent inflammation of the head as Desgranges’s patient and the German schoolboy. In the fatal case death took place in twenty-one days; and on dissection, besides other morbid appearances, the scalp was found gangrenous and infiltered with fluid blood, and the stomach much inflamed.[709] The two survivors, who were severely ill, it is well to add, were not attacked with the erysipelas of the scalp till six days after they powdered themselves. Sproegel mentions a fatal case from fly-powder having been applied in like manner to the head; and Wibmer quotes another, but not fatal, where from the same cause great swelling of the head and face arose, followed by erysipelas of the face, neck, and belly, and a papular eruption on the hands which continued five days.[710]

From the statements now made, it is evident that arsenic applied to various parts of the external surface and natural apertures of the body, will prove poisonous, and will often act with a certainty and rapidity not surpassed by its effects when taken internally. Many of the cases furnish a striking confirmation of a circumstance formerly noticed with respect to its action,—namely, that it produces signs of irritation in the stomach, in whatever manner it is introduced into the body. In some instances, indeed, the signs of inflammation in the stomach were quite as distinct as in the cases previously described, where the poison was taken internally.

The subject of the symptoms caused by arsenic will now be concluded with a few remarks on the strength of the evidence which they supply.

The present doctrine of toxicologists and medical jurists seems generally to be, that symptoms alone can never supply decisive proof of the administration of arsenic. This opinion is certainly quite correct when applied to what may be called a common case of poisoning with arsenic, the symptoms of which are little else than burning pain in the stomach and bowels, vomiting and purging, feeble circulation, excessive debility, and speedy death. All these symptoms may be caused by natural disease, more particularly by cholera; and consequently every sound medical jurist will join in condemning unreservedly the practice which prevailed last century of deciding questions of poisoning in such circumstances from symptoms alone. But modern authors appear to have overstepped the mark, when they hold that the rule against deciding from symptoms does not admit of any exceptions. For there are cases of poisoning with arsenic, not numerous certainly, yet not very uncommon neither, which can hardly be confounded with natural disease; and, what is of some consequence, they are precisely those in which the power of deciding from symptoms alone is most required, because chemical evidence is almost always wanting. Either the peculiar combination of the symptoms is such as cannot arise from natural causes, so far at least as physicians are acquainted with them: or these symptoms occur under collateral circumstances, which put natural causes almost or altogether out of the question.

Thus, let the medical jurist consider in the first place, the symptoms occasionally observed in those who survive five, six or ten days; let him exclude for the present the secondary nervous affections; and instead of a compounded description, which may be objected to as apt to convey a false and exaggerated idea of the facts, let him take an actual example. In a paper by Dr. Bachmann on some cases of poisoning with arsenic, there is a minute account of the case of a lady who was poisoned by her maid with fly-powder and white arsenic, and whose symptoms were those of universal inflammation of the mucous membranes. After suffering two days from retching and vomiting, colic pains and purging, these symptoms suddenly became more violent, and attended with oppressed breathing and hoarseness so that she could hardly make herself be heard,—with vesicles on the palate, burning pain in the throat, and excessive difficulty in swallowing,—with spasm and pain of the bladder in passing water,—and with extreme feebleness of the pulse. Three days afterwards the symptoms increased still more. She complained of intolerable burning and spasms of the throat, which, as well as the mouth, was excessively inflamed,—of violent burning pain in the stomach and bowels,—of burning in the fundament and genitals, both of which were inflamed even to gangrene,—of indescribable anxiety and anguish about the heart; and she died the following day, death being preceded by subsultus, delirium, and insensibility.[711] Or take the case in the trial of Miss Blandy. On two successive evenings, immediately after taking some gruel which had been prepared by the prisoner, Mr. Blandy was attacked with pricking and burning of the tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with vomiting and purging. Five days after, when the symptoms were fully formed, he had inflamed pimples round the lips, and a sense of burning in the mouth; the nostrils were similarly affected; the eyes were bloodshot and affected with burning pain; the tongue was swollen, the throat red and excoriated, and in both there was a tormenting sense of burning; he had likewise swelling, with pricking and burning pain of the belly; excoriations and ulcers around the anus and intolerable burning there; vomiting and bloody diarrhœa; a low, tremulous pulse, laborious respiration, and great difficulty in speaking and swallowing. In this state he lingered several days, death supervening nine days after the first suspected basin of gruel was taken.[712] Can the symptoms, in these two cases, attacking, as they did, at one and the same time, the whole mucous membranes, be imitated by any natural combination of symptoms? Viewing the endless variety and wonderful complexity of the phenomena of disease, the practitioner will probably, and with justice, reply that a natural combination of the kind is possible. But if his attention is confined, as in strictures it ought to real occurrences,—if he is required to speak only from actual experience, personal or derived, it is exceedingly questionable whether any one could say he had ever seen or read of such a case. At all events, if a medical witness had to give his opinion from symptoms only in such a case as that of Mr. Blandy, or that described by Bachmann, he would certainly be justified in declaring that poisoning was highly probable; and, admitting general poisoning to be proved, he would, it is likely, fix on arsenic as the substance which could most easily produce the effects.

Let him next, however, take also into consideration the nervous affections that sometimes either immediately follow the inflammation of the mucous membranes, or become united with it when it has existed a few days; and confining his attention still to actual occurrences, let him reflect on the symptoms in Dr. Roget’s case, in which there was first violent inflammation of the whole alimentary canal, and then regular and obstinate epilepsy (p. 245), or on those in Dehaen’s patient, in whom the nervous disorder was partial palsy (p. 247). On reconsidering these narratives, still greater reason will appear for doubting whether such a combination of simultaneous, and in the present instance also consecutive symptoms, ever arise from natural causes. It is difficult to conceive a fortuitous concurrence of natural diseases producing at the same moment that variety and complexity of disorder which occur in the primary stage of the cases alluded to; and it would surely be a still more extraordinary combination which should farther add the supervention of epilepsy or partial palsy from a natural cause, at the exact period at which it appears as the secondary stage of poisoning with arsenic. All that any practitioner could say is, that a concurrence of the kind is within the bounds of possibility. He must be compelled to admit that it is in the highest degree improbable, and likewise that it could hardly take place from natural causes without the real causes of the symptoms being clearly indicated.

But to conclude, there are likewise collateral circumstances connected with the symptoms, which, taken along with the symptoms themselves, will sometimes place the fact of poisoning with arsenic beyond the reach of a doubt. Thus, if a person were taken several times ill with symptoms of general inflammation of the mucous membranes, after partaking each time of a suspected article of food or drink, the proof of the administration of arsenic would be very strong indeed; and it would be unimpeachable if at length a nervous affection succeeded at the usual period. Or above all, suppose several persons, who have partaken of the same dish, are seized about the same time with nearly the same symptoms of irritation of the mucous membranes. The proof of general poisoning would then be unequivocal. And if one or more of them should afterwards suffer from a nervous disorder, little hesitation ought to be felt in declaring that arsenic is the only poison which could have caused their complaints.

These views are of more practical consequence than may at first sight be thought. The doctrine which has been here espoused might have been applied to decide two criminal cases which at the time made a great noise in this country. One was the case of Eliza Fenning (p. 245). Here five persons were simultaneously attacked with symptoms, more or less violent, of inflammation of the whole alimentary canal; and in two of them epileptic convulsions appeared before the inflammatory symptoms departed. The other was the case of George Thom (p. 247). Here four persons were at one and the same time seized with the primary symptoms in an aggravated form; and in two of them, as these symptoms abated, obstinate partial palsy came on. On both trials, then, it might have been stated from the symptoms alone that poison had been given, and that arsenic was the only poison hitherto known to be capable of producing such effects.

In applying this doctrine to parallel instances two precautions must be attended to. On the one hand, care must be taken to ascertain, as may always be done, that the simultaneous symptoms of general irritation in the alimentary canal, arising soon after a meal, are not owing to unsound meat having been used in preparing it. And on the other hand, which is of more consequence, the symptoms on which so important an opinion is founded, must be strongly marked and well ascertained by a competent person. The signs of irritation in the mucous membranes must be really general and unequivocal; and those of a disorder of the nervous system must be likewise developed characteristically. Care must be taken in particular to distinguish symptoms of the latter class from others which approach to them in nature, and are the ordinary sequels of natural disease: for example, the true palsy caused by arsenic must not be confounded with the numbness and racking pains in the limbs, which occasionally succeed cholera.

With these precautions the evidence from symptoms may in certain cases be decisive of the question of poisoning with arsenic. And it is of moment to observe, as has been already hinted, that, although such cases are numerous, they are precisely of the kind in which it is most essential to the ends of justice that the symptoms should, if possible, supply evidence enough to direct the judgment; for the characteristic symptoms referred to occur chiefly when the patient either recovers or survives many days, and where consequently the chemical evidence, usually procured from the examination of the contents of the stomach, is almost always wanting.

SECTION III.—_Of the Morbid Appearances caused by Arsenic._

The morbid appearances caused by arsenic will next require some details. In treating of them the same plan will be pursued as in the preceding section: the various morbid appearances left by it will first be mentioned in their order; and the subject will then be wound up with some remarks on the force of the evidence from these appearances, as they are usually combined in actual cases.

In the first instance, there are some cases in which little or no morbid appearance is to be seen at all. These all belong to the second variety of poisoning, which is characterized by the absence of local inflammation, and the presence of symptoms indicating an action on the heart, or some other remote organ. In such circumstances death takes place before a sufficient interval has elapsed for inflammation to be developed.

Several examples of the absence of diseased appearances in the dead body are to be found in authors. Thus in Chaussier’s case formerly quoted (p. 243), in that related by Metzger (p. 242), in another related by Etmuller, which was fatal in twelve hours,[713] and in a fourth related by Professor Wagner of Berlin, where life was also prolonged for twelve hours under incessant vomiting,[714] there was positively no morbid alteration at all. Such was also the state of the whole alimentary canal in the extraordinary case related by Orfila (p. 243). In the case quoted from the Medical and Physical Journal (p. 242), there was merely a slight redness at the pyloric end of the stomach. In the case of the American grocer too, there was only a little redness. In Mr. Wright’s case (p. 243), there was scarcely any morbid appearance,—nothing more than two small vascular spots and a minute ecchymosis. In that which fell under my own notice (p. 242), the villous coat of the stomach was of natural firmness, and had an exceedingly faint mottled-cherry-red tint, barely perceptible in a strong light; and the rest of the alimentary canal, as well as the body generally, was quite healthy.

Although in these examples the morbid appearances were trifling or undistinguishable, it must not be supposed that the same happens in all cases of rapid death from arsenic. In Gérard’s case, where the usual irritant symptoms were wanting, and which proved fatal in five hours, there was dark redness of the whole villous coat of the stomach. In Mr. Holland’s case, fatal in eight or nine hours (p. 243), the stomach was of an intense purple colour at its pyloric end, and contained bloody mucus; and the mucous coat of the cœcum presented extensive softening and congestion. Mr. Alfred Taylor refers to three cases observed by Mr. Forster of Huntingdon, in which the mucous coat of the stomach was highly inflamed, though death took place in 6½, 3½, and 2 hours only:[715] in Mr. Hewson’s case, fatal in five hours, the whole stomach was exceedingly vascular, and presented both spots of extravasation, and several small erosions (p. 201). In a case alluded to at p. 239 as having fallen under my own observation, and which was also fatal in five hours, the whole villous coat of the stomach was intensely red, except where the folds of the rugæ protected it from contact with the poison; and the prominences of the rugæ presented corroded spots of ecchymosis. In Dr. Dymock’s case, fatal in two hours and a half, the stomach, which I had an opportunity of examining, presented on its mucous coat many scarlet patches, and here and there a purplish appearance (p. 240). Lastly, an instance is related by Pyl of this poison proving fatal in three hours, and leaving nevertheless in the dead body distinct signs of inflammation in the stomach.[716]

In the ordinary cases in which death is delayed till the second day or later, a considerable variety of diseased appearances has been observed. They are the different changes of structure arising from inflammation in the alimentary canal, in the organs of the chest, and in the organs of generation—together with certain alterations in the state of the blood and condition of the body generally.

The first set of appearances to be mentioned are those indicating inflammation of the alimentary canal, viz., redness of the throat and gullet,—redness of the villous and peritonæal coats of the stomach, blackness of its villous coat from extravasation of blood into it, softening of the villous coat, ulceration of that as well as of the other coats, effusion of coagulable lymph on the inner surface of the stomach, extravasation of blood among its contents,—finally, redness and ulceration of the duodenum and other parts of the intestinal canal, and more particularly of the rectum; to which may also be added, though not properly a morbid phenomenon, certain appearances put on by the arsenic which remains undischarged.

Redness of the throat and gullet is not common, at least it does not often occur in the descriptions of cases. Jaeger, however, says that in his experiments he usually found redness at the upper and purplish stripes at the lower end of the gullet:[717] and Dr. Campbell likewise found the gullet red in animals,[718] Similar appearances have also been remarked in man. In the case of a man who lived eight days, Dr. Murray found the gullet very red;[719] in that of a woman who lived scarce seven hours, Dr. Booth observed the gullet inflamed downwards very nearly to the cardia;[720] and Wildberg has reported two cases of the same nature, in one of which it is worthy of remark that the poisoning lasted only six hours.[721] On the whole, it appears probable that inflammation of the throat and gullet would be found more frequently in the reports of cases, if it was more carefully looked for.

Redness of the inner coat of the stomach is a pretty constant effect of arsenic, when the case is not very rapid. All the varieties of redness, formerly mentioned among the effects of the irritant poisons generally, may be produced by arsenic. There is nothing, however, in the redness caused by this poison, any more than in the redness of inflammation generally, by which it is to be distinguished from the pseudo-morbid varieties. (See p. 110.)

It is singular, that, however severe the inflammation of the inner membrane of the stomach may be, inflammatory redness of the peritonæal coat is seldom found. Yet inflammatory vascularity does occur sometimes on the peritonæal coat. Sproegel found it in animals;[722] and it was present in the case of the girl Warden, whose death gave rise to the trial of Mrs. Smith.[723] Dr. Nissen, a Danish physician, has related another case in which the external coat of the stomach appeared as if minutely injected with wax. But the patient had been attacked with incarcerated hernia during the progress of his illness, and the whole peritonæal membrane was in consequence inflamed.[724] A common appearance when the internal inflammation is well marked, and one often unwarily put down as inflammation of the peritonæum, is turgescence of the external veins, sometimes so great as to make the stomach look livid.

Blackness of the villous coat from effusion of altered blood into its texture is sometimes met with. When the colour is brownish-black, or grayish-black, not merely reddish-black, when the inner membrane is elevated into firm knots or ridges by the effusion, and the black spots are surrounded by vascularity or other signs of reaction, the appearances strongly indicate violent irritation. I have already said that such appearances are never imitated by any pseudo-morbid phenomenon.

One of the most remarkable appearances occasionally observed in the stomach in those instances where the body has been buried for at least some weeks before examination, is the presence of bright yellow patches, of various sizes, which appear as if painted with gamboge, and obviously arise from the oxide of arsenic diffused throughout the tissues having been decomposed and converted into sulphuret of arsenic by the sulphuretted-hydrogen disengaged during putrefaction. I have witnessed this appearance in several cases. In the case mentioned at p. 247, where the body had been buried twenty days, numerous brilliant yellow patches were visible on the villous coat of the stomach. In the case of a female who was poisoned about the same time with that man, and, as was suspected, by the same individual, the body was not examined till three months after interment; and here broad, bright, yellow patches, disappearing under the action of ammonia, were found under the peritonæal coat of the left end of the stomach, the adjoining great intestine, and also the muscular parietes of the abdomen. In the case of Mr. Gilmour, for whose murder his wife was tried a few months ago in this city, but acquitted,—and who undoubtedly died of poisoning with arsenic, howsoever administered,—there were found fourteen weeks after death numerous yellow streaks and patches both on the inner surface of the stomach, on its outer surface under the peritonæum, on the adjoining transverse colon, and on the small intestines in contact with the stomach. From these and other parallel facts which have been occasionally noticed by the periodical press, it seems probable that the appearance in question is common in bodies which have been some time buried. It is an extremely important part of the pathological evidence. I doubt whether natural causes can occasion any appearance similar to it. And indeed, what is it but the effect of a chemical test applied to the poison by nature?

The next appearance which may be mentioned is unnatural softness of the villous coat of the stomach. This coat has certainly been often found, after death from arsenic, unusually soft, brittle, and easily separable with the nail.[725] But the same state occurs in dead bodies so often and so unconnected with previous symptoms of irritation in the stomach, that it cannot with any certainty be assumed as the effect of irritation when it is found subsequently to such symptoms. So far from softening and brittleness being a necessary effect of the irritation produced by arsenic, it is a fact that a condition precisely the reverse has been also noticed. In a case which I examined, the villous coat, except where it had been disintegrated by effused blood and ulceration, was strong and firm; and the rugæ were thickened, raised and corrugated, as if seared with a hot iron.[726] Metzger once found the mucous membrane dense, thickened, and the rugæ like thick cords.[727] Pyl too once met with the same appearance, and ascribes the thickening to gorging of vessels;[728] and in a case related by Dr. Wood of Dumfries, where I had an opportunity of examining the stomach, this appearance was present in a remarkable degree, and it clearly arose from elevation of the villous coat by effusion of blood under it.[729] Remer, in his edition of Metzger’s Medical Jurisprudence, says he once met with an instance where the stomach was shrivelled like a bladder subjected to boiling water.[730]

Sometimes the villous and also more rarely the other coats of the stomach are found actually destroyed and removed in scattered spots and patches. This loss of substance is occasionally owing to the same action which causes softening and brittleness of the villous coat,—the action, however, having been so intense as to cause gelatinization. That such is the nature of the process appears from the breach in the membrane being surrounded by gelatinized tissue, and not by an areola of inflammatory redness. Of this species of destruction of the coats I have seen a characteristic example.[731] But in other cases the loss of substance is owing to a process of ordinary ulceration, as is proved by the little cavities having a notched irregular shape, and being surrounded both by a red areola and a margin of firm tissue. This was the character of the ulcers in the case of Warden, which I have described elsewhere.[732] Destruction of the coats of the stomach by ulceration is not a very common consequence of poisoning with arsenic, as death frequently takes place before that process can be established. It does not often occur, unless the patient survive nearly two days. Mr. Alfred Taylor, however, mentions a case fatal in seventeen hours where he found ulceration of the stomach, and another fatal in ten hours where several small ulcers were seen on the lesser curvature, and two nearly circular ones as big as a sixpence.[733] Mr. Hewson too informs me he found many eroded spots even in his case which proved fatal in five hours (p. 56). I suspect, however, that spots of healthy membrane surrounded by vascular redness are sometimes mistaken for ulcers in such cases; for indeed nothing can more exactly resemble them. In many general works on Medical Jurisprudence, and in some express treatises on arsenic, it is stated that this poison may cause complete perforation of the stomach.[734] But this effect is exceedingly rare. I have related one distinct example of it;[735] Professor Foderé has briefly alluded to a case he witnessed which proved fatal in two days and a half;[736] I have likewise found in an account of a trial in North America, an instance in which the stomach was perforated by numerous small holes, so that when held before the light it appeared as if riddled like a sieve;[737] but I have not been able to find in medical authors any farther authority for the general statement. Destruction of the coats of the stomach as produced by arsenic has been variously described by authors under the terms erosion, corrosion, dissolution, ulceration. But the correct mode of describing it appears to be by the terms gelatinization, or ulceration, according to the nature of the diseased action by which it is induced. At all events it is necessary to beware of being misled by the terms erosion, corrosion, and the like, which all convey the idea of a chemical action; while it is well ascertained that a chemical action either does not exist at all between arsenic and the animal tissues, or, if it has existence, tends to harden and condense rather than to dissolve or corrode them. Arsenic is not a corrosive.

Another species of destruction of the coats of the stomach, which will require a little notice, is sloughing or gangrene. This appearance occurs frequently in the narratives of the older writers; but it has not been enumerated in the list of morbid appearances at the commencement of this section, because its existence as one of the effects of arsenic is problematical. It has not been witnessed so far as I know by any recent good authority. Those who have mentioned it have probably been misled by the appearance put on by the black extravasated patches, when they are accompanied by disintegration of the villous coat and effusion of clots of black blood on its surface—an appearance which resembles gangrene closely in everything but the fetor. Sir B. Brodie has stated that Mr. John Hunter has preserved in his museum, as an example of a slough of the villous coat caused by arsenic, which turned out on examination to be nothing else than an adhering clot.[738] It is clear too, that, when Mr. James speaks of having found “several gangrenous patches” on the villous coat of the stomach, and “patches of sphacelus” in the intestines, on examining the body of a notorious French criminal, Soufflard, who poisoned himself with arsenic in prison in 1839, he mistook for gangrene what was merely extravasation; for the man lived only twelve hours.[739]

Various secretions have been found on the inner surface of the stomach. The mucous secretion of the inner membrane is generally increased in quantity. Frequently it is thin, but viscid, as in its natural state; but sometimes it is both abundant and solid, as if coagulated; and then it forms either a uniform attached pellicle, or loose shreds floating among the contents.[740] In both forms it has been mistaken for the mucous membrane itself. I believe this increased secretion and preternatural firmness of the gastric mucus cannot take place without some irritating agent being applied to the stomach. Both may occur without any other sign of inflammation in the mucous membrane. In a case of suicide after seduction which came under my notice in this city in 1843, and which proved fatal in five hours [p. 239], the mucus in the stomach, which was very abundant, put on the appearance of curdled milk, owing to its being rendered opaque and white by the large quantity of finely powdered arsenic diffused through it; and it was actually mistaken for curdled milk by several medical men.—Sometimes the matter effused is true coagulable lymph. This is rarely seen as the effect of arsenic. I have remarked it, however, very distinctly in dogs, and Dr. Baillie saw it once in the human subject.[741] It is of course quite decisive of the presence of inflammation. It is known from tough mucus, to which it bears some resemblance, by its reticulated disposition, and by the threads of the reticulation corresponding with inflamed lines on the stomach beneath.

Another very common appearance is the presence of a sanguinolent fluid, or even actual blood in the cavity of the stomach. In several of the cases which have come under my own notice, the subject of analysis was a thick, dirty brownish-red fluid, evidently containing a large proportion of blood; and many other examples of the same nature are on record.[742] In Laborde’s case formerly mentioned actual clots were found among the contents; in the instance of a woman who died in five days, as related by Zittmann, half a pound of coagulated blood was found in the stomach;[743] and in another case mentioned by Professor Bernt, the stomach contained no less than three pounds of black ichor mixed with clots of blood.[744] A good deal of reliance has been placed on bloody effusion in proof of the administration of arsenic or some other active irritant. It is of some importance, as it appears not to be an effect of that irritation which causes cholera.

Among the appearances observed in the stomach the presence of arsenic may be included, though not properly speaking a morbid appearance. Under the head of the medical evidence of poisoning generally it was stated, that many causes conspire to remove from the stomach during life poisons which have actually caused death. In addition to the illustrative cases there alluded to, I may here also refer to an interesting case communicated to me by Mr. J. H. Stallard, and already noticed for a different purpose [p. 235]. Arsenic in no large quantity had been swallowed in tea, and death took place in four hours only. Here none of the poison could be detected by Marsh’s process, either in the contents of the stomach, or in its tissues, or in the liver.—In the instance of arsenic, however, the operation of the causes which tend to remove the poison is prevented by various circumstances, in particular by its insolubility and firm adhesion to the stomach. Hence it happens, that even after long-continued vomiting a portion still generally remains behind, either in the contents of the stomach or in its tissues. Sometimes the arsenic exists dissolved in the contents; more commonly it is present there in the solid form; and is then either in loose particles, or enveloped in coagulated mucus,[745] or in little clots of blood,[746] or is wrapped up in the more solid parts of the contents.[747] Frequently it adheres to the coats of the stomach, and is then either scattered in the form of fine dust or collected in little knots. The adhering particles are always covered by mucus; they are often surrounded by redness of the membrane or by effused blood; and sometimes they are imbedded in little ulcers.—A remarkable appearance which the arsenic sometimes puts on is a brilliant yellowness of its surface, owing to its conversion into the sulphuret. This appearance existed in six cases which have come under my own notice, first in one related in the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,[748] next in the instance of Margaret Warden,[749] again in the case of a young woman whose death gave rise to the trial of John Lovie held at Aberdeen in the Autumn Circuit of 1827, again in a case described by Dr. Wood, which I had an opportunity of examining;[750] and lastly, in two others which I had occasion to examine in 1842 and 1843. In one of these, the case of Mr. Gilmour, adverted to at p. 265, Drs. Wylie and M’Kinlay, who examined the body in the country, found the inner surface of the stomach thickly sprinkled with small yellow particles, some of which were very bright. In all of these cases oxide was found, as well as the sulphuret of arsenic. In the case related by Dr. Nissen [p. 264], a similar yellow appearance, observed on the surface of the arsenic, was ascribed with justice to the action of sulphuretted hydrogen-water, which had been given as an antidote during life.[751] In a very important case examined here a few years ago by my colleague Dr. Traill, and which will be noticed more particularly for a different purpose afterwards, this conversion of the oxide into sulphuret had taken place to a great extent [p. 277]. In every instance of the kind yet examined, however, the conversion has been only partial, so that a large proportion of oxide could easily be detected by the usual process.

Care must be taken not hastily to consider as arsenic every white powder which may be found lining the inside of the stomach. Many other white powders may obtain entrance from without; and besides, small, white, shining, pulverulent scales, not unlike finely powdered arsenic, but rarely composed of animal matter, sometimes form naturally on the mucous coat of the stomach and intestines. In a medico-legal report published a few years ago, Professor Orfila has noticed two instances in which these scales were mistaken for arsenic;[752] in another published not long after he mentions that he found white particles which crackled when bruised, and appeared brilliant before the microscope, and which nevertheless were not arsenic.[753] Buchner too says he is acquainted with an instance where, in a medical inspection on account of a suspicion of poisoning, the villous coat of the stomach was found lined with a white granular substance which presented the properties of a fat and contained no mineral admixture;[754] and in the case of Warden I remarked a similar appearance, which, as arsenic was found in the stomach, I was disposed to consider a sprinkling of that poison, until the contrary was ascertained by analysis. The present caution, therefore, is not superfluous.

In a few cases the stomach is the only situation where morbid appearances are visible, even though life has been prolonged for so much as two days. This state of matters is well exemplified by a French case of death in forty-three hours, where the stomach presented much redness and extravasated patches, but where the intestines, the larynx and the contents of the head and chest were in a natural condition.[755] Such limitation, however, of the diseased appearances are rare.

Redness of the mucous membrane of the intestines is often present when the stomach is much inflamed. Dissolution of the mucous coat is much less frequent in the intestines than in the stomach. Ulceration occasionally occurs in lingering cases. In the case of Mitchell, which has been several times alluded to, the inner coat of the duodenum was dark-red, pulpy, thickened, easily separable; and on a spot as big as a crown piece, both the inner and the muscular coats were wanting.[756] Perforation of the small intestine was found in a case communicated to me by Mr. Sandell, and detailed at page 277. But as the person survived only eight hours, and had laboured under symptoms of disease in the bowels for some days before taking the arsenic, it is unlikely that this appearance, which has not been observed, to my knowledge, in any other instance, arose from the action of the poison.

The signs of inflammation are seldom distinct in the small intestines much lower down than the extremity of the duodenum; and they do not often affect the colon. But the rectum is sometimes much inflamed, though the colon, and more particularly the small intestines, are not. Dr. Male mentions, that in man he has found the rectum abraded, ulcerated, and even redder than the stomach itself;[757] and Dr. Baillie also notices two cases in which the lower end of the rectum was ulcerated.[758] A common appearance in lingering cases is excoriation of the anus,[759] and it is said that even gangrene has been produced.[760]

A late writer draws attention to the fact that in the only two fatal cases he had seen the whole colon was contracted to an extraordinary degree;[761] and this state is mentioned in other cases. The appearance deserves notice; but of course whatever empties the colon thoroughly will have the same effect.

The chief appearances in the alimentary canal have now been mentioned. The next quarter in which deceased appearances are to be met with is the cavity of the chest. Here are sometimes seen redness of the pleura, redness and congestion of the lungs, redness of the inner surface of the heart, and redness of the lining membrane of the windpipe.

Redness of the diaphragmatic part of the pleura, or even of the whole of that membrane, has been at times observed; as one would expect, indeed, from the pectoral symptoms which occasionally prevail during life. Inflammation of the lungs themselves has also been noticed. Dr. Campbell twice found great congestion of blood in the lungs of animals poisoned by the application of arsenic outwardly.[762] Sproegel likewise found the pleura, pericardium, and whole lungs deeply inflamed in animals.[763] Dr. Venables found the pleura of a bright crimson colour in some poultry maliciously poisoned with arsenic,—more redness there indeed than in the stomach.[764] Mr. James says that in his experiments on animals he constantly found the lungs much gorged with blood, unless when death occurred quickly; but that he could see no evidence of the congestion being inflammatory.[765] A distinct example of advanced pneumonia in man is related in Pyl’s Magazine: the patient died after vomiting and purging incessantly for eight days; and on dissection the lungs were found “in the highest state of inflammation; and so congested as to resemble a lump of clotted blood.”[766] A distinct case of the same nature is related in Henke’s Journal; this patient had obvious pneumonic symptoms during life; and in the dead body the lungs were found so gorged, that, on being cut into, nothing could be seen but clotted blood in their cellular structure.[767] In a case formerly adverted to [p. 252] of death from arsenic applied externally for scirrhus, excessive congestion was found in the lungs, “both lungs being completely gorged with blood, and presenting all the characters of pulmonary apoplexy.”[768] In another described by Dr. Booth of Birmingham, where death occurred in seven hours only, the lungs presented sufficient congestion to have completely impeded respiration.[769]

It has been alleged that the inner surface of the heart has been found red from inflammation. In a case examined judicially at Paris by Orfila, the left cavities of the heart were of a mottled red hue, and in the ventricle were seen many small crimson specks which penetrated into the muscular part of the parietes. The right cavities had a deep reddish-black tint, and the ventricle of that side contained specks like those in the other, but more faint. Orfila adds, that he had previously seen the same appearance in animals.[770] These observations are not satisfactory. There is no evidence that the observer drew the distinction between the redness of inflammation, and that produced by the dyeing of the membrane with blood after death. The subject was afterwards brought before the Royal Academy of Medicine at Paris by M. Godard, who had also observed the appearance in question in a person killed by arsenic, and who dwelt strongly on it as characteristic of this species of poisoning. It was distinctly proved, however, by many members present that the appearance arises from various other causes.[771]

The inner membrane of the windpipe is said to be sometimes affected with inflammatory redness. Jaeger found it so in animals;[772] and the symptoms referrible to the windpipe during life would lead us to expect the same thing in man.

The organs of generation are occasionally affected. The penis in the male and the labia in the female have been found distended and black; in an interesting case related by Bachmann the external parts of generation (in a female) were surrounded by gangrene;[773] and in a case related in Pyl’s collection the inside of the uterus and Fallopian tubes was inflamed.[774] It is probable that signs of inflammation in the internal organs of generation will be found if there have been corresponding symptoms during life. But in truth this part of the pathology of poisoning with arsenic has not been particularly attended to.

To complete this account of the morbid appearances of the mucous membranes, it may be added that the conjunctiva of the eyes frequently presents vascularity and spots of extravasation.[775]

It now only remains, under the head of the morbid appearances produced by arsenic, to mention certain alterations that are said to take place in the state of the blood and general condition of the body.

With regard to the state of the blood Sir B. Brodie observes in general terms, that in animals killed by arsenic it is commonly fluid.[776] Harles, on the authority of Wepfer, Sproegel, and Jaeger, says it is black, semi-gelatinous, and sometimes pultaceous.[777] Novati alleges that the blood after death is without exception black and liquid as after cholera, of a blackish-purple tint that colours linen reddish-brown, viscid, opaque, and without any trace of coagulation.[778] In a fatal case related by Wildberg the blood was everywhere fluid.[779] This condition, however, is not uniform; for Dr. Campbell found the blood coagulated in the heart of a rabbit;[780] and Wepfer found it also coagulated in the dog.[781]

It has been stated by some authors in medical jurisprudence that the dead body occasionally exhales an aliaceous odour, resembling that of sublimed arsenic. This is a very questionable statement. The only fact of the kind worth mentioning is one brought forward by Dr. Klanck, as occurring in the course of certain experiments, which will presently be noticed, on the antiseptic virtues of arsenic. Several animals which had been killed with arsenic are said to have exhaled an odour like that of sublimed arsenic from three to eight weeks after death.[782]

A great discordance of opinion at one time prevailed among authors, as to the influence of arsenic on the putrefactive process in the bodies of those poisoned with it. The vulgar idea, borrowed probably from the ancient classics, that the bodies of those who have been poisoned decay rapidly, was till lately the prevalent doctrine of medical men, and even of medical jurists; and it was applied to arsenic as well as other poisons. Even so lately as 1776 we find Gmelin stating in his History of Mineral Poisons, that the bodies of those who have died of arsenic pass rapidly into putrefaction, that the nails and hair often fall off the day after death, and that almost the whole body quickly liquefies into a pulp.[783] A similar statement has been made in 1795 by a respectable author, Dr. John Johnstone.[784] It appears that this rapid or premature decay does really occur in some instances. Thus in a case related by Plattner of death from arsenic administered as a seasoning for mushrooms, the body had a very putrid odour the day after death.[785] Loebel also asserts he found by experiments on animals, that after death from arsenic putrefaction took place rapidly, even in very cold weather.[786]

In other instances the body probably decays in the usual manner. For example, in Rust’s Magazin is related the case of a child who died in six hours of poisoning with arsenic, and in whose body, fourteen days after death, the integuments were found considerably advanced in putrefaction, and the liver and kidneys beginning to soften.[787] In the case of a man who died in two days, and in whose body arsenic was found by MM. Chapeau and Parisel throughout many of the tissues, “putrefaction was so far advanced eight days after death as to render the examination of parts obscure.”[788] And in the course of some experiments on dogs poisoned with the oxide Dr. Seeman found the usual changes after five months’ interment.[789]

But it has been proved in recent times that in general arsenic has rather the contrary tendency—that, besides the antiseptic virtues which it has been long known to exert when directly applied in moderate quantity to animal substances, it also possesses the singular property of enabling the bodies of men and animals poisoned with it both to resist decay unusually long, and to decay in an unusual manner. The observations and inquiries which have been made abroad on this subject were little known any where else than in Germany before the publication of the earlier editions of the present work; but parallel examples have been since met with both in Britain and France; and in this country the importance of the subject is generally appreciated.

The first occasion on which the antiseptic property of arsenic was brought under public notice was about the beginning of the present century, in the course of the trial of the widow of a certain state-councillor, Ursinus of Berlin. Some time before that Dr. Welper, then medical inspector in the Prussian capital, having remarked that the body of a person poisoned with arsenic remained quite fresh for a whole week in summer, he attended carefully to the subject at every opportunity, and invariably, he says, found that the body resisted putrefaction. Not long after making this remark, he was concerned in 1803, by virtue of his office, in the investigations in the case of the widow Ursinus. This lady having been discovered in an attempt to poison her servant, suspicions arose regarding the previous sudden death of three persons in her family, her husband, a young officer who had carried on an amour with her, and an aunt from whom she derived an inheritance. They had all died in mysterious circumstances, and the lady had been their only nurse. Dr. Welper disinterred the bodies of the husband and aunt, which had been buried, the former two years and a half before at Berlin, the latter half a year afterwards at Charlottenberg; and he found them not putrid, but dried up; and specks of an appearance, which is described as being gangrene, but which was probably warty extravasation, were visible in the stomach. Arsenic could not be detected.

He afterwards got Dr. Klanck, his acquaintance, to make some express experiments on animals; and the results were strikingly conformable. In dogs poisoned with arsenic and left for two months sometimes buried in a damp cellar, sometimes exposed to the air of the cellar, the flesh and alimentary canal were red and fresh, as if pickled; and though the place where the carcases were subsequently buried again was flooded for eight months after, the intestines were eventually found entire and red, the fat converted into adipocire, and most of the muscles unaltered,—those only being soft and greasy which were directly acted on by the water. From a set of comparative experiments which were made on dogs killed by blows, or poisoned by corrosive sublimate, or by opium, Klanck found, that, after being buried in the same place, and for the same space of time the whole soft parts of the carcases were converted into a greasy mass. In a subsequent year he repeated his experiments, the bodies, however, being this time left exposed to the air of the cellar. The experiments were commenced in the month of August. In ten days there appeared slight signs of incipient putrefaction; a faint putrid smell was exhaled, and all flies that settled on the carcase died. This state continued for eight or ten weeks without increasing. After that the soft parts began to grow firmer and drier, and at the same time the putrid odour was succeeded by a smell like that of garlic, which became insupportably strong when the carcases were removed into warm air. The bodies, three years afterwards, still continued dry and undecayed.[790]

A similar set of facts was again brought before the public between 1809 and 1811, during the criminal proceedings in a case like that of the widow Ursinus, tried first at Bayreuth and afterwards by appeal at Munich. A lady near Bayreuth died of five days’ illness, under symptoms of violent general irritation of the alimentary canal. Some months afterwards a variety of circumstances having raised a suspicion that she had been poisoned by her maid, Margaretha Zwanziger, a judicial investigation was set on foot; the consequence of which was, that the same woman came under suspicion of having also previously poisoned another lady and a gentleman with whom she had been successively in service. The bodies of the three people were accordingly disinterred, one of them five months, another six months, and the third fourteen months after death. In all of them the external parts were not properly speaking putrid, but hard, cheesy, or adipocirous; in the last two the stomach and intestines were so entire as to allow of their being tied, taken out, cut up, and handled; and in one a sloughy spot was found in the region of the pylorus. Arsenic was detected in two of the bodies by Rose’s process of analysis.[791]

The next example to the same effect which will be mentioned is perhaps the most satisfactory of all, because it was the result of an express experiment on the human subject. Dr. Kelch of Königsberg buried the internal organs of a man who had died of arsenic, and whose body had remained without burial till the external parts had begun to decay; and on examining the stomach and intestines five months after, he found that the hamper in which they were contained was very rotten; but that “they had a peculiar smell, quite different from that of putrid bowels, were not yet acted on by putrefaction, but as fresh as when first taken from the body, and might have served to make preparations. They had lost nothing of their colour, glimmer, or firmness. The inflamed spots on the stomach had not disappeared, and the small intestines also showed in some places the inflammatory redness unaltered.”[792]

In a recent French case, although the degree of preservation was less remarkable, the other circumstances are so striking as to render it well worthy of notice. In this instance the body was disinterred after having been seven years in the ground, in a high situation and sandy soil. The coffin, which was of oak, had become dry and brittle, and no moisture appeared on the inside. The body was entire: the head, trunk, and limbs retained their situation; but the organs of the chest and belly were converted into a brown soft mass of the consistence of plaster, which lay on each side of the spine. In this mass MM. Ozanam and Idt, the medical inspectors, succeeded in discovering by chemical analysis a considerable quantity of arsenic.[793]

M. Ollivier describes another French case, where the body had been buried for three years, and was found so completely dried up that the trunk weighed only two pounds. The integuments were entire, dark-brown, and of a faint odour like decayed wood. The organs of the chest and belly were confounded together in a foliaceous membranous mass, in which the liver only could be distinguished, but in an exceedingly shrivelled state. Arsenic was detected in the membranous matter by MM. Barruel and Henri. The preservative power of the arsenic was promoted in this case by the sandy nature of the soil.[794]

In the case of the girl Warden, which has been several times alluded to, the internal organs were also preserved somewhat in the same manner as in the German cases. The body had been buried three weeks; yet the mucous coat of the stomach and intestines, except on its mere surface, was very firm, and all the morbid appearances were consequently quite distinct. Nay, three weeks after disinterment, except that the vascularity had disappeared, the membranes and the appearances in them remained in the same state.[795] A similar case has been recorded by Metzger. It is that of an old man who died of six hours’ illness, and in whose stomach three drachms of arsenic were found. The body had been kept ten days in February before burial, and was disinterred eight days after that; yet there was not the slightest sign of putrefaction any where.[796] A parallel case was described by myself in the Edinburgh Medico-Chirurgical Transactions;[797] and I have met with three others of the same kind since.

In a very important case, that of Mrs. Smith, which was made the subject of investigation at Bristol in December, 1834, the body was also found in a state of great preservation, modified, however, by adipocirous decomposition, owing to the presence of water in the coffin. The body had been fourteen months interred. The internal parts, especially of the head and neck, were here and there decayed somewhat or converted into adipocire, the muscles and internal organs entire, though more or less shrivelled, the alimentary tube remarkably preserved, “every part being almost as distinct as if the inspection had been made at a very short period after death,” “the mucous membrane sufficiently tenacious to be lifted by the forceps in as large flakes as usual;” and the reporters, Drs. Riley and Symonds, Messrs. Herapath and Kelson, seem to have had no difficulty in ascertaining the absence of vascularity, extravasation, or even abrasion of the inner membrane. Artificial orpiment, the preparation proved to have been given [see p. 225], was found in the stomach by Mr. Herapath, and the quantity appeared to be about half a drachm.[798]

A similar instance, very remarkable in all its circumstances, was investigated here in 1834 by my colleague Dr. Traill to whom I am indebted for the particulars. The master of a foreign vessel died in about twenty-four hours, apparently of malignant cholera, at a small port in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh: and the body was forthwith buried. A suspicion, however, having arisen in his native country that he had been poisoned by his mate, an inquiry was instituted at the request of the foreign government; and the body was disinterred five months after death. The face and neck was swollen, black, and decayed; but the rest of the body was quite free of the usual signs of putrefaction. The skin was white and firm, the muscles fresh, the lungs crepitating, the liver and spleen much shrivelled, the stomach and intestines entire throughout their whole tissues, and capable of being handled freely without injury. On the mucous coat of the stomach several dark patches of extravasation were found, likewise several spots and large patches which presented on their surface a firmly adhering bright yellow crust; and the contents of the stomach consisted of a considerable quantity of yellow sandy matter of the consistence of paste. The contents and adhering crusts were found to consist chiefly of oxide of arsenic partially converted into sulphuret. In this instance, as in that last described, the coffin contained water, owing to its having laid in a sandy soil resting on clay.

An important case of the same nature was communicated to me in 1843 by Mr. Sandell of Potton, Bedfordshire, and afterwards published by Mr. Hedly of Bedford. A man Dazley at Wrestlingford, affected with symptoms of gastro-enteric irritation for five or six days, was seized with sickness, vomiting, heat and constriction in the throat, and great weakness, about an hour after getting a white powder from his wife; and in eight hours he expired, without any suspicion of unfair usage arising at the time. Suspicions, however, being entertained afterwards, the body which had not been examined at first, was disinterred in five months, during the month of March. The countenance was so entire as to be recognisable. Adipocire had been formed in many places. The stomach and intestines were “in a most perfect state of preservation,” as if death had taken place only a few days previously. The stomach presented yellow patches on its outer and inner surface,—was generally red over its villous coat, which had also been abraded near the cardiac end,—and, together with the small intestines, was lined with white powder and contained more of it enveloped in much red mucus. This powder proved to be arsenic. About the middle of the small intestines a small ulcerated opening was found, through which some arsenic had escaped.[799]

The following cases which have come under my own notice during the last five years are also worthy of observation. In a case submitted to me on the part of the crown in 1841, which has been adverted to above for another purpose [p. 265], the body after being three months interred was found with the head and face decayed and putrid; but the muscular substance was little changed; and the inspectors were particularly struck with the state of preservation of the body, and also with the very distinct state of inflammation seen over almost the whole external and internal surfaces of the alimentary canal,—a description, the accuracy of which I had afterwards an opportunity of verifying. In the case of Mr. Gilmour (p. 265), whose body had been buried 101 days, the external parts were more decayed; but the alimentary canal appeared equally entire both to the original inspectors, Drs. M’Kinlay and Wylie, and likewise to myself three weeks later. But the following instance, in which I was consulted in 1839, is the most remarkable one of the kind that has hitherto occurred to me; because the observations then made were the result of an express experiment in a medico-legal investigation. The history of this case, which arose from small doses of arsenic frequently administered, has been already given above in some detail [p. 250]. Arsenic not having been detected in the contents or tissues of the stomach, and the trial of the individual suspected of giving the poison being necessarily postponed for some months, I recommended that a third examination of the body,—for it had been twice disinterred for inspection within ten days after death,—should be made at as distant an interval as possible, in order to ascertain whether it underwent preservation from decay. It was accordingly disinterred again, five months after death. It had an ammoniacal, but not a putrid odour. The skin was here and there covered with a thin sebaceous matter, at one or two places stripped of the epidermis, but for the most part natural in appearance, firm, and elastic. The nails were loose. The muscles of the head and near the tops of the scapulæ were adipocirous, on the chest and abdomen obscurely fibrous in texture and hardened, but elsewhere unaltered, and “in the lower extremities so perfect that they might have been used for an anatomical demonstration.” The liver and lungs were also in a state of good preservation, and the latter crepitated when cut. The other viscera had been removed at the previous examinations.

It may be added that the experiments of Klanck on dogs adverted to above have been more recently repeated by Hünefeld on rabbits and mice, with precisely the same results. The animals were sometimes left in the air, at other times buried, and generally in a moist place. In every instance putrefaction made more or less progress at first; but in a few days a peculiar garlicky odour arose, from which time the progress of decay seemed to be arrested; and the bodies underwent a process of hardening and desiccation which completely preserved them.[800]

On considering attentively the illustrations now given, the toxicologist can hardly doubt that in some cases arsenic has appeared both to retard and to modify putrefaction in the bodies of persons poisoned with it.

Assuming arsenic to have been the cause of the preservation of the bodies, it becomes a point of consequence to account for its effect, and more particularly to reconcile that effect with what has certainly been noticed in other cases of poisoning with the same substance, namely, ordinary rapidity of decay, if not actually an increased tendency to putrefaction.

At the outset of this part of the inquiry some light may be thrown upon it by separating the local from the general operation of arsenic.

Arsenic is a good preservative of animal textures when it is directly applied to them in sufficient quantity. This is well known to stuffers of birds and beasts, was experimentally ascertained by Guyton Morveau,[801] and has come also under my observation.[802] It is now likewise known to be an excellent substance for preserving bodies, when injected in the form of solution into the blood-vessels.

Hence, if in a case of poisoning the arsenic be not discharged by vomiting, and the patient die soon, it will act as an antiseptic on the stomach at least, perhaps on the intestines also; while the rest of the body may decay in the usual manner. This is very well shown in a case examined by Dr. Borges, medical inspector at Minden, fourteen weeks after death. The stomach and intestines were firm, of a grayish-white colour, and contained crumbs of bread, while all the other organs in the belly were pulpy, and the external parts adipocirous.[803] It is also equally well exemplified in a case that happened at Chemnitz so early as 1726, and which was examined five weeks after burial. The skin was every where very putrid, but the stomach and intestines were perfectly fresh.[804] In the case of Warden the appearances were precisely the same. Three weeks after burial the Dundee inspectors found the external parts much decayed, yet three weeks later the stomach and intestines were found by myself in a state of almost perfect preservation. A striking experiment performed by Dr. Borges on a rabbit will likewise illustrate clearly the fact now under consideration. The rabbit was killed in less than a day with ten grains of arsenic, and its body was buried for thirteen months in a moist place under the eaves of a house. At the end of this period it was found, that “the skin, muscles, cellular tissue, ligaments and all the viscera, except the alimentary canal, had disappeared, without leaving a trace; but the alimentary canal from the throat to the anus, along with the hair and the bare bones, was quite entire.”[805]

In all of these cases arsenic was found in the body. In the rabbit experimented on by Dr. Borges, above five grains of arsenic were separated in the form of a metallic sublimate.

But, on the contrary, if the arsenic is all or nearly all discharged by vomiting, not only the body generally, but likewise even the stomach and intestines, may follow the usual course of decay. Accordingly, in the case of the child formerly quoted (273), where the body putrified in the usual manner, only four grains and a half of arsenic had been taken; and as it was swallowed in a state of solution and caused violent vomiting, it must have been almost all ejected. Nay, in such circumstances, the alimentary canal, in consequence of its unnatural supply of moisture and incipient disorganization, may decay somewhat faster than other parts. Thus Dr. Murray observed in the case of a man formerly mentioned (264), who lived under violent gastritic symptoms for seven days, and vomited much, that the stomach, which was removed for more minute examination, decayed so rapidly that in twenty-four hours an examination was impracticable, while the body in general rather resisted putrefaction.[806]

The preceding statements on the differences in the state of preservation of the body after poisoning with arsenic are not then incapable of some explanation. Nevertheless, it must be granted that the reasons assigned will not account for all the apparent cases of the preservative powers of arsenic. And especially they will not explain how the whole body has sometimes resisted decay altogether, and become as it were mummified. It is impossible to ascribe this preservation to the spelling power of the arsenic diffused throughout the body in the blood; the quantity there being extremely small. Consequently if the preservation of the bodies is not occasioned by some accidental collateral cause (a mode of accounting for the phenomena which seems inadmissible), this property of arsenic must depend on its causing, by some operation on the living body, a different disposition and affinity among the ultimate elements of organized matter, and so altering the operation of physical laws on it. There appears no sound reason for rejecting this supposition, especially as it is necessary to admit an analogous change of affinities as the only mode of accounting for a still more incomprehensible violation of the ordinary laws of nature,—the spontaneous combustion, or preternatural combustibility, of the human body.

The following judicious observations by Harles on this subject are worthy of attention:—“In regard,” says he, “to this singular property of arsenic, now no longer doubtful, it should be remembered that certain circumstances will limit or impair it, while others will favour or increase it;—circumstances, for example, connected with the soil of the burying-ground, or the air of the vaults where the bodies are deposited. Different soils and different conditions of the air will materially affect the decomposition of all bodies indiscriminately, and will therefore affect likewise the antiseptic properties of arsenic. For it would be absurd to ascribe to arsenic the power of preventing putrefaction in all circumstances whatsoever,—a power which those who make use of it for preserving skins know very well it does not possess, and a power possessed by no antiseptic whatever, not even by alcohol.”[807]

An important consequence of the preservative tendency of arsenic is, that in many instances the body in this kind of poisoning may be found long after death in so perfect a state as to admit of an accurate medico-legal inspection and a successful chemical analysis. In one of his cases Dr. Bachmann detected arsenic in the stomach fourteen months after interment; Dr. Borges had no difficulty in detecting it in an animal after thirteen months; Mr. Herapath discovered it after fourteen months in the human body; M. Henry detected it after three years and a half, and obtained no less than seven grains of metallic arsenic from the shrivelled viscera;[808] and MM. Ozanam and Idt found it after the long interval of seven years.—The late experiments of Orfila and Lesueur confirm the fact that arsenic may remain long in contact with decaying animal matter, and yet continue in such a state as to be easily detected.[809] It might be supposed that the poison would pass off partly in the gaseous state by being converted into arseniuretted-hydrogen, partly in the liquid state by becoming arsenite of ammonia, a very soluble compound. But the fact nevertheless is, that, notwithstanding these reasons for its disappearance, it may be detected after the lapse of several years.

Under the head of the diseased appearances left by arsenic in the dead body, every change of structure has now been described which has been mentioned by authors and supported by trustworthy statements. Another set of appearances may still be noticed; but they are here separated from the rest, because the author who first notices them has not been supported in the statement by any special observations of his own, or by an adequate number of facts observed by others. In an elaborate essay on a case of poisoning by Professor Seiler of Wittemberg, it is said in general terms that arsenic may cause gorging of the vessels of the brain, effusion of serum into the ventricles, inflammation of the brain, and even extravasation of blood.[810] Turgescence of vessels is mentioned in several published cases, and I have myself met with it. But it is seldom so considerable as to attract attention. In the following instance, however, which has been related by Dr. Hofer of Biberach the evidence of cerebral congestion was unequivocal. A man addicted to intoxication, but enjoying good health otherwise, was attacked after supper with sickness, vomiting, and pain in the belly. On going to bed he fell soon quiet; and six hours after he took ill, he was found dead. Arsenic was detected in the stomach, and in what he vomited; and considerable redness was seen on the villous coat of the stomach. But the most remarkable appearances were gorging of the cerebral vessels, adhesion of the dura mater to the membranes beneath, and the effusion of eight ounces of serosity into the lateral ventricles.[811] The only instance I am acquainted with to justify the opinion that extravasation of blood into the brain may occur from poisoning with arsenic, is the remarkable case of apparent death from eating poultry poisoned with arsenic, which was communicated to me by Mr. Jamieson of Aberdeen. The individual, after suffering under the usual primary symptoms, became apoplectic after a fit of sneezing, and died three days afterwards; and in the dead body, besides other signs of disease in the brain, a recent clot of blood was found in the right anterior lobe. (See p. 69.)

It is quite unnecessary to notice lividity of the skin among the signs of poisoning with arsenic, except for the mere purpose of reminding the medical jurist that, although it has been sometimes much relied on as a sign of death from arsenic, it is not of the slightest importance as a sign either of that or of any other kind of poisoning. (See p. 51.)

The action of arsenic on the alimentary canal after death will now require a few remarks; the purpose of which is to prepare the medical inspector for investigating attempts to impute the crime of poisoning to innocent persons, by introducing arsenic into the dead body. Such attempts, according to Orfila, have been made; but I am not acquainted with any actual instance.

The action of arsenic on dead intestine has been fully examined by the last mentioned author. If it is introduced into the anus immediately after death, and allowed to remain there twenty-four hours, the mucous membrane in contact with it becomes of a lively red colour, with darker interspersed patches as if from extravasation. The other coats are natural; and so is the mucous membrane itself wherever the poison does not actually touch it. Consequently the margin of the coloration is abrupt and well defined. When the arsenic is not introduced till twenty-four hours after death, the part to which it is actually applied presents dark patches, while the rest of the membrane is quite healthy.[812]

The appearance of redness in the former case is probably the result of lingering vitality. The cause of the dark appearance in the latter it is not easy to comprehend.

When arsenic has been applied, during life, the redness, if it has had time to begin at all, extends to some distance from the points with which the poison has been in contact, and passes by degrees into the healthy colour of the surrounding membrane.

On reviewing what has been said of the pathological appearances caused by arsenic, it must appear that the medical jurist can never be supplied from this source alone with satisfactory evidence of the cause of death. But in some circumstances the evidence may amount to a strong probability of one variety or another of irritant poisoning. Mere redness, conjoined or not with softening of the mucous membrane, may justify suspicion only. But if there should be found in the body of a person who has died of a few days’ illness, redness, black warty extravasation, and circumscribed ulcers of the villous coat of the stomach,—effusion of blood or bloody clots among the contents of that organ,—also redness of the intestines, more especially redness and ulceration of the colon and rectum,—and redness of the pharynx, or of this along with the gullet,—the proof of poisoning with some irritant will amount to a strong presumption. At least it is difficult to mention any natural disease which could produce in so short a time such a conjunction of appearances as this; which arsenic and other analogous poisons sometimes occasion.

SECTION IV.—_On the Treatment of Poisoning with Arsenic._

It was formerly proved that arsenic acts in all its forms of chemical combination, which have been hitherto tried, and nearly in the ratio of their solubility. This general fact is conformable with the law laid down as to the influence of chemical changes on the energy of poisons which enter the blood [p. 37]. Hence every supposed chemical antidote must be useless, which does not render the arsenic insoluble not only in water, but likewise in the contents and secretions of the stomach.

The antidotes chiefly trusted to until recent times, such as vinegar, sugar, butter and other oily substances, lime-water, bitter decoctions, and the like, have now justly fallen into disuse. The liver of sulphur or sulphuret of potassium, which maintained its character for some time longer on account of its chemical action with oxide of arsenic in solution, is not more efficacious. The experiments of Renault on the counter-poisons for arsenic, confirmed by the subsequent researches of Orfila, have proved that the arsenical sulphuret formed by solutions of the liver of sulphur is scarcely less active than the oxide itself.[813]

It appears that fine impalpable powders, though inert as physiological agents, and destitute of any true chemical action with oxide of arsenic, may nevertheless prove useful in certain limited circumstances. Thus Mr. Hume of London and others have apparently found some advantage in the administration of large doses of magnesia.[814] If this substance be of any use at all, which is doubtful, it can act only by covering the arsenical particles with its fine insoluble powder, and so preventing them from coming in contact with the surface of the stomach; for in its state of magnesia it has no chemical action with oxide of arsenic. Another remedy of the same nature is charcoal powder, which was proposed in 1813 with much confidence by M. Bertrand.[815] That it has some efficacy when swallowed along with the poison seems to admit of no doubt; for the proposer of it himself swallowed five grains of arsenic in one dose along with charcoal in a state of emulsion, and sustained little inconvenience of any kind. In all probability it acts merely by enveloping the particles of arsenic. But it may possibly be also of service, if recently exposed to heat, by the superficial attraction it exerts over substances in solution; through means of which property it will remove many soluble substances from a fluid, and render them insoluble. Charcoal, however, has been proved to be destitute of all efficacy when not administered till after the arsenic is swallowed. The one must be given along with the other, otherwise it is useless.[816]

For some time past the formation of an insoluble arsenite has been aimed at by most experimentalists who have endeavoured to discover an antidote for arsenic. But in general the arsenites, though very insoluble in water, are sufficiently so in weak acids or in organic fluids, so that they are soluble enough in the juices of the stomach to enter the blood in such quantity as to prove fatal. The only exception now admitted to exist is the arsenite produced when a solution of oxide of arsenic is brought in contact with the hydrated sesquioxide of iron. The compound thus formed is held to be insoluble in the secretions of the stomach; and consequently the hydrated sesquioxide of iron is usually regarded as a true antidote.

The substance, the Ferrugo of the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia,—a compound which differs little from the older preparation, the rust of iron, when not deprived of its combined water,—was announced in 1834 by Drs. Bunsen and Berthold as an effectual remedy even when given some time after the arsenic is swallowed.[817] Their experiments were repeated with variable success. Similar results were obtained by MM. Soubeiran and Miquel, as well as MM. Orfila and Lesueur, in some experiments on dogs, and by M. Boullay on the horse.[818] The last experimentalist found that the effects of a dose adequate ta occasion death are almost entirely prevented in the horse by giving the oxide of iron either immediately after the poison, or within four hours. Results of the same nature were obtained in this country by Mr. Donald Mackenzie.[819] Others, however, such as Mr. Brett[820] and Mr. Orton,[821] have failed to observe any antidotal virtues, and even deny that the sesquioxide of iron can remove oxide of arsenic from a state of solution. But in 1840 the causes of these discrepant statements were explained by Dr. Douglas Maclagan,[822] who found, in corroboration of the remarks of Drs. Bunsen and Berthold, as well as various French authorities, that the oxide must be given in large quantity, and that the failures of some were owing to the quantity used having been too small. He ascertained, that, in order to remove one part of arsenic from a state of solution, twelve parts of oxide of iron in the moist state are necessary, and sixty parts if it be previously dried; that the arsenic so appropriated is with difficulty removed from the insoluble matter even by boiling; and that, as the discoverers of this antidote first stated, the preparation made by precipitating the sesquioxide of iron by means of ammonia, is a more active form than any other. As the oxide prepared in this way always contains ammonia, and the proportion necessary for removing the arsenic is far greater than what is required to constitute a simple arsenite of iron, it is reasonable to infer that the ammonia forms a part of the insoluble compound actually produced. At all events the action of the antidote would appear to be chemical, and not mechanical, as has been thought by many, and as was stated to be probable in the last edition of this work. In confirmation of these views, and as a fact worthy of farther investigation on its own account, it is worthy of notice, that, according to Dr. Duflos, the acetate of sesquioxide of iron answers equally well as an antidote with the sesquioxide itself. It precipitates both arsenious and arsenic acid from every state of solution, and always the more quickly the more the solution is diluted; and the co-existence of acetic acid is no obstacle to this action taking place.[823]—More recently Professor Orfila has called in question the absolute efficacy generally ascribed to the sesquioxide of iron. He alleges that the arsenical compound formed, though insoluble in water, is soluble to some extent in the gastric juices, and is consequently a poison to animals; that the sesquioxide is therefore only partial in its operation as a remedy; but yet that the influence of the animal fluids in the stomach in counteracting it may be overcome by giving it in excess, so that, as fast as the compound is dissolved, it is thrown down again.[824]

The cases of the successful employment of this antidote in the human subject, which have appeared in the periodical press during the last eight years, are so numerous, that its utility can scarcely be called in question, whatsoever may be its precise mode of action. The hydrated sesquioxide of iron ought therefore to be kept in readiness in every druggist’s establishment; for it cannot be prepared when wanted without great loss of time. The quickest way to make it is to dissolve the common anhydrous sesquioxide, formerly miscalled carbonate of iron, in diluted sulphuric acid aided with a gentle heat; to decompose the hot solution with an excess of strong ammonia; to filter off the fluid by means of a cloth filter and wash the precipitate well with warm water; and then to let it drain thoroughly and to squeeze out more of the water by expression. It should be kept in this state, and not allowed to dry.

In regard to all antidotes for arsenic, it must be observed, that they can seldom be otherwise employed than in unfavourable circumstances. If, as most generally happens, the poison has been taken some time before medical aid is obtained, its powder is diffused over the surface of the stomach, adheres with tenacity to the villous coat, and excites the secretion of tough mucus, through which it is with difficulty reached by any antidote possessing a chemical action with it. In all cases, therefore, it is advisable to promote vomiting occasionally, if not already full and free, so as to aid the stomach in clearing itself of the secreted mucus.

If the existence of a chemical antidote for arsenic be doubtful, much less is there any one known of that rarer denomination which operates by exciting in the system an action contrary to that established by the poison.

A good deal, however, may be done by general medical treatment to improve the chance of recovery. If vomiting should be delayed, as often happens, for half an hour or more, advantage ought to be taken of the opportunity to administer an emetic of the sulphate of zinc, with the view of withdrawing the powder in mass before it is diffused over the stomach; and for the same purpose milk should be drunk both before and after vomiting has begun, as it appears to be the best substance for enveloping the powder, and so procuring its discharge. The patient should never be allowed to exhaust his strength in retching without a little milk or other fluid in his stomach to act on. At the same time, there is probably some justice in the opinion expressed by a late writer on this subject, that large draughts of diluents are injurious; and that, unless the stomach is allowed to contract fully and frequently on itself, it cannot discharge from its surface the mucous secretion, in which the powder of arsenic is in general closely enveloped.[825] The stomach-pump, although it has been applied to cases of poisoning with arsenic, does not possess any advantage whatever over emetics or the natural efforts of nature, and is less effectual in expelling the mucus which envelopes the poison. Even emetics are unnecessary, when full vomiting is caused by the poison itself. If milk in sufficient quantity cannot be procured, strong farinaceous decoctions will probably prove useful.

Supposing the poison to have been removed from the stomach, or that the patient has been put on the course which appears best fitted to accomplish that end,—two objects remain to be accomplished, namely, to allay the inflammation of the alimentary canal, and to support the system under that extraordinary depression which it undergoes in the generality of cases. Were it not for the latter of these objects, the treatment would be both obvious and frequently successful. But it is highly probable that the active remedies, to which the physician trusts in internal inflammations generally, and which are urgently called for by the inflammation caused by arsenic, cannot be enforced with the requisite vigour, on account of the remote depressing effects also produced by this poison on the body.

Nevertheless, it is certain that in a few even very aggravated cases the purest and most vigorous antiphlogistic treatment has been resorted to with success. Dr. Roget’s patient, whose case was formerly referred to for another purpose, seems to have been saved by venesection; and at all events, the amelioration effected was unequivocal. In the Medical Repository there is another good example of the beneficial effects of blood-letting carried even to a greater extent than in Roget’s case;[826] and in the Medical and Physical Journal[827] a third instance will be found, which after the first twenty-four hours assumed the form of pure gastritis, and was treated as such with success. Blood-letting ought not to be practised till the poison is nearly all discharged from the stomach, because it promotes absorption by causing emptiness of the blood-vessels.

Orfila has lately advocated the use of blood-letting, on the ground that it tends to remove from the system a portion of the poison which circulates with the blood, and is the main source of danger to life. He has endeavoured to show by experiments on animals, that doses adequate to cause death may be given without this result following, if depletion be vigorously enforced along with other treatment. And he has related a case of recovery in the human subject under unfavourable circumstances, where blood-letting was practised five times, and on every occasion with marked relief.[828]

It is not probable that any material advantage will be derived from topical blood-letting, at least in the early stage, because if depletion is to be of use at all, it must be carried at once to a far greater extent than it is possible to attain by local evacuants. Blisters on the abdomen will prove useful auxiliaries in the advanced stage.

While many have advocated the employment of blood-letting and other antiphlogistics, and have used them with apparent advantage, Rasori was of opinion, and more recently Giacomini has strenuously maintained that the proper treatment in all cases of arsenical poisoning is the purely stimulant method. The remedy recommended by the latter is a mixture of eight ounces of beef-tea and two ounces of wine. These notions are evidently dictated by the prevailing pathological delusions of the Italian school. Although upheld in some measure by a Report of the Parisian Academy of Medicine upon some experiments by M. Rognetta on this subject,[829] Professor Orfila subsequently proved, that the practice recommended is utterly useless, if not even hurtful.[830] At the same time no one who has ever seen a case of poisoning by arsenic can doubt that it is often necessary to counteract the overwhelming languor of the circulation by the moderate use of stimulants.

Opium in repeated doses will prove useful, when the poison has been removed, and the inflammation subdued by blood-letting. And I conceive that to the form of gastritis, caused by arsenic, may be applied a method of treatment by anodynes, which has been successfully used in acute inflammation generally,—the free administration of opium immediately after copious depletion. For the safe employment of this method, however, it is essential that the arsenic be completely removed from the stomach and intestines. And from the results of many cases there must always be great reason to apprehend, that, before the treatment can be with propriety resorted to, the patient’s strength will be exhausted.

The harassing fits of vomiting which often continue long after the poison has been discharged from the stomach are best removed by opium in the form of clyster, or rubbed over the inside of the rectum in the form of ointment with the finger.

The use of laxatives is particularly required in all cases in which there is tenesmus instead of diarrhœa, or where, in the latter stages, diarrhœa is succeeded by constipation; and castor oil is the laxative generally preferred. While diarrhœa is present, and the evacuations are profuse or the intestines have been thoroughly emptied, laxatives are unnecessary or even hurtful; but emollient clysters are advisable, and opium in the form of enema or suppository. In short, so far as regards the intestinal affection, the treatment of the acute stage of dysentery is to be enforced.

Professor Orfila lays great stress on the employment of diuretics after the stomach has been cleared out, and founds this practice on his observations which show that arsenic is absorbed into the blood, and gradually discharged by the secretions, especially the urine. Experience seems to confirm theory. Dogs, after receiving a small dose, adequate to occasion death, recovered under the active administration of diuretics. Having ascertained that this animal was constantly killed in a period varying from thirty to forty-eight hours by two grains applied to a wound, provided no remedies were employed, he tried the diuretic method with six which had been thus poisoned; and all of them recovered.[831] The diuretic he recommends is a mixture of ten pounds of water, five of white [French] wine, a bottle of Selzer water, and three ounces of nitre; the dose of which is two wine-glassfuls frequently.[832] This method has been followed with success in the human subject. M. Augouard relates a case where 230 grains produced in half an hour all the usual symptoms, which he immediately proceeded to treat by administering a grain and a half of tartar-emetic, to excite full vomiting. Having accomplished this object, he gave frequent doses of decoction of mallow “strongly salpetred,” which in seven hours excited so profuse a diuresis that in the ensuing ten hours no less than eighteen imperial pints was discharged. At the close of this period a material amendment took place, and recovery was complete in fifteen days.[833] It may be observed, however, that it is sometimes impossible to excite diuresis.[834]

Little need be said of the practice to be pursued in the advanced stages of poisoning with arsenic, when convalescence has begun. The principal object is to support the system by mild nourishment, avoiding at the same time stimulant diet of every kind, but especially spirituous and vinous liquors. Whatever may be the difference of results obtained with the antiphlogistic mode of cure, the opposite system has been invariably detrimental in the advanced stage.

The treatment of the nervous and dyspeptic affections, which may supervene after the symptoms of local inflammation have ceased, is not a fit object of review in this work, as it would lead to great details.