Directions for the treatment of persons who have taken poison, and those in a state of apparent death; together with the means of detecting poisons and adulterations in wine; also of distinguishing real from apparent death / by M.P. Orfila. Translated from the French / by R.H. Black ... With an appendix, on suspended animation.

  • Orfila, Matthieu Joseph Bonaventure, 1787-1853
Date:
1818
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Directions for the treatment of persons who have taken poison, and those in a state of apparent death; together with the means of detecting poisons and adulterations in wine; also of distinguishing real from apparent death / by M.P. Orfila. Translated from the French / by R.H. Black ... With an appendix, on suspended animation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/272 (page 25)
    The taste of these poisons is acrid, metallic, more or less like that of ink, less burning than acids and alkalies ; the patient complains in general of a con- striction of the throat, pain in the back part of the mouth, stomach, and intes- tines; desire to vomit, and vomiting follows with more or less violence. The matter vomited is of various colours, often mixed with blood ; it does not effervesce when thrown upon the ground, or mix- ed with chalk; it never changes the colour of violets green, and when it reddens the tincture of litmus or red cabbage, it is in a very slight degree. The bowels are occasionally constipated, sometimes relaxed, and then the evacua- tions are often bloody. To these alarming symptoms, are joined frequent and foetid eructations ; hickup, difficulty of respiration, and almost suffo- cation ; the pulse becomes small, hard, and accelerated, and in certain cases, it maybe said to vibrate under the finger like catgut. It is seldom we find it unequal and intermittent, that is, not the same c