A treatise on poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic / By Robert Christison.

  • Christison, Robert, Sir, 1797-1882.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic / By Robert Christison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    886/918 (page 848)
    nary duration in fatal cases seems to be from twelve to eigh- teen hours. 3. The third degree of poisoning is not so often witnessed, because in order to produce it a greater quantity of spirits must be swallowed pure and at once than is usually taken by those among whom poisoning in the second degree chiefly occurs. When swallowed in large quantity, as by persons who have taken foolish wagers on their prowess in drinking, there is sel- dom much preliminary excitement: coma comes on in a few minutes and soon becomes profound, as in apoplexy. The face is then sometimes livid, more generally ghastly pale; the breathing stertorous, and of a spirituous odour ; the pupils sometimes much contracted, more commonly dilated and insen- sible ; and if relief is not speedily procured death takes place, —generally in a few hours, and sometimes immediately. Ac- cording to Mr Bedingfield, who witnessed many cases of poi- soning with rum at Liverpool, which always follow the arrival of the West India vessels, the patient will recover if the iris remains contractile, but if it is dilated and motionless on the approach of a light, recovery is very improbable #. A case is briefly alluded to by Orfila of a soldier, who drank eight pints of brandy for a wager, and died instantly f. A case of the same kind is quoted by Professor Marx %. Similar ac- cidents occur not infrequently in this country; but I have not met with any fully described by authors. A case of the less rapid variety of the present form occurred at the Infirmary here in 1820. A man stole a bottle of whisky; and, being in danger of detection, took what he thought the surest way of concealing it, by drinking it all. He died in four hours with symptoms of pure coma. Convulsions are not common in such cases. I have seen a remarkable example, however, in which the coma was accom- panied with constant alternating opisthotonos and emprosthotonos. The subject was a boy who had been induced to drink raw whisky by an acquaintance, and had been two hours insensible before I saw him. The stomach-pump, which was immediate- * Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journal, xii. 489, from Bedingfield's Compendium of Med. Practice. f Toxicol. Gen. ii. 454. | Die Lehre von den Giften, I. ii. 306.