Outlines of medical jurisprudence for India / by J.D.B. Gribble and Patrick Hehir.

  • Gribble, J. D. B. (James Dunning Baker), -1906
Date:
1898
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of medical jurisprudence for India / by J.D.B. Gribble and Patrick Hehir. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    OHAP. IV.] ACIDS AND ALKALIES. the past few years, occurred at Punamali, in November 1884. A man was arrested for the supposed murder, but he was acquitted The case was possibly suicidal. In this instance a quantity of prussic acid, equivalent to thirty-six minims ot the ordinary medicinal acid, was recovered from the stomach and contents and other viscera forwarded for examination. Hehir met with one case of suicidal poisoning by cyanide of potassium, the poison having been procured from an electro-plater in a bazaar. The patient died within five minutes of taking about 20 grains of this poison. The patient left a written statement as to the cause of death. 703. The smallest recorded fatal dose of prussic acid .is ^J.^0* twenty minims of Scheele's acid, fatal in twenty minutes. prnssl Largest dose with recovery, one drachm (sixty grains) of Scheele's acid. The average fatal dose of the 2 per cent. acid is thirty minims (Ibid.; 0. C. Stewart). Taylor states it to be 45 minims of the dilute acid of the Pharmacopoeia. 704. Antidotes are generally useless, since death is so treatment sudden, a large quantity killing in from two to five minutes, prus8ic acid though insensibility may occur in a few seconds. If seen at poisoning, once, stomach-pump or any emetic at hand. A moderately dilute solution of potash, lime of waishing soda, along with a little ferrous sulphate, would render harmless so much of the poison as was still in the stomach unabsorbed. Ammonia and chlorine water have also been used. Give stimulants, brandy, chloric ether, sal volatile, etc., ad libitum. If the patient cannot swallow, give stimulants in the form of enema. A hypodermic injection of one-fiftieth of a grain of atropine. Artificial respiration may be useful in keeping up life till the poison is eliminated from the body. 705. There are no characteristic post-mortem appearances, Post-mortem which, on the whole, resemble those of asphyxia. The odour, pJ^S however, should be a guide—that of bitter almonds, and the poisoning, organs should be sealed up in stoppered bottles and sent for analysis at once, as the poison is very volatile.
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