The poisons in our food, or, Guide to health / by a physician.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poisons in our food, or, Guide to health / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    man who had occasion to reside for some time in the city, was one night seized with a distressing, an indescribable pain in the region of the abdo- men and stomach, accompanied with a feeling of tension which occasioned much restlessness, anxiety, and great aversion to food. He began to fear that inflammation of some internal organ had sat in ; but in twenty-four hours the symptoms entirely disappeared. Four days after this he experienced a similar attack; and he then recollected that, having on both occasions arrived from the coun- try late in the afternoon, he had ordered a plate of rich cheese toasted, of which he had partaken heartily; a dish of which he was very fond and often ate of. Everything was so plain that he at- tributed his suffering to the cheese. The circum- stance was mentioned to the lady of the house, who expressed great surprise, as the cheese looked very fine and rich, and persuaded him it was not the cheese, and to try it again. He did so, and had another attack; this was considered proof sufficient, and the cheese was tested and found to contain lead. Test.—Take a small piece of the suspected cheese, and put it into one ounce of water, and pass through it a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, previously adding a small quantity, say five drops, of muriatic acid, when you will at once see the fluid turn of a brown or black color, if the small- est quantity of lead is present. Bide for malting Sulphuretted Hydrogen Gas.— Take of sulphuret of antimony, pulverized, ten grains ; muriatic acid half an ounce. Put the sul- phuret of antimony in a large mouth-vial, that will