Account of a case of poisoning with corrosive sublimate / [Alexander Wood].

  • Wood, Alexander.
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Account of a case of poisoning with corrosive sublimate / [Alexander Wood]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ACCOUNT OF A CASE OF POISONING WITH CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. By ALEXANDER WOOD, Eso. Surgeon, Edinburgh, President of the Royal Medical Society. (From the Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, No. 138.J The patient, a dyer in Musselburgh, named Bell, 47 years of age, was admitted, on the 3d of September, into the Royal Infir¬ mary, where I was at that time acting under Dr Shortt. The following is his case as stated by himself. On the 26th inst. (nine days before admission,) feeling rather unwell, he applied to an apothecary for a calomel powder, and re¬ ceived from his (the apothecary’s) wife about a teaspoonful of a heavy white powder, half of which he took in a glass of whisky about ten o’clock in the forenoon. While swallowing it, he felt an acute burning sensation in his throat, and immediately after, he was seized with stiffness of the jaws, and vomiting, great pain in the bowels, and the discharge of bloody stools, accompanied with cramps. Ptyalism appeared the same evening ; pain in the mouth continued, with ptyalism ; and occasionally the pain in the bowels was very severe. It does not appear that at that time any medicinal means were em¬ ployed likely to prove effectual in counteracting the effects of the poison. At the time of admission the patient complained more of weakness than of any actual pain, except in the jaws, which were stiff and swollen. The gums were also swollen and spongy. There was considerable ptyalism, and the breath had a strong mercurial foetor. There was no pain in the bowels, nor was any uneasiness evinced on pressure. He had three stools, according to his own report, of tolerable consistence, and a light colour, within the last twenty-four hours. There was no symptom of any irritation in the urinary passages. The pulse was 96, rather weak, and the countenance denoting exhaustion.