344

POISONS.

lime water. Alkaline and earthy neutral salts do not affect it ; butsalts with excess of acid do. Infusion of gall, occasions a copiouswhitish-yellow precipitate. The muriate of antimony is a dark,heavy fluid, to which, if water be added, a white precipitate isformed. The oxide is soluble in muriatic acid, by which the muri-ate is formed.

* # * All the preparations of antimony are readily reduced to themetallic state by calcination with charcoal and potash.

Copper, and its Preparations. (Sulphate of copper, or blue vit-riol; subacetate of copper, or verdigrise. Food cooked in foul coppervessels, and pickles made green by copper.)

Symptoms. — Acrid and coppery taste ; tongue parched ahd dry ;constriction of the throat and coppery eructations ; severe vomit-ings, or fruitless efforts to vomit ; dragging at the stomach ; dread-ful colic ; frequent black bloody stools with tenesmus : abdomendistended; pulse small, hard, and quick; syncope; great thirstand anxiety ; cold sweats, scanty urine ; pain in the head, vertigo,cramps, convulsions, and death.

Treatment. — Large draughts of milk and water to encouragevomiting. Whites of eggs stirred up with water, and taken freely.Inflammation to be attacked as a general principle, and the ner-vous symptoms by anodynes and antispasmodics. Sugar, as firstpromulgated by Orfila, is not a specific, but it may be given ad-vantageously with coffee.

Tests. — The salts of copper are mostly of a bright green or bluecolour, and are easily reduced to their metallic state by means ofcharcoal, at an elevated temperature. The sulphate of copper ispartly decomposed by a'ka/ies and alkaline earths. Potash pre-cipitates a subsulphate of a green colour from it.

If the salts of copper be dissolved in coffee, port wine, or maltliquors, which partly decompose them, they may be detected byadding a spirituous tincture of guaiacum, which will throw down aprecipitate varying in shade from a greenish indigo to that of apale green. Ammonia added to a solution of any cupreous salt,gives a blue or gr3enish precipitate, according to the quantity ;but, if added in excess, it re-dissolves the precipitate, and forms adeep blue transparent solution.

Lead and its Preparations ; or fluids adulterated with lead.

Symptoms. — When lead has been taken in large quantity, a su-gary astringent metallic taste is felt in the mouth ; constriction ofthe throat ; pain in the region of the stomach ; obstinate, painful,and often bloody vomiting hiccup ; convulsions and death.

When taken in small long-continued doses, it produces Devon-shire colic {cólica pictonum,) and paralytic symptoms.

Treatment. — See Alkcdine Earths. — In addition to which, if symp-toms suggest it, bleeding must be used ; in conjunction with castoroil with or without opium, assisted by frequent emollient clystersto clean out the bowels. The warm bath, &c.

Tests. — All the preparations of lead are easily reduced to theirmetallic state by calcination with charcoal.

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