SECT. LX.—ON LIME, SANDARACH, AND ARSENIC.
Lime, sandarach, and arsenic, when taken in a draught, bring on pains of the stomach and bowels, with violent corrosion. Wherefore we must administer all things of a diluent and solvent nature, such things as will produce ready vomiting and lubricate the bowels, as the juice of the marsh or common mallows, and a decoction of linseed, or of spelt, or of rice, copious draughts of milk and honied water, broths which are fatty and contain wholesome juices.
Commentary. Nicander has not treated of poisoning by these substances. Dioscorides, Aëtius, and Actuarius give almost the same account of the symptoms and treatment as our author. Their remedies are emetics, lubricants, and laxatives. The Arabians copy their descriptions and follow their treatment. Thus Alsaharavius directs these cases to be treated by giving emetics of oily and fatty things, emollient clysters, and unctuous articles, to prevent ulceration of the intestines. Avicenna orders, in the first place, an emetic of warm water and oil, then emollient decoctions, such as those of linseed and mallows, and fat broths and milk. The cough is to be soothed by demulcents. (iv, 6, 1.) Rhases states that quicklime and arsenic occasion putrefaction of the intestines. (Cont. xxxvii. tr. 1.) Galen, however, has stated that arsenic is not, properly speaking, a septic, but a strong caustic. (De Simp. 1.)
However meagre this account of these important medicines may appear, it will be seen, upon reference to the standard works on toxicology, that the treatment at the present day scarcely differs, in any one point, from the ancient mode of practice. Emetics, demulcents, consisting of decoctions of emollient herbs, or copious draughts of milk, laxatives and clysters, form the present practice.
The ancient arsenicum, or auripigmentum, was orpiment; the sandarach was realgar, or the orange-red sulphuret. Our oxide of arsenic is a factitious substance, prepared by sublimation from cobalt: it is much more deleterious than auripigmentum or orpiment. Servitor and Avicenna have described the factitious arsenic, or oxide of arsenic of the moderns. The Arabian chemist Geber treats largely and ingeniously of orpiment, which he holds to be closely allied to sulphur. He also speaks of sublimed arsenic. (iii. 29.)