SUBSTANCES PRODUCING ABORTION.
This group, though far from a natural one, is nevertheless convenient. It comprehends a great variety of substances, first among which comes.
Ergot of Rye (Spurred Rye, Secale cornatum).—The grain of wheat, barley, oats, and rye is apt to be attacked by a parasitic fungus which imparts to it specific properties. This substance has the power of inducing contraction of unstriped muscular fibre, especially in the smaller arteries and uterus. Ergotised grain, in full doses, gives rise to lassitude, headache, nausea, and diarrhœa. From small quantities, frequently repeated, gangrene of the extremities has resulted. The peculiar influence of ergot on the muscular coat of the uterus renders this agent a valuable medicine when we wish to induce powerful contractions, but in the hands of the ill-intentioned it is frequently used to procure abortion; but its action in this way is far from certain, and at all times dangerous.
Savin and its oil are irritant poisons, only indirectly affecting the uterus; nevertheless, they not unfrequently are used to induce miscarriage.
Oil of Tansy has also been employed in America as an abortive agent, and in three instances, at least, has caused death.
The Yew (Taxus baccata), which has acquired in certain districts a reputation as an abortive, acts as do some others, by producing irritation of the bowels, and so communicating a kind of stimulus to the uterus. The leaves and berries of the yew have both proved fatal, commonly with irritant symptoms; but those of coma have also been observed.
In America extract of Cotton-wood has a reputation as an abortive.
[APPENDIX.]
I. Bites of Venomous Reptiles.—The poisonous reptiles provided with fangs are the Ophidia, or Serpents.
Accidents from serpents’ bites rarely, of course, happen in this country, but are of frequent occurrence in India, Australia, and America.
On the morning of the 20th October, 1852, one of the keepers at the Zoological Gardens in the Regent’s Park, was wounded by a cobra, which he had removed from its cage and was playing with. For twenty minutes after the animal bit him at the root of the nose no peculiar symptoms were manifested, and the part was merely bathed with water. Forty minutes afterwards the man was admitted into University College Hospital, his face then being livid, respiration impeded, and the power of locomotion imperfect. He pointed to his throat as the seat of pain, but could not speak, and was unable to swallow. Artificial respiration was employed for fifty minutes, and subsequently galvanism; but stupor rapidly succeeded to faintness, and the patient died comatose fifty-five minutes after admission. The chief appearances found on dissection were an unnatural fluidity and blackness of the blood, with great congestion of the lungs and spleen.
The only poisonous reptile indigenous to this country is the common viper or adder. It is found on the heaths and in the dry woods of all parts of England, Scotland, and Wales, and is much feared on account of its venom. Very few cases are known in which the bite of this animal has proved fatal. In May, 1862, a little boy, at Burgess Hill, near Brighton, clambered up a bank, to examine a bird’s nest. Groping with his hand among the moss, he felt, as he thought, a sharp prick from a thorn. It turned out to be a bite from an adder. As the real cause of the wound was not suspected, the swelling of the hand and arm was not properly attended to until too late, and the poor child died on the second day.
The poison apparatus of the viper consists of a gland placed by the side of the head, a duct, and a fang or pointed curved tooth, moulded in the form of a tube on either side. On being bitten, the person has pain in the wounded part, which quickly becomes severe and extends up the adjoining tissues. The limb swells greatly, becomes red and livid; while faintness soon sets in, and the pulse gets rapid and small. Bilious vomitings, dyspnœa, profuse cold sweats, jaundice, delirium, and convulsions, have also been noticed. In a few days the symptoms usually amend; but in weak sickly individuals gangrene of the limb may follow, or death may occur in the course of two or three days.
The treatment of the bites of venomous reptiles must be local and constitutional. Immediately the wound is inflicted it should be sucked freely and perseveringly. If the patient is too faint to do this for himself, a bystander may fearlessly help him; for it is well known that these poisons may be smeared upon the lips and tongue, or even swallowed, with impunity. At the same time a ligature is to be placed around the limb, above the wound; or if this be impossible, from its situation, the textures around are to be compressed. Then, the bitten part may be excised; or it may be destroyed by the actual cautery, nitric acid, the strong liquor ammoniæ, or nitrate of silver.
Professor Halford, of the University of Melbourne, in a paper published at the commencement of 1869, recommended the injection of liquor ammoniæ into the veins for snake bite. Of twenty cases of snake bite since treated in this manner, by different practitioners, recovery occurred in seventeen. The snakes were all venomous, and included the tiger snake, the brown and black snake of Australia, &c. These, according to Professor Halford, are as deadly as the cobra and rattlesnakes of India. The plan of proceeding is to expose the vein, and then to pierce its coats with the sharp point of a hypodermic syringe containing the officinal liquor ammoniæ—sp. grav. 0·959. At least thirty minims are to be employed; the dose being repeated as the power of the preceding injection is expended. Professor Halford formerly thought that in consequence of the entrance of the snake poison into the blood a rapid growth of new cells occurred, which took up and exhausted the fibrin and oxygen of the blood, and rendered them incapable of ministering to the wants of the system. He now thinks that the new corpuscles are only the white corpuscles of the blood altered and enlarged, the change in them being caused by an alteration in the liquor sanguinis; this alteration being, in fact, a disappearance of the fibrin under the action of the poison. The ammonia is believed to counteract this power, and in favor of this view many Australian physicians have spoken strongly. Dr. Fayrer, however, has found the proceeding a failure in India. This gentleman is of opinion that the activity of the poison in some Indian snakes is so great that it is impossible to counteract it by any method.
The constitutional remedies are derived chiefly from the class of diffusible stimulants. No agent is more generally recommended than ammonia; and therefore the officinal compound tincture of ammonia (formerly known as eau de luce) should be given in half-drachm doses, well diluted; or the aromatic spirits of ammonia may be administered in the proportion of two drachms to an ounce and a half of water. Supposing that no ammonia is at hand, brandy will prove an excellent substitute. Transfusion of blood has been likewise recommended; but I do not know of any instance in which it has been resorted to.
II. Bites of Rabid Animals.—As the subject of Hydrophobia is fully treated of in Dr. Tanner’s work on “The Practice of Medicine,” remarks are here confined to the treatment to be adopted directly a person is bitten by a rabid animal. This is briefly as follows:—The tissues round the seat of injury are to be compressed by a ligature or otherwise, to prevent absorption. Then the wounded part is to be excised as soon as possible; taking care to remove every portion touched by the animal’s teeth, and to obtain a clean raw surface. The wound should then be thoroughly washed by a stream of water, long poured over it, and lunar caustic afterwards applied. Mr. Youatt prefers the nitrate of silver, freely used, to every other caustic; and he also recommends that after its application the wound should be quickly healed, though many authorities advise that it be kept open by irritating ointments. As these operations are very painful, there is no objection to the patient being placed under the influence of chloroform. He should afterwards be assured that everything has been done to prevent any subsequent mischief; and to give him greater confidence and to banish all fear from his mind, it may be as well to administer ammonia and bark for some days after the accident.
III. Stings of Bees, etc.—The poison apparatus of the common bee consists of glands, and a sting placed at the extremity of the body. The effect of the bite is usually slight, and the pain quickly passes off. In some few instances, however, there have resulted swelling and erysipelas, or suppuration and gangrene, or even death.
In the month of August, 1819, John Trevalli, of Pennsylvania, was stung by a bee in the middle finger of his right hand. He immediately became faint and insensible to surrounding objects; his complexion was livid, his breathing slow, and the perspiration saturated his clothes. At the end of an hour and a half he was bled, and recovered. On the 21st July, 1820, he was stung in the temple by a bumble bee. His wife was present and gave him some water, but in ten minutes he was dead.—(American Journal of Medical Sciences, Vol. 19, p. 265. Philadelphia, 1836.) Two other rapidly fatal cases are noticed in the same journal, as well as two examples of death from the sting of a wasp and one from the bite of a spider.
Mr. C. Hanbury has recorded a case of death from the sting of a bee (Medical Times and Gazette, p. 232. 10th March, 1860); and has also given short abstracts of several examples collected by Dr. Crisp, where severe symptoms have resulted from the same injury. Sir Benjamin Brodie (Lectures on Pathology and Surgery, p. 286. London, 1846) says he has seen a case in which sloughing of the cellular tissue followed from a leech bite, and another in which similar mischief followed the sting of a bee. Both the patients died.
And again, in a communication from Montbard (La Patrie, 19th September, 1858) it is stated that a youth sixteen years of age was drinking from a bottle, when a wasp, which he had not seen, got into his throat and wounded him. He died suffocated by the swelling, before any assistance could be procured.
According to Messrs. Kirby and Spence (Introduction to Entomology, Seventh Edition, p. 76, London, 1856), serious effects are sometimes produced on peculiar constitutions by eating freely of honey or from partaking of mead—a drink made by fermenting honey and water. These authors state that they knew a lady upon whom such things acted like poison, and they had heard of instances in which death was the consequence. Sometimes, when the bees have extracted their sweets from poisonous plants, these injurious results have not been confined to individuals of a particular habit. Thus, according to Dr. Barton (American Philosophical Transactions, vol. 5), there were numerous deaths in the autumn and winter of 1790 from eating honey collected in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, which, on inquiry, was found to be due to this substance having been extracted from the beautiful but poisonous flowers of the Kalmia latifolia.
The following Table from Dr. Garrod’s “Materia Medica” shows the proportions in which some of the more important drugs of the “Pharmacopœia” are contained in the Officinal Preparations.