IV.—Acetic Acid.
§ 90. In the ten years ending 1893 nine deaths (four males and five females) occurred in England and Wales from drinking, by mistake or design, strong acetic acid.
A few cases only have been recorded in medical literature although there have been many experiments on animals.
The symptoms in the human subject consist of pain, vomiting, and convulsions.
In animals it causes colic, paralysis of the extremities, bloody urine, and œdema of the lungs. The lethal dose for plant-eating animals is about 0·49 gramme per kilo.
There should be no difficulty in recognising acetic acid; the odour alone is, in most cases, strong and unmistakable. Traces are detected by distilling, neutralising the distillate by soda, evaporating to dryness, and treating the residue as follows:—A portion warmed with alcohol and sulphuric acid gives a smell of acetic ether. Another portion is heated in a small tube of hard glass with arsenious acid; if acetic acid is present, or an acetate, a smell of kakodyl is produced.
V.—Ammonia.
§ 91. Ammonia, (NH3), is met with either as a vapour or gas, or as a solution of the pure gas in water.