§ 241. The effects of the vapour on man are somewhat different in their details to those just described. In a remarkable case related by Dr. Letheby, a man, aged 42, had spilt some nitro-benzene over his clothes. He went about several hours breathing an atmosphere of nitro-benzene, he then became drowsy, his expression was stupid, and his gait unsteady, presenting all the appearances of intoxication. The stupor suddenly deepened into coma, and the man died; the fatal course being altogether about nine hours—viz., four hours before coma, and five hours of total insensibility.
An interesting case of poisoning by the vapour is recorded by Taylor.[222] A woman, aged 30, tasted a liquid used for flavouring pastry, which was afterwards chemically identified as pure nitro-benzene. She immediately spat it out, finding that it had an acrid taste, and probably did not swallow more than a drop. In replacing the bottle, however, she spilt about a tablespoonful, and allowed it to remain for some minutes; it was a small room, and the vapour rapidly pervaded it, and caused illness in herself as well as in a fellow-servant. She had a strange feeling of numbness in the tongue, and in three hours and a quarter after the accident was seen by a medical man; she then presented all the appearances of prussic acid poisoning. The eyes were bright and glassy, the features pale and ghastly, the lips and nails purple, as if stained with blackberries, the skin clammy, and the pulse feeble, but the mind was then clear. An emetic was administered, but she suddenly became unconscious; the emetic acted, and brought up a fluid with an odour of nitro-benzene. The stomach-pump was also used, but the liquid obtained had scarcely any odour of nitro-benzene. In about eleven hours consciousness returned, and in about seventeen hours she partially recovered, but complained of flashes of light and strange colours before her eyes. Recovery was not complete for weeks. In this case the small quantity swallowed would probably of itself have produced no symptoms, and the effects are to be mainly ascribed to the breathing of the vapour.
[222] Poisons, Third Edition, p. 665.
§ 242. The liquid, when swallowed, acts almost precisely in the same way as the vapour, and the symptoms resemble very much those produced by prussic acid. The great distinction between prussic acid and nitro-benzene poisoning is that, in the latter, there is an interval between the taking of the poison and its effects. This is, indeed, one of the strangest phenomena of nitro-benzene poisoning, for the person, after taking it, may appear perfectly well for periods varying from a quarter of an hour to two or three hours, or even longer, and then there may be most alarming symptoms, followed by rapid death. Poisoning by nitro-benzene satisfies the ideal of the dramatist, who requires, for the purposes of his plot, poisons not acting at once, but with an interval sufficiently prolonged to admit of lengthy rhapsodies and a complicated dénouement. On drinking the poison there is a burning taste in the mouth, shortly followed by a very striking blueness or purple appearance of the lips, tongue, skin, nails, and even the conjunctivæ. This curious colour of the skin has, in one or two instances, been witnessed an hour before any feeling of illness manifested itself; vomiting then comes on, the vomited matter smelling of nitro-benzene. The skin is cold, there is great depression, and the pulse is small and weak. The respiration is affected, the breathing being slow and irregular, the breath smelling strongly of the liquid, and the odour often persisting for days. A further stage is that of loss of consciousness, and this comes on with all the suddenness of a fit of apoplexy. The coma is also similar in appearance to apoplectic coma, but there have frequently been seen trismus and convulsions of the extremities. The pupils are dilated and do not react to light, and reflex sensibility is sometimes completely extinguished. Cases vary a little in their main features; in a few the blue skin and the deep sleep are the only symptoms noted. Death, for the most part, occurs after a period of from eight to twenty-four hours (occasionally as soon as four or five hours) after taking the poison.
From the following remarkable train of symptoms in a dog, it is probable, indeed, that nitro-benzene, taken by a human being, might produce death, after a rather prolonged period of time, by its secondary effects:—To a half-bred greyhound[223] were administered 15 grms. of nitro-benzene, when shortly after there were noticed much salivation, shivering, and muscular twitchings. The same dose was repeated at the end of five, of seven, and of eight hours respectively, so that the dog altogether took 60 grms., but with no other apparent symptom than the profuse salivation. On the following day, the dog voided a tapeworm; vomiting supervened; the heart’s action was quickened, and the breathing difficult; convulsions followed, and the pupils were seen to be dilated. For eight days the dog suffered from dyspnœa, quickened pulse, shivering of the legs or of the whole body, tetanic spasms, bloody motions, great thirst and debility. The temperature gradually sank under 25°, and the animal finally died. The autopsy showed, as the most striking change, the whole mucous membrane of the intestinal tract covered with a yellow layer, which chemical analysis proved to be caused by picric acid, and in the urine, liver, and lungs, aniline was discovered.
[223] Eulenberg, Gewerbe Hygiene, S. 607.