(7), (8), and (9) suffered like Nos. 1 and 2, and recovered after several months.
The chief post-mortem appearance was a dirty green colour of the mucous membrane of the intestines, and congestion of the kidneys. Arsenic was detected in all parts of the body.[706]
[706] Trost, Vergiftung durch Arsenwasserstoff bei der technischen Gewinnung des Silbers, Vierteljahrsschrift f. gericht. Med., xviii. Bd., 2 Heft, S. 6, 1873.
Two cases are detailed by Dr. Valette in Tardieu’s Étude.[707] A mistake occurred in a laboratory, by which a solution of arsenic (instead of sulphuric acid) was poured on zinc to develop hydrogen. Of the two sufferers, the one recovered after an illness of about a week or ten days, the other died at the end of twenty-eight days. The main symptoms were yellowness of skin, vomiting, bloody urine, great depression, slight diarrhœa, headache, and in the fatal case a morbiliform eruption. In a case recorded in the British Medical Journal, November 4, 1876, there were none of the usual symptoms of gastric irritation, but loss of memory of recent acts, drowsiness, and giddiness.
[707] Ambroise Tardieu, Étude Médico-légale sur l’Empoisonnement, Obs. xxv. p. 449.
§ 712. The Sulphides of Arsenic.—Of the sulphides of arsenic, two only, realgar and orpiment, are of any practical importance. Realgar, As2S2 = 214; specific gravity, 3·356; composition in 100 parts, As 70·01, S 29·91; average composition of commercial product, As 75, S 25. Realgar is found native in ruby-red crystals, and is also prepared artificially by heating together 9 parts of arsenic and 4 of sulphur, or 198 parts of arsenious anhydride with 112 parts of sulphur, 2As2O3 + 7S = 2As2S2 + 3SO2. It is insoluble in water and in hydrochloric acid, but is readily dissolved by potassic disulphide, by nitric acid, and by aqua regia. It is decomposed by caustic potash, leaving undissolved a brown sediment (As12S), which contains 96·5 per cent. of arsenic. The dissolved portion is readily converted into arsine by aluminium.