[717] Cooley’s Dictionary, Art. “Arsenic.”
§ 721. Effects on Animal Life—Animalcules.—All infusoria and forms of animalcule-life hitherto observed perish rapidly if a minute quantity of arsenious acid is dissolved in the water in which they exist.
Insects.—The common arsenical fly-papers afford numerous opportunities for observing the action of arsenic on ordinary flies; within a few minutes (five to ten after taking the poison into their digestive organs) they fall, apparently from paralysis of the wings, and die. Spiders and all insects into which the poison has been introduced exhibit a similar sudden death. It is said that in the neighbourhood of arsenical manufactories there is much destruction among bees and other forms of insect life.
Annelids.—If arsenious acid is applied to the external surface of worms or leeches, the part which it touches perishes first, and life is extinguished successively in the others. If a wound is made first, and the arsenious acid then applied to it, the effects are only intensified and hastened. There is always noticed an augmentation of the excretions; the vermicular movements are at first made more lively, they then become languid, and death is very gradual.
Birds.—The symptoms with birds are somewhat different, and vary according to the form in which the poison is administered, viz., whether as a vapour or in solution. In several experiments made by Eulenberg on pigeons, the birds were secured under glass shades, and exposed to the vapour of metallic arsenic vaporised by heat. It is scarcely necessary to remark that in operating in this way, the poisoning was not by metallic arsenic vapour, but by that of arsenious acid. One of these experiments may be cited:—A pigeon was made to breathe an atmosphere charged with vapour from the volatilisation of metallic arsenic. The bird was immediately restless; in thirty minutes it vomited repeatedly, and the nasal apertures were noticed to be moist; after a little while, the bird, still breathing the arsenious acid atmosphere, was much distressed, shook its head repeatedly, and yawned; in fifty minutes the respiration was laboured, and in fifty-nine minutes there was much vomiting. On removing the bird, after it had been exposed an hour to the vapour (·16 grm. of metallic arsenic having been evaporated in all), it rapidly recovered.
Six days after, the pigeon was again exposed in the same way to the vapour, but this time ·56 grm. of metallic arsenic was volatilised. In fifteen minutes there was retching, followed by vomiting. On taking it out after an hour it remained very quiet, ate nothing, and often puffed itself out; the breathing was normal, movements free, but it had unusual thirst. On the second and third day the excretions were frequent and fluid; the cardiac pulsations were slowed, and the bird was disinclined to move. On the fourth day it continued in one place, puffing itself out; towards evening the respirations slowed, the beak gaping at every inspiration. On attempting flight, the wings fluttered and the bird fell on its head. After this it lay on its side, with slow, laboured respiration, the heart-beats scarcely to be felt, and death took place without convulsions, and very quietly. On examining the organs after death, the brain and spinal cord were very bloodless; there were ecchymoses in the lungs; but little else characteristic. The experiment quoted has a direct bearing upon the breathing of arsenical dust; as, for example, that which floats in the air of a room papered with an easily detached arsenical pigment. Other experiments on birds generally have shown that the symptoms produced by arsenious acid in solution, or in the solid form, in a dose insufficient to destroy life, are languor, loss of appetite, and the voidance of large quantities of liquid excreta like verdigris. With fatal doses, the bird remains quiet; there are fluid, sometimes bloody, excretions; spasmodic movements of the pharynx, anti-peristaltic contraction of the œsophagus, vomiting, general trembling of the body, thirst, erection of the feathers, and laboured respiration. The bird becomes very feeble, and the scene mostly closes with insensibility and convulsions.
Mammals, such as cats, dogs, &c., suffer from symptoms fairly identical with those observed in man; but the nervous symptoms (according to P. Hugo) do not predominate, while with rabbits and guinea-pigs, nervous symptoms are more marked and constant.[718] There are vomiting, purging, and often convulsions and paralysis before death. It has been noticed that the muscles after death are in a great state of contraction. The slow poisoning of a dog, according to Lolliot,[719] produced an erythematous eruption in the vicinity of the joints, ears, and other parts of the body; there were conjunctivitis, increased lachrymal secretion, and photophobia; the hair fell off.