[731] Vierteljahr. f. gericht Med., N. F., ix. 96.
[732] Azione di alcune Muffe sui Compositi fissi d’Arsenico. Ministero dell’ Interno, Laboratori Scientifici della Direzione di Sanita, Roma, 1892.
[733] “On the Formation of Volatile Compounds of Arsenic from Arsenical Wall-Papers,” American Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol. xxix.
This substance appears to be readily enough produced by the action of the common moulds upon organic matter in the presence of small amounts of arsenic; the moulds vary in this property: Mucor, Mucedo, and Aspergillum glaucum react well; on the contrary, Penicillium glaucum, Mucor ramosus, and several others have either no action, or the action is but slight. One mould, the Penicillium brevicaule, has quite a special endowment in forming this peculiar arsenical compound; so much so, that Gosio has proposed its use as a reagent for arsenic, the garlic odour being perceived when the fungus is made to grow in solutions containing organic matter and only traces of arsenic.
§ 726. Forms of Arsenical Poisoning.—There are at least four distinct forms of arsenical poisoning, viz., an acute, subacute, a nervous, and a chronic form.
Acute Form.—All those cases in which the inflammatory symptoms are severe from the commencement, and in which the sufferer dies within twenty-four hours, may be called acute. The commencement of the symptoms in these cases is always within the hour; they have been known, indeed, to occur within eight minutes, but the most usual time is from twenty minutes to half an hour. There is an acrid feeling in the throat, with nausea; vomiting soon sets in, the ejected matters being at first composed of the substances eaten; later they may be bilious or even bloody, or composed of a whitish liquid. Diarrhœa follows and accompanies the vomiting, the motions are sometimes like those met with in ordinary diarrhœa and English cholera, and sometimes bloody. There is coldness of the extremities, with great feebleness, and the pulse is small and difficult to feel. The face, at first very pale, takes a bluish tint, the temperature falls still lower; the patient sinks in collapse, and death takes place in from five to twenty hours after the taking of the poison.
There can scarcely be said to be any clinical feature which distinguishes the above description from that of cholera; and supposing that cholera were epidemic, and no suspicious circumstance apparently present, there can be little doubt that a most experienced physician might mistake the cause of the malady, unless surrounding circumstances give some hint or clue to it. In the acute form diarrhœa may be absent, and the patient die, as it were, from “shock.” This was probably the cause of death in a case related by Casper,[734] that of Julius Bolle, poisoned by his wife. He took an unknown quantity of arsenic in solution at seven in the morning, and in about three-quarters of an hour afterwards suffered from pain and vomiting, and died in little more than three hours. There were no signs of inflammation in the stomach and intestines, but from the contents of the stomach were separated ·0132 grm. of arsenious acid, and ·00513 grm. from pieces of the liver, spleen, kidneys, lung, and blood. The dose actually taken is supposed not to have been less than ·388 grm. (6 grains).
[734] Case 188 in Casper’s Handbuch.