[980] Phil. Trans., 1812.
[981] Traité des Poisons, 3rd ed., t. i., Paris, 1826.
[982] Gmelin, C. G., Versuche über die Wirkungen des Baryts, Strontians, Chroms, Molybdäns, Wolframs, Tellurs, u. s. w. auf den thierischen Organismus, Tübingen, 1824; Onsum, J., Virchow’s Archiv, Bd. 2, 1863; Cyon, M., Archiv f. Anatomie, Physiologie, &c., 1866; Böhm, Archiv f. experiment. Pathol., Bd. 3, 1874.
Onsum stands alone in this view. Cyon found no emboli in the lungs, and refers the toxic effect to a paralysing influence on the heart and voluntary muscles, and also on the spinal cord. Cyon, to settle the embolic theory, injected into the one jugular vein of a rabbit barium chloride, and into the other sodic sulphate, but the small arteries and capillaries of the lungs remained clear. Böhm, operating on frogs, found a great similarity between the action of small doses of barium salts and that of certain organic poisons; as, for example, cicutoxin, ·012 to ·02 grm. subcutaneously injected into frogs, acted as a heart-poison. So also Blake[983] found the heart slowed, and concluded that barium chloride had a direct action on the cardiac muscle, and also a toxic influence on the nervous system. F. A. Falck, in experiments on rabbits, found a great reduction of temperature after poisoning with barium chloride (3° to 12·6°).
[983] Journ. of Anat. and Physiol. 2nd series, 1874.
§ 907. Effects of the Salts of Barium on Man.—There were about fifteen cases of poisoning by barium salts on record by the end of 1883—three of which were suicidal, but most of them were due to accident or mistake. In three cases, barium chloride was taken instead of Glauber’s salts; in one, instead of Carlsbad salts; in another, a mixture of barium nitrate and sulphur, instead of pure sulphur; in a sixth case, a mixture of barium acetate and raspberry syrup, instead of sodic ethylsulphate; in a seventh, a chemist put a larger dose than was ordered by the prescription; and in four cases barium carbonate had been mixed with flour, and this flour used in the making of pastry. Of the fifteen cases, nine, or 60 per cent., proved fatal; the fifteen cases have now (1894) been increased to twenty-six.
Fatal Dose.—The recorded cases of poisoning have not satisfactorily settled the question as to the least fatal dose of the barium salts. 6·5 grms. (about 100 grains) of the chloride have destroyed the life of an adult woman in fifteen hours; 14 grms. (1⁄2 oz.) of the nitrate of baryta have killed a man in six and a half hours; and the carbonate of baryta has destroyed a person in the relatively small dose of 3·8 grms. (60 grains). On the other hand, certain Continental physicians have prescribed barium chloride in large medicinal doses; for example, Pirondi[984] and Lisfranc[985] have gradually raised the dose of barium chloride from 4 decigrams up to 3 grms. (48 grains) daily, given, of course, in divided doses. Pirondi himself took in a day 7·7 grms. (119 grains) without bad effect.