CHAPTER XV
WHAT TO DO WHEN POISONED
The vast majority of cases of poisoning occur in children, and are, almost without exception, due to carelessness of their elders, and therefore preventable.
As soon as it is recognized that anyone has swallowed a poison of any kind, a competent physician should be summoned with the utmost haste, and in the meantime much may be done, in most cases, to minimize the effects of the substance taken. The patient should at once be urged to drink as much water as is possible, in order that the poison may be diluted, and every effort should be made to induce vomiting; this may often be brought about as soon as the stomach is full of water, by tickling the throat with the finger, or with any other object that can be readily introduced through the mouth. As quickly as possible, some warm water should be secured, to a quart of which either a teaspoon of salt or mustard should be added, and the patient urged to drink until the stomach is thoroughly distended; following this, particularly where aided by tickling the throat, vomiting may be generally induced, with the effect, of course, of expelling a greater or less proportion of the poison from the stomach. If it be known that the poison is an acid, ordinary cooking soda should be added to the water that the patient drinks, as in this way all acid substances are at once neutralized.
If the patient has taken an alkaline poison, he should immediately be given diluted vinegar, or water into which the juice of lemons or oranges has been squeezed; such harmless acids neutralize poisonous alkaloids just as harmless alkalies antidote poisonous acids.
Arsenic poisoning usually results from the accidental swallowing of rat-poison or some insecticide, as Paris green, or else some sort of green dye, many of which contain salts of arsenic in some form. An emetic should be at once given, to be followed by the whites of several eggs dissolved in a small amount of water; sweet milk may also be administered with benefit.
Accidental poisoning by phosphorus, results usually from children eating the heads of matches, and it is rarely the case that enough of the substance is taken to produce serious results. The poison, however, is a deadly one if taken in sufficient quantity, and where it is found that substances containing it have been swallowed the most energetic measures should at once be resorted to. Warm water containing mustard or some other emetic should at once be given, and this should be followed by whites of eggs and sweet milk. It is well also to try to get rid of any of the phosphorus that might remain in the stomach by giving the patient some saline purgative like Epsom salts.
Where carbolic acid has been taken, the fact can be readily determined by noting the characteristic smell of this substance on the patient's breath, and by observing that the mouth and throat present a more or less whitish appearance. The treatment to be of any avail, should be of the most energetic character. The patient should at once drink largely of water, and vomiting should be induced as quickly as possible. Either milk or the white of an egg should then be given. Ordinary quick-lime, or even plaster from the walls of the house, may be stirred up in water and administered to the sufferer, as both have a distinct value in antidoting the effects of this poison. Burns of the skin with carbolic acid are rarely followed by serious consequences. As soon as the accident occurs the part should be thoroughly washed with water, and if at hand a little alcohol may be rubbed over the part; the affected tissues return to a normal condition in the course of a short time in the vast majority of cases.