The first branch of this process,—a slight modification of Dr. Turner’s,—is a very delicate and satisfactory method of detecting antimony in organic mixtures. Some practice is required to transmit the hydrogen gas with the proper rapidity. The gas ought to be allowed to pass for some time before the spirit-lamp flame is applied, otherwise the oxygen remaining in the apparatus may cause an explosion, or will oxidate the metallic antimony, formed by the reduction of the sulphuret. As soon as the reduction of the sulphuret begins, the tube is blackened on account of the action of the sulphuretted-hydrogen on the lead contained in the glass. This obscures the operations within the tube; but on subsequently breaking it, a metallic button or a sublimate will be easily seen. When the sulphuret is considerable in quantity and the gaseous current slow, the metal remains where the sulphuret was; but if the mass of sulphuret is small and the current rapid, then the metal is sublimed and condensed in minute scaly brilliant crystals.
The second branch of the process is a modification of the method lately employed by Professor Orfila for detecting antimony in the textures and secretions of animals poisoned with tartar-emetic. It is probably more delicate than the other, but not more satisfactory.
The method of analysis here recommended, as well as every other yet proposed for organic mixtures, merely detects the presence of antimony. It does not indicate the state in which the metal was combined. It is a process in short for antimony in every state of combination.
It is almost unnecessary to observe that when the contents of the stomach or vomited matters are the subject of analysis, care must be taken to ascertain that tartar-emetic was not administered as a remedy.
Section II.—Of the Action of Tartar-Emetic, and the Symptoms it excites in Man.
There is little peculiarity in what is hitherto known of the symptoms of poisoning with tartar-emetic in man. Cases in which it has been taken to the requisite extent are rarely met with; and it has seldom remained long enough in the stomach to act deleteriously. But its action on animals would appear from the experiments of Magendie to be in some respects peculiar.
He found that dogs, like man, may take a large dose with impunity, for example half an ounce, if they are allowed to vomit; but that if the gullet is tied, from four to eight grains will kill them in a few hours. His subsequent experiments go to prove that death is owing to the poison exciting inflammation in the lungs. When six or eight grains dissolved in water were injected into a vein, the animal was attacked with vomiting and purging, and death ensued commonly within an hour. In the dead body he found not only redness of the whole villous coat of the stomach and intestines, but also that the lungs were of an orange-red or violet colour throughout, destitute of crepitation, gorged with blood, dense like the spleen, and here and there even hepatized. A larger quantity caused death more rapidly without affecting the alimentary canal; a smaller quantity caused intense inflammation there and death in twenty-four hours; but the lungs were always more or less affected.[[1134]]
It is a fact, too, worthy of notice, that in whatever way this poison enters the body its effects are nearly the same. This is shown not only by the researches of Magendie already mentioned, but likewise by the experiments of Schloepfer, who found that a scruple dissolved in twelve parts of water and injected into the windpipe, caused violent vomiting, difficult breathing, and death in three days; and in the dead body the lungs and stomach were much inflamed, particularly the former.[[1135]] It farther appears from an experiment related by Dr. Campbell, that, when applied to a wound, it acts with almost equal energy as when injected into a vein. Five grains killed a cat in this way in three hours, causing inflammation of the wound, and vivid redness of the stomach.[[1136]] He did not find the lungs inflamed.
Magendie infers from his own researches that tartar-emetic occasions death when swallowed, not by inflaming the stomach, but through means of a general inflammatory state of the whole system subsequent to its absorption,—of which disorder the affection of the stomach and intestines and even that of the lungs are merely parts or symptoms. The later experiments of Rayer tend in some measure to confirm these views, by showing that death may occur without inflammation being excited any where. In animals killed in twenty-five minutes by tartar-emetic applied to a wound, he, like Dr. Campbell, could see no trace of inflammation in any organ of the great cavities.[[1137]]
Orfila has proved by analysis the important fact that tartar-emetic is absorbed in the course of its action, and may be detected in the animal tissues and secretions. He found that, when it is applied to the cellular tissue of small dogs, two grains disappear before death: That antimony may be detected by his process given above throughout the soft textures generally, but especially in the liver and kidneys: but that it is quickly discharged from these quarters through the medium of the urine. Hence in an animal that died in four hours he found it abundantly in the liver and still more in the urine; in one that survived seventeen hours, the liver presented mere traces of the poison, but the urine contained it in abundance; and in one that lived thirty-six hours, there was a large quantity in the urine, but none at all in the liver. He also ascertained that antimony is generally to be found in the urine of persons who are taking tartar-emetic continuously in large doses for pneumonia according to Rasori’s mode of administering it.[[1138]] These results have been confirmed by the conjoined researches of Panizza and Kramer, who found antimony in the urine and blood of a man during a course of tartar-emetic.[[1139]] And Flandin and Danger also satisfied themselves that in animals it may be generally detected in the liver.[[1140]]