Fatal Period.—Death follows in eight to twelve hours, from exhaustion.
Method of Extraction from the Stomach.—The contents of the stomach or its coats should be finely cut up and boiled in water, acidulated with tartaric acid and subjected to dialysis, or strained and filtered. Pass hydrogen sulphide through the filtered or dialyzed fluid until a precipitate ceases to fall; collect the sulphide thus formed, wash and dry it. Boil the orange-coloured sulphide in a little hydrochloric acid. If the solution be now added to a large bulk of water, the white oxychloride is precipitated, which is soluble in tartaric acid and precipitated orange yellow with hydrogen sulphide. The chloride of bismuth is also precipitated white, but the precipitate is not soluble in tartaric acid, and the precipitate with hydrogen sulphide is black.
Tests.—Soluble in water, but not in alcohol.
Heated in substance, it crepitates and chars; and if heat be increased, the metal is deposited. Treated with sulphuretted hydrogen, a characteristic orange-red sulphide is formed.
A drop of the solution evaporated leaves crystals, either tetrahedric, or cubes with edges bevelled off. Sulphuretted hydrogen passed through gives the orange-red precipitate above named. Dilute nitric acid gives a white precipitate, soluble in excess, and also in tartaric acid. Marsh's and Reinsch's processes are applicable for the detection of antimony, but Reinsch's is the better. Reinsch's process gives a violet deposit instead of the black, lustrous one of arsenic.
Chloride of Antimony (Butter of Antimony).—A light yellow or dark red corrosive liquid.
Symptoms.—Violet corrosion and irritation of the alimentary canal, with the addition of narcotic symptoms. After death the mucous membrane of the entire canal is charred, softened, and abraded.
Treatment.—As for tartar emetic; magnesia in milk.