MINERAL POISONS.——Arsenic is the most common of this class; and, as the whole of them are pretty similar both in their effects and method of cure, what is said with respect to it will be applicable to every other species of corrosive poison.
When a person has taken arsenic, he soon perceives a burning heat, and a violent pricking pain in his stomach and bowels, with an intolerable thirst, and an inclination to vomit. The tongue and throat feel rough and dry; and, if proper means be not soon administered, the patient is seized with great anxiety, hiccuping, faintings, and coldness of the extremities. To these succeed black vomits, fœtid stools, with a mortification of the stomach and intestines, which are the immediate forerunners of death.
On the first appearance of these symptoms the patient should drink large quantities of new milk and sallad oil till he vomits; or he may drink warm water mixed with oil. Fat broths are likewise proper, provided they can be got ready in time. Where no oil is to be had, fresh butter may be melted and mixed with the milk or water. These things are to be drank as long as the inclination to vomit continues. Some have drank eight or ten English quarts before the vomiting ceased; and it is never safe to leave off drinking while one particle of the poison remains in the stomach.
These oily or fat substances not only provoke vomiting, but likewise blunt the acrimony of the poison, and prevent its wounding the bowels; but if they should not make the person vomit, half a drachm or two scruples of the powder of ipecacuanha must be given, or a few spoonfuls of the oxymel or vinegar of squills may be mixed with the water which he drinks. Vomiting may likewise be excited by tickling the inside of the throat with a feather. Should these methods however fail, half a drachm of white vitriol, or five or six grains of emetic tartar, must be administered.
If tormenting pains are felt in the lower belly, and there is reason to fear that the poison has got down to the intestines, clysters of milk and oil must be very frequently thrown up; and the patient must drink emollient decoctions of barley, oatmeal, marsh-mallows, and such like. He must likewise take an infusion of senna and manna, a solution of Glauber’s salts, or some other purgative.
After the poison has been evacuated, the patient ought, for some time, to live upon such things as are of a healing and cooling quality; to abstain from flesh and all strong liquors, and to live upon milk, broth, gruel, light puddings, and other spoon meats of easy digestion. His drink should be barley-water, linseed-tea, or infusions of any of the mild mucilaginous vegetables.
VEGETABLE POISONS, besides heat and pain of the stomach, commonly occasion some degree of giddiness, and often a kind of stupidity or folly. Persons who have taken these poisons must be treated in the same manner as for the mineral or corrosive.
Though the vegetable poisons, when allowed to remain in the stomach, often prove fatal; yet the danger is generally over as soon as they are discharged. Not being of such a caustic or corrosive nature, they are less apt to wound or inflame the bowels than mineral substances: no time, however, ought to be lost in having them discharged.
Opium, being frequently taken by mistake, merits particular attention. It is used as a medicine both in a solid and liquid form, which latter commonly goes by the name of laudanum. It is indeed a valuable medicine when taken in proper quantity; but as an over-dose proves a strong poison, we shall point out its common effects, together with the method of cure.
An over-dose of opium generally occasions great drowsiness, with stupor and other apoplectic symptoms. Sometimes the person has so great an inclination to sleep, that it is almost impossible to keep him awake. Every method must however be tried for this purpose. He should be tossed, shaked, and moved about. Sharp blistering-plasters should be applied to his legs or arms, and stimulating medicines, as salts of hartshorn, &c. held under his nose. It will also be proper to let blood. At the same time every method must be taken to make him discharge the poison. This may be done in the manner directed above, viz. by the use of strong vomits, drinking plenty of warm water with oil, &c.