The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-06 00:00:00

ARSENICAL POISONING.

Instances of arsenical poisoning in the human
subject ate not infrequent, but they seldom present
themselves under circumstances so favourable for
observation and treatment as appeared in the fel-
lowing case. The case has been iepoited to the
North British Daily. Mail on the best authority,
and its accuracy is unquestionable :—At 7 o'clock
on a recent Sunday morning, a female, aged 20, the
paramour of a rat-catcher in town, who uses in his
art and always keeps on band a considerable supply
of arsenious acid (the white arsenic of commerce),
seized by jealousy' or remorse, thrust her hand into
the heap of poison, and withdrawing as much as she
could contain between her collected fingers,plunged
it into a cup of water, stirred the mixture smartly
about, and swallowed the deadly draught._ The
quantity thus taken, as subsequently ascertained by
the woman's illustrated statement, was half an
ounce or upwards—somewhat more, perhaps, but
not less than 240 grains. Iu less than half an hour
after her rash act she frantically repented it, and
as eager now to live as she bad lately been deter-
mined to die, she hurried to a druggist for an
emetic. On her way thither she was sick, and inclined
to vomit. She then obtained what appears to have
be?n an antirnonial emetic, which she instantly
swallowed, and washed down with cold water at a
neighbouring pump. On returning to the home of
her paramour she found the door shut against her.
She walked from it to another, about 500 or 600
yards distant, vomiting on the way, and was found
on the stair of the latter house exhausted from
vomiting and purging. Neighbours carried her
into the house, and Dr. was sent for. He
reached the house at half-past nine a.m., and found
her stretched on the floor. Upon raisi❑g her head
she vomited a large quantity of greenish-coloured
fluid ; and at the end of her efforts to vomit, nearly
a teaspoonful of a white powder, mixed with glairy
mucus, was ejected from her stomach. This pow-
der was carefully collected, and subsequent analysis
proved it to be arsenious acid. Several patches
of powder similar in appearance, the traces
of her vomit, also bespotted her , dress. The
stomach pump was immediately applied, and was
followed by a mustard emetic, and the stomach
was thus thoroughly emptied and cleaned. The
treatment afterwards consisted of the administra-
tion of milk, albumen, linseed tea, and similarmild
demulcent liquids, and the external application of
sinapisms and hot fomentations to the stomach and
abdomen. The woman's life was saved, and by the
end of the week she had almost wholly recovered
from the effects of the poison. Dr. ascribes
her extraordinary rescue from death chiefly to the
free vomiting promoted speedily after the dose had
been taken, and the use of tjae emetics and stomach
pump. But it may also be due in some degree to
the tine quality of the arsenic, which enabled the
stomach to eject the poison more readily and com-
pletely than it might have done arsenic in coarser
crystals and a more ponderous state. For it is to
be observed that the arsenic fr6m which the dose
was taken was pure arsenious acid, in a niuch more
finely powdered state than the common commercial
arsenic. The immediate symptoms in this case
were great thirst, great pain and irritation of the
stomach, which continued rejection for several hours
of all liquids introduced into it ; and severe pain
in the abdomen.