Memoranda on Poisons Part 10

The stomach-pump or emetics must be employed. If the effects are not very severe they will generally cease spontaneously after a time. The odor would lead to the detection of the poison.

FUNGI.-According to Berkeley there are now upwards of 2380 recognised species of British fungi, a considerable proportion of which are doubtless poisonous. But the type of the cla.s.s may be taken as the Amanita muscaria. This is an autumn fungus of an orange-red color, and is used among the Siberian tribes, especially the Koraks, as an intoxicating agent, and produces symptoms somewhat similar to those of alcohol.

The Agaricus campestris and esculentus are those most frequently used as articles of food, on account of their savory properties; but even these are indigestible. They occasionally produce diarrha, with a pruriginous or exanthematous rash in dyspeptics; and should only be eaten in great moderation.

_Ketchup_, the juice of the mushroom flavored with salt and spices, has produced faintness, nausea and colic, lasting for some hours.

There are some positive characters by which the wholesome fungi can be distinguished from the unwholesome. Moreover those which may be eaten with impunity by some individuals prove destructive to others. Thus, a French officer and his wife died from breakfasting off mushrooms which others in the house ate without inconvenience. As a general rule highly colored mushrooms, with an astringent styptic taste, a forbidding pungent odor, and which grow in dark and shady places, should be avoided.

The symptoms produced by poisonous fungi are not unfrequently those indicative of gastro-intestinal irritation, with a disordered condition of the nervous system, and considerable depression; but, again, they may act much more like pure narcotics. In treating these case, the stomach and intestines must be thoroughly emptied, and then the prominent symptoms are to be relieved according to their urgency.

CHAPTER XXV.

DELIRANTS.

NEUROTICS ACTING ON THE BRAIN AND PRODUCING DELIRIUM.

HYOSCYAMUS-BELLADONNA-STRAMONIUM-DATURA ALBA-NIGHTSHADE.

Most of these are not very important substances, as they have rarely been employed as poisons in this country. Serious symptoms have, however, resulted from their accidental use.

HENBANE (_Hyoscyamus niger_).-All parts of this plant are poisonous; but the seeds are more powerful than the root or leaves. In medicinal doses it is a feeble narcotic. It owes its powers to an alkaloid (_hyoscyamia_) it contains.

In very large doses henbane produces giddiness, flus.h.i.+ngs, excitement, and a sense of weight in the head; the limbs tremble, and there is general loss of power, the pupils get dilated, there is double vision, flas.h.i.+ng of light before the eyes, and great drowsiness. If vomiting supervene these symptoms generally pa.s.s off; otherwise we may find fierce delirium, loss of speech, complete loss of power over the limbs, cold sweats, and exhaustion.

In some instances, when the roots have been eaten by mistake for parsnips, the symptoms have been those of drunkenness and delirium. Dr.

Houlton states (_Lancet_, 6th July, 1844) that this error was committed one night at a monastery. The monks who partook of the roots had such hallucinations that the establishment resembled a lunatic asylum. They rang the bell for matins at midnight, and those who attended were unable to read, or they read that which was not in the book. In another reported case (_Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal_, p. 562, October, 1844), the roots were put into soup, of which nine persons partook. Although no unpleasant flavor was noticed at the time of eating, yet very shortly afterwards all complained of an acrid taste, nausea, indistinctness of vision, restlessness, delirium, and great somnolency, which continued some time.

The appearances found after death consist chiefly of great congestion of the venous system. The lungs and brain have especially been found loaded with dark-colored blood.

To prevent a fatal result from the use of henbane or others of this group, we must trust to stimulant emetics, as sulphate of zinc, and full doses of castor oil, so as to get rid of the offending substance.

_Test._-The only test for hyoscyamus is the botanical characters of the plant, when taken in substance, and its power (common to all in this group) of dilating the pupil.

ATROPA BELLADONNA (_Deadly Nightshade_).-Two other plants known under the name of Nightshade will hereafter be referred to. The Deadly Nightshade, now to be noticed, is indigenous, and grows in woods and gardens. The root, leaves, and berries are poisonous, this property being due to the presence of an alkaloidal principle-_Atropia_.

_Symptoms._-Dryness of the mouth and throat, thirst which nothing allays, nausea and vomiting, great dilatation of the pupils with indistinct or double vision, giddiness, palpitation of the heart, physical and mental depression, perversion of the sense of taste, and delirium followed by stupor, form the chief symptoms. They may set in within from half an hour to three or four hours of swallowing the poison. Sometimes strangury and b.l.o.o.d.y urine, a scarlatinal kind of rash upon the skin, a disposition to laugh and talk wildly, fanciful delusions, a rapid flow of ideas, and difficulty in walking, have been observed.

A large detachment of French soldiers, halting near Dresden, ate freely of the belladonna berries. Shortly afterwards they were seized with nausea, thirst, dryness of the throat, difficult deglut.i.tion, insensibility of the eye, great dilatation of the pupil, delirium, and coma. Many of the men died before a.s.sistance could be rendered to them.

_Post-mortem Appearances._-Congestion of the cerebral vessels, dilated pupils, red patches at different parts of the alimentary ca.n.a.l, and a dyed purple hue of the gastric mucous membrane, if the berries have been eaten, are the most common appearances.

_Treatment._-Stimulant emetics, castor oil, and animal charcoal are the remedies to trust to.

Dr. Taylor refers to one case in which a young man poisoned himself with two grains of _atropia_. He took the dose on going to bed, was heard to snore heavily during the night, and was found dead at seven o'clock in the morning.

As a means of diagnosing poisoning by belladonna it has been recommended to introduce a few drops of urine into the eye of an animal, to see if dilatation of the pupil takes place.

_Test._-There is no very certain test for _Atropia_ beyond its effect on the pupils and on vision.

STRAMONIUM (_Datura Stramonium_, _Thorn-Apple_) is an indigenous plant found in waste places. The fruit and seeds are the most poisonous parts of the plant. The active alkaloid, named Daturia, has properties resembling those of atropia, with which it would seem to be almost identical.

The poisonous effects of stramonium are the same as those of belladonna, and are to be relieved by similar remedies. When this drug is prescribed as a medicine it should be immediately discontinued if it produce dryness of the throat and dilatation of the pupils.

_Dhatoora._-In India the seeds of the Datura alba, a plant which grows abundantly in most parts, are frequently used for the purpose of hocussing travellers, in order that they may be robbed with impunity.

The seeds, which closely resemble those of the capsic.u.m, are mixed with food, and give rise to total insensibility on the part of the recipient, often with noisy delirium or delusions. Death is not unfrequent after a large dose, although it would seldom seem to be administered for that purpose. Its effect may be for the time being to completely alter the disposition of the individual, and to cause him to give way to all kinds of foolish notions and antics.

NIGHTSHADE.-The _Solarium dulcamara_ (Bittersweet, or Woody Nightshade) and the _Solanum nigrum_ (Garden Nightshade) contain an active principle known as Solania. The red berries of the first-named plant, and the black berries of the second, have been eaten by mistake; and have given rise to great thirst, headache, giddiness, dimness of vision, dilated pupils, convulsions, vomiting, and purging. Orfila relates the cases of three children who died from eating the berries of the Solanum nigrum, after suffering from vertigo, dilated pupils, nausea, colic, stertorous breathing, and convulsions.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CONVULSIVES.

NEUROTICS PRODUCING CONVULSIONS.

NUX VOMICA-BRUCIA-STRYCHNIA.

The plants which yield the alkaloid Strychnia are, the _Strychnos nux vomica_, a native tree of Coromandel, Ceylon and Bengal: the _Strychnos Ignatii_, which abounds in the Philippine Islands, and furnishes the hard seed, about the size of a filbert, known as the bean of St.

Ignatius; the _Strychnos tieute_, a large climbing shrub of Java; the _Strychnos toxifera_, of Guiana; and the _Strychnos colubrina_, or _Snakewood_, of the East Indies. The effects of these plants are exerted upon the spinal cord; as is manifest by the violent convulsions and the tetanic contractions of the muscles which they produce. They have no effect on the brain, consciousness remaining intact until death.

A powerful juice, used by the Indians of Guiana as an arrow poison, and variously designated as _curare_, _woorara_, &c., is in all probability obtained from the Strychnos toxifera. The composition of the arrow poison varies in different tribes; in some it is a mysterious compound of many substances, obtained from plants, red and black ants, and the fangs of venomous snakes; but in all the active ingredient would seem to be the Strychnos toxifera. It destroys the power of the motor nerves-an action the reverse of that possessed by strychnia.

NUX VOMICA.-A powder, a tincture, and an extract, obtained from the seeds of the Strychnos nux vomica, or koochla tree, are used in medical practice. Thirty grains of the powder have proved fatal, and so have three grains of the alcoholic extract. Death may occur in from fifteen minutes to twelve hours. It is possible that nux vomica may acc.u.mulate in the system, as serious symptoms have arisen from the long-continued use of small doses. Thus a lady took nine grains of the powder daily, in divided doses, for sixteen days. As purging then set in with colic, the medicine was withdrawn. Five days after the withdrawal there was ringing in the ears, with drowsiness, impairment of speech, &c.; on the ninth day tetanic symptoms set in, with trismus; and on the twelfth day, after several tetanic convulsions, death took place from exhaustion.

BRUCIA.-The seeds of the nux vomica not only yield strychnia but brucia, an alkaloid which has the same properties, and causes the same symptoms as strychnia, though it is much less powerful.

STRYCHNIA.-This alkaloid may very justly be termed a deadly poison. It is unfortunately the active ingredient of some preparations sold to the public for destroying vermin: a circ.u.mstance which has now led to the death of several individuals. "Battle's Vermin Killer" is said by Dr.

Letheby to consist of flour, Prussian blue, sugar, and strychnia in the proportion of twenty-three per cent. Since the use of strychnia by those notorious criminals Palmer and Dove, this formidable agent has been employed by other murderers.

The medicinal dose of strychnia is from the 1/30th to the 1/12th of a grain twice a day. Dr. Christison communicated a case to Dr. Taylor in which the 1/16th of a grain caused the death in four hours of a child between two and three years of age. One quarter of a grain has nearly proved fatal to adults. A woman twenty-two years of age died in the Jersey Hospital, from the accidental administration of half a grain.

Death has occurred in twenty minutes from this poison. In eleven cases a.n.a.lyzed by Dr. Guy two hours and three-quarters were the limits respectively.

_Symptoms._-The time at which the symptoms commence varies according as the strychnia has been taken in solution or in a pill. In the first case a very bitter taste is experienced during swallowing, usually followed in a few minutes by a sense of suffocation and difficulty of breathing.

Then there are twitchings of the muscles, jerking movements of the limbs, and a quivering of the whole frame. The limbs become rigid, the head is bent back, while the body is stiffened and arched, so that it rests on the head and heels (opisthotonos). The difficulty of breathing causes the face to become dusky, the eyeb.a.l.l.s prominent, and the lips livid. The features a.s.sume a peculiar grin (risus sardonicus); there is much thirst, but perhaps inability to drink from spasm of the jaws; while the sufferer is quite conscious, is much alarmed, and is impressed with the idea that death is surely stealing upon him. As the attacks of spasms are commencing the patient cries out, and warns those about him of the approach of the seizure; he begs for help, and perhaps asks to be held, or rubbed, or turned over; and when the seizure pa.s.ses off, at the end of forty or sixty seconds, he is exhausted, and bathed in sweat.

The more he is disturbed or excited the shorter is the intervals between the attacks; and though a firm grasp seems to afford relief, yet a slight touch, a gust of air, or opening a door, will increase the suffering. As death approaches the tetanic spasms rapidly succeed each other; and the patient sinks, suffocated during an attack, or exhausted during an interval, in about two hours from the beginning of the symptoms.

When the strychnia has been taken in a pill two hours have elapsed before any effects have been produced. A case is also reported (_Glasgow Medical Journal_, July, 1856) where a medical man took three grains of strychnia dissolved in spirits of wine and diluted sulphuric acid. He went to bed and slept for an hour and a half, and then awoke with a spasm. Under treatment he recovered.