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From Foul Air

Throw open the doors and windows, or take the patient into the open air, and seat him, undressed, well wrapped in a blanket, in a chair, leaning a little to the right side, place his feet or whole body in a bath, and sprinkle his stomach with cold vinegar or water, and rub it immediately with flannels dipped in oil. Clysters of vinegar and water are to be injected, and when animation returns, continue the frictions, and give warm mint tea, etc.

Of Swallowing Poisons.

The first thing to be done when a person is discovered to have swallowed poison is to ascertain what it is he has taken, the next to be speedy in resorting to its appropriate remedies. If any one of these cannot be had, try some other without loss of time. An emetic is generally safe and proper.

Acids.

Oil of vitriol, aqua fortis, muriatic acid, oxalic acid.

Symptoms. A burning heat in the mouth, throat, and stomach, stinking breath, an inclination to vomit, or vomiting various matters mixed with blood, hiccups, costiveness, or stools more or less bloody, pain in the belly, so great that the weight of a sheet cannot be borne, burning thirst, difficulty of breathing, suppression of urine, etc. Remedies. Mix an ounce of calcined magnesia with a pint of water and give a glassful every two minutes. If it is not at hand, use flaxseed tea, rice-water, or water alone, in large quantities, until the former can be procured. If it cannot be obtained, dissolve an ounce of soap in a pint of water and take a glassful every two minutes; chalk or whiting may also be taken by the mouth, and clysters of milk be frequently injected. If the patient will not vomit, put him in the warm bath, bleed him freely and apply leeches and blisters over the parts pained. If the cramps and convulsions continue, give him a cup of common tea, with an ounce of sugar, forty drops of Hoff. man's Anodyne, and fifteen or twenty of laudanum, every quarter or half hour. No nourishment but sweetened rice-water is to be taken for several days. In these cases never give tartar emetic, ipecacuanha, or tickle the throat with a featherthey only increase the evil. For oxalic acid, some preparation of lime is the antidote.

Alkalies.

Caustic potash, caustic soda, volatile alkali.

Symptoms. These substances occasion the same effects as acids.

Remedies. Take two tablespoonsful of vinegar or lemon-juice in a glass of water at once; follow it up by drinking large quantities of water. Pursue the same treatment otherwise as in poisoning from acids.

Mercury.

Corrosive sublimate, red precipitate, vermilion.

Symptoms. Constriction and great pain in the throat, stomach and bowels, vomiting of various matters mixed with blood, unquenchable thirst, difficulty of urine, convulsions.

Remedies. Mix the whites of a dozen or fifteen eggs with two pints of cold water, and give a glassful every two minutes, with as much milk as can be swallowed, and large doses of ipecacuanha. If after the egg mixture is all taken the vomiting does not stop, repeat the dose, with the addition of more water. Leeches, the warm bath, blisters, etc., are to be used to reduce the pain and inflammation, as before directed. Arsenic.

Symptoms. These are the same as produced by the mercurial poisons.

Remedies. Give large quantities of warm water until a plentiful vomiting is induced, to assist which ipecacuanha may be taken in considerable doses at the same time. The antidote for arsenic is hydrated peroxide of iron. It may be prepared by adding spirits or water of ammonia to solution of persulphate of iron. The hydrated peroxide may be given freely after straining out the liquid in a bag. If it cannot be had, magnesia will be useful as a partial antidote. Barley, rice-water, flaxseed tea, milk, etc., should afterwards be employed. Oil is never to be used in this case until the symptoms have considerably abated, or the poison has been ejected.

Copper.

The symptoms occasioned by swallowing verdigris are nearly the same as those of the mercurial poisons. The great remedy is large quantities of the white of eggs. In addition to this use all the means recommended for corrosive sublimate, etc. Antimony.

Antimonial wine, tartar emetic, butter of antimony, etc. Symptoms. Excessive vomiting, pain and cramp in the stomach, convulsions, etc.

Remedies. Encourage the vomiting by warm water, and if after awhile it does not stop, give a grain of opium in a glass of the sweetened water every fifteen minutes. To relieve the pain, apply leeches to the stomach, throat, or parts affected. Infusion of galls may be given also quite freely.

Salts of Tin.

Give as much milk as can be got down, and if it is not at hand use large quantities of cold water to induce vomiting. If the symptoms do not abate, pursue the plan directed for acids.

Salts of Bismuth, Gold and Zinc.

Pursue the plan recommended for copper.

Lunar Caustic.

Dissolve two tablespoonsful of common table salt in two pints of water; a few glasses of this will induce vomiting. If not relieved, drink flaxseed tea, apply leeches, etc., as for acids. Saltpetre.

Pursue the plan recommended for copper.

Sal Ammoniac.

Symptoms. Vomiting; pain in the belly; a stiff ness of the whole body: convulsions.

Remedies. Introduce your finger or a feather into the throat to induce vomiting, and give plenty of sweetened water. To relieve the convulsions, give the tea, laudanum, etc., as for acids, or the laudanum alone, and to ease the pain in the belly apply leeches, etc.

Phosphorus.

The symptoms and remedies are the same as by poisons from acids, with the addition of olive oil or lard oil by the tablespoonful.

Spanish Flies.

Symptoms. Great pain in the stomach, with obstinate and painful erections, accompanied by a difficulty or suppression of urine, or if any is passed it is bloody; a horror of swallowing liquids; frightful convulsions. Remedies. Make the patient swallow as much sweet oil as he can possibly get down. Milk and sugared water are also to be freely used. In addition to the plan recommended for acids, solutions of gum arabic or flaxseed tea are to be injected into the bladder. If no vomiting is induced, put him in the warm bath, continue the sweetened water, and rub his thighs and legs with two ounces of warm oil, in which a quarter of an ounce of camphor has been dissolved. Eight or ten grains of camphor may be mixed with the yolk of an egg and taken internally. If there is acute pain in the bladder, apply leeches over it.

Powdered Glass.

Stuff the patient with thick rice, bread, potatoes, or any other vegetable; then give him five grains of tartar emetic to vomit him, after which use milk freely, clysters and fomentations to the belly, with the warm bath; leeches, etc., are not to be neglected.

Lead.

Sugar of lead, extract of saturn, white lead, litharge, minium. Symptoms. A sweet, astringent taste in the mouth; constriction of the throat; pain in the stomach; bloody vomiting, etc.

Remedies. Dissolve a handful of Epsom or Glauber salts in a pint of water, and give it at once; when it has vomited him use gum-water, If the symptoms continue, act as directed for acids.

Opium, or Laudanum.

Symptoms. Stupor; an insurmountable inclination to sleep; delirium; convulsions, etc. Remedies. Endeavor to excite vomiting by two grains of tartar emetic, or four grains of blue or thirty of white vitriol. Thrust a feather down the throat for the same purpose, or use the stomach pump. Never give vinegar or other acids until the poison is altogether or nearly evacuated.

After this has taken place, give repeatedly a cup of very strong coffee. The coffee, etc., are to be continued until the drowsiness is gone off, which, if it continues and resembles that of apoplexy, must be relieved by bleeding. The patient is to be forcibly kept in constant motion. The galvanic battery and artificial respiration are sometimes necessary.

Toadstools.