Alkalies, such as potash, soda, ammonia, taken as pearl ashes, soap-lees, common washing soda, and ammonia in vapour, solution and solid form.
Treatment.—Give drinks containing vinegar; or lemonade, lemon-juice or olive-oil may be given, and stimulants in case of collapse.
Arsenic. Treatment.—Empty the stomach with an emetic and the stomach-syphon, and then give freshly prepared ferric oxyhydrate, prepared by adding a solution of carbonate of soda to a solution of ferric chloride. The patient must afterwards be fed for a considerable time on a milk and farinaceous diet only.
Barytes. Treatment.—Give 2 teaspoonfuls of Epsom or Glauber's salts every 2 hours until the bowels act.
Belladonna. Treatment.—Give an emetic of 20 grains of sulphate of zinc in water, or 1 tablespoonful of mustard in warm water; then drinks of tepid water, or stewed tea, the tannin in which renders the poison innocuous. Afterwards give strong coffee.
Carbolic Acid. Treatment.—Use the stomach-syphon if at hand. Empty the stomach with it, and then wash out that organ with a dilute solution of Epsom salts. White of egg and milk may be given. External warmth, and brandy by the rectum, are useful to combat the depression.
Copper.—Use the stomach-syphon or give an emetic followed by draughts of hot water, barley and water, or arrowroot and water, to soothe the inflamed coats of the stomach.
Mercury, Corrosive Sublimate.—If the patient has not vomited give an emetic, followed by white of egg and demulcent drinks (lime-water, barley-water, etc.).
Foxglove. Treatment.—Give an emetic of mustard and water or 20 grains of sulphate of zinc in water, then give a dose of castor-oil and a cup of strong tea.
Fungi (Toadstools, etc.). Treatment.—Give an emetic of mustard and water, afterwards a dose of castor-oil.
Hemlock. Treatment.—The same as for Foxglove.
Henbane, Thorn Apple, and Tobacco.—Treatment. The same as for Belladonna.
Hydrochloric Acid. Treatment.—The same as for sulphuric acid poisoning.
Laburnum. Treatment.—Give an emetic of mustard and water or 20 grains of zinc sulphate in water, followed by draughts of warm water. If there is much collapse, strong coffee or other stimulants should be administered.
Laudunum, Opium, and Morphia. Treatment.—Give 20 grains of sulphate of zinc or 1 tablespoonful of mustard in water, then drinks of tepid water. Wash the stomach out with a weak solution of Condy's Fluid if a stomach-syphon is available. Afterwards give strong coffee, and keep the patient constantly in motion in the open air till drowsy feeling wears off.
