- tity did not prove fatal, though it caused violent effects, when retained
in the stomach by a ligature on the gullet. One hundred and sixty grains injected under the skin of the thigh and belly did not prove fatal for about ten hours. The symptoms were nearly the same in every case.[1]
It is probable from the facts now stated, that oxalic acid, when not sufficiently concentrated to occasion death by the local injury produced, acts on the nervous system through the medium of the blood. Nevertheless it is a remarkable circumstance that it cannot be detected in that fluid. Mention has already been made of an experiment performed by Dr. Coindet and myself (p. 22), where even after the injection of eight grains of oxalic acid into the femoral vein, and the consequent death of the animal in thirty seconds, none of the poison could be detected in the blood of the iliac vein or vena cava. Similar results have been more lately obtained by Dr. Pommer. In dogs killed by the gradual injection of from five to thirty grains into the femoral vein, he never could detect the poison in the blood of the right side of the heart or great veins, except in the instance of the largest doses, where a little could be detected near the opening in the vein. Dr. Pommer's experiments likewise agree with those of Dr. Coindet and myself as to the absence of any change in the physical qualities of the blood.[2] When to these circumstances it is added that very small quantities of oxalic acid may be detected in blood, into which it has been introduced immediately after removal from the body by venesection, it appears reasonable to conclude that the poison is quickly decomposed in the blood by vital operations.
According to Orfila, however, it may be detected in the urine, in which crystals of oxalate of lime form on cooling, and more may be obtained on the addition of hydrochlorate of lime. Yet he could not detect any oxalic acid in the liver or spleen.[3]
In man the most prominent symptoms hitherto observed have been those of excessive irritation, because it has been almost always swallowed in a large dose and much concentrated.
It is the most rapid and unerring of all the common poisons. The London Courier contains an inquest on the body of a young man who appears to have survived hardly ten minutes;[4] an equally rapid case of a young lady, who poisoned herself with a ounce, is mentioned in the St. James's Chronicle;[5] and few of those who have died survived above an hour. This rule, however, is by no means without exception. Mr. Hebb has described a case which did not prove fatal for thirteen hours;[6] Dr. Arrowsmith of Coventry has favoured me with the particulars of a very interesting case which lasted for the same period: and Mr. Frazer has accurately described another, in which, after the patient seemed to be doing tolerably well, an ex-*
