Zinc Silver Bismuth And Chromium

The salts of zinc requiring notice are the sulphate and chloride.



=Sulphate of Zinc= has been taken in mistake for Epsom salts. In large

doses it causes dryness of throat, thirst, vomiting, purging, and

abdominal pain.



Post-Mortem Appearances.--Those of inflammation of digestive tract.



Treatment.--Tea, decoction of oak-bark, carbonate of potassium or

sodium as antidote.



=Chloride of Zinc.=--A solution containing this substance (230 grains to

the ounce) constitutes 'Burnett's disinfecting fluid.' It is a corrosive

poison.



The symptoms are burning sensation in the mouth, throat, stomach, and

abdomen, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, with tenesmus and distension

of the abdomen. The vomited matter contains shreds of mucous membrane

with blood. There is profound collapse, cold surface, clammy sweats,

weak pulse, with great prostration. The treatment is to wash out the

stomach with large and weak solutions of carbonate of sodium.

Mucilaginous drinks may be given, and hypodermic injections of morphine

are useful to allay the pain.



Method of Extraction from the Stomach.--Dry and incinerate the tissues

in a porcelain crucible, digest ash in water, apply tests.



Tests.--Ammonia, a white precipitate soluble in excess, reprecipitated

by sulphuretted hydrogen; ferrocyanide of potassium, a white

precipitate; sulphuretted hydrogen, a white precipitate in pure and

neutral solutions. Nitrate of baryta will show the presence of sulphuric

acid, and nitrate of silver of hydrochloric acid.



=Silver.=--Nitrate of silver is a powerful irritant.



Tests.--Black precipitate with sulphuretted hydrogen; white with

hydrochloric acid.



Treatment.--Common salt.



Chronic nitrate of silver poisoning is characterized by argyria. The

gums show a blue line, which is darker than that produced by lead, and

the skin presents a greyish hue, which is permanent.



=Bismuth.=--The bismuth salts are not poisonous, but may contain arsenic

as an impurity, although this is far less common than it was some years

ago.



=Chromic Acid, Chromate, Bichromate of Potassium.=--These act as

corrosives when solid or in concentrated liquid forms. In dilute

solutions they act as irritants. Used as dyes; have proved fatal more

than once. Those engaged in their manufacture suffer from unhealthy

ulcers on the nasal septum and hands. The former may to some extent be

prevented by taking snuff. Lead chromate (chrome yellow) is a powerful

irritant poison. Two drachms of the bichromate caused death in four

hours.



Tests.--Yellow precipitate with salts of lead, deep red with those of

silver.



Treatment.--Emetics, magnesia, and diluents. Washing out of the

stomach with weak solution of nitrate of silver.





Wounds Of Various Parts Of The Body Abortifacients
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