400 Tartaric Acid in the Organism [June-September 



acid is injurious to the alimentary canal, hindering digestion, be- 

 ing more toxic, in these relations, than citric acid; also more diu- 

 retic than the latter acid.^^ 



Soon after the appearance of Wibmer's publication, certain 

 cases of fatal poisoning were reported. In Watkins' case/^ a 

 young man, 24 years of age, took 30 gm. of tartaric acid in mistake 

 for bitter salts. He suffered from violent pains and debility, and 

 died on the ninth day. Devergie^^ described another case of fatal 

 poisoning with tartaric acid. Belloc^^ wrote of a case of poisoning 

 by Rochelle salt. 



These cases caused a change in the attitude of toxicologists 

 toward the tartaric acids. Orfila^^ regarded them as very irritating 

 and therefore considered them toxic. He also treated a patient 

 who, when intoxicated, took 120 gm. of potassium tartrate and 

 died on the fourth day afterward. Van Hasselt^^ regarded tar- 

 taric acid as toxic only in large doses. He considered it neither 

 more nor less toxic than citric acid. He described its effects as 

 resembling those of oxalic acid poisoning, differing only in a slower 

 rate in the Initiation of the Symptoms. Hermann^* expressed the 

 opinion that tartaric acid is toxic only in the free State; when in 

 Union with a base, its toxicity is that of the base to which it is at- 

 tached. Jaksch^^ stated that tartaric acid causes gastro-intestinal 

 catarrh, with cramps and diarrhea. He did not mention the dose. 



Trevithick^® reported the case of a woman, 6y years old, who 

 took 12 gm. of tartaric acid by mistake. She suffered pains all 

 over the body, vomiting and diarrhea ensuing. On the fourth day 

 delirium developed, temperature became subnormal, pulse very 

 weak. Death occurred on the seventh day. 



18 Wibmer : Wirkung der Arzneimittel und Gifte, Munich, 1842, v, p. 319. 



19 Watkins : Jour. d. chim. med., 1845, i, p. 220. 



20 Devergie : Ann. d'Hyg., 1845, xi, p. 432. 



2iBelloc: Cours de med. leg., 139, cited by Taylor; Die Gifte in gericht- 

 lichen Medizin, Cologne, 1863, ii, p. 131. 



22 Orfila: Lehr. d. Toxikologie, Braunschweig, 1852, i, p. 154. 



23 Van Hasselt: Allgemeine Giftlehre und die Gifte des Pflanzenreichs, 

 Braun schweig, 1862, i, p. 532. 



24 Hermann : Lehrb. d. exp. Toxikol., Berlin, 1874, p. 153. 



25 Jaksch : Die Vergiftungen, Vienna, 1897, p. 43. 



26 Trevithick : Brit. Med. Jour., June 24, 1903. 



