44 On the Poisonous Vitality of 



company with three other ladies, who had eaten a 

 part of the same food. About half an hour after 

 breakfast, she had fallen upon the ground in convul- 

 sions, and speechless. 



During the short interval between the paroxysms, 

 she recollected her husband, and every body in the 

 room, but when she was asked any question, she was 

 incapable of returning an answer, except by signs. 



The three ladies, who had eaten of the same fish, 

 were present, and were not, in the least, indisposed. 



An emetic, and various other antispasmodic re- 

 medies, were further employed, but the symptoms, 

 instead of decreasing in violence, grew worse, and 

 more alarming. The muscles of the face and the 

 eyes were in dreadful convulsive movements ; her 

 mouth was covered with froth ; her extremities were 

 cold ; the pulsations of the arteries were becoming 

 gradually weaker ; and there was no remission in 

 the fits. 



I was now persuaded, that our patient had been 

 poisoned, notwithstanding the complete health of the 

 three other ladies. I immediately ordered some olive- 

 oil to be brought, of which we gave her some spoon- 

 fuls. Almost immediately after, the convulsions had 



sufficient to satisfy the appetites of three or fovir persons at a 

 meal ; and in this respect, at least, very different from the Sprat, 

 which (in the West-Indies) is frequently found to injure those 

 who have eaten of it. — Editor. 



