412 CARBOLIC ACID 



over a large surface, or the free use of carbolic lotions for 

 wounds or during operations, may produce dulness, tremb- 

 ling, and disinclination for food, continuing for several days. 

 Stronger dressings within a few minutes cause excitement, 

 blowing, unsteady gait, and occasionally fatal collapse. 

 A considerable skin surface, freely wetted, is said to have 

 produced ' gradual failure of the heart's action ' ; whilst 

 in other cases the dog has fallen into a state of marasmus, 

 with sunken eyes, foe tor of the breath, formation of sordes 

 on the teeth, ' tarry ' faeces, and total loss of appetite, 

 followed by death in six to twelve days. 



THE POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES are brown discolora- 

 tion and corrugation of the membrane of the mouth and 

 fauces, and sometimes of the stomach ; strong solutions 

 leave patches of redness and inflammation in the stomach 

 and small intestine. The kidneys are sometimes congested, 

 occasionally inflamed. The blood is dark-coloured and 

 feebly coagulated, but the corpuscles are unchanged. 

 Chronic poisoning sometimes produces granular and fatty 

 degeneration of the liver, heart, and kidneys (Mosselman). 

 When death occurs within a day after the poison has been 

 taken, a smoky phenol odour pervades the body, and the 

 poison may be discovered in most of the internal organs. 

 It may also be detected in the urine by means of bromine 

 water, but where life has been prolonged beyond twenty- 

 four hours, the volatile drug may not be discoverable. 

 Cullen records that the vessels of the brain are full of 

 fluid blood ; while serous effusion is generally observable 

 on the surface of the brain and within the ventricles. The 

 lungs, in cases that have survived several days, are some- 

 times ecchymosed. 



ANTIDOTES. Where the poison has been swallowed, any 

 unabsorbed portion should be removed by the stomach- 

 pump, or by an emetic. Pharyngeal and gastric irritation 

 is allayed by albumen, milk, or alcohol, and by demulcent 

 drinks, saccharated lime, olive or castor oil, camphor, or 

 vinegar. The patient should be kept warm. Neutralisa- 

 tion of the poison, by conversion into the sulpho-carbolates, 

 and excretion by the kidneys, are hastened by administra- 

 tion of sulphates, either by the mouth or intravenously, 



