INORGANIC POISONS. 341 



by both; are exactly similar in the character of 

 being incapable of decay or putrefaction. 



When nitrate of silver in a state of solution is ap- 

 plied to skin or muscular fibre, it combines with them 

 instantaneously ; animal substances dissolved in any 

 liquid are precipitated by it, and rendered insolu- 

 ble, or as it is usually termed they are coagulated. 

 The compounds thus formed are colourless, and so 

 stable that they cannot be decomposed by other 

 powerful chemical agents. They are blackened 

 by exposure to light, like all other compounds 

 of silver, in consequence of a part of the oxide of 

 silver which they contain being reduced to the 

 metallic state. Parts of the body which have united 

 with salts of silver, no longer belong to the living 

 organism, for their vital functions have been ar- 

 rested by combination with oxide of silver ; and if 

 they are capable of being reproduced, the neigh- 

 bouring living structures throw them off in the 

 form of an eschar. 



When nitrate of silver is introduced into the 

 stomach, it meets with common salt and free mu- 

 riatic acid ; and if its quantity is not too great, it 

 is immediately converted into chloride of silver a 

 substance which is absolutely insoluble in pure 

 water. In a solution of salt or muriatic acid, how- 

 ever, chloride of silver does dissolve in extremely 

 minute quantity; and it is this small part which 

 exercises a medicinal influence when nitrate of sil- 

 ver is administered ; the remaining chloride of silver 



