MINERAL POISONS. 97 



VI. On the Effects of the Corrosive Sublimate. 



When this poison is taken internally in very 

 small and repeated doses, it is absorbed into the 

 circulation, and produces on the system those 

 peculiar effects which are produced by other 

 preparations of mercury. If it passes into the 

 circulation in larger quantity, it excites inflam- 

 mation of some part of the alimentary canal, the 

 termination of which may vary accordingly as it 

 exists in a greater or less degree. When taken 

 in a larger quantity still, it occasions death in a 

 very short space of time. I had found, that if 

 applied to a wounded surface, it produced a 

 slough of the part to which it was applied, with- 

 out occasioning any affection of the general 

 system. This led me to conclude that the effects 

 of it, taken internally, and in a large quantity, 

 depend on its local action on the stomach, and 

 that they are not connected with the absorption 

 of it into the circulation. The following experi- 

 ments appear to confirm this opinion. 



EXPERIMENT VIII. 



Six grains of corrosive sublimate, dissolved in 

 six drachms of distilled water, were injected into 

 the stomach of a rabbit, by means of an elastic 

 gum tube. No immediate symptoms followed 

 the injection ; the animal made no expression of 

 pain ; but in three minutes he became insensible ; 



H 



