382 POISONS, CONTAGIONS, MIASMS. 



those parts only are destroyed which enter into com- 

 bination with it; an eschar is formed, which is grad- 

 ually thrown off. 



Soluble salts of silver would be quite as deadly a 

 poison as corrosive sublimate, did not a cause exist 

 in the human body by which their action is prevented, 

 unless their quantity is very great. This cause is 

 the presence of common salt in all animal liquids. 

 Nitrate of silver, it is w^ell known, combines with 

 animal substances, in the same manner as corrosive 

 sublimate, and the compounds formed 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 

 applied to skin or muscular fibre, it combines with 

 them instantaneously; animal substances dissolved 

 in any liquid are precipitated by it, and rendered 

 insoluble, or, as it is usually termed, they are coagu- 

 lated. The compounds thus formed are colorless, 

 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 

 w^hich 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 organ- 

 ism, for their vital functions have been arrested by 

 combination with oxide of silver ; and if they are 

 capable of being reproduced, the neighboring 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 muriatic 

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

 mediately converted into chloride of silver, — a sub- 

 stance which is absolutely insoluble in pure water. 

 In a solution of salt or muriatic acid, however, 

 chloride of silver does dissolve in extremely minute 

 quantity ; and it is this small part which exercises 

 a medicinal influence when nitrate of silver is admin- 

 istered ; the remaining chloride of silver is elimi- 



