PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF NITROBENZENE VAPOR ON ANIMALS 415 
Another case of fatal poisoning resulting from a small amount of nitro- 
_ benzene is reported by Stone (1904). The report states that a strong 
' man, weighing one hundred and sixty pounds, had stained the uppers of 
@ pair of shoes with hquid shoe-blacking. He put the shoes on before 
they were dry and spent the evening in a café. About midnight he fell 
to the floor unconscious, and he died a few hours later. 
These two cases are interesting from the fact that small quantities of 
the drug were able to produce death. Absorption in each case was prob- 
ably facilitated by the presence in the blood of some solvent for nitro- 
benzene. In the latter case, the ingestion of alcoholic liquor undoubtedly 
facilitated the absorption thru the skin. 
On the other hand, a number of cases have been reported in which the 
patient recovered after the ingestion of large quantities of nitrobenzene. 
Two interesting examples are as follows: 
Dodd (1891) reports the case of a man forty-seven years of age, who 
ingested two drams of nitrobenzene. The resulting symptoms were 
vomiting, extreme cyanosis, fixed jaws, contracted pupils. Hine patient 
eventually recovered. 
Schild (quoted by Adams, 1912) men the cases of three girls who 
took nitrobenzene as an abortifacient. The approximate amounts taken 
were as follows: one ingested 5 mils, and recovered; the second ingested 
16 mils, and recovered; the third took 16 mils, and died. 
CLINICAL SYMPTOMS OF POISONING 
Regarding the characteristic clinical symptoms of nitrobenzene poison- 
ing, Tiirk (quoted by Roth, 1913) says: “The clinical picture consists 
on the one hand of a greater or less stimulation of the gastro-intestinal 
tract; secondly, of changes in the blood which consist of the formation 
of methemoglobin and destruction of erythrocytes, with associated phe- 
nomena of high-grade cyanosis, biue skin color, later icterus, dyspnoea, 
ete.” Weisstein (1892) says that there is great variation in the symptoms. 
He says that those symptoms which might be called characteristic are: 
Great dyspnoea, livid, cyanotic color of the skin, and characteristic bitter-almond-oil odor 
of the breath; even the urine may have this odor. In addition we may have symptoms which 
are not exactly characteristic, as they are inconstant, such as incoordination, hesitating 
speech, drowsiness, numbness, vomiting, convulsions, coma, dilation or contraction of pupils, 
or unequal dilation, nystagmus, irregular pulse. Death is due to a failure of respiration and 
circulation. In animals and in man the symptoms may appear early or late, even days late.° 
6Translation from the original German. 
