ACTION OF ARSENICAL COMPOUNDS 223 



bodies of animals years after their death from toxic amounts 

 of arsenic. 



Summary. — Arsenic is unfortunately one of the drugs 

 whose physiological action — so far as we know it — does not 

 throw any light, in many instances, upon its therapeutic 

 effects. In altering the condition of the patient for the 

 better, in some diseases, it is described by that vague and 

 otherwise indefinable term, " alterative." 



Toxicology. — The lower animals, as the horse and cow, 

 are proportionately not nearly so susceptible to the poisonous 

 effects of arsenic as the h'.imau subject, I3 grains is the 

 smallest fatal dose reported in man. Amounts larger than 

 a drachm appear to be required to c;iuse death in the horse, 

 although much smaller quantities have produced death when 

 repeated a number of times. Mild toxic action is seen 

 following therapeutic doses of arsenic when the physiological 

 limit is reached. This condition is characterized by loss of 

 appetite (nausea aud vomiting in dogs), watery discharge 

 from the nose and eyes, piiffiness of the eyelids, indigestion 

 with mild colic, and diarrhcBa. The pulse may be accelerated 

 and harder than normal. 



Acute Poisoning begins with bilious, mucous, or bloody 

 purging and colic. There is vomiting in dogs. Thirst is 

 excessive ; the urine is high-colored and albuminous ; the 

 pulse is feeble, small and frequent ; the respiration is rapid 

 and difficult from abdominal pain ; the extremities are cold, 

 and there is great weakness of the limbs. Collapse, with 

 convulsions and coma, often close the scene in from five to 

 twenty hours to three days. 



A sub-acute form of poisoning occasionally occurs after 

 a remission from the acute attack, only to be followed by 

 death in from two to five days. In the interim, cutaneous 

 eruptions may appear. Rarely, death takes place within 

 an hour or two, in coma, collapse or convulsions. 



Chronic Poisoning, such as is seen in the human subject 

 living in apartments furnished with arsenical wall paper or 

 fabrics, or in those working in arsenic, is rarely observed 



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