58 THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
eruption. Wild,* reviewing a larger number of cases which he had collected from English and 
foreign literature, sums up the question of boric acid and borax intoxications thus : ' Two forms 
are recognized — i. In which large quantities of the drugs are rapidly absorbed from the alimentary 
canal from serous and other cavities, or from extensive raw surfaces ; in these cases vomiting, 
diarrhoea, general depression, ajid partial paralysis of the nervous and muscular systems occur and 
may cause death. Erythematous and impetiginous rashes are common. 2. In which the drug is 
administered in small doses for long periods. Whether the condition of the kidneys, or an 
individual idiosyncrasy in regard to the drug, is the determining factor in causing toxic symptoms 
requires further investigation ; but it is an important fact that the great majority of persons taking 
boric acid or borax do so without injurious effects. GowERS,t Liveing, Fere,! and others 
recorded tliat, in several epileptic cases undergoing a course of treatment with boric acid or borax 
for a long period, in some cases there were considerable gastro-intestinal irritation, nausea, and 
vomiting ; they also noted the occurrence of a dry condition of the skin and mucous membranes, 
falling out of hair, striation of tlie nails, psoriasis, erythema, a special papular eruption, 
desquamation, petechias, cedema of the extremities, albuminuria, debility, and anaemia. The 
doses in these cases amounted to from 4 to 10 grammes a day (about from 60 to 160 grains). 
Wild and Hall§ record also several cases with similar symptoms which had been treated with 
doses of boric acid, or a mixture of that acid and borax, amounting only to from 30 to 75 grains 
daily. Doses of 80 grains per day for a single day produced no effect on 40 of Wild's cases ; but 
doses amounting to 120 grains in 4 hours produced in Wild himself nausea, colic, diarrhoea, 
headache, depression, loss of appetite, and flushing of the skin. The only direct evidence of 
injurious eflFects being produced by the ingestion of ' preserved milk ' is obtained from the cases 
recorded by Dr. M. K. Robinson, || the Medical Officer of Health of the East Kent Combined 
Sanitary District. Five of the seven inmates of a certain house became suddenly ill after partaking 
of blanc-mange which had been made from milk of the previous day, to which, as was confessed, 
the dairyman supplying it had already added boric acid, and to which the cook had added a further 
quantity to preserve it over-night. Nine fowls fed liberally with the blanc-mange became ill, five 
dying. 
Extent of the Use of Boric Acid, &c. 
Dr. A. Hill's^! paper, read before the Society of Medical Officers of Health, furnishes 
valuable statistics from Birmingham. Out of 2,300 samples of food, 460, or 20 per cent., contained 
either boric acid, formol, or salicylic acid. Boric acid was found in 35 per cent, of 882 samples of 
butter and margarine, and in 15 or 24 samples of bacon, sausage, and other animal foods. In 5 per 
cent, of 1,360 samples of milk boric acid was contained in quantities varying from 3 to 130 grains 
per gallon. The samples of butter analyzed contained boric acid varying in quantities from 7 
to 84 grains per pound, or from o.i per cent, to 1.2 per cent. Five out of eight samples of cream 
* The ' Lancet,' Jan. 7th, 1899, p. 23. 
+ Ibid., Sept. 24th, 1881, p. 546. 
X Ibid., Oct. I2th, 1895, p. 932. 
§ The ' Lancet,' Jan. 28th, 1899, p. 261. 
II ' Public Health,' August, 1899. 
^ Ibid., May, 1899. 
