EXPERIMENTS WITH CARBOLIC ACID. 
813 
I need not say anything about the larger doses, as any 
quantity above fifteen to twenty minims will give rise to 
severe symptoms, and half a drachm will probably prove fatal. 
Antidote .—There is no time to exhibit anv. The action of 
•/ 
the drug is so rapid that there is not time to take any steps. 
If the person who has taken a large dose be seen at once, 
immediate vomiting should be induced by tickling the fauces 
or by the use of the stomach pump. Cold applied to the 
head, a little brandy given, and, perhaps, artificial respiration 
might be useful. Ammonia, either as the carbonate or as 
the aromatic spirits, did not appear of use. Oil given with 
the acid greatly neutralised its effects, but given afterwards 
had little or no effect; nor had milk or white of egg. 
Action .—The action of carbolic acid appears almost similar 
to that of prussic acid. It affects with nearly equal rapidity, 
but w r hilst, in poisoning by prussic acid, stertorous breathing 
seems to be the exception, with carbolic acid heavy sighing 
(dog, No. 6) is exceptional, and stertor the common symptom. 
The fluid state of the blood, universal congestion of the organs, 
and serous effusion over the surface and into the central 
cavities are also concomitant symptoms, as are also the stag¬ 
gering gait, foaming at the mouth, and loss of control 
over the muscles of locomotion. The acid also seems to 
have a paralysing effect on the involuntary muscles, as 
seen in the dilated and flaccid heart, dilated blood-vessels, 
distended bladder, &c., and the entire check of the secre¬ 
tions of the intestinal canal; the contents, whenever ex¬ 
amined, have been found hard and scybalous, or thick and 
ropy—the congestion of the intestines being more severe 
where the acid had been given for some time, than when ad¬ 
ministered in one fatal dose. By check of secretions I mean 
their non-discharge into the intestines, as the gall-bladder 
was usually found distended with dark bile. In the human 
being I have tried carbolic acid in several cases of local com¬ 
plaint with advantage; my opinion is that in dyspeptic 
diarrhoea, where there are frothy fermenting stools, it acts as 
an antiseptic as well as a sedative. In dysentery, attended 
with discharges of mucus, and mucus with blood, it relieves 
the spasms of the intestines by its sedative action ; and given 
with mucilage and small doses of tincture of opium, I have 
obtained good results ; but when given in five or six minim 
doses three times a day, the patients, after the third or fourth 
day, have complained of a sinking, fainting sensation at the 
epigastrium, and almost every patient complains of its pro¬ 
ducing a soreness in the mouth (but not the teeth-on-edge 
acidity of the mineral acids), and an increased flow of saliva. 
