HYDRIC SULPHIDE. 
§ 55-] 
It is a poison for all organisms, even the bacteria of putrefaction 
only bearing up to J per cent. Lehmann 1 has studied the effects on 
animals ; an atmosphere containing from 1 to 3 per thousand of SH 2 
kills rabbits and cats within ten minutes ; the symptoms are mainly 
convulsions and great dyspnoea. An atmosphere containing from 0*4 to 
0-8 per thousand produces a local irritating action on the mucous mem¬ 
branes of the respiratory tract, and death follows from an inflammatory 
oedema of the lung preceded by convulsions ; there is also a paralysis of 
the nervous centres. Lehmann has recorded the case of three men who 
breathed 0-2 per thousand of SH 2 : within from five to eight minutes 
there was intense irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, and after 
thirty minutes they were unable to bear the atmosphere any longer. 
Air containing 0-5 per thousand of SH 2 is, according to Lehmann, the 
utmost amount that can be breathed ; this amount causes in half an 
hour smarting of the eyes, nasal catarrh, dyspnoea, cough, palpitation, 
shivering, great muscular weakness, headache and faintness with cold 
sweats. 0-7 to 0-8 per thousand is dangerous to human life, and from 
1 to 1-5 per thousand destroys life rapidly. The symptoms may occur 
some little time after the withdrawal of the person from the poisonous 
atmosphere ; for example, Cahn records the case of a student who pre¬ 
pared SH 2 in a laboratory and was exposed to the gas for two hours ; 
he then went home to dinner, and the symptoms first commenced in 
more than an hour after the first breathing of pure air. Taylor 2 re¬ 
cords an unusual case of poisoning in 1857 at Cleator Moor. Some 
cottages had been built upon iron slag ; the slag contained sulphides of 
calcium and iron ; a heavy storm of rain washed through the slag, and 
considerable volumes of SH 2 with, no doubt, other gases diffused dur¬ 
ing the night through the cottages and killed three adults and three 
children. 
§ 55. Post-mortem Appearances. —The so-called apoplectic form of 
SH 2 poisoning, in which the sufferer dies within a minute or two, shows 
no special change. The most frequent change in slower poisoning is, 
according to Lehmann, oedema of the lungs. A green colour of the face 
and of the whole body is sometimes present, but not constant. A 
spectroscopic examination of the blood may also not lead to any con¬ 
clusion, the more especially as the spectrum of sulphur methaemoglobin 
may occur in any putrid blood. The pupils in some cases have been 
found dilated ; in others not so. 
§ 55a. Chronic Poisoning. —Chronic poisoning by SH 2 is of con¬ 
siderable interest from a public health point of view. The symptoms 
appear to be conjunctivitis, headache, dyspepsia, and anaemia. A pre¬ 
disposition to boils has also been noted. 
1 K. B. Lehmann, Arch. f. Hygiene, xiv. 135, 1892. 
2 Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence, ii. 122. 
