go poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 62. 
syrupy-looking sulphuric acid, when pure, may be mistaken for glycerine 
or for syrup ; and the dark commercial acid might, by a careless person, 
be confounded with porter or any dark-looking medicine. 
Serious and fatal mistakes have not infrequently arisen from the use 
of injections. Deutsch 1 relates how a midwife, in error, administered 
to mother and child a sulphuric acid clyster ; but little of the fluid could 
in either case have actually reached the rectum, for the mother recovered 
in eight days, and in a little time the infant was also restored to health. 
Sulphuric acid has caused death by injections into the vagina. H. C. 
Lombard 2 observed a case of this kind, in which a woman, aged 30, 
injected half a litre of sulphuric acid into the vagina, for the purpose of 
procuring abortion. The result was not immediately fatal, but the sub¬ 
sequent inflammation and its results so occluded the natural passage 
that the birth became impossible, and a Caesarean section extracted a 
dead child, the mother also dying. 
An army physician prescribed for a patient an emollient clyster. 
Since it was late at night, and the apothecary in bed, he prepared it 
himself ; but not finding linseed oil, woke the apothecary, who took a 
bottle out of one of the recesses and placed it on the table. The bottle 
contained sulphuric acid ; a soldier noticed a peculiar odour and effer¬ 
vescence when the syringe was charged, but this was unheeded by the 
doctor. The patient immediately after the operation suffered the most 
acute agony, and died the following day ; before his death, the bed¬ 
clothes were found corroded by the acid, and a portion of the bowel 
itself came away. 3 
§ 62. Fatal Dose. —The amount necessary to kill an adult man is 
not strictly known ; fatality so much depends on the concentration of 
the acid and the condition of the person, more especially whether the 
stomach is full or empty, that it will be impossible ever to arrive at an 
accurate estimate. Christison’s case, in which 3-8 grms. (60 grains) of 
concentrated acid killed an adult, is the smallest lethal dose on record. 
Supposing that the man weighed 68J kilos. (150 lbs.), this would be in 
the proportion of -05 grm. per kilo. There is also the case of a child of 
one year, recorded by Taylor, in which 20 drops caused death. If, 
however, it were asked in a court of law what dose of concentrated 
sulphuric acid would be dangerous, the proper answer would be : So 
small a quantity as from 2 to 3 drops of the strong undiluted acid 
might cause death, more especially if conveyed to the back of the throat ; 
for if it is improbable that on such a supposition death would be sudden, 
yet there is a possibility of permanent injury to the gullet, with the 
result of subsequent contraction, and the usual long and painful mal- 
1 Preuss. Med. V ereins-Zeitung, 1848, No. 13. 
2 Journ. de Chim. Med., vii., 1831. 
3 Maschka’s Handbuch, p. 86 ; Journ. de Chim. Med., t. i. No. 8, 405, 1835. 
