SULPHURIC ACID. 
§§ 63, 64-] 
9 1 
nutrition thereby induced. It may be laid down, therefore, that all 
quantities, even the smallest, of the strong undiluted acid come under 
the head of hurtful, noxious, and injurious. 
§ 63. Local Action of Sulphuric Acid. —The action of the acid on 
living animal tissues has been studied by C. Ph. Falck and L. Vietor. 1 
Concentrated acid precipitates albumen, and then redissolves it ; fibrin 
swells and becomes gelatinous ; but if the acid is weak ( e.g . 4 to 6 per 
cent.) it is scarcely changed. Muscular fibre is at first coloured amber- 
yellow, swells to a jelly, and then dissolves to a red-brown turbid fluid. 
When applied to the mucous membrane of the stomach, the mucous 
tissue and the muscular layer beneath are coloured white, swell, and 
become an oily mass. 
When applied to a rabbit’s ear, 2 the parenchyma becomes at first 
pale grey and semi-transparent at the back of the ear ; opposite the 
drop of acid appear spots like grease or fat drops, which soon coalesce. 
The epidermis with the hair remains adherent ; the blood-vessels are 
narrowed in calibre, and the blood, first in the veins and then in the 
arteries, is coloured green and then black, and finally coagulates. If the 
drop, with horizontal holding of the ear, is dried in, an inflammatory 
zone surrounds the burnt spot in which the blood circulates ; but there is 
complete stasis in the part to which the acid has been applied. If the 
point of the ear is dipped in the acid, the cauterised part rolls inwards ; 
after the lapse of eighteen hours the part is brown and parchment-like, 
with scattered points of coagulated blood ; then there is a slight swelling 
in the healthy tissues, and a small zone of redness ; within fourteen 
days a bladder-like greenish-yellow scab is formed, the burnt part 
itself remaining dry. The vessels from the surrounding zone of redness 
gradually penetrate towards the cauterised spot, the fluid in the bleb be¬ 
comes absorbed, and the destroyed tissues fall off in the form of a crust. 
The changes that sulphuric acid causes in blood are as follows : the 
brin is at first coagulated and then dissolved, and the colouring-matter 
becomes of a black colour. These changes do not require the strongest 
acid, being seen with an acid of 60 per cent. 
§ 64. The action of the acid on various non-living matters is as 
follows :—Poured on all vegetable earth, there is an effervescence, arising 
from decomposition of carbonates ; any grass or vegetation growing on 
the spot is blackened and dies ; an analysis of the layer of earth, on 
which the acid is poured, shows an excess of sulphates as compared with 
a similar layer adjacent ; the earth will only have an acid reaction if 
there has been more than sufficient acid to neutralise all alkalies and 
alkaline earths. 
1 Deutsche Klinik, 1864, I. 32, and Vietor’s Inaugur.-Dissert., Marburg, 1803. 
2 Samuel, “ Entziindung u. Brand,” in Virchow’s Archiv f. path. Anat., li., Hefte 1 
u. 2, S. 41, 1870. 
