SULPHURIC ACID. 
§65.] 
93 
extent, was found to be brownish, friable, and very thin. A chemical 
examination showed that the portion of the bed adjacent to the burnt 
place contained free sulphuric acid. Here, then, was the following 
evidence : the sudden death of a helpless infant, a carbonised bed-cover 
with free sulphuric acid, and, lastly, an appearance in the stomach 
which, it might be said, was not inconsistent with sulphuric acid 
poisoning. Yet a careful sifting of the facts convinced the judges that 
no crime had been committed, and that the child’s death was due to 
disease. Afterwards, experiment showed that if a live coal fall on to 
any tissue and be drenched with water, free sulphuric acid is constantly 
found in the neighbourhood of the burnt place. 
§ 65. Symptoms. —The symptoms may be classed in two divisions, 
viz.:—1. External effects of the acid. 2. Internal effects and symptoms 
arising from its interior administration. 
1. External Effects. —Of late years several instances have occurred in 
which the acid has been used criminally to cause disfiguring burns of the 
face. The offence has in all these cases been committed by women, who, 
from motives of revengeful jealousy, have suddenly dashed a quantity of 
the acid into the face of the object of their resentment. In such cases, 
the phenomena observed are not widely different from those attending 
scalds or burns from hot neutral fluids. There is destruction of tissue, 
not necessarily deep, for the acid is almost immediately wiped off ; but 
if any should reach the eye, inflammation, so acute as to lead to blind¬ 
ness, is the probable consequence. The skin is coloured at first white, 
at a later period brown, and part of it may be, as it were, dissolved. If 
the tract of skin touched by the acid is extensive, death may result. 
The inflammatory processes in the skin are similar to those noticed by 
Falck and Vietor in their experiments, already detailed (p. 91). 
Internal Effects of Acids generally. —It may not be out of place, 
before speaking of the internal effects of sulphuric acid, to make a few 
remarks upon the action of acids generally. This action differs accord¬ 
ing to the kind of animal ; at all events, there is a great difference 
between the action of acids on the herb-eating animals and the carnivora ; 
the latter bear large doses of acids well, the former ill. For instance, 
the rabbit, if given a dose of any acid not sufficient to produce local 
effects, but sufficient to affect its functions, will soon become paralysed 
and lie in a state of stupor, as if dead ; the same dose per kilo, will not 
affect the dog. The reason for this is that the blood of the dog is able 
to neutralise the acid by ammonia, and that the blood of the rabbit is 
destitute of this property. Man is, in this respect, nearer to the dog 
than to the plant-eaters. Stadelmann has shown that a man is able to 
ingest relatively lar:ge doses of oxybutyric acid, to neutralise the acid 
by ammonia, and to excrete it by means of the kidneys as ammonium 
butyrate. 
