SULPHURIC ACID. 
§§ 66, 67.] 
95 
variable period, of from three to eleven days, after taking the poison. 
In one case the death occurred suddenly, without any immediately pre¬ 
ceding symptoms rendering imminent death probable. If this second 
stage is passed, then the loss of substance in the gullet and in the 
stomach almost invariably causes impairment of function, leading to a 
slow and painful death. The common sequence is stricture of the gullet, 
combined with feeble digestion, and in a few instances stricture of the 
pylorus. A curious sequel has been recorded by Mannkopf, viz. 
obstinate intercostal neuralgia ; it has been observed on the fourth, 
seventh, and twenty-second day. 
§ 66. Treatment of Acute Poisoning by the Mineral Acids. —The 
immediate indication is the dilution and neutralisation of the acid. For 
this purpose, finely divided chalk, magnesia, or sodic carbonate may be 
used, dissolved or suspended in much water. The use of the stomach- 
pump is inadvisable, for the mucous membrane of the gullet may be so 
corroded by the acid that the passage of the tube down will do injury. 
Unless the neutralisation is immediate, but little good is effected ; hence 
it will often occur that the bystanders, if at all conversant with the 
matter, will have to use the first thing which comes to hand, such as the 
plaster of a wall, etc. ; and lastly, if even these rough antidotes are not 
to be had, the best treatment is enormous doses of water, which will 
dilute the acid and promote vomiting. The treatment of the after-effects 
belongs to the province of ordinary medicine, and is based upon general 
principles. 
§ 67. Post-mortem Appearances. 1 —The general pathological ap¬ 
pearances to be found in the stomach and internal organs differ according 
as the death is rapid or slow ; if the death takes place within twenty- 
four hours, the effects are fairly uniform, the differences being only in 
degree ; while, on the other hand, in those cases which terminate fatally 
from the more remote effects of the acid, there is some variety. It may 
be well to select two actual cases as types, the one patient dying from 
acute poisoning, the other surviving for a time, and then dying from 
ulceration and contraction of the digestive tract. 
A hatter, early in the morning, swallowed a large mouthful of 
strong sulphuric acid, a preparation which he used in his work 
(whether the draught was taken accidentally or suicidally was never 
known). He died within two hours. The whole tongue was sphace¬ 
lated, parts of the mucous membrane being dissolved ; the inner surface 
of the gullet, as well as the whole throat, was of a grey-black colour ; 
the mucous membrane of the stomach was coal-black, and so softened 
that it gave way like blotting-paper under the forceps, the contents 
1 It has been observed that putrefaction in cases of death from sulphuric acid is 
slow. Casper suggests this may be due to the neutralisation of ammonia ; more 
probably it is owing to the antiseptic properties all mineral acids possess. 
