n6 poisons: their effects and detection. [§§91,92. 
A very similar case happened in Edinburgh in 1863. 1 Two young 
men were carrying a jar of nitric acid ; the jar broke, and they attempted 
to wipe up the acid from the floor. The one died ten hours after the 
accident, the other in less than twenty-four hours. The symptoms were 
mainly those of difficult breathing, and it is probable that death was 
produced from suffocation. Dr Taylor relates also that, having accident¬ 
ally inhaled the vapour in preparing gun-cotton, he suffered from severe 
constriction of the throat, tightness in the chest, and cough for more 
than a week. 2 
§ 91. Effects of Liquid Nitric Acid. —Criminal poisoning by nitric 
acid, though still rare, is naturally more frequent than formerly. At . 
the beginning of the nineteenth century, Tartra 3 wrote a most excellent 
monograph on the subject, and collated all the cases he could find, from 
the first recorded instances related by Bembo 4 in Venetian history, down 
to his own time. The number of deaths in those 400 years was but fifty- 
five, while, in the eighteenth century, at least fifty can be numbered in 
England. Most of these (74 per cent.) are suicidal, a very few homicidal, 
the rest accidental. In one of Tartra’s cases, some nitric acid was placed 
in the wine of a drunken woman, with fatal effect. Osenbriiggen 5 relates 
the case of a father murdering his six children by means of nitric acid ; 
and C. A. Buchner 6 that of a soldier who poured acid into the mouth of 
his illegitimate infant. A curious case is one in which a man poisoned his 
drunken wife by pouring the acid into her right ear ; she died after six 
weeks’ illness. All these instances prove again, if necessary, that the 
acid is only likely to be used with murderous intent in the case of young 
children, or of sleeping, drunken, or otherwise helpless people. 
As an example of the way in which accidents are brought about by 
heedlessness, may be cited the comparatively recent case of a woman 
who bought a small quantity of aqua fortis for the purpose of allaying 
toothache by a local application. She attempted to pour the acid 
direct from the bottle into the cavity of the tooth ; the acid went down 
her throat, and the usual symptoms followed. She threw up a very 
perfect- cast of the gullet (preserved in University College museum), 
and rapidly died. Nitric acid has been mistaken for various liquids, 
and has also been used by injection as an abortive, in every respect 
having a toxicological history similar to that of sulphuric acid. 
§ 92. Local Action. —When strong nitric acid conies in contact with 
1 Chemical News, March 14, 1863, p. 132. 
2 Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence, vol. i. p. 218, 1873. 
3 Tartra, A. E., Dr, Traite de VEmpoisonnement par VAcide Nilrique, Paris, 
An. 10 (1802), pp. 300. 
4 Bembo Cardinalis, Rerum Venetarium Histories, lib. i. p. 12, Paris ed., 1551. 
5 Allgem.-deutsche Strafrechtszeitung, herausgeg. v. Frz. v. Holtzendorff, 5 Jahrg., 
Hft. 5, 8. 273, 1865. 
0 Friedorich’s Blatter f. ger. Med., 1866, Hft. 3, S. 187. 
