CAUSTIC POTASH AND SODA. 
§§ Il6-Il8.] 
129 
§ 116. Effects on Animal and Vegetable Life.— The fixed alkalies 
destroy all vegetable life, if applied in strong solution or in substance, 
by dehydrating and dissolving the tissues. The effects on animal 
tissues are, in part, due also to the affinity of the alkalies for water. 
They extract water from the tissues with which they come in contact, 
and also attack the albuminous constituents, forming alkali-albuminate, 
which swells on the addition of water, and, in a large quantity, even 
dissolves. Cartilaginous and horny tissues are also acted upon, and 
strong alkalies will dissolve hair, silk, etc. The action of the alkali is 
by no means restricted to the part first touched, but has a remarkable 
faculty of spreading in all directions. 
§ 117. Local Effects. —The effects of strong alkali applied to the 
epidermis are similar to, but not identical with, those produced by 
strong acids. S. Samuel 1 has studied this experimentally on the ear 
of the rabbit; a drop of a strong solution of caustic alkali, placed on the 
ear of a white rabbit, caused stasis in the arteries and veins, with first a 
greenish, then a black colour of the blood ; the epidermis was bleached, 
the hair loosened, and there quickly -followed a greenish coloration on 
the back of the ear, opposite to the place of application. Around the 
burned spot appeared a circle of anastomosing vessels, a blister rose, and 
a slough separated in a few days. The whole thickness of the ear was 
coloured yellowish-green, and later the spot became of a rusty brown. 
§ 118. Symptoms. —The symptoms observed when a person has 
swallowed a dangerous dose of caustic (fixed) alkali are very similar to 
those noticed with ammonia, with the important exception that there is 
no respiratory trouble, unless the liquid has come into contact with the 
glottis ; nor has there been hitherto remarked the rapid death which 
has taken place with a few ammonia poisonings, the shortest time 
hitherto recorded being three hours, as related by Taylor in a case 
in which a boy had swallowed 3 ozs. of a strong solution of carbonate 
of potash. 
There is instant pain extending from the mouth to the stomach, and 
a persistent and unpleasant taste ; if the individual is not a determined 
suicide, and the poison (as is mostly the case) has been taken accidentally, 
the liquid should be immediately ejected as much as possible, and water 
or other liquid at hand drunk freely. Shock may at once occur, and the 
patient die from collapse ; but this, even with frightful destruction of 
tissue, appears to be rare. Vomiting supervenes ; what is ejected is 
strongly alkaline, and streaked with blood, and has a soapy, frothy 
appearance. There may be diarrhoea, great tenderness of the abdomen, 
and quick pulse and fever. 
With caustic potash, there may be also noticed its toxic effects (apart 
from local action) on the heart ; the pulse in that case is slow and 
1 Virchow’s Archivf. path. Anat., Bd. li., 1870. 
9 
