146 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§§ 165 , l 66 . 
first of all poisons in order of frequency, but the taking of doses so large 
as to cause death in a few hours is rare. The deaths from alcohol are 
included by the English Registrar-General under two heads, viz. those 
returned as dying from delirium tremens, and those certified as due 
directly to intemperance. 
From 1875 to 1903 the deaths registered as due to intemperance 
varied from a minimum of 1269 up to 3638, the maximum occurring 
in 1900. The curve on the opposite page clearly shows the alcoholic 
death-rate per million living during the period. Alcoholic deaths, with 
a few intermissions, increased from 1879 to 1900, and since that year 
have declined. 
During the ten years ending 1903, 82 deaths (56 males and 26 females) 
were ascribed, under the head of “ accident or negligence,” directly to 
alcohol.' 
§ 165. Criminal or Accidental Alcoholic Poisoning. —Suicide by 
alcohol, in the common acceptation of the term, is rare, and murder 
still rarer, though not unknown. In the ten years ending 1903, only 
5 deaths from alcohol (3 males and 2 females) are recorded as suicidal. 
Perhaps the most common cause of fatal acute poisoning by alcohol is 
either a foolish wager, by which a man bets that he can drink so many 
glasses of spirits without bad effect ; or else the drugging by his com¬ 
panions in a sportive spirit of a person already drunk. 
§ 166. Fatal Dose. —It is difficult to say what would be likely to 
prove a lethal dose of alcohol, for a great deal depends, without doubt, 
on the dilution of the spirit, since the mere local action of strong alcohol 
on the mucous membranes of the stomach, etc., is severe (one may 
almost say corrosive), and would aid the more remote effects. In 
Maschka’s case, 1 a boy of 9 years and a girl of 5 died from about 
2J ozs. of spirit of 67 per cent, strength, or 48-2 c.c. (1*7 oz.) of absolute 
alcohol. 
1 Recorded by Masehka ( Gutachten der Prager Facultdt, iv. 239 ; see also Maschka’s 
Iiandbuch der gericht. Medicin, Bd, ii. p. 384). The following is a brief summary :— 
Franz Z., 9 years old, and Caroline Z., 5 years old, were poisoned by their stepfather 
with spirit of 67 per cent, strength taken in small quantities by each—at first by 
persuasion, and the remainder administered by force. About one-eighth of a pint 
is said to have been given to each child. Both vomited somewhat, then, lying down, 
stertorous breathing at once came on, and they quickly died. The autopsy, three 
days after death, showed dilatation of the pupils ; rigor mortis present in the boy, 
not in the girl; and the membranes of the brain filled with dark fluid blood. The 
smell of alcohol was perceptible on opening the chest ; the mucous membrane of the 
bronchial tubes and gullet was normal, both lungs cedematous, the fine tubes gorged 
with a bloody, frothy fluid, and the mucous membrane of the whole intestinal canal 
was reddened. The stomach was not, unfortunately, examined, being reserved for 
chemical analysis. The heart was healthy ; the pericardium contained some straw- 
coloured fluid. Chemical analysis gave an entirely negative result, which must have 
been from insufficient material having been submitted to the analyst, for it is hard 
to see how the vapours of alcohol could have been detected by the smell, and yet have 
evaded chemical processes. 
