BISULPHIDE OF CARBON. 
§§ 215,216.] 
175 
The urine was tinged a deep pink colour, stiffness and paralysis of both legs soon de¬ 
veloped, and death ; the pathological changes were fatty degeneration of the heart, 
liver, and kidneys. 
J. C. Whatley, M.R.C.S ., 1 records a case in which a single dose of 20 grains 
apparently produced an attack of urticaria. If suitable treatment is at hand large 
doses may be recovered from. A single woman , 2 aged 27, suffering from melancholia, 
took 365 grains (23-9 grms.) with suicidal intent. Twelve hours after taking the 
poison she was discovered profoundly comatose ; there was no corneal reflex, and the 
knee-jerks and the radial reflexes were absent. She was treated by washing the 
stomach out and by subcutaneous injections of grain of strychnine and A (T grain 
of digitalin. She completely recovered in about eight days. 
There are but few cases of poisoning by trional on record. Dr Warren Coleman 3 
describes an interesting case in which a woman aged 35 took, during seventy-two hours, 
9 drachms (about 32 grnn>.) of trional. She was at the time suffering from delirium, 
the result of alcoholic excess. She became somnolent, but was easily roused. There 
was no disturbance of the circulation or respiration. The speech was thick and the 
gait ataxic. There was no hsemato-porphyuria. Recovery was ultimately complete. 
The sulphones described above may be shaken out of a feebly alkaline solution 
by ether. 
Organic matters are extracted by 90 per cent, hot alcohol; the liquid is cooled, 
filtered, and freed from alcohol by distillation ; the residual liquid is filtered while hot, 
made feebly alkaline by means of KHO, and shaken out in a separating funnel by ether. 
The ethereal solution is evaporated to dryness and leaves the sulphone in the form of 
white crystals. That it is a sulphone may be proved as follows :—Fused with sodium- 
peroxide, an orange-red mass results. A solution in water gives with sodium nitro- 
prusside a purple colour, showing the presence of a polysulphide ; sulphur separates 
when the mass is treated with hydrochloric acid, and a solution of'chloride of barium 
precipitates barium sulphate. A melting-point should be taken ; as before stated, 
sulphonal melts at 125°, trional at 75°, and tetronal at 85°, all temperatures so far 
apart as to admit of practical application for the purposes of identification. 
VIII.—Bisulphide of Carbon. 
§ 215. Bisulphide of carbon— carbon disulphide , carbon sulphide (CS 2 ) 
—is a colourless, volatile fluid, strongly refracting light. Commercial 
samples have a most repulsive and penetrating odour, but chemically 
pure carbon sulphide has a smell which is not disagreeable. The 
boiling-point is 47° ; the specific gravity at 0° is 1-293. It is very 
inflammable, burning with a blue flame, and evolving sulphur dioxide ; 
is little soluble in water, but mixes easily with alcohol or ether. Bisul¬ 
phide of carbon, on account of its solvent powers for sulphur, phosphorus, 
oils, resins, caoutchouc, gutta-percha, etc., is in great request in certain 
industries. It is also utilised for disinfecting purposes, the liquid being 
burnt in a lamp. 
§ 216. Poisoning by Carbon Bisulphide.— In spite of the cheapness 
and numerous applications of this liquid, poisoning is very rare. There 
appears to be a case on record of attempted self-destruction by this 
agent, in which a man took 2 ozs. (56-7 c.c.) of the liquid, but without a 
fatal result. The symptoms in this case were pallor of the face, wide 
1 Lancet, April 9, 1904. 2 Alfred E. Hind, Lancet, Jan. 28, 1904. 
3 Med. News, July 28, 1900. 
