176 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 2l6. 
pupils, frequent and weak pulse, lessened bodily temperature, and 
spasmodic convulsions. Carbon disulphide was detected in the breath 
by leading the expired air through an alcoholic solution of triethyl- 
phosphin, with which it struck a red colour. It could also be found in 
the urine in the same way. An intense burning in the throat, giddiness, 
and headache lasted for several days. 
Experiments on animals have been frequent, and it is found to be 
fatal to all forms of animal life. There is, indeed, no more convenient 
agent for the destruction of various noxious insects, such as moths, the 
weevils in biscuits, the common bug, etc., than bisulphide of carbon. It 
has also been recommended for use in exterminating mice and rats. 1 
Different animals show various degrees of sensitiveness to the vapour ; 
frogs and cats being less affected by it than birds, rabbits, and guinea 
pigs. It is a blood poison; methaemoglobin is formed, and there is 
disintegration of the red blood corpuscles. There is complete anaesthesia 
of the whole body, and death occurs through paralysis of the respiratory 
centre, but artificial respiration fails to restore life. 
Chronic Poisoning.— Of some importance is the chronic poisoning 
by carbon disulphide, occasionally met with in manufactures necessitat¬ 
ing the daily use of large quantities for dissolving caoutchouc, etc. 
When taken thus in the form of vapour daily for some time, it gives 
rise to a complex series of symptoms which may be divided into two 
principal stages—viz. a stage of excitement and one of depression. In 
the first phase, there is more or less permanent headache, with consider¬ 
able indigestion, and its attendant loss of appetite, nausea, etc. The 
sensitiveness of the skin is also heightened, and there are curious 
sensations of creeping, etc. The mind at the same time in some degree 
suffers, the temper becomes irritable, and singing in the ears and noises 
in the head have been noticed. In one factory a workman suffered from 
an acute mania, which subsided in two days upon removing him from 
the noxious vapour ( Eulenberg ). The sleep is disturbed by dreams, and. 
according to Delpech, 2 there is considerable sexual excitement, but this 
statement has in no way been confirmed. Pains in the limbs are a 
constant phenomenon, and the French observers have noticed spasmodic 
contractions of certain groups of muscles. 
The stage of depression begins with a more or less pronounced anaes¬ 
thesia of the skin. This is not confined to the outer skin, but also 
affects the mucous membranes ; patients complain that they feel as if 
the tongue were covered with a cloth. The anaesthesia is very general. 
In a case recorded by Bernhardt, 3 a girl, 22 years old, who had worked 
• 1 Cloez, Compt. Rend., lxiii. 85. 
2 Memoire sur Us Accidents que developpe chez les ouvrieres en caoutchouc du sul- 
fure de carb. en vapeur, Paris, 1865. 
3 Ber. klin. Wochenschrift, No. 32, 1866. 
