THE TAR ACIDS. 
229-1 
slow respiration, and, lastly, inability to swallow. Under the influence 
of stimulating remedies the condition temporarily improved, but the 
child died twenty-three and a half hours after the first application. An 
examination showed that the vessels of the brain and the tissue of the 
lungs were abnormally full of blood. The liver was softer than natural, 
and exhibited a notable yellowishness in the centre of the acini. Some¬ 
what similar appearances were noticed in the kidneys, the microscopic 
examination of which showed the tubuli contorti enlarged and filled with 
fatty globules. In several places the epithelium was denuded, in other 
places swollen, and with the nuclei very visible. 
In an American case, 1 death followed the application of carbolic 
acid to a wound. A boy had been bitten by a dog, and to the wound, 
at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, a lotion, consisting of nine parts of car¬ 
bolic acid and one of glycerin, was applied. At 7 o’clock in the evening 
the child was unconscious, and died at 1 o’clock the following day. 
§ 229. Internal Administration. —Carbolic acid may be taken into 
the system, not alone by the mouth, but by the lungs, as in breathing 
carbolic acid spray or carbolic acid vapour. It is also absorbed by the 
skin when outwardly applied, or in the dressing or the spraying of 
wounds with carbolic acid. Lastly, the ordinary poisonous effects have 
been produced by absorption from the bowel, when administered as an 
enema.. When swallowed undiluted, and in a concentrated form, the 
symptoms may be those of early collapse, and speedy death. Hence, 
the course is very similar to that witnessed in poisoning by the mineral 
acids. 
If lethal but not excessive doses of the diluted acid are taken, the 
symptoms are—a burning in the mouth and throat, a peculiarly un¬ 
pleasant persistent taste, and vomiting. There is faintness with pallor of 
the face, which is covered by a clammy sweat, and the patient soon be¬ 
comes unconscious, the pulse small and thready, and the pupils sluggish 
to light. The respiration is profoundly affected ; there is dyspnoea, and 
the breathing becomes shallow. Death occurs from paralysis of the re¬ 
spiratory apparatus, and the heart is observed to beat for a little after the 
respiration has ceased. All these symptoms may occur from the applica¬ 
tion of the acid to the skin or to mucous membranes, and have been 
noticed when solutions of but moderate strength have been used— e.g. 
there are cases in gynaecological practice in which the mucous membrane 
(perhaps eroded) of the uterus has been irrigated with carbolic acid 
injections. Thus, Kiister 2 relates a case in which, four days after con¬ 
finement, the uterus was washed out with a 2 per cent, solution of car¬ 
bolic acid without evil results. Afterwards a 5 per cent, solution was 
used, but it at once caused violent symptoms of poisoning—the face 
1 American Journal of Pharmacy , vol. li., 4th ser., vol. ix. p. 57, 1879. 
2 Centralblatt f. Gynakologie, ii. 14, 1873. 
