236 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 293. 
neither sensitive to pressure, nor unusually sensitive to heat (as, e.g., to 
the application of a hot sponge ) ; the organs of special sense were not 
affected, but his speech was somewhat thick. He lived to 1845 in the 
same condition, but the paralysis became worse. There does not seem 
to have been any autopsy. 
The effects of phosphorus vapour may be still further elucidated by 
one of Eulenberg’s 1 experiments on a rabbit. The vapour of burning 
phosphorus, mixed with much air, was admitted into a wooden hutch in 
which a strong rabbit sat. After 5 mgrms. of phosphorus had been in 
this manner consumed, the only symptoms in half an hour were saliva¬ 
tion and quickened and somewhat laboured respiration. After twenty- 
four hours had elapsed there was sudden indisposition, the animal fell 
as if lifeless, with the hind extremities stretched out, and intestinal 
movements were visible ; there was also expulsion of the urine. These 
epileptiform seizures seem to have continued more or less for twelve 
days, and then ceased. After fourteen days the experiment was repeated 
on the same rabbit. The animal remained exposed to the vapour for 
three-quarters of an hour, when the epilepsy showed itself as before, 
and, indeed, almost regularly after feeding. Between the attacks the 
respiration was slowed. Eight weeks afterwards there was an intense 
icterus, which disappeared at the end of ten weeks. 
§ 293. Chronic phosphorus poisoning has frequently been noticed in 
persons engaged either in the manufacture of phosphorus or in its 
technical application. Some have held that the symptoms are due to 
an oxidation product of phosphorus rather than to phosphorus itself ; 
but in one of Eulenberg’s experiments, in which a dove was killed by 
breathing phosphorus fumes evolved by phosphorus oil, phosphorus was 
chemically recognised in the free state in the lungs. The most constant 
and peculiar effect of breathing small quantities of phosphorus vapour 
is a necrosis of the lower jaw. There is first inflammation of the peri¬ 
osteum of the jaw, which proceeds to suppuration and necrosis of a 
greater or smaller portion. The effects may develop with great sudden¬ 
ness, and end fatally. Thus Fournier and Olliver 2 relate the case 
of a girl, 14 years old, who, after working four years in a phosphorus 
manufactory, was suddenly affected with periostitis of the upper jaw, 
and with intense anaemia. An eruption of purpuric spots ensued, and 
she died comatose. There is now little doubt that minute doses of 
phosphorus have a specific action on the bones generally, and more 
especially on the bones of the jaw. Wegner 3 administered small daily 
doses to young animals, both in the state of vapour and as a finely 
divided solid. The condition of the bones was found to be more compact 
than normal, the medullary canals being smaller than in healthy bone ; 
1 Gewerbe Hygiene , p. 255. 2 Gaz. hebd. de Med., xxix. 461, 1868. 
3 Virchow’s Arch. f. path. Anat ., lv. 11. 
