OXALIC ACID. 
547 
§ 725 -] 
are more or less constant, always provided time is given for their 
development. From the experiments already detailed on animals, one 
would expect some paresis of the lower extremities, but this has nob 
been observed in man. There is more or less inflammation of the 
stomach, and often peritonitis; in one case {Brit. Med. Journal , 1873) 
there were cystitis and acute congestion of the kidneys with albuminuria. 
In two cases quoted by Taylor there was a temporary loss or en- 
feeblement of voice ; in one of the two the aphonia lasted for eight 
days. In the other, that of a man who had swallowed about 7 grms. 
(J oz.) of oxalic acid, his voice, naturally deep, became in nine hours 
low and feeble, and continued so for more than a month, during the 
whole of which time he suffered in addition from numbness and tingling 
of the legs. As a case of extreme rarity may be mentioned that of a 
young woman 1 who took 12 grms. (165 grains) of the acid oxalate of 
potash, and on the third day died ; before death exhibiting delirium 
so active and intense that it was described as “ madness/’ 
§ 725. Physiological Action. —Putting on one side the local effects 
of oxalic acid, and regarding only its true toxic effects, there is some 
difference of opinion as to its action. L. Hermann considers it one of 
the heart poisons, having seen the frog’s heart arrested by subcutaneous 
doses of sodic oxalate, an observation which is borne out by the experi¬ 
ments of Cyon, 2 and not negatived by those of Robert and Kiissner. 
The poison is believed to act on the extracardial ganglia. Onsum 3 held 
at one time a peculiar theory of the action of oxalic acid, believing 
that it precipitated as oxalate of lime in the lung capillaries, causing 
embolic obstruction ; but this view is not now accepted—there are too 
many obvious objections to it. Robert and Russner do not consider 
oxalic acid a heart poison, but believe that its action is directed to the 
central nervous system, as attested by sinking of the blood-pressure, the 
arhythm and retardation of the pulse, the slow breathing, the paralytic 
symptoms, and the fibrillary muscular contraction ; but, with regard to 
the latter, Locke 4 has observed that a frog’s sartorius, immersed in 0*75 
sodium oxalate solution, becomes in a few seconds violently active, much 
more so than in Biederman’s normal saline solution. After thirty to 
forty-five minutes it loses its irritability, which, however, it partially 
recovers by immersion in 0-6 sodium chloride solution. He thinks this 
may explain the symptoms of fibrillary muscular contraction observed 
by Robert and Russner, which they ascribe to an action on the central 
nervous system. 
1 Journ. de Chim. Med., 1839, p. 564. 
2 Virchow’s Archiv, xx. 233. 
3 Almen afterwards supported Onsum’s view ; he made a number of microscopical 
observations, and appears to have been the first who identified oxalate of lime in the 
kidneys ( Upsala Lakarefoverlings forhandl., Bd. ii. Hft. iv. S. 265). 
4 F. S. Locke, J. Phys., xv. 119 ; Journ. Chem. Soc., 1893, p. 480. 
