55^ POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 737 . 
Nine persons, workmen in a factory, were poisoned by arsine being 
evolved during the treatment by hydrochloric acid of silver-lead con¬ 
taining arsenic. Three of the nine died ; their symptoms were briefly 
as follows :— 
( 1 ) H. K., 22 years old ; his duty was to pour hydrochloric acid on 
the metal. Towards midday, after this operation, he complained of 
nausea, giddiness, and malaise. In the afternoon he felt an uncommon 
weight of the limbs, and an oppression in breathing. His fellow-work¬ 
men thought that he looked yellow. On going home he lay down and 
passed into a narcotic sleep. Next morning he went to his work as 
usual, but was not capable of doing any thing ; he passed bloody urine 
several times throughout the day, and fell into a deep sleep, from which 
he could scarcely be roused. On the third day after the accident, a 
physician called in found him in a deep sleep, with well-developed 
jaundice, the temperature moderately high, pulse 100. On the fifth 
day the jaundice diminished, but it was several months before he could 
resume his work. 
( 2 ) J. T., aged 19, suffered from similar symptoms after five and 
a half hours’ exposure to the gas. He went home, vomited, was 
jaundiced, and suffered from bloody urine ; in six days became con¬ 
valescent, but could not go to work for many months. 
(3) C. E. was very little exposed, but was unwell for a few days. 
(4) L. M., 37 years old, was exposed two days to the gas ; he 
vomited, had bloody urine, passed into a narcotic sleep, and died in three 
days from the date of the first exposure. 
(5) J. S., aged 40, was exposed for two days to the gas ; the symptoms 
were similar to No. 4 ; there was suppression of urine, the catheter 
drawing blood only, and death in eight days. 
( 6 ) M. E., 36 years old ; death in three days with similar symptoms. 
(7) , (8), and (9) suffered like Nos. 1 and 2 , and recovered after 
several months. 
The chief post-mortem appearance was a dirty green colour of the 
mucous membrane of the intestines, and congestion of the kidneys. 
Arsenic was detected in all parts of the body . 1 
Two cases are detailed by Dr Valette in Tardieu’s Etude. 2 A 
mistake occurred in a laboratory, by which a solution of arsenic (instead 
of sulphuric acid) was poured on zinc to develop hydrogen. Of the two 
sufferers, the one recovered after an illness of about a week or ten days, 
the other died at the end of twenty-eight days. The main symptoms 
were yellowness of skin, vomiting, bloody urine, great depression, slight 
diarrhoea, headache, and in the fatal case a nrorbiliform eruption. In a 
frost, \ ergiftung durch Arsen wasserstoff bei der technischen Gewinnung 
des Silbers,” Vierteljahrsschriftf. gericht. Med., Bd. xviii., Heft 2, S. 6, 1873. 
Ambroise 1 ardieu, Etude medico-legale sur V Empoisonnement, Obs. xxv. p. 449. 
