ARSENIC. 
573 
§ 752.] 
Aspergillus glaucus, and others growing in a medium in which arsenic 
is present. Gosio cultivated the Mucor mucedo on slices of potato 
arsenic free, in bulbs having a constriction in the neck ; in this con¬ 
striction, four centimetres away from the slices of potato, was packed 
some cotton-wool impregnated with a weak solution of arsenic ; in time 
the mould crept up to and invaded the cotton-wool. From this experi¬ 
ment Gosio concluded that the mould could grow on the surface of the 
paper turned to the wall, and that the mycelium could grow through the 
pores of paper and attack the arsenical colours in the wall side of 
the paper. Diethylarsine is a gas with a strong alliaceous odour ; it 
precipitates a hydrochloric acid solution of sublimate, forming crystals 
of diethylarsine - chloro - mercurate, AsH(C 2 H 5 ) 2 HgCl 2 ; the crystals 
fuse at about 240°. It also gives a precipitate with mercuric nitrate, 
AsH(C 2 H 5 ) 2 (N0 3 ) 2 Hg, ethyl-arsine-mercuric nitrate. 
The gas appears to be readily enough produced by the action of 
the common moulds upon organic matter in the presence of small 
amounts of arsenic ; the moulds vary in this property : Mucor mucedo 
and Aspergillus glaucus react well; on the contrary, Penicillium glaucum, 
Mucor ramosus, and several others have either no action, or the action 
is but slight. One mould, the Penicillium brevicaule, has quite a special 
endowment in forming this peculiar arsenical compound ; so much so, 
that Gosio has proposed its use as a reagent for arsenic, the garlic odour 
being perceived when the fungus is made to grow in solutions containing 
organic matter and only traces of arsenic. 
§ 752. Forms of Arsenical Poisoning. —There are at least four dis¬ 
tinct forms of arsenical poisoning, viz. an acute, a subacute, a nervous, 
and a chronic form. 
Acute Form. —All those cases in which the inflammatory symptoms 
are severe from the commencement, and in which the sufferer dies within 
twenty-four hours, may be called acute. The commencement of the 
symptoms in these cases is always within the hour ; they have been 
known, indeed, to occur within eight minutes, but the most usual time 
is from twenty minutes to half an hour. There is an acrid feeling in 
the throat, with nausea ; vomiting soon sets in, the ejected matters 
being at first composed of the substances eaten ; later they may be 
bilious or even bloody, or composed of a whitish liquid. Diarrhoea 
follows and accompanies the vomiting ; the motions are sometimes like 
those met with in ordinary diarrhoea and English cholera, and some¬ 
times bloody. There is coldness of the extremities, with great feeble¬ 
ness, and the pulse is small and difficult to feel. The face, at first very 
pale, takes a bluish tint, the temperature falls still lower ; the patient 
sinks in collapse, and death takes place in from five to twenty hours 
after the taking of the poison. 
There can scarcely be said to be any clinical feature which 
