5^0 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 759. 
and confused with those produced by alcohol. This is true with regard to a proportion 
of the cases, but the curious fact has been put on record that the peripheral neuritis 
observed was confined to the beer-drinkers. Heavy drinkers of spirits in the same 
locality and in the same class of life, so long as they did not drink beer, were 
unaffected. 
The chief feature of the outbreak was peripheral neuritis. A severe case 
recorded by Dr Kelynack and Mr Kirby 1 may be considered as typical of a large 
number. 
The patient, a woman of 39, had been in the habit of drinking at least one pint 
of beer daily, and occasionally two pints ; the beer w'as found to contain grain 
of As 2 0 3 per pint. For some time she had noticed a watery discharge from the 
nose and eyes ; about six weeks after this she became aware of a brown discoloration 
of the left side of the neck and left shoulder ; this subsequently extended over the 
whole body ; the skin peeled off the forearm and hands. In about twelve weeks 
she felt tenderness and pain in the soles of the feet, with sensations of “ pins and 
needles.” Walking became painful; gastric symptoms then developed; there 
were vomiting and some diarrhoea ; in about 0 \ months she became too weak to leave 
her bed, and had hoarseness of voice and troublesome cough ; the nails were thickened, 
and there was considerable general branny desquamation. 
In a good many other cases with or without pigmentation there were herpetic 
erythematous papular or vesicular eruptions. In some there was quite an extra¬ 
ordinary thickening of the cuticle of the hands and feet. Nervous symptoms were 
mostly prominent, and in bad cases complete paralysis occurred. 
It was, however, specially observed that in the majority of the patients there 
was no conspicuous gastro-intestinal derangement. Hence the .only evidence of 
arsenical poisoning was peripheral neuritis, with pigmentation or other affections of 
the skin. 
During the epidemic the urine of many of the patients was examined ; in a few 
cases only was arsenic found. On the other hand, the hair and scales from the skin, 
when examined, yielded evidence of arsenic. 
§ 759. Post-mortem Appearances in Animals. — P. Hugo 2 has 
made some researches as to the pathological appearances met with in 
animals. His experiments were made on seven dogs, eight guinea-pigs, 
five rabbits, two pigeons, and five cats—all poisoned by arsenious acid. 
According to Hugo, so far as these animals were concerned, changes 
were more constant in the intestine than in the stomach. 
Stomach. —Changes in the mucous membrane were especially 
noticed in the great curvature and towards the pylorus ; the pylorus 
itself, and a part of the cardiac portion, remained unchanged. The 
mucous membrane in dogs and cats was red, with a tinge of blue— 
in many cases the redness was in streaks, with injection of the capil¬ 
laries. The stomach of plant-eaters was less altered, and a microscopical 
examination of the mucous tissues did not show any fatty change. 
The Intestines. —In dogs and cats changes were evident ; in rabbits 
and guinea-pigs they were not so marked, but the intestines of the last 
were extremely tender and brittle, very moist, and filled with a slimy, 
serous, grey-white fluid ; nevertheless, the changes in all these animals 
appear to be of essentially the same nature. The most striking effect is 
the shedding of a pseudo-membrane ; in quite recent cases there is a 
1 Arsenical Poisoning in Beer-Drinkers. London, 1901. 
2 Archie f. exper. Pathol, u. Pharmakol., Leipzig, 1882. 
