620 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 787 . 
§ 787. Effects of Tartar Emetic on Man. 1 — The analogy between 
the symptoms produced by arsenic and antimony is striking, and in 
some acute cases of poisoning by tartar emetic there is but little (if 
any) clinical difference. If the dose of tartar emetic is very large, 
there may be complete absence of vomiting, or only a single evacuation 
of the stomach. Thus, in a case mentioned by Taylor, in which a 
veterinary surgeon swallowed by mistake 13 grms. (200 'grains) of 
tartar emetic, vomiting after fifteen minutes could only be induced by 
tickling the throat. So, again, in the case reported by Mr Freer, 
a man, aged 28, took 7-77 grms. (120 grains) of tartar emetic by 
mistake for Epsom salts ; he vomited only once ; half an hour after 
taking the poison he had violent pain in the stomach and abdomen, 
and spasmodic contraction of the abdomen and arms; the fingers 
were firmly contracted, the * muscles quite rigid, and there was in¬ 
voluntary aqueous purging. After six hours, during which he was 
treated with green tea, brandy, and decoction of oak-bark, he began 
to recover, but suffered for many nights from profuse perspirations. 
With more moderate and yet large doses, nausea and vomiting are 
very prominent symptoms, and are seldom delayed more than half an 
hour. The regular course of symptoms may therefore be summed up 
thus :—A metallic taste in the mouth ; repeated vomitings, which are 
sometimes bloody ; great faintness and depression ; pains in the abdomen 
and stomach ; and diarrhoea, which may be involuntary. If the case is 
to terminate fatally, the urine is suppressed, the temperature falls, the 
face becomes cyanotic, delirium and convulsions supervene, and death 
occurs in from two to six days. Antimony, like arsenic, often produces 
a pustular eruption. Solitary cases deviate more or less from the 
course described — i.e. severe cramps affecting all the muscles, 
hemorrhage from the stomach, kidney, or bowel, and death from 
collapse in a few hours, have all been noticed. In a case recorded by 
Mr Morley, 2 a surgeon’s daughter, aged 18, took by mistake an unknown 
quantity of antimonial wine ; she soon felt sleepy and powerless, and 
suffered from the usual symptoms in combination with tetanic spasms 
of the legs. She afterwards had enteritis for three weeks, and on 
recovery her hair fell. Orfila relates a curious case of intense spasm of 
the gullet from a large dose of tartar emetic. 
1 Antimony occasionally finds its way into articles of food through obscure 
channels. Dr Page has recorded the fact of antimonial lozenges having been sold 
openly by an itinerant vendor of confectionery. Each lozenge contained nearly a 
quarter of a grain (-16 mgrm.), and they caused well-marked symptoms of poisoning 
in the case of a servant and two children. How the antimony got in was unknown. 
In this case it appears to have existed not as tartar emetic, but as an insoluble 
oxide, for it would not dialyse in aqueous solution.—“ On a Remarkable Instance of 
Poisoning by means of Lozenges containing Antimony,” by David Page, M.D., 
Lancet, i. 699, 1879. - 
2 Brit. Med. Journ., 1879. 
