ANTIMONY. 
621 
§§ 7 ^, 7890 
§ 788. Chronic Antimonial Poisoning. —The cases of Palmer and 
J. P. Cook, M. Mullen, Freeman, Winslow, Pritchard, the remarkable 
Bravo case, and bhe Chapman case have given the subject of chronic 
antimonial poisoning a considerable prominence. In the trials referred 
to, it was shown that medical men might easily mistake the effects of 
doses of antimony given at intervals for the action of disease—the 
symptoms being great nausea, followed by vomiting, chronic diarrhoea, 
alternating with constipation, small frequent pulse, loss of voice, great 
muscular weakness, depression, with coldness of the skin and a clammy 
perspiration. In the case of Mrs Pritchard, 1 her face was flushed, and 
her manner so excited as to give an ordinary observer the idea that she 
had been drinking ; and, with the usual symptoms of vomiting and 
purging, she suffered from cramps in the hands. Dr Pritchard tried to 
make it appear that she was suffering from typhoid fever, which the 
symptoms in a few respects only resembled. 
According to Eulenberg, workmen, exposed for a long period to the 
vapour of the oxide of antimony, suffer pain in the bladder and a burn¬ 
ing sensation in the urethra, and continued inhalation even leads to 
impotence and wasting of the testicles. 2 
§ 789. The Chapman Case. —Severino Kloswsti alias George Chapman 
was a Russian Pole who had been apprenticed to a surgeon in Warsaw, 
and had obtained the degree of “ Faldscher.” Coming to England, he 
acted as a barber’s assistant, and married a Luccz Paderssi in October 
1889. This woman left him after a short time. He then took the 
name of Chapman and lived with a woman, Mrs Isabella Spint, who 
passed as Mrs Chapman. The couple went to live at Hastings, where 
Chapman became more or less intimate with a chemist, from whom he 
obtained about an ounce of tartar emetic. Leaving Hastings, he next 
appears as the landlord of the “ Prince of Wales ” public-house, Bartholo¬ 
mew Square, Finsbury. Mrs Chapman now became ill, the chief symp¬ 
tom being frequent vomiting, Chapman ascribing her illness to excessive 
drinking. On Christmas Day, 1897, Mrs Chapman was extremely ill, 
and her husband gave her frequent doses of brandy, after each of which 
the sickness increased. She died about midday. His next victim was 
Elizabeth Taylor, who first appeared as barmaid, and was then per¬ 
suaded to go through some form of marriage with Chapman in the 
spring of 1899. In March they moved into the “ Monument ” public- 
house in Southwark, where the woman became ill, the symptoms being 
the same as before. Dr Stoker, who was called in on 1st January, 
ascribed the illness to some obscure stomach disease, this opinion being 
1 Edin. Med. Journ., 1865. 
2 In the first operations of finishing printers’ types, the workmen inhale a metallic 
dust which gives rise to effects similar to lead colic ; and probably in this case the 
lead is more active than the associated antimony. 
