704 poisons: their effects and detection. [§§ 900 , 901 . 
experiments, and determined the amount of zinc dissolved in fifteen days 
by different liquids from a galvanised iron as well as a zinc vessel. 
The amount found was as follows :— 
The Liquid from 
the Zinc Vessel— 
grms. per litre. 
The Liquid from 
the Galvanised 
Iron Vessel— 
grms. per litre. 
Brandy .... 
0-95 
0-70 
Wine .... 
3*95 
4-10 
Orange-flower water . 
0-50 
0-75 
Vinegar .... 
31-75 
60-75 
Fatty soup 
0-46 
1-00 
Weak soup 
0-86 
1-76 
Milk . . . 
5-13 
7-00 
Salt water 
1-75 
0-40 
Seltzer water 
0-35 
0-30 
Distilled water . 
traces 
traces 
Ordinary water. 
traces 
traces 
Olive oil . 
none 
none 
§ 900. Effects of Zinc, as shown by Experiments on Animals.— 
Harnack, in experiments witji sodium-zinc oxide pyrophosphate, has 
shown that the essential action of zinc salts is to paralyse the muscles 
of the body and the heart, and, by thus affecting the circulation* and 
respiration, to cause death ; these main results have been fully confirmed 
by Blake, Letheby, and C. Ph. Falck. For rabbits the lethal dose is 
•08 to -09 grin, of zinc oxide, or about *04 per kilogrm. The tempera¬ 
ture during acute poisoning sinks notably—according to F. A. Falck’s 
researches on rabbits, from about 7*3° to 13*0°. Zinc is eliminated 
mainly by the urine, and has been recognised in that fluid four to five 
days after the last dose. It has also been separated in small quantity 
from the milk and the bile. 
§ 901. Effects of Zinc Compounds on Man.— (a) Zinc Oxide.— The 
poisonous action of zinc oxide is so weak that it is almost doubtful 
whether it should be considered a poison. Dr Marcett has given a 
pound (453*6 grins.) during a month in divided doses without injury to 
a patient afflicted with epilepsy ; and the workmen in zinc manufactories 
cover themselves from head to foot with the dust without very apparent 
bad effects. It is not, however, always innocuous, for Popoff has re¬ 
corded it as the cause of headache, pain in the head, cramps in the 
calves of the legs, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea ; and he also obtained 
zinc from the urine of those suffering in this manner. 1 Again, a phar¬ 
macy student 2 filled a laboratory with' oxide of zinc vapour, and 
1 1 he so-called “ zinc fever ” has only been noticed in the founding of brass ; it 
is always preceded by well-marked shivering, the other symptoms being similar to 
those described. 2 R ust ’ s Magazin, Bd. xxi. § 563. 
