718 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 927. 
ill effect is experienced ; but those who keep the mouth closed and inspire 
by the nose, suffer from an inflammation of the septum, which gradually 
gets thin, and ultimately ulcerated ; finally the whole of the septum is in 
this way destroyed. It is stated that when a workman has lost his nasal 
septum, he no longer suffers from nasal irritation, and has a remarkable 
immunity from catarrh. The Chemical Works Committee of Inquiry 
report (1893) that the manufacture of bichromate of potash or soda is 
practically in the hands of three firms at Glasgow, Rutherglen, and 
Falkirk, and that they visited all of them, and found “ that almost all 
the men working where dust was prevalent, more especially between the 
furnaces and the dissolving tanks, had either perforation of the septum 
of the nose, or had lost the septum altogether.” The bichromate also 
causes painful skin affections—eruptions akin to eczema or psoriasis ; 
also very deep and intractable ulcerations. These the workers call 
“ chrome holes.” These cutaneous maladies start from an excoriation ; 
so long as the skin is not broken, there seems to be little local effect, if 
any. The effects of the bichromate are also seen in horses employed at 
the factories ; the salt, getting into a wound or crack in the leg, pro¬ 
duces ulceration : horses may even lose their hoofs. 
§ 927. Acute poisoning by the chromates is rare. In the five years 
ending 1916, in England and Wales, only 3 accidental and 1 suicidal 
death are ascribed to preparations of chromium. Falck has, however, 
been able to find in medical literature 17 cases, 6 of which were suicidal, 
10 accidental, and in one the bichromate was used as an abortive. In a 
case of poisoning by the chromate of potash (related by Maschka) 1 in 
which a woman, aged 25, took for a suicidal purpose a piece of potassic 
chromate which she described as the size of a hazel-nut (it would pro¬ 
bably be at least 6 grms. in weight), the chief symptoms were vomiting, 
diarrhoea, pain in the stomach, and rapid collapse ; death took place 
fourteen hours after swallowing the poison. 
In poisoning by potassic bichromate, there may be much variety in 
the symptoms, the more usual being those common to all irritant 
poisons, i.e. vomiting, diarrhoea, and collapse, with cramps in the limbs 
and excessive thirst ; and the rarer affecting more especially the nervous 
system, such as narcosis, paralysis of the lower limbs, and dilatation of 
the pupils ; occasionally there is slight jaundice. 
In a case recorded by Dr Macniven, 2 a man took a lump of bichro¬ 
mate of potash estimated to be over 2 drachms (7-7 grms.). The 
symptoms commenced in fifteen minutes, and consisted of lightness in 
the head, and a sensation of great heat in the body, which was followed 
1 Prager Vierteljahrsschr. f. d. prakt. Heillc., Bd. cxxxi. §37,1877; Schmidt's Jahrb., 
J878, Bd. clxxviii. § 237. See also Schuchardt in Maschka’s Handbuch, Bd. ii. p. 3. 
2 “ On a Case of Poisoning with Bichromate of Potash,” by Ed. 0. Macniven, M.B., 
Lancet, Sept. 22, 1883. 
