164 
POISONING BY ACETATE OP LEAD. 
among the population of this vast empire ; vicissitudes 
which bear no proportion to the regular laws of European po- 
pulation, as may be seen in an account published in the Jour- 
nal of the Asiatic Society, and of which I present a copy to the 
Academy on behalf of the author.* 
Jim. de Chim. et de Phys* 
ART. XXVIII. — FATAL EFFECTS FROM ACETATE OF LEAD 
GIVEN IN LARGE AMOUNT FOR PHTHISIS PULMONALIS. 
By Dr. Bicking, of Mulhouse. 
Although we possess a large number of observations in 
which the acetate of lead has been given with success, or, at 
least, without serious accident, for phthisis pulmonalis, there 
are others in which troublesome results have followed from 
the prolonged use of this medicine, and, on this point, Dr. 
Bicking cites the following case : 
Ferdinand R , aged fifteen years, subject, during his 
younger days, to attacks of scrofula, suffered several times 
from affections of the chest, and finally became consumptive. 
Having arrived at an advanced stage of this affection of the 
lungs, accompanied with hectic fever, sweats, and colliqua- 
tive diarrhoea, without any remedy having power to arrest or 
alleviate its course, Dr. Bicking commenced with the use of 
acetate of lead. 
I gave, says he, to the patient, a quarter of a grain of ace- 
tate of lead reduced to powder, along with sugar of milk, four 
times a day, during a certain time. Under its influence, I ob- 
tained a marked amendment in the course of the morbid symp- 
toms ; the fever, the sweats, the dejections, and cough dimi- 
* Account of the population of China and its variations, since the year 
2400 before the Christian era, to the third century after. By Edward 
Biot. 
