164 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART. XXI. — CASE OF POISONING BY GIN. 
March the llth, 1839.— A lad, of between seven and 
eight years of age, obtained access to a bottle containing 
some gin. In about twenty-five minutes after, he appeared 
to be slightly affected. He was left alone for a space of 
about five minutes, at the end of which time he was found 
lying on the floor insensible, with his nose bleeding. He 
was in such a position as to leave no doubt that he had 
fallen from a chair near the cupboard, in which was the gin- 
bottle. The chair did not stand there when he was left alone, 
and he must have placed it there. 
The lad, very soon after he was found, threw some fluid 
from his stomach, which, according to the statement of his 
father, smelled of gin. He was put into bed and kept warm, 
but no medical treatment was adopted. 
At 1 o'clock, P. M., (five hours after the spirit was taken,) 
a medical man saw him. At this time, according to the father's 
account, the tongue appeared to swell, the child groaned and 
seemed dreadfully oppressed. The quantity of gin that he 
had taken was computed at half a pint. An emetic was given, 
and the child was put into a warm bath, but neither produced 
any visible effect. 
At 3, P. M., (seven hours after the spirit had been taken,) 
he was conveyed to the Charing-Cross Hospital, where he be- 
came my patient, and was seen by me about fifteen minutes 
after his arrival; in the interim, warm water had been passed 
into the stomach, and withdrawn by means of the stomach- 
pump. The fluid had not the odor of gin, nor of any thing 
peculiar, neither was there the odor of gin in the breath. 
The lad was perfectly insensible and motionless; the limbs 
relaxed and powerless; the face pale; the general surface pal- 
lid, and below the ordinary temperature; the pulse very small, 
feeble, and 144; pupils contracted; the exclusion of light by 
the hand did not produce dilatation; the breathing was rather 
slow, difficult, and decidedly stertorous; there was involuntary 
urging of the stomach, by which a small quantity of fluid and 
saliva drained from the mouth; this had no peculiar odor. The 
