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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
advantage. In this view, the importance of having a suitable 
antidote, is growing daily more apparent; for, setting aside 
the instances in which it may be taken with suicidal intent, 
and the risks incurred by its universal employment in destroy- 
ing insects, it is extensively used in the arts, and has been in- 
troduced of late, especially in the operation of tanning, and 
also to prevent the decay of timber: thus exposing a numerous 
class of operatives to the accident of swallowing it. Even a 
familiar acquaintance with the deadly nature of corrosive sub- 
limate, is not always a guarantee against the risk of taking it 
into the stomach. Thenard, the chemist, while at lecture, on 
one occasion swallowed a concentrated solution of this salt, in 
place of water, but luckily discovered his mistake before he 
had taken enough to prove fatal. A druggist of our city, 
while talking, inadvertently took from his counter a lump of 
the bichloride and swallowed it. He had fortunately eaten a 
full meal a short time before, and on taking an emetic of sul- 
phate of zinc, the piece was instantly rejected, with the con- 
tents of the stomach. It is well known that numerous agents 
have been at various times suggested as capable of rendering 
this salt innocuous. The only antidotes now recognised are 
gluten and albumen; the former having been suggested by 
Professor Taddei', of Florence — the latter by Orfila. Each of 
these promised to be perfect when first announced ; but that 
of Orfila, for many reasons the best, is now the established an- 
tidote. Recent investigations have shown that albumen is not 
so certain in its action as was at first supposed, it having been 
ascertained that the precipitate which it forms, is re-dissolved 
when the albumen exists in excess. " The precipitate is solu- 
ble in a considerable excess of albumen: so that whenever al- 
bumen abounds in any fluid to which corrosive sublimate has 
been added, a portion of the mercury will always be found in 
solution." — Christison, p. 279. It is therefore apparent, if 
this be true, that if it were possible to know the quantity of 
the solution our patient had taken, we could not, in the hurry 
of administering albumen, (even if we knew the exact quan- 
tity required,) give just so much as would neutralize the so- 
