ON  THE  POISONOUS  CHARACTER  OF  NITROGLYCERIN.  165 
effects  of  nitroglycerine  upon  men  and  animals.  Among  the 
higher  animals  he  found  that  it  acted  chiefly  on  the  brain,  and  in 
large  doses  caused  death.  In  order  to  study  its  effect  upon  himself 
the  author  took  one  drop  at  10  A.  M.  ;  five  minutes  after  great 
giddiness  came  on,  accompanied  by  weakness  of  sight,  headache 
with  throbbing  in  the  temples,  weariness,  sleepiness,  strong  aro- 
matic taste  in  the  mouth,  a  burning  feeling  in  the  throat,  and 
pain  in  the  region  of  the  heart.  An  hour  later,  whilst  incau- 
tiously endeavoiing  to  take  some  nitroglycerine  out  of  a  bottle 
by  means  of  a  tube,  he  received  a  considerable  quantity  in  the 
throat.  Although  he  spat  it  out  at  once,  and  rinsed  out  his 
mouth  with  alcohol,  he  felt  the, above-described  symptoms  return, 
so  that  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  bed.  He  then  fell  into  a  half- 
senseless  condition,  which  lasted  some  hours,  and  left  behind  a 
violent  throbbing  headache,  with  sensitiveness  to  light,  giddiness, 
and  trembling  in  the  whole  body.  At  first  a  feeling  of  warmth 
spread  over  the  whole  system,  and  the  pulse  increased  in  speed  ; 
later  a  feeling  of  cold  came  over  him  ;  besides  this  there  was 
a  burning  sensation  in  the  region  of  the  heart,  and  nausea,  but  no 
vomiting.  On  the  following  day  every  symptom  of  poisoning 
had  disappeared.    There  was  no  sign  at  all  of  convulsions. 
When  applied  externally,  nitroglycerine  produces  no  effect  at 
all ;  to  have  any  action  it  must  be  absorbed  into  the  blood.  This 
seems  to  show  that  its  poisonous  effects  are  due  to  the  products 
of  its  own  decomposition.  Perhaps  protoxide  of  nitrogen  is  set 
free  in  the  blood.  As  the  blasting  oil  has  the  property  of  pene- 
trating through  organic  tissues  in  a  very  marked  manner,  it  is 
easy  to  understand  that  workmen  handling  the  material  should 
get  headaches  by  the  absorption  of  it  through  the  skin.  As  nitro- 
glycerine is  not  volatile,  no  action  through  the  lungs  can  take 
place. 
As  the  excellence  of  nitroglycerine  as  a  blasting  material  is 
sufficiently  proved,  it  will  not  be  long  before  it  finds  a  wide  ap- 
plication. Then  will  come  the  question  whether  its  poisonous 
properties  are  not  so  considerable  as  to  forbid  its  employment. 
The  author  of  the  article  referred  to- believes,  from  his  researches, 
that  this  is  not  the  case.  Experiments  on  animals  have  shown 
that,  to  cause  death,  comparitively  large  doses  are  necessary. 
