458 
POISONING  BY  PHOSPHORUS. 
taking  emollient  or  acidulated  drinks  have  apparently  led  to  a 
care,  the  ingestion  of  alimentary  matters  develops  all  the  symp- 
toms of  poisoning,  the  patient  usually  dying.  The  phosphorus 
so  absorbed  may  remain  several  days  within  the  economy  with- 
out undergoing  any  sensible  change,  its  union  with  the  fatty 
matters  enabling  it  in  great  part  to  escape  the  action  of  the 
chemical  agents  with  which  it  comes  in  contact,  and  to  thus  dif- 
fuse itself  through  all  the  living  tissues  in  the  same  manner  as 
poisons  soluble  in  water.  This  explains  why,  when  we  perform 
the  autopsy  in  the  dark,  of  an  animal  that  has  been  poisoned  by 
phosphorus,  its  tissues  give  out  the  phosphorescent  light  and 
aliaceous  smell.  It  also  explains  why  some  persons  have  been 
poisoned  after  eating  the  flesh  of  domestic  animals,  such  as  fowls 
or  pigs,  which  have  eaten  phosphoric  paste.  We  can,  then, 
adopt  M.  Tardieu's  statement  that  phosphorus  is  poisonous  of 
itself,  and  acts  only  on  the  economy  in  a  state  of  isolation  and 
purity.  The  extremely  poisonous  character  of  phosphuretted 
hydrogen  presents  no  objection  to  this  theory,  since  instantly 
that  this  is  introduced  into  the  blood  it  gives  rise  to  the  pro- 
duction of  water  and  the  precipitation  of  phosphorus  in  a  state 
of  minute  division  eminently  suited  for  the  development  of  its 
deleterious  action. 
Two  practical  consequences  are  deducible  from  what  precedes. 
First,  in  poisoning  by  phosphorus  it  is  indispensable  to  expel 
this  toxical  agent  as  rapidly  as  possible  from  the  economy  by 
aid  of  acidulated  laxative  drinks,  and  to  place  the  patient  in  a 
state  of  abstinence,  or  at  all  events  prohibit  his  taking  any  food 
containing  fatty  matter ;  and  secondly,  that  when  phosphorus  is 
administered  therapeutically  it  is  best  to  give  it  dissolved  in  a 
heated  fatty  body,  which  prevents  its  undergoing  change,  and 
insures  its  complete  absorption.  Acting  in  this  way,  we  avoid 
entirely  the  local  action  of  the  phosphorus,  which  is  not  the  case 
when  it  is  prescribed  dissolved  in  ether  or  chloroform.  These 
two  substances  being  soluble  in  a  large  quantity  of  water,  the 
whoLji  or  part  of  the  phosphorus  is  set  at  liberty  by  the  alimen- 
tary fluids,  and,  becoming  deposited  on  the  mucous  •membrane, 
gives  rise  there  to  more  or  less  inflammatory  action. — Med. 
Times  and  Gaz.,  June  13,  1868,  in  Med.  News,  Aug.,  1868. 
