POISONOUS  ACTION  OF  PTROGALLIC  ACID. 
175 
an  excess  has  been  employed.  At  this  point,  if  the  chloroformic 
liquid  be  decanted,  and  treated  drop  by  drop  with  diluted 
sulphurous  acid,  it  will  reassume  its  violet  color.  He  recom- 
mends, therefore,  that  in  testing  bromide  of  potassium,  after 
agitating  a  solution  of  the  suspected  salt  with  chloroform  and 
some  drops  of  bromine  water,  if  no  violet  color  has  been  obtained, 
the  chloroform  should  be  separated  and  shaken  with  dilute  sul- 
phurous acid,  added  drop  bj  drop,  in  order  to  restore  the  violet 
color  of  the  iodine  if  it  is  present. — 0,  H.  Wood,  F.C.S.,  in 
Pharm.  Jour.,  London,  Bee,  1869. 
THE  POISONOUS  ACTION  OF  PYROGALLIO  AOID. 
In  a  memoir  on  the  use  of  turpentine  as  an  antidote  in  phos- 
phorus poisoning,  M.  J.  Personne  has  expressed  the  opinion  that 
phospohrus  kills  by  absorbing  the  oxygen  from  the  blood. 
Where  the  absorption  of  the  poison  is  rapid,  a  true  asphyxia  is 
thus  produced,  which  promptly  causes  death.  According  to  this 
opinion,  the  turpentine  acts  by  preventing  the  phosphorus  from 
burning  in  the  blood,  in  the  same  manner  that  it  arrests  its  com- 
bustion at  ordinary  temperatures  in  the  air.  Being  thus  de- 
prived of  the  power  of  removing  the  oxygen  from  the  blood,  the 
poison  can  be  eliminated  without  causing  any  fatal  derangement 
of  the  animal  economy. 
In  order  to  test  the  accuracy  of  this  doctrine,  M.  Personne 
has  conducted  some  experiments  with  pyrogallic  acid,  a  sub- 
stance very  different  from  phosphorus,  but  which  resembles  it 
in  its  power  of  absorbing  oxygen  very  energetically,  while  in 
contact  with  an  alkaline  liquid.  This  acid  was  administered  to 
two  dogs ;  to  one  two  grammes,  and  to  the  other  four  grammes 
were  given  in  dilute  solution. 
All  the  symptoms  of  asphyxia  were  soon  exhibited,  and  the 
animal  manifested  the  same  sufferings  that  result  in  cases  of 
phosphorus  poisoning.  The  animal  which  received  the  larger 
dose  died  at  the  expiration  of  fifty  hours ;  the  other  ten  hours 
later.  The  post-mortem  indications  were  similar  in  all  respects 
to  those  observable  in  cases  of  death  from  phosphorus. — Q.  H, 
Wood,  F.Q.S.,  in  Pharm.  Jour.,  London,  Bee,  1869. 
