Treatise on Poisons by Sir Robert Christison

of compound poisoning I have met with, the most remarkable is an instance which occurred in Edinburgh Castle, a few years ago, of poisoning with laudanum and corrosive sublimate. In this case, the individual, a young soldier, swallowed about the same time two drachms of the latter and half an ounce of the former. He had at first no violent symptoms whatever, indicating the operation of corrosive sublimate; which is an extremely rare occurrence. Afterwards he had frequent purging and tenesmus, with bloody stools and all the usual phenomena of violent dysentery, but no pain of belly, no tenderness even on firm pressure, no vomiting except under the use of emetics. On the fourth day a violent salivation set in; and under this and the dysenteric affection he became quickly exhausted, yet not so much, but that on the day of his death, the ninth after he took the poison, he was able to walk a little in his room without assistance. He died on the close-stool rather unexpectedly. I have unfortunately lost the original notes I had of this case, and have forgotten whether any narcotic symptoms were present at first; but my impression is that they were present, though in a slight degree only. Most of the previous particulars were communicated to me by the late Dr. Mackintosh. The stomach, duodenum, ileum, colon, and rectum were found after death enormously inflamed, ulcerated, and here and there almost gangrenous.—In this instance some of the corrosive sublimate must have been decomposed by the laudanum, and an insoluble meconate of mercury formed. But the quantity thus decomposed could have been but a small proportion of the whole,—as was indeed proved by the extensive ravages actually committed in the whole alimentary canal. I conceive, therefore, that there is no other way of accounting for the slight apparent effects of the corrosive sublimate, at the commencement particularly, than by supposing that the narcotic operation of the opium veiled or actually retarded the irritant action of the corrosive sublimate.