Brasavolus says that Julia, wife of Frederick, King of Naples, had such

an aversion to meat that she could not carry it to her mouth without

fainting. The anatomist Gavard was not able to eat apples without

convulsions and vomiting. It is said that Erasmus was made ill by the

ingestion of fish; but this same philosopher, who was cured of a malady

by laughter, expressed his appreciation by an elegy on the folly. There

is a record of a person who could not eat almonds without a scarlet

rash immediately appearing upon the face. Marcellus Donatus knew a

young man who could not eat an egg without his lips swelling and purple

spots appearing on his face. Smetius mentions a person in whom the

ingestion of fried eggs was often followed by syncope. Brunton has seen

a case of violent vomiting and purging after the slightest bit of egg.

On one occasion this person was induced to eat a small morsel of cake

on the statement that it contained no egg, and, although fully

believing the words of his host, he subsequently developed prominent

symptoms, due to the trace of egg that was really in the cake. A letter

from a distinguished litterateur to Sir Morell Mackenzie gives a

striking example of the idiosyncrasy to eggs transmitted through four

generations. Being from such a reliable source, it has been deemed

advisable to quote the account in full: "My daughter tells me that you

are interested in the ill-effects which the eating of eggs has upon

her, upon me, and upon my father before us. I believe my grandfather,

as well as my father, could not eat eggs with impunity. As to my father

himself, he is nearly eighty years old; he has not touched an egg since

he was a young man; he can, therefore, give no precise or reliable

account of the symptoms the eating of eggs produce in him. But it was

not the mere 'stomach-ache' that ensued, but much more immediate and

alarming disturbances. As for me, the peculiarity was discovered when I

was a spoon-fed child. On several occasions it was noticed (that is my

mother's account) that I felt ill without apparent cause; afterward it

was recollected that a small part of a yolk of an egg had been given to

me. Eclaircissement came immediately after taking a single spoonful of

egg. I fell into such an alarming state that the doctor was sent for.

The effect seems to have been just the same that it produces upon my

daughter now,--something that suggested brain-congestion and

convulsions. From time to time, as a boy and a young man, I have eaten

an egg by way of trying it again, but always with the same result--a

feeling that I had been poisoned; and yet all the while I liked eggs.

Then I never touched them for years. Later I tried again, and I find

the ill-effects are gradually wearing off. With my daughter it is

different; she, I think, becomes more susceptible as time goes on, and

the effect upon her is more violent than in my case at any time.

Sometimes an egg has been put with coffee unknown to her, and she has

been seen immediately afterward with her face alarmingly changed--eyes

swollen and wild, the face crimson, the look of apoplexy. This is her

own account: 'An egg in any form causes within a few minutes great

uneasiness and restlessness, the throat becomes contracted and painful,

the face crimson, and the veins swollen. These symptoms have been so

severe as to suggest that serious consequences might follow.' To this I

may add that in her experience and my own, the newer the egg, the worse

the consequences."

Hutchinson speaks of a Member of Parliament who had an idiosyncrasy as

regards parsley. After the ingestion of this herb in food he always had

alarming attacks of sickness and pain in the abdomen, attended by

swelling of the tongue and lips and lividity of the face. This same man

could not take the smallest quantity of honey, and certain kinds of

fruit always poisoned him. There was a collection of instances of

idiosyncrasy in the British Medical Journal, 1859, which will be

briefly given in the following lines: One patient could not eat rice in

any shape without extreme distress. From the description given of his

symptoms, spasmodic asthma seemed to be the cause of his discomfort. On

one occasion when at a dinner-party he felt the symptoms of

rice-poisoning come on, and, although he had partaken of no dish

ostensibly containing rice, was, as usual, obliged to retire from the

table. Upon investigation it appeared that some white soup with which

he had commenced his meal had been thickened with ground rice. As in

the preceding case there was another gentleman who could not eat rice

without a sense of suffocation. On one occasion he took lunch with a

friend in chambers, partaking only of simple bread and cheese and

bottled beer. On being seized with the usual symptoms of rice-poisoning

he informed his friend of his peculiarity of constitution, and the

symptoms were explained by the fact that a few grains of rice had been

put into each bottle of beer for the purpose of exciting a secondary

fermentation. The same author speaks of a gentleman under treatment for

stricture who could not eat figs without experiencing the most

unpleasant formication of the palate and fauces. The fine dust from

split peas caused the same sensation, accompanied with running at the

nose; it was found that the father of the patient suffered from

hay-fever in certain seasons. He also says a certain young lady after

eating eggs suffered from swelling of the tongue and throat,

accompanied by "alarming illness," and there is recorded in the same

paragraph a history of another young girl in whom the ingestion of

honey, and especially honey-comb, produced swelling of the tongue,

frothing of the mouth, and blueness of the fingers. The authors know of

a gentleman in whom sneezing is provoked on the ingestion of chocolate

in any form. There was another instance--in a member of the medical

profession--who suffered from urticaria after eating veal. Veal has the

reputation of being particularly indigestible, and the foregoing

instance of the production of urticaria from its use is doubtless not

an uncommon one.

Overton cites a striking case of constitutional peculiarity or

idiosyncrasy in which wheat flour in any form, the staff of life, an

article hourly prayed for by all Christian nations as the first and

most indispensable of earthly blessings, proved to one unfortunate

individual a prompt and dreadful poison. The patient's name was David

Waller, and he was born in Pittsylvania County, Va., about the year

1780. He was the eighth child of his parents, and, together with all

his brothers and sisters, was stout and healthy. At the time of

observation Waller was about fifty years of age. He had dark hair, gray

eyes, dark complexion, was of bilious and irascible temperament, well

formed, muscular and strong, and in all respects healthy as any man,

with the single exception of his peculiar idiosyncrasy. He had been the

subject of but few diseases, although he was attacked by the epidemic

of 1816. From the history of his parents and an inquiry into the health

of his ancestry, nothing could be found which could establish the fact

of heredity in his peculiar disposition. Despite every advantage of

stature, constitution, and heredity, David Waller was through life,

from his cradle to his grave, the victim of what is possibly a unique

idiosyncrasy of constitution. In his own words he declared: "Of two

equal quantities of tartar and wheat flour, not more than a dose of the

former, he would rather swallow the tartar than the wheat flour." If he

ate flour in any form or however combined, in the smallest quantity, in

two minutes or less he would have painful itching over the whole body,

accompanied by severe colic and tormina in the bowels, great sickness

in the stomach, and continued vomiting, which he declared was ten times

as distressing as the symptoms caused by the ingestion of tartar

emetic. In about ten minutes after eating the flour the itching would

be greatly intensified, especially about the head, face, and eyes, but

tormenting all parts of the body, and not to be appeased. These

symptoms continued for two days with intolerable violence, and only

declined on the third day and ceased on the tenth. In the

convalescence, the lungs were affected, he coughed, and in

expectoration raised great quantities of phlegm, and really resembled a

phthisical patient. At this time he was confined to his room with

great weakness, similar to that of a person recovering from an

asthmatic attack. The mere smell of wheat produced distressing

symptoms in a minor degree, and for this reason he could not, without

suffering, go into a mill or house where the smallest quantity of wheat

flour was kept. His condition was the same from the earliest times, and

he was laid out for dead when an infant at the breast, after being fed

with "pap" thickened with wheat flour. Overton remarks that a case of

constitutional peculiarity so little in harmony with the condition of

other men could not be received upon vague or feeble evidence, and it

is therefore stated that Waller was known to the society in which he

lived as an honest and truthful man. One of his female neighbors, not

believing in his infirmity, but considering it only a whim, put a small

quantity of flour in the soup which she gave him to eat at her table,

stating that it contained no flour, and as a consequence of the

deception he was bed-ridden for ten days with his usual symptoms. It

was also stated that Waller was never subjected to militia duty because

it was found on full examination of his infirmity that he could not

live upon the rations of a soldier, into which wheat flour enters as a

necessary ingredient. In explanation of this strange departure from the

condition of other men, Waller himself gave a reason which was deemed

equivalent in value to any of the others offered. It was as follows:

His father being a man in humble circumstances in life, at the time of

his birth had no wheat with which to make flour, although his mother

during gestation "longed" for wheat-bread. The father, being a kind

husband and responsive to the duty imposed by the condition of his

wife, procured from one of his opulent neighbors a bag of wheat and

sent it to the mill to be ground. The mother was given much uneasiness

by an unexpected delay at the mill, and by the time the flour arrived

her strong appetite for wheat-bread had in a great degree subsided.

Notwithstanding this, she caused some flour to be immediately baked

into bread and ate it, but not so freely as she had expected The bread

thus taken caused intense vomiting and made her violently and painfully

ill, after which for a considerable time she loathed bread. These facts

have been ascribed as the cause of the lamentable infirmity under which

the man labored, as no other peculiarity or impression in her gestation

was noticed. In addition it may be stated that for the purpose of

avoiding the smell of flour Waller was in the habit of carrying camphor

in his pocket and using snuff, for if he did not smell the flour,

however much might be near him, it was as harmless to him as to other

men.

The authors know of a case in which the eating of any raw fruit would

produce in a lady symptoms of asthma; cooked fruit had no such effect.

Food-Superstitions.--The superstitious abhorrence and antipathy to

various articles of food that have been prevalent from time to time in

the history of the human race are of considerable interest and well

deserve some mention here. A writer in a prominent journal has studied

this subject with the following result:--

"From the days of Adam and Eve to the present time there has been not

only forbidden fruit, but forbidden meats and vegetables. For one

reason or another people have resolutely refused to eat any and all

kinds of flesh, fish, fowl, fruits, and plants. Thus, the apple, the

pear, the strawberry, the quince, the bean, the onion, the leek, the

asparagus, the woodpecker, the pigeon, the goose, the deer, the bear,

the turtle, and the eel--these, to name only a few eatables, have been

avoided as if unwholesome or positively injurious to health and

digestion.

"As we all know, the Jews have long had an hereditary antipathy to

pork. On the other hand, swine's flesh was highly esteemed by the

ancient Greeks and Romans. This fact is revealed by the many references

to pig as a dainty bit of food. At the great festival held annually in

honor of Demeter, roast pig was the piece de resistance in the bill of

fare, because the pig was the sacred animal of Demeter. Aristophanes in

'The Frogs' makes one of the characters hint that some of the others

'smell of roast pig.' These people undoubtedly had been at the festival

(known as the Thesmophoria) and had eaten freely of roast pig, Those

who took part in another Greek mystery or festival (known as the

Eleusinia) abstained from certain food, and above all from beans.

"Again, as we all know, mice are esteemed in China and in some parts of

India. But the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews abhorred mice and

would not touch mouse-meat. Rats and field-mice were sacred in Old

Egypt, and were not to be eaten on this account. So, too, in some parts

of Greece, the mouse was the sacred animal of Apollo, and mice were fed

in his temples. The chosen people were forbidden to eat 'the weasel,

and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind.' These came under the

designation of unclean animals, which were to be avoided.

"But people have abstained from eating kinds of flesh which could not

be called unclean. For example, the people of Thebes, as Herodotus

tells us, abstained from sheep. Then, the ancients used to abstain from

certain vegetables. In his 'Roman Questions' Plutarch asks: 'Why do the

Latins abstain strictly from the flesh of the woodpecker?' In order to

answer Plutarch's question correctly it is necessary to have some idea

of the peculiar custom and belief called 'totemism.' There is a stage

of society in which people claim descent from and kinship with beasts,

birds, vegetables, and other objects. This object, which is a 'totem,'

or family mark, they religiously abstain from eating. The members of

the tribe are divided into clans or stocks, each of which takes the

name of some animal, plant, or object, as the bear, the buffalo, the

woodpecker, the asparagus, and so forth. No member of the bear family

would dare to eat bear-meat, but he has no objection to eating buffalo

steak. Even the marriage law is based on this belief, and no man whose

family name is Wolf may marry a woman whose family name is also Wolf.

"In a general way it may be said that almost all our food prohibitions

spring from the extraordinary custom generally called totemism. Mr.

Swan, who was missionary for many years in the Congo Free State, thus

describes the custom: 'If I were to ask the Yeke people why they do not

eat zebra flesh, they would reply, 'Chijila,' i.e., 'It is a thing to

which we have an antipathy;' or better, 'It is one of the things which

our fathers taught us not to eat.' So it seems the word 'Bashilang'

means 'the people who have an antipathy to the leopard;' the

'Bashilamba,' 'those who have an antipathy to the dog,' and the

'Bashilanzefu,' 'those who have an antipathy to the elephant.' In other

words, the members of these stocks refuse to eat their totems, the

zebra, the leopard, or the elephant, from which they take their names.

"The survival of antipathy to certain foods was found among people as

highly civilized as the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Quite a

list of animals whose flesh was forbidden might be drawn up. For

example, in Old Egypt the sheep could not be eaten in Thebes, nor the

goat in Mendes, nor the cat in Bubastis, nor the crocodile at Ombos,

nor the rat, which was sacred to Ra, the sun-god. However, the people

of one place had no scruples about eating the forbidden food of another

place. And this often led to religious disputes.

"Among the vegetables avoided as food by the Egyptians may be mentioned

the onion, the garlic, and the leek. Lucian says that the inhabitants

of Pelusium adored the onion. According to Pliny the Egyptians relished

the leek and the onion. Juvenal exclaims: 'Surely a very religious

nation, and a blessed place, where every garden is overrun with gods!'

The survivals of totemism among the ancient Greeks are very

interesting. Families named after animals and plants were not uncommon.

One Athenian gens, the Ioxidae, had for its ancestral plant the

asparagus. One Roman gens, the Piceni, took a woodpecker for its totem,

and every member of this family refused, of course, to eat the flesh of

the woodpecker. In the same way as the nations of the Congo Free State,

the Latins had an antipathy to certain kinds of food. However, an

animal or plant forbidden in one place was eaten without any

compunction in another place. 'These local rites in Roman times,' says

Mr. Lang, 'caused civil brawls, for the customs of one town naturally

seemed blasphemous to neighbors with a different sacred animal. Thus

when the people of dog-town were feeding on the fish called

oxyrrhyncus, the citizens of the town which revered the oxyrrhyncus

began to eat dogs. Hence arose a riot.' The antipathy of the Jews to

pork has given rise to quite different explanations. The custom is

probably a relic of totemistic belief. That the unclean

animals--animals not to be eaten--such as the pig, the mouse, and the

weasel, were originally totems of the children of Israel, Professor

Robertson Smith believes is shown by various passages in the Old

Testament.

"When animals and plants ceased to be held sacred they were endowed

with sundry magical or mystic properties. The apple has been supposed

to possess peculiar virtues, especially in the way of health. 'The

relation of the apple to health,' says Mr. Conway, 'is traceable to

Arabia. Sometimes it is regarded as a bane. In Hessia it is said an

apple must not be eaten on New Year's Day, as it will produce an

abscess. But generally it is curative. In Pomerania it is eaten on

Easter morning against fevers; in Westphalia (mixed with saffron)

against jaundice; while in Silesia an apple is scraped from top to

stalk to cure diarrhea, and upward to cure costiveness.' According to

an old English fancy, if any one who is suffering from a wound in the

head should eat strawberries it will lead to fatal results. In the

South of England the folk say that the devil puts his cloven foot upon

the blackberries on Michaelmas Day, and hence none should be gathered

or eaten after that day. On the other hand, in Scotland the peasants

say that the devil throws his cloak over the blackberries and makes

them unwholesome after that day, while in Ireland he is said to stamp

on the berries. Even that humble plant, the cabbage, has been invested

with some mystery. It was said that the fairies were fond of its

leaves, and rode to their midnight dances on cabbage-stalks. The German

women used to say that 'Babies come out of the cabbage-heads.' The

Irish peasant ties a cabbage-leaf around the neck for sore throat.

According to Gerarde, the Spartans ate watercress with their bread,

firmly believing that it increased their wit and wisdom. The old

proverb is, 'Eat cress to learn more wit.'

"There is another phase to food-superstitions, and that is the theory

that the qualities of the eaten pass into the eater. Mr. Tylor refers

to the habit of the Dyak young men in abstaining from deer-meat lest it

should make them timid, while the warriors of some South American

tribes eat the meat of tigers, stags, and boars for courage and speed.

He mentions the story of an English gentleman at Shanghai who at the

time of the Taeping attack met his Chinese servant carrying home the

heart of a rebel, which he intended to eat to make him brave. There is

a certain amount of truth in the theory that the quality of food does

affect the mind and body. Buckle in his 'History of Civilization' took

this view, and tried to prove that the character of a people depends on

their diet."

Idiosyncrasies to Drugs.--In the absorption and the assimilation of

drugs idiosyncrasies are often noted; in fact, they are so common that

we can almost say that no one drug acts in the same degree or manner on

different individuals. In some instances the untoward action assumes

such a serious aspect as to render extreme caution necessary in the

administration of the most inert substances. A medicine ordinarily so

bland as cod-liver oil may give rise to disagreeable eruptions.

Christison speaks of a boy ten years old who was said to have been

killed by the ingestion of two ounces of Epsom salts without inducing

purgation; yet this common purge is universally used without the

slightest fear or caution. On the other hand, the extreme tolerance

exhibited by certain individuals to certain drugs offers a new phase of

this subject. There are well-authenticated cases on record in which

death has been caused in children by the ingestion of a small fraction

of a grain of opium. While exhibiting especial tolerance from peculiar

disposition and long habit, Thomas De Quincey, the celebrated English

litterateur, makes a statement in his "Confessions" that with impunity

he took as much as 320 grains of opium a day, and was accustomed at one

period of his life to call every day for "a glass of laudanum negus,

warm, and without sugar," to use his own expression, after the manner a

toper would call for a "hot-Scotch."

The individuality noted in the assimilation and the ingestion of drugs

is functional as well as anatomic. Numerous cases have been seen by all

physicians. The severe toxic symptoms from a whiff of cocain-spray, the

acute distress from the tenth of a grain of morphin, the gastric crises

and profuse urticarial eruptions following a single dose of

quinin,--all are proofs of it. The "personal equation" is one of the

most important factors in therapeutics, reminding us of the old rule,

"Treat the patient, not the disease."

The idiosyncrasy may be either temporary or permanent, and there are

many conditions that influence it. The time and place of

administration; the degree of pathologic lesion in the subject; the

difference in the physiologic capability of individual organs of

similar nature in the same body; the degree of human vitality

influencing absorption and resistance; the peculiar epochs of life; the

element of habituation, and the grade and strength of the drug,

influencing its virtue,--all have an important bearing on untoward

action and tolerance of poisons.

It is not in the province of this work to discuss at length the

explanations offered for these individual idiosyncrasies. Many authors

have done so, and Lewin has devoted a whole volume to this subject, of

which, fortunately, an English translation has been made by Mulheron,

and to these the interested reader is referred for further information.

In the following lines examples of idiosyncrasy to the most common

remedial substances will be cited, taking the drugs up alphabetically.

Acids.--Ordinarily speaking, the effect of boric acid in medicinal

doses on the human system is nil, an exceptionally large quantity

causing diuresis. Binswanger, according to Lewin, took eight gm. in two

doses within an hour, which was followed by nausea, vomiting, and a

feeling of pressure and fulness of the stomach which continued several

hours. Molodenkow mentions two fatal cases from the external employment

of boric acid as an antiseptic. In one case the pleural cavity was

washed out with a five per cent solution of boric acid and was followed

by distressing symptoms, vomiting, weak pulse, erythema, and death on

the third day. In the second case, in a youth of sixteen, death

occurred after washing out a deep abscess of the nates with the same

solution. The autopsy revealed no change or signs indicative of the

cause of death. Hogner mentions two instances of death from the

employment of 2 1/2 per cent solution of boric acid in washing out a

dilated stomach The symptoms were quite similar to those mentioned by

Molodenkow.

In recent years the medical profession has become well aware that in

its application to wounds it is possible for carbolic acid or phenol to

exercise exceedingly deleterious and even fatal consequences. In the

earlier days of antisepsis, when operators and patients were exposed

for some time to an atmosphere saturated with carbolic spray, toxic

symptoms were occasionally noticed. Von Langenbeck spoke of severe

carbolic-acid intoxication in a boy in whom carbolic paste had been

used in the treatment of abscesses. The same author reports two

instances of death following the employment of dry carbolized dressings

after slight operations. Kohler mentions the death of a man suffering

from scabies who had applied externally a solution containing about a

half ounce of phenol. Rose spoke of gangrene of the finger after the

application of carbolized cotton to a wound thereon. In some cases

phenol acts with a rapidity equal to any poison. Taylor speaks of a man

who fell unconscious ten seconds after an ounce of phenol had been

ingested, and in three minutes was dead. There is recorded an account

of a man of sixty-four who was killed by a solution containing slightly

over a dram of phenol. A half ounce has frequently caused death;

smaller quantities have been followed by distressing symptoms, such as

intoxication (which Olshausen has noticed to follow irrigation of the

uterus), delirium, singultus, nausea, rigors, cephalalgia, tinnitus

aurium, and anasarca. Hind mentions recovery after the ingestion of

nearly six ounces of crude phenol of 14 per cent strength. There was a

case at the Liverpool Northern Hospital in which recovery took place

after the ingestion with suicidal intent of four ounces of crude

carbolic acid. Quoted by Lewin, Busch accurately describes a case which

may be mentioned as characteristic of the symptoms of carbolism. A boy,

suffering from abscess under the trochanter, was operated on for its

relief. During the few minutes occupied by the operation he was kept

under a two per cent carbolic spray, and the wound was afterward

dressed with carbolic gauze. The day following the operation he was

seized with vomiting, which was attributed to the chloroform used as an

anesthetic. On the following morning the bandages were removed under

the carbolic spray; during the day there was nausea, in the evening

there was collapse, and carbolic acid was detected in the urine. The

pulse became small and frequent and the temperature sank to 35.5

degrees C. The frequent vomiting made it impossible to administer

remedies by the stomach, and, in spite of hypodermic injections and

external application of analeptics, the boy died fifty hours after

operation.

Recovery has followed the ingestion of an ounce of officinal

hydrochloric acid. Black mentions a man of thirty-nine who recovered

after swallowing 1 1/2 ounces of commercial hydrochloric acid. Johnson

reports a case of poisoning from a dram of hydrochloric acid.

Tracheotomy was performed, but death resulted.

Burman mentions recovery after the ingestion of a dram of dilute

hydrocyanic acid of Scheele's strength (2.4 am. of the acid). In this

instance insensibility did not ensue until two minutes after taking the

poison, the retarded digestion being the means of saving life.

Quoting Taafe, in 1862 Taylor speaks of the case of a man who swallowed

the greater part of a solution containing an ounce of potassium cyanid.

In a few minutes the man was found insensible in the street, breathing

stertorously, and in ten minutes after the ingestion of the drug the

stomach-pump was applied. In two hours vomiting began, and thereafter

recovery was rapid.

Mitscherlich speaks of erosion of the gums and tongue with hemorrhage

at the slightest provocation, following the long administration of

dilute nitric acid. This was possibly due to the local action.

According to Taylor, the smallest quantity of oxalic acid causing death

is one dram. Ellis describes a woman of fifty who swallowed an ounce of

oxalic acid in beer. In thirty minutes she complained of a burning pain

in the stomach and was rolling about in agony. Chalk and water was

immediately given to her and she recovered. Woodman reports recovery

after taking 1/2 ounce of oxalic acid.

Salicylic acid in medicinal doses frequently causes untoward symptoms,

such as dizziness, transient delirium, diminution of vision, headache,

and profuse perspiration; petechial eruptions and intense gastric

symptoms have also been noticed.

Sulphuric acid causes death from its corrosive action, and when taken

in excessive quantities it produces great gastric disturbance; however,

there are persons addicted to taking oil of vitriol without any

apparent untoward effect. There is mentioned a boot-maker who

constantly took 1/2 ounce of the strong acid in a tumbler of water,

saying that it relieved his dyspepsia and kept his bowels open.

Antimony.--It is recorded that 3/4 grain of tartar emetic has caused

death in a child and two grains in an adult. Falot reports three cases

in which after small doses of tartar emetic there occurred vomiting,

delirium, spasms, and such depression of vitality that only the

energetic use of stimulants saved life. Beau mentions death following

the administration of two doses of 1 1/2 gr. of tartar emetic.

Preparations of antimony in an ointment applied locally have caused

necrosis, particularly of the cranium, and Hebra has long since

denounced the use of tartar emetic ointment in affections of the scalp.

Carpenter mentions recovery after ingestion of two drams of tartar

emetic. Behrends describes a case of catalepsy with mania, in which a

dose of 40 gr. of tartar emetic was tolerated, and Morgagni speaks of a

man who swallowed two drams, immediately vomited, and recovered.

Instances like the last, in which an excessive amount of a poison by

its sudden emetic action induces vomiting before there is absorption of

a sufficient quantity to cause death, are sometimes noticed. McCreery

mentions a case of accidental poisoning with half an ounce of tartar

emetic successfully treated with green tea and tannin. Mason reports

recovery after taking 80 gr. of tartar emetic.

Arsenic.--The sources of arsenical poisoning are so curious as to

deserve mention. Confectionery, wall-paper, dyes, and the like are

examples. In other cases we note money-counting, the colored candles of

a Christmas tree, paper collars, ball-wreaths of artificial flowers,

ball-dresses made of green tarlatan, playing cards, hat-lining, and

fly-papers.

Bazin has reported a case in which erythematous pustules appeared after

the exhibition during fifteen days of the 5/6 gr. of arsenic. Macnal

speaks of an eruption similar to that of measles in a patient to whom

he had given but three drops of Fowler's solution for the short period

of three days. Pareira says that in a gouty patient for whom he

prescribed 1/6 gr. of potassium arseniate daily, on the third day there

appeared a bright red eruption of the face, neck, upper part of the

trunk and flexor surfaces of the joints, and an edematous condition of

the eyelids. The symptoms were preceded by restlessness, headache, and

heat of the skin, and subsided gradually after the second or third day,

desquamation continuing for nearly two months. After they had subsided

entirely, the exhibition of arsenic again aroused them, and this time

they were accompanied by salivation. Charcot and other French authors

have noticed the frequent occurrence of suspension of the sexual

instinct during the administration of Fowler's solution. Jackson speaks

of recovery after the ingestion of two ounces of arsenic by the early

employment of an emetic. Walsh reports a case in which 600 gr. of

arsenic were taken without injury. The remarkable tolerance of arsenic

eaters is well known. Taylor asserts that the smallest lethal dose of

arsenic has been two gr., but Tardieu mentions an instance in which ten

cgm. (1 1/2 gr.) has caused death. Mackenzie speaks of a man who

swallowed a large quantity of arsenic in lumps, and received no

treatment for sixteen hours, but recovered. It is added that from two

masses passed by the anus 105 gr. of arsenic were obtained.

In speaking of the tolerance of belladonna, in 1859 Fuller mentioned a

child of fourteen who in eighteen days took 37 grains of atropin; a

child of ten who took seven grains of extract of belladonna daily, or

more than two ounces in twenty-six days; and a man who took 64 grains

of the extract of belladonna daily, and from whose urine enough atropin

was extracted to kill two white mice and to narcotize two others. Bader

has observed grave symptoms following the employment of a vaginal

suppository containing three grains of the extract of belladonna. The

dermal manifestations, such as urticaria and eruptions resembling the

exanthem of scarlatina, are too well known to need mention here. An

enema containing 80 grains of belladonna root has been followed in five

hours by death, and Taylor has mentioned recovery after the ingestion

of three drams of belladonna. In 1864 Chambers reported to the Lancet

the recovery of a child of four years who took a solution containing

1/2 grain of the alkaloid. In some cases the idiosyncrasy to belladonna

is so marked that violent symptoms follow the application of the

ordinary belladonna plaster. Maddox describes a ease of poisoning in a

music teacher by the belladonna plaster of a reputable maker. She had

obscure eye-symptoms, and her color-sensations were abnormal. Locomotor

equilibration was also affected. Golden mentions two cases in which the

application of belladonna ointment to the breasts caused suppression of

the secretion of milk. Goodwin relates the history of a case in which

an infant was poisoned by a belladonna plaster applied to its mother's

breast and died within twenty-four hours after the first application of

the plaster. In 1881 Betancourt spoke of an instance of inherited

susceptibility to belladonna, in which the external application of the

ointment produced all the symptoms of belladonna poisoning. Cooper

mentions the symptoms of poisoning following the application of extract

of belladonna to the scrotum. Davison reports poisoning by the

application of belladonna liniment. Jenner and Lyman also record

belladonna poisoning from external applications.

Rosenthal reports a rare case of poisoning in a child eighteen months

old who had swallowed about a teaspoonful of benzin. Fifteen minutes

later the child became unconscious. The stomach-contents, which were

promptly removed, contained flakes of bloody mucus. At the end of an

hour the radial pulse was scarcely perceptible, respiration was

somewhat increased in frequency and accompanied with a rasping sound.

The breath smelt of benzin. The child lay in quiet narcosis,

occasionally throwing itself about as if in pain. The pulse gradually

improved, profuse perspiration occurred, and normal sleep intervened.

Six hours after the poisoning the child was still stupefied. The urine

was free from albumin and sugar, and the next morning the little one

had perfectly recovered.

There is an instance mentioned of a robust youth of twenty who by a

mistake took a half ounce of cantharides. He was almost immediately

seized with violent heat in the throat and stomach, pain in the head,

and intense burning on urination. These symptoms progressively

increased, were followed by intense sickness and almost continual

vomiting. In the evening he passed great quantities of blood from the

urethra with excessive pain in the urinary tract. On the third day all

the symptoms were less violent and the vomiting had ceased. Recovery

was complete on the fifteenth day.

Digitalis has been frequently observed to produce dizziness, fainting,

disturbances of vision, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness of the pulse, and

depression of temperature. These phenomena, however, are generally

noticed after continued administration in repeated doses, the result

being doubtless due to cumulative action caused by abnormally slow

elimination by the kidneys. Traube observed the presence of

skin-affection after the use of digitalis in a case of pericarditis.

Tardieu has seen a fluid-dram of the tincture of digitalis cause

alarming symptoms in a young woman who was pregnant. He also quotes

cases of death on the tenth day from ingestion of 20 grains of the

extract, and on the fifth day from 21 grams of the infusion. Kohuhorn

mentions a death from what might be called chronic digitalis poisoning.

There is a deleterious practice of some of the Irish peasantry

connected with their belief in fairies, which consists of giving a

cachetic or rachitic child large doses of a preparation of fox-glove

(Irish--luss-more, or great herb), to drive out or kill the fairy in

the child. It was supposed to kill an unhallowed child and cure a

hallowed one. In the Hebrides, likewise, there were many cases of

similar poisoning.

Epidemics of ergotism have been recorded from time to time since the

days of Galen, and were due to poverty, wretchedness, and famine,

resulting in the feeding upon ergotized bread. According to Wood,

gangrenous ergotism, or "Ignis Sacer" of the Middle Ages, killed 40,000

persons in Southwestern France in 922 A. D., and in 1128-29, in Paris

alone, 14,000 persons perished from this malady. It is described as

commencing with itchings and formications in the feet, severe pain in

the back, contractions in the muscles, nausea, giddiness, apathy, with

abortion in pregnant women, in suckling women drying of milk, and in

maidens with amenorrhea. After some time, deep, heavy aching in the

limbs, intense feeling of coldness, with real coldness of the surfaces,

profound apathy, and a sense of utter weariness develop; then a dark

spot appears on the nose or one of the extremities, all sensibility is

lost in the affected part, the skin assumes a livid red hue, and

adynamic symptoms in severe cases deepen as the gangrene spreads, until

finally death ensues. Very generally the appetite and digestion are

preserved to the last, and not rarely there is a most ferocious hunger.

Wood also mentions a species of ergotism characterized by epileptic

paroxysms, which he calls "spasmodic ergotism." Prentiss mentions a

brunette of forty-two, under the influence of ergot, who exhibited a

peculiar depression of spirits with hysteric phenomena, although

deriving much benefit from the administration of the drug from the

hemorrhage caused by uterine fibroids. After taking ergot for three

days she felt like crying all the time, became irritable, and stayed in

bed, being all day in tears. The natural disposition of the patient was

entirely opposed to these manifestations, as she was even-tempered and

exceptionally pleasant.

In addition to the instance of the fatal ingestion of a dose of Epsom

salts already quoted, Lang mentions a woman of thirty-five who took

four ounces of this purge. She experienced burning pain in the stomach

and bowels, together with a sense of asphyxiation. There was no

purging or vomiting, but she became paralyzed and entered a state of

coma, dying fifteen minutes after ingestion.

Iodin Preparations.--The eruptions following the administration of

small doses of potassium iodid are frequently noticed, and at the same

time large quantities of albumin have been seen in the urine. Potassium

iodid, although generally spoken of as a poisonous drug, by gradually

increasing the dose can be given in such enormous quantities as to be

almost beyond the bounds of credence, several drams being given at a

dose. On the other hand, eight grains have produced alarming symptoms.

In the extensive use of iodoform as a dressing instances of untoward

effects, and even fatal ones, have been noticed, the majority of them

being due to careless and injudicious application. In a French journal

there is mentioned the history of a man of twenty-five, suspected of

urethral ulceration, who submitted to the local application of one gram

of iodoform. Deep narcosis and anesthesia were induced, and two hours

after awakening his breath smelled strongly of iodoform. There are two

similar instances recorded in England.

Pope mentions two fatal cases of lead-poisoning from diachylon plaster,

self-administered for the purpose of producing abortion. Lead

water-pipes, the use of cosmetics and hair-dyes, coloring matter in

confectionery and in pastry, habitual biting of silk threads,

imperfectly burnt pottery, and cooking bread with painted wood have

been mentioned as causes of chronic lead-poisoning.

Mercury.--Armstrong mentions recovery after ingestion of 1 1/2 drams of

corrosive sublimate, and Lodge speaks of recovery after a dose

containing 100 grains of the salt. It is said that a man swallowed 80

grains of mercuric chlorid in whiskey and water, and vomited violently

about ten minutes afterward. A mixture of albumin and milk was given to

him, and in about twenty-five minutes a bolus of gold-leaf and reduced

iron; in eight days he perfectly recovered. Severe and even fatal

poisoning may result from the external application of mercury. Meeres

mentions a case in which a solution (two grains to the fluid-ounce)

applied to the head of a child of nine for the relief of tinea

tonsurans caused diarrhea, profuse salivation, marked prostration, and

finally death. Washing out the vagina with a solution of corrosive

sublimate, 1:2000, has caused severe and even fatal poisoning. Bonet

mentions death after the inunction of a mercurial ointment, and

instances of distressing salivation from such medication are quite

common. There are various dermal affections which sometimes follow the

exhibition of mercury and assume an erythematous type. The

susceptibility of some persons to calomel, the slightest dose causing

profuse salivation and painful oral symptoms, is so common that few

physicians administer mercury to their patients without some knowledge

of their susceptibility to this drug. Blundel relates a curious case

occurring in the times when mercury was given in great quantities, in

which to relieve obstinate constipation a half ounce of crude mercury

was administered and repeated in twelve hours. Scores of globules of

mercury soon appeared over a vesicated surface, the result of a

previous blister applied to the epigastric region. Blundel, not

satisfied with the actuality of the phenomena, submitted his case to

Dr. Lister, who, after careful examination, pronounced the globules

metallic.

Oils.--Mauvezin tells of the ingestion of three drams of croton oil by

a child of six, followed by vomiting and rapid recovery. There was no

diarrhea in this case. Wood quotes Cowan in mentioning the case of a

child of four, who in two days recovered from a teaspoonful of croton

oil taken on a full stomach. Adams saw recovery in an adult after

ingestion of the same amount. There is recorded an instance of a woman

who took about an ounce, and, emesis being produced three-quarters of

an hour afterward by mustard, she finally recovered. There is a record

in which so small a dose as three minims is supposed to have killed a

child of thirteen months. According to Wood, Giacomini mentions a case

in which 24 grains of the drug proved fatal in as many hours.

Castor oil is usually considered a harmless drug, but the castor bean,

from which it is derived, contains a poisonous acrid principle, three

such beans having sufficed to produce death in a man. Doubtless some of

the instances in which castor oil has produced symptoms similar to

cholera are the results of the administration of contaminated oil.

The untoward effects of opium and its derivatives are quite numerous

Gaubius treated an old woman in whom, after three days, a single grain

of opium produced a general desquamation of the epidermis; this

peculiarity was not accidental, as it was verified on several other

occasions. Hargens speaks of a woman in whom the slightest bit of opium

in any form produced considerable salivation. Gastric disturbances are

quite common, severe vomiting being produced by minimum doses; not

infrequently, intense mental confusion, vertigo, and headache, lasting

hours and even days, sometimes referable to the frontal region and

sometimes to the occipital, are seen in certain nervous individuals

after a dose of from 1/4 to 5/6 gr. of opium. These symptoms were

familiar to the ancient physicians, and, according to Lewin, Tralles

reports an observation with reference to this in a man, and says

regarding it in rather unclassical Latin: "... per multos dies

ponderosissimum caput circumgestasse." Convulsions are said to be

observed after medicinal doses of opium. Albers states that twitching

in the tendons tremors of the hands, and even paralysis, have been

noticed after the ingestion of opium in even ordinary doses. The

"pruritus opii," so familiar to physicians, is spoken of in the older

writings. Dioscorides, Paulus Aegineta, and nearly all the writers of

the last century describe this symptom as an annoying and unbearable

affection. In some instances the ingestion of opium provokes an

eruption in the form of small, isolated red spots, which, in their

general character, resemble roseola. Rieken remarks that when these

spots spread over all the body they present a scarlatiniform

appearance, and he adds that even the mucous membranes of the mouth and

throat may be attacked with erethematous inflammation. Behrend

observed an opium exanthem, which was attended by intolerable itching,

after the exhibition of a quarter of a grain. It was seen on the chest,

on the inner surfaces of the arms, on the flexor surfaces of the

forearms and wrists, on the thighs, and posterior and inner surfaces of

the legs, terminating at the ankles in a stripe-like discoloration

about the breadth of three fingers. It consisted of closely disposed

papules of the size of a pin-head, and several days after the

disappearance of the eruption a fine, bran-like desquamation of the

epidermis ensued. Brand has also seen an eruption on the trunk and

flexor surfaces, accompanied with fever, from the ingestion of opium.

Billroth mentions the case of a lady in whom appeared a feeling of

anxiety, nausea, and vomiting after ingestion of a small fraction of a

grain of opium; she would rather endure her intense pain than suffer

the untoward action of the drug. According to Lewin, Brochin reported a

case in which the idiosyncrasy to morphin was so great that 1/25 of a

grain of the drug administered hypodermically caused irregularity of

the respiration, suspension of the heart-beat, and profound narcosis.

According to the same authority, Wernich has called attention to

paresthesia of the sense of taste after the employment of morphin,

which, according to his observation, is particularly prone to supervene

in patients who are much reduced and in persons otherwise healthy who

have suffered from prolonged inanition. These effects are probably due

to a central excitation of a similar nature to that produced by

santonin. Persons thus attacked complain, shortly after the injection,

of an intensely sour or bitter taste, which for the most part ceases

after elimination of the morphin. Von Graefe and Sommerfrodt speak of a

spasm of accommodation occurring after ingestion of medicinal doses of

morphin. There are several cases on record in which death has been

produced in an adult by the use of 1/2 to 1/6 grain of morphin.

According to Wood, the maximum doses from which recovery has occurred

without emesis are 55 grains of solid opium, and six ounces of

laudanum. According to the same authority, in 1854 there was a case in

which a babe one day old was killed by one minim of laudanum, and in

another case a few drops of paregoric proved fatal to a child of nine

months. Doubtful instances of death from opium are given, one in an

adult female after 30 grains of Dover's powder given in divided doses,

and another after a dose of 1/4 grain of morphin. Yavorski cites a

rather remarkable instance of morphin-poisoning with recovery: a female

took 30 grains of acetate of morphin, and as it did not act quickly

enough she took an additional dose of 1/2 ounce of laudanum. After this

she slept a few hours, and awoke complaining of being ill. Yavorski saw

her about an hour later, and by producing emesis, and giving coffee,

atropin, and tincture of musk, he saved her life. Pyle describes a

pugilist of twenty-two who, in a fit of despondency after a debauch (in

which he had taken repeated doses of morphin sulphate), took with

suicidal intent three teaspoonfuls of morphin; after rigorous treatment

he revived and was discharged on the next day perfectly well.

Potassium permanganate was used in this case. Chaffee speaks of

recovery after the ingestion of 18 grains of morphin without vomiting.

In chronic opium eating the amount of this drug which can be ingested

with safety assumes astounding proportions. In his "Confessions" De

Quincey remarks: "Strange as it may sound, I had a little before this

time descended suddenly and without considerable effort from 320 grains

of opium (8000 drops of laudanum) per day to 40 grains, or 1/8 part.

Instantaneously, and as if by magic, the cloud of profoundest

melancholy which rested on my brain, like some black vapors that I have

seen roll away from the summits of the mountains, drew off in one

day,--passed off with its murky banners as simultaneously as a ship

that has been stranded and is floated off by a spring-tide--

'That moveth altogether if it move at all.'

Now, then, I was again happy; I took only a thousand drops of Laudanum

per day, and what was that? A latter spring had come to close up the

season of youth; my brain performed its functions as healthily as ever

before; I read Kant again, and again I understood him, or fancied that

I did." There have been many authors who, in condemning De Quincey for

unjustly throwing about the opium habit a halo of literary beauty which

has tempted many to destruction, absolutely deny the truth of his

statements. No one has any stable reason on which to found denial of De

Quincey's statements as to the magnitude of the doses he was able to

take; and his frankness and truthfulness is equal to that of any of his

detractors. William Rosse Cobbe, in a volume entitled "Dr. Judas, or

Portrayal of the Opium Habit," gives with great frankness of confession

and considerable purity of diction a record of his own experiences with

the drug. One entire chapter of Mr. Cobb's book and several portions of

other chapters are devoted to showing that De Quincey was wrong in some

of his statements, but notwithstanding his criticism of De Quincey, Mr.

Cobbe seems to have experienced the same adventures in his dreams,

showing, after all, that De Quincey knew the effects of opium even if

he seemed to idealize it. According to Mr. Cobbe, there are in the

United States upward of two millions of victims of enslaving drugs

entirely exclusive of alcohol. Cobbe mentions several instances in

which De Quincey's dose of 320 grains of opium daily has been

surpassed. One man, a resident of Southern Illinois, consumed 1072

grains a day; another in the same State contented himself with 1685

grains daily; and still another is given whose daily consumption

amounted to 2345 grains per day. In all cases of laudanum-takers it is

probable that analysis of the commercial laudanum taken would show the

amount of opium to be greatly below that of the official proportion,

and little faith can be put in the records of large amounts of opium

taken when the deduction has been made from the laudanum used. Dealers

soon begin to know opium victims, and find them ready dupes for

adulteration. According to Lewin, Samter mentions a case of

morphin-habit which was continued for three years, during which, in a

period of about three, hundred and twenty-three days, upward of 2 1/2

ounces of morphin was taken daily. According to the same authority,

Eder reports still larger doses. In the case observed by him the

patient took laudanum for six years in increasing doses up to one ounce

per day; for eighteen months, pure opium, commencing with 15 grains and

increasing to 2 1/4 drams daily; and for eighteen months morphin, in

commencing quantities of six grains, which were later increased to 40

grains a day. When deprived of their accustomed dose of morphin the

sufferings which these patients experience are terrific, and they

pursue all sorts of deceptions to enable them to get their enslaving

drug. Patients have been known to conceal tubes in their mouths, and

even swallow them, and the authors know of a fatal instance in which a

tube of hypodermic tablets of the drug was found concealed in the

rectum.

The administration of such an inert substance as the infusion of

orange-peel has been sufficient to invariably produce nervous

excitement in a patient afflicted with carcinoma.

Sonnenschein refers to a case of an infant of five weeks who died from

the effects of one phosphorous match head containing only 1/100 grain

of phosphorus. There are certain people who by reason of a special

susceptibility cannot tolerate phosphorus, and the exhibition of it

causes in them nausea, oppression, and a feeling of pain in the

epigastric region, tormina and tenesmus, accompanied with diarrhea, and

in rare cases jaundice, sometimes lasting several months. In such

persons 1/30 grain is capable of causing the foregoing symptoms. In

1882 a man was admitted to Guy's Hospital, London, after he had taken

half of a sixpenny pot of phosphorous paste in whiskey, and was

subsequently discharged completely recovered.

A peculiar feature of phosphorus-poisoning is necrosis of the jaw. This

affection was first noticed in 1838, soon after the introduction of the

manufacture of phosphorous matches. In late years, owing to the

introduction of precautions in their manufacture, the disease has

become much less common. The tipping of the match sticks is

accomplished by dipping their ends in a warm solution of a composition

of phosphorus, chlorate of potassium, with particles of ground flint to

assist friction, some coloring agent, and Irish glue. From the contents

of the dipping-pans fumes constantly arise into the faces of the

workmen and dippers, and in cutting the sticks and packing the matches

the hands are constantly in contact with phosphorus. The region chiefly

affected in this poisoning is the jaw-bone, but the inflammation may

spread to the adjoining bones and involve the vomer, the zygoma, the

body of the spheroid bone, and the basilar process of the occipital

bone. It is supposed that conditions in which the periosteum is exposed

are favorable to the progress of the disease, and, according to Hirt,

workmen with diseased teeth are affected three times as readily as

those with healthy teeth, and are therefore carefully excluded from

some of the factories in America.

Prentiss of Washington, D.C., in 1881 reported a remarkable case of

pilocarpin idiosyncrasy in a blonde of twenty-five. He was consulted by

the patient for constipation. Later on symptoms of cystitis developed,

and an ultimate diagnosis of pyelitis of the right kidney was made.

Uremic symptoms were avoided by the constant use of pilocarpin. Between

December 16, 1880, and February 22, 1881, the patient had 22 sweats

from pilocarpin. The action usually lasted from two to six hours, and

quite a large dose was at length necessary. The idiosyncrasy noted was

found in the hair, which at first was quite light, afterward

chestnut-brown, and May 1, 1881, almost pure black. The growth of the

hair became more vigorous and thicker than formerly, and as its color

darkened it became coarser in proportion. In March, 1889, Prentiss saw

his patient, and at that time her hair was dark brown, having returned

to that color from black. Prentiss also reported the following case a

as adding another to the evidence that jaborandi will produce the

effect mentioned under favorable circumstances: Mrs. L., aged

seventy-two years, was suffering from Bright's disease (contracted

kidney). Her hair and eyebrows had been snow-white for twenty years.

She suffered greatly from itching of the skin, due to the uremia of the

kidney-disease; the skin was harsh and dry. For this symptom fluid

extract of jaborandi was prescribed with the effect of relieving the

itching. It was taken in doses of 20 or 30 drops several times a day,

from October, 1886, to February, 1888. During the fall of 1887 it was

noticed by the nurse that the eyebrows were growing darker, and that

the hair of the head was darker in patches. These patches and the

eyebrows continued to become darker, until at the time of her death

they were quite black, the black tufts on the head presenting a very

curious appearance among the silver-white hairs surrounding them.

Quinin being such a universally used drug, numerous instances of

idiosyncrasy and intolerance have been recorded. Chevalier mentions

that through contact of the drug workmen in the manufacture of quinin

are liable to an affection of the skin which manifests itself in a

vesicular, papular, or pustular eruption on different parts of the

body. Vepan mentions a lady who took 1 1/2 grains and afterward 2 1/2

grains of quinin for neuralgia, and two days afterward her body was

covered with purpuric spots, which disappeared in the course of nine

days but reappeared after the administration of the drug was resumed.

Lewin says that in this case the severity of the eruption was in

accordance with the size of the dose, and during its existence there

was bleeding at the gums; he adds that Gouchet also noticed an eruption

of this kind in a lady who after taking quinin expectorated blood. The

petechiae were profusely spread over the entire body, and they

disappeared after the suspension of the drug. Dauboeuf, Garraway,

Hemming, Skinner, and Cobner mention roseola and scarlatiniform

erythema after minute doses of quinin. In nearly all these cases the

accompanying symptoms were different. Heusinger speaks of a lady who,

after taking 1/2 grain of quinin, experienced headache, nausea, intense

burning, and edema, together with nodular erythema on the eyelids,

cheeks, and portion of the forehead. At another time 1 1/2 grains of

the drug gave rise to herpetic vesicles on the cheeks, followed by

branny desquamation on elimination of the drug. In other patients

intense itching is experienced after the ingestion of quinin. Peters

cites an instance of a woman of sixty-five who, after taking one grain

of quinin, invariably exhibited after an hour a temperature of from 104

degrees to 105 degrees F., accelerated pulse, rigors, slight delirium,

thirst, and all the appearances of ill-defined fever, which would pass

off in from twelve to twenty-four hours. Peters witnessed this

idiosyncrasy several times and believed it to be permanent. The most

unpleasant of the untoward symptoms of quinin exhibition are the

disturbances of the organs of special sense. Photophobia, and even

transient amblyopia, have been observed to follow small doses. In the

examination of cases of the untoward effects of quinin upon the eye,

Knapp of New York found the power of sight diminished in various

degrees, and rarely amaurosis and immobility of the pupils. According

to Lewin, the perceptions of color and light are always diminished, and

although the disorder may last for some time the prognosis is

favorable. The varieties of the disturbances of the functions of the

ear range from tinnitus aurium to congestion causing complete deafness.

The gastro-intestinal and genito-urinary tracts are especially disposed

to untoward action by quinin. There is a case recorded in which, after

the slightest dose of quinin, tingling and burning at the meatus

urinarius were experienced. According to Lewin, there is mentioned in

the case reported by Gauchet a symptom quite unique in the literature

of quinin, viz., hemoptysis. Simon de Ronchard first noted the

occurrence of several cases of hemoptysis following the administration

of doses of eight grains daily. In the persons thus attacked the lungs

and heart were healthy. Hemoptysis promptly ceased with the suspension

of the drug. When it was renewed, blood again appeared in the sputa.

Taussig mentions a curious mistake, in which an ounce of quinin

sulphate was administered to a patient at one dose; the only symptoms

noticed were a stuporous condition and complete deafness. No antidote

was given, and the patient perfectly recovered in a week. In malarious

countries, and particularly in the malarial fevers of the late war,

enormous quantities of quinin were frequently given. In fact, at the

present day in some parts of the South quinin is constantly kept on the

table as a prophylactic constituent of the diet.

Skinner noticed the occurrence of a scarlatiniform eruption in a woman

after the dose of 1/165 grain of strychnin, which, however, disappeared

with the discontinuance of the drug. There was a man in London in 1865

who died in twenty minute's after the ingestion of 1/2 grain of

strychnin. Wood speaks of a case in which the administration of 1/100

grain killed a child three and one-half months old. Gray speaks of a

man who took 22 grains and was not seen for about an hour. He had

vomited some of it immediately after taking the dose, and was

successfully treated with chloral hydrate. A curious case is mentioned

in which three mustard plasters, one on the throat, one on the back of

the neck, and another on the left shoulder of a woman, produced

symptoms similar to strychnin poisoning. They remained in position for

about thirty minutes, and about thirty hours afterward a painful

stinging sensation commenced in the back of the neck, followed by

violent twitching of the muscles of the face, arms, and legs, which

continued in regular succession through the whole of the night, but

after twelve hours yielded to hot fomentations of poppy-heads applied

to the back of the neck. It could not be ascertained whether any

medicine containing strychnin had been taken, but surely, from the

symptoms, such must have been the case.

Tobacco.--O'Neill a gives the history of a farmer's wife, aged forty,

who wounded her leg against a sewing-machine, and by lay advice applied

a handful of chopped wet tobacco to it, from which procedure, strange

to say, serious nicotin-poisoning ensued. The pupils were dilated,

there were dimness of vision, confusion of thought, and extreme

prostration. The pulse was scarcely apparent, the skin was white and

wet with clammy perspiration. Happily, strychnin was given in time to

effect recovery, and without early medical assistance she would

undoubtedly have succumbed. There are several similar cases on record.

Although not immediately related to the subject of idiosyncrasy, the

following case may be mentioned here: Ramadge speaks of a young

Frenchman, suffering from an obstinate case of gonorrhea, who was said

to have been completely cured by living in a newly painted house in

which he inhaled the odors or vapors of turpentine.

White speaks of a case of exanthematous eruption similar to that of

ivy-poison in mother and child, which was apparently caused by playing

with and burning the toy called "Pharaoh's serpent egg."

The idiosyncrasies noticed in some persons during coitus are quite

interesting. The Ephemerides mentions a person in whom coitus

habitually caused vomiting, and another in whom excessive sexual

indulgence provoked singultus. Sometimes exaggerated tremors or

convulsions, particularly at the moment of orgasm, are noticed. Females

especially are subject to this phenomenon, and it is seen sometimes in

birds.

Winn reports the case of a man who, when prompted to indulge in sexual

intercourse, was immediately prior to the act seized with a fit of

sneezing. Even the thought of sexual pleasure with a female was

sufficient to provoke this peculiar idiosyncrasy.

Sullivan mentions a bride of four weeks, who called at the doctor's

office, saying that in coitus her partner had no difficulty until the

point of culmination or orgasm, when he was seized with complete

numbness and lost all pleasurable sensation in the penis. The numbness

was followed by a sensation of pain, which was intensified on the

slightest motion, and which was at times so excruciating as to forbid

separation for upward of an hour, or until the penis had become

flaccid. The woman asked for advice for her unfortunate husband's

relief, and the case was reported as a means of obtaining suggestions

from the physicians over the country. In response, one theory was

advanced that this man had been in the habit of masturbating and had a

stricture of the membranous portion of the urethra, associated with an

ulcer of the prostate involving the ejaculatory ducts, or an

inflammatory condition of all the tissues compressed by the ejaculatory

muscles.

Hendrichsen quotes a case in which a spasmodic contraction of the

levator ani occurred during coitus, and the penis could not be

withdrawn while this condition lasted; and in support of this

circumstance Hendrichsen mentions that Marion Sims, Beigel, and Budin

describe spasmodic contractions of the levator and, constricting the

vagina; he also cites an instance under his personal observation in

which this spasm was excited by both vaginal and rectal examination,

although on the following day no such condition could be produced. In

this connection, among the older writers, Borellus gives the history of

a man who before coitus rubbed his virile member with musk, and,

similar to the connection of a dog and bitch, was held fast in his

wife's vagina; it was only after the injection of great quantities of

water to soften the parts that separation was obtained. Diemerbroeck

confirms this singular property of musk by an analogous observation, in

which the ludicrous method of throwing cold water on the persons was

practised. Schurig also relates the history of a similar instance.

Among the peculiar effects of coitus is its deteriorating effect on the

healing process of wounds. Boerhaave, Pare, and Fabricius Hildanus all

speak of this untoward effect of venery, and in modern times Poncet has

made observations at a hospital in Lyons which prove that during the

process of healing wounds are unduly and harmfully influenced by

coitus, and cites confirmatory instances. Poncet also remarks that he

found on nine occasions, by placing a thermometer in the rectum, that

the temperature was about 1 degrees F. lower just before than after

coitus, and that during the act the temperature gradually rose above

normal.

There are many associate conditions which, under the exciting influence

of coitus, provoke harmful effects and even a fatal issue. Deguise

mentions a man who had coitus 18 times in ten hours with most

disastrous effects. Cabrolius speaks of a man who took a potion of

aphrodisiac properties, in which, among other things, he put an

enormous dose of cantharides. The anticipation of the effect of his

dose, that is, the mental influence, in addition to the actual

therapeutic effect, greatly distressed and excited him. Almost beyond

belief, it is said that he approached his wife eighty-seven times

during the night, spilling much sperm on the sleeping-bed. Cabrolius

was called to see this man in the morning, and found him in a most

exhausted condition, but still having the supposed consecutive

ejaculations. Exhaustion progressed rapidly, and death soon terminated

this erotic crisis. Lawson is accredited with saying that among the

Marquesan tribe he knew of a woman who during a single night had

intercourse with 103 men.

Among the older writers there are instances reported in which erection

and ejaculation took place without the slightest pleasurable sensation.

Claudius exemplifies this fact in his report of a Venetian merchant who

had vigorous erections and ejaculations of thick and abundant semen

without either tingling or pleasure.

Attila, King of the Huns, and one of the most celebrated leaders of the

German hosts which overran the Roman Empire in its decline, and whose

enormous army and name inspired such terror that he was called the

"Scourge of God," was supposed to have died in coitus. Apoplexy,

organic heart disorders, aneurysms, and other like disorders are in

such cases generally the direct cause of death, coitus causing the

death indirectly by the excitement and exertion accompanying the act.

Bartholinus, Benedictus, Borellus, Pliny, Morgagni, Plater, a Castro,

Forestus, Marcellus Donatus, Schurig, Sinibaldus, Schenck, the

Ephemerides, and many others mention death during coitus; the older

writers in some cases attributed the fatal issue to excessive sexual

indulgence, not considering the possibility of the associate direct

cause, which most likely would have been found in case of a necropsy.

Suspended Animation.--Various opinions have been expressed as to the

length of time compatible with life during which a person can stay

under water. Recoveries from drowning furnish interesting examples of

the suspension of animation for a protracted period, but are hardly

ever reliable, as the subject at short intervals almost invariably

rises to the surface of the water, allowing occasional respiration.

Taylor mentions a child of two who recovered after ten minutes'

submersion; in another case a man recovered after fourteen minutes'

submersion. There is a case reported in this country of a woman who was

said to have been submerged twenty minutes. Guerard quotes a case

happening in 1774, in which there was submersion for an hour with

subsequent recovery; but there hardly seems sufficient evidence of this.

Green mentions submersion for fifteen minutes; Douglass, for fourteen

minutes; Laub, for fifteen minutes; Povall gives a description of three

persons who recovered after a submersion of twenty-five minutes. There

is a case in French literature, apparently well authenticated, in which

submersion for six minutes was followed by subsequent recovery.

There have been individuals who gave exhibitions of prolonged

submersion in large glass aquariums, placed in full view of the

audience. Taylor remarks that the person known some years ago in London

as "Lurline" could stay under water for three minutes. There have been

several exhibitionists of this sort. Some of the more enterprising seat

themselves on an artificial coral, and surrounded by fishes of divers

hues complacently eat a meal while thus submerged. It is said that

quite recently in Detroit there was a performer who accomplished the

feat of remaining under water four minutes and eight seconds in full

view of the audience. Miss Lurline swam about in her aquarium, which

was brilliantly illuminated, ate, reclined, and appeared to be taking a

short nap during her short immersion. In Paris, some years since, there

was exhibited a creature called "l'homme-poisson," who performed feats

similar to Lurline, including the smoking of a cigarette held entirely

in his mouth. In all these exhibitions all sorts of artificial means

are used to make the submersion appear long. Great ceremony, music, and

the counting of the seconds in a loud voice from the stage, all tend to

make the time appear much longer than it really is. However, James

Finney in London, April 7, 1886, stayed under water four minutes,

twenty-nine and one-fourth seconds, and one of his feats was to pick up

70 or 80 gold-plated half-pennies with his mouth, his hands being

securely tied behind his back, and never emerging from his tank until

his feat was fully accomplished. In company with his sister he played a

game of "nap" under water, using porcelain cards and turning them to

the view of the audience. "Professor Enochs" recently stayed under

water at Lowell, Mass., for four minutes, forty-six and one-fifth

seconds. The best previous record was four minutes, thirty-five

seconds, made by "Professor Beaumont" at Melbourne on December 16, 1893.

For the most satisfactory examples of prolonged submersion we must look

to the divers, particularly the natives who trade in coral, and the

pearl fishers. Diving is an ancient custom, and even legendary exploits

of this nature are recorded. Homer compares the fall of Hector's

chariot to the action of a diver; and specially trained men were

employed at the Siege of Syracuse, their mission being to laboriously

scuttle the enemy's vessels. Many of the old historians mention

diving, and Herodotus speaks of a diver by the name of Scyllias who was

engaged by Xerxes to recover some articles of value which had been sunk

on some Persian vessels in a tempest. Egyptian divers are mentioned by

Plutarch, who says that Anthony was deceived by Cleopatra in a fishing

contest by securing expert divers to place the fish upon the hooks.

There was a historical or rather legendary character by the name of

Didion, who was noted for his exploits in the river Meuse. He had the

ability to stay under water a considerable length of time, and even to

catch fish while submerged.

There was a famous diver in Sicily at the end of the fifteenth century

whose feats are recorded in the writings of Alexander ab Alexandro,

Pontanus, and Father Kircher, the Jesuit savant. This man's name was

Nicolas, born of poor parents at Catania. From his infancy he showed an

extraordinary power of diving and swimming, and from his compatriots

soon acquired various names indicative of his capacity. He became very

well known throughout Sicily, and for his patron had Frederick, King of

Naples. In the present day, the sponge-fishers and pearl-fishers in the

West Indies, the Mediterranean, the Indian Seas, and the Gulf of Mexico

invite the attention of those interested in the anomalies of suspended

animation. There are many marvelous tales of their ability to remain

under water for long periods. It is probable that none remain submerged

over two minutes, but, what is more remarkable, they are supposed to

dive to extraordinary depths, some as much as 150 to 200 feet.

Ordinarily they remain under water from a minute to one and a half

minutes. Remaining longer, the face becomes congested, the eyes

injected; the sputum bloody, due to rupture of some of the minute

vessels in the lung. It is said by those who have observed them

carefully that few of these divers live to an advanced age. Many of

them suffer apoplectic attacks, and some of them become blind from

congestion of the ocular vessels. The Syrian divers are supposed to

carry weights of considerable size in their hands in order to

facilitate the depth and duration of submersion. It is also said that

the divers of Oceanica use heavy stones. According to Guyot-Daubes, in

the Philippine Isles the native pearl-fishers teach their children to

dive to the depth of 25 meters. The Tahitians, who excited the

admiration of Cook, are noted for their extraordinary diving. Speaking

of the inhabitants of the island of Fakaraya, near Tahiti, de la

Quesnerie says that the pearl-fishers do not hesitate to dive to the

depth even of 100 feet after their coveted prizes. On the Ceylon coast

the mother-of-pearl fishers are under the direction of the English

Government, which limits the duration and the practice of this

occupation. These divers are generally Cingalese, who practice the

exercise from infancy. As many as 500 small boats can be seen about

the field of operation, each equipped with divers. A single diver makes

about ten voyages under the water, and then rests in the bottom of the

boat, when his comrade takes his place. Among other native divers are

the Arabs of Algeria and some of the inhabitants of the Mexican coast.

It might be well to mention here the divers who work by means of

apparatus. The ancients had knowledge of contrivances whereby they

could stay under water some time. Aristotle speaks of an instrument by

which divers could rest under water in communication with the air, and

compares it with the trunk of an elephant wading a stream deeper than

his height. In the presence of Charles V diving bells were used by the

Greeks in 1540. In 1660 some of the cannon of the sunken ships of the

Spanish Armada were raised by divers in diving bells. Since then

various improvements in submarine armor have been made, gradually

evolving into the present perfected diving apparatus of to-day, by

which men work in the holds of vessels sunk in from 120 to 200 feet of

water. The enormous pressure of the water at these great depths makes

it necessary to have suits strong enough to resist it. Lambert, a

celebrated English diver, recovered L90,000 in specie from the steamer

Alphonso XII, a Spanish mail boat belonging to the Lopez line, which

sank off Point Gando, Grand Canary, in 26 1/2 fathoms of water. For

nearly six months the salvage party, despatched by the underwriters in

May, 1885, persevered in the operations; two divers lost their lives,

the golden bait being in the treasure-room beneath the three decks, but

Lambert finished the task successfully.

Deep-sea divers only acquire proficiency after long training. It is

said that as a rule divers are indisposed to taking apprentices, as

they are afraid of their vocation being crowded and their present ample

remuneration diminished. At present there are several schools. At

Chatham, England, there is a school of submarine mining, in which men

are trained to lay torpedoes and complete harbor defense. Most of these

divers can work six hours at a time in from 35 to 50 feet of water.

Divers for the Royal Navy are trained at Sheerness. When sufficiently

trained to work at the depth of 150 feet seamen-divers are fully

qualified, and are drafted to the various ships. They are connected

with an air-pump in charge of trustworthy men; they signal for their

tools and material, as well as air, by means of a special line for this

purpose. At some distance below the water the extraordinary weight of

the suits cannot be felt, and the divers work as well in armor as in

ordinary laboring clothes. One famous diver says that the only

unpleasant experience he ever had in his career as a diver, not

excepting the occasion of his first dive, was a drumming in the ears,

as a consequence of which, after remaining under water at a certain

work for nine hours, he completely lost the use of one ear for three

months, during which time he suffered agony with the earache. These men

exhibit absolute indifference to the dangers attached to their calling,

and some have been known to sleep many fathoms beneath the surface.

Both by means of their signal lines and by writing on a slate they keep

their associates informed of the progress of their work.

Suspension of the Pulse.--In some cases the pulse is not apparent for

many days before actual death, and there have been instances in which,

although the pulse ceased for an extended period, the patient made an

ultimate recovery. In reviewing the older literature we find that

Ballonius mentions an instance in which the pulse was not apparent for

fourteen days before complete asphyxia. Ramazzini describes a case of

cessation of the pulse four days before death. Schenck details the

history of a case in which the pulse ceased for three days and asphyxia

was almost total, but the patient eventually recovered. There is a

noteworthy observation, in which there was cessation of the pulse for

nine days without a fatal issue.

Some persons seem to have a preternatural control over their

circulatory system, apparently enabling them to produce suspension of

cardiac movement at will. Cheyne speaks of a Colonel Townshend who

appeared to possess the power of dying, as it were, at will,--that is,

so suspending the heart's action that no pulsation could be detected.

After lying in this state of lifelessness for a short period, life

would become slowly established without any consciousness or volition

on the man's part. The longest period in which he remained in this

death-like condition was about thirty minutes. A postmortem examination

of this person was awaited with great interest; but after his death

nothing was found to explain the power he possessed over his heart.

Saint Augustin knew of a priest named Rutilut who had the power of

voluntarily simulating death. Both the pulsation and respiration was

apparently abolished when he was in his lifeless condition. Burning and

pricking left visible effects on the skin after his recovery, but had

no apparent effect on his lethargy. Chaille reports an instance of

voluntary suspension of the pulse.

Relative to hibernation, it is well-known that mice, snakes, and some

reptiles, as well as bees, sometimes seem to entirely suspend animation

for an extended period, and especially in the cold weather. In Russia

fish are transported frozen stiff, but return to life after being

plunged into cold water. A curious tale is told by Harley, from Sir

John Lubbock, of a snail brought from Egypt and thought to be dead. It

was placed on a card and put in position on a shelf in the British

Museum in March, 1845. In March, 1850 after having been gummed to a

label for five years, it was noticed to have an apparent growth on its

mouth and was taken out and placed in water, when it soon showed signs

of life and ate cabbage leaves offered to it. It has been said, we

think with credible evidence, that cereal seeds found in the tombs with

mummies have grown when planted, and Harley quotes an instance of a

gentleman who took some berries, possibly the remnants of Pharaoh's

daughter's last meal, coming as they did from her mummified stomach

after lying dormant in an Egyptian tomb many centuries, and planted

them in his garden, where they soon grew, and he shortly had a bush as

flourishing as any of those emanating from fresh seeds.

Human hibernation is an extremely rare anomaly. Only the fakirs of

India seem to have developed this power, and even the gifted ones there

are seldom seen. Many theories have been advanced to explain this

ability of the fakirs, and many persons have discredited all the

stories relative to their powers; on the other hand, all who have

witnessed their exhibitions are convinced of their genuineness.

Furthermore, these persons are extremely scarce and are indifferent to

money; none has been enticed out of his own country to give

exhibitions. When one dies in a community, his place is never

filled--proving that he had no accomplices who knew any fraudulent

secret practices, otherwise the accomplice would soon step out to take

his place. These men have undoubtedly some extraordinary mode of

sending themselves into a long trance, during which the functions of

life are almost entirely suspended. We can readily believe in their

ability to fast during their periods of burial, as we have already

related authentic instances of fasting for a great length of time,

during which the individual exercised his normal functions.

To the fakir, who neither visibly breathes nor shows circulatory

movements, and who never moves from his place of confinement, fasting

should be comparatively easy, when we consider the number of men whose

minds were actively at work during their fasts, and who also exercised

much physical power.

Harley says that the fakirs begin their performances by taking a large

dose of the powerfully stupefying "bang," thus becoming narcotized. In

this state they are lowered into a cool, quiet tomb, which still

further favors the prolongation of the artificially induced vital

lethargy; in this condition they rest for from six to eight weeks. When

resurrected they are only by degrees restored to life, and present a

wan, haggard, debilitated, and wasted appearance. Braid is credited, on

the authority of Sir Claude Wade, with stating that a fakir was buried

in an unconscious state at Lahore in 1837, and when dug up, six weeks

later, he presented all the appearances of a dead person. The legs and

arms were shrunken and stiff, and the head reclined on the shoulder in

a manner frequently seen in a corpse. There was no pulsation of the

heart or arteries of the arm or temple--in fact, no really visible

signs of life. By degrees this person was restored to life. Every

precaution had been taken in this case to prevent the possibility of

fraud, and during the period of interment the grave was guarded night

and day by soldiers of the regiment stationed at Lahore.

Honigberger, a German physician in the employ of Runjeet Singh, has an

account of a fakir of Punjaub who allowed himself to be buried in a

well-secured vault for such a long time that grain sown in the soil

above the vault sprouted into leaf before he was exhumed. Honigberger

affirms that the time of burial was over 40 days, and that on being

submitted to certain processes the man recovered and lived many years

after. Sir Henry Lawrence verified the foregoing statements. The chest

in which the fakir was buried was sealed with the Runjeet stamp on it,

and when the man was brought up he was cold and apparently lifeless.

Honigberger also states that this man, whose name was Haridas, was four

months in a grave in the mountains; to prove the absolute suspension of

animation, the chin was shaved before burial, and at exhumation this

part was as smooth as on the day of interment. This latter statement

naturally calls forth comment when we consider the instances that are

on record of the growth of beard and hair after death.

There is another account of a person of the same class who had the

power of suspending animation, and who would not allow his coffin to

touch the earth for fear of worms and insects, from which he is said to

have suffered at a previous burial.

It has been stated that the fakirs are either eunuchs or

hermaphrodites, social outcasts, having nothing in common with the

women or men of their neighborhood; but Honigberger mentions one who

disproved this ridiculous theory by eloping to the mountains with his

neighbor's wife.

Instances of recovery after asphyxia from hanging are to be found,

particularly among the older references of a time when hanging was more

common than it is to-day. Bartholinus, Blegny, Camerarius, Morgagni,

Pechlin, Schenck, Stoll, and Wepfer all mention recovery after hanging.

Forestus describes a case in which a man was rescued by provoking

vomiting with vinegar, pepper, and mustard seed. There is a case on

record in which a person was saved after hanging nineteen minutes.

There was a case of a man brought into the Hopital Saint-Louis

asphyxiated by strangulation, having been hung for some time. His

rectal temperature was only 93.3 degrees F., but six hours after it

rose to 101.6 degrees F., and he subsequently recovered. Taylor cites

the instance of a stout woman of forty-four who recovered from hanging.

When the woman was found by her husband she was hanging from the top of

a door, having been driven to suicide on account of his abuse and

intemperance. When first seen by Taylor she was comatose, her mouth was

surrounded by white froth, and the swollen tongue protruded from it.

Her face was bloated, her lips of a darkened hue, and her neck of a

brown parchment-color. About the level of the larynx, the epidermis was

distinctly abraded, indicating where the rope had been. The conjunctiva

was insensible and there was no contractile response of the pupil to

the light of a candle. The reflexes of the soles of the feet were

tested, but were quite in abeyance. There was no respiratory movement

and only slight cardiac pulsation. After vigorous measures the woman

ultimately recovered. Recovery is quite rare when the asphyxiation has

gone so far, the patients generally succumbing shortly after being cut

down or on the following day. Chevers mentions a most curious case, in

which cerebral congestion from the asphyxiation of strangling was

accidentally relieved by an additional cut across the throat. The

patient was a man who was set upon by a band of Thugs in India, who,

pursuant to their usual custom, strangled him and his fellow-traveler.

Not being satisfied that he was quite dead, one of the band returned

and made several gashes across his throat. This latter action

effectually relieved the congestion caused by the strangulation and

undoubtedly saved his life, while his unmutilated companion was found

dead. After the wounds in his throat had healed this victim of the

Thugs gave such a good description of the murderous band that their

apprehension and execution soon followed.

Premature Burial.--In some instances simulation of death has been so

exact that it has led to premature interment. There are many such cases

on record, and it is a popular superstition of the laity that all the

gruesome tales are true of persons buried alive and returning to life,

only to find themselves hopelessly lost in a narrow coffin many feet

below the surface of the earth. Among the lower classes the dread of

being buried before life is extinct is quite generally felt, and for

generations the medical profession have been denounced for their

inability to discover an infallible sign of death. Most of the

instances on record, and particularly those from lay journals, are

vivid exaggerations, drawn from possibly such a trivial sign as a

corpse found with the fist tightly clenched or the face distorted,

which are the inspiration of the horrible details of the dying

struggles of the person in the coffin. In the works of Fontenelle there

are 46 cases recorded of the premature interment of the living, in

which apparent has been mistaken for real death. None of these cases,

however, are sufficiently authentic to be reliable. Moreover, in all

modern methods of burial, even if life were not extinct, there could be

no possibility of consciousness or of struggling. Absolute

asphyxiation would soon follow the closing of the coffin lid.

We must admit, however, that the mistake has been made, particularly in

instances of catalepsy or trance, and during epidemics of malignant

fevers or plagues, in which there is an absolute necessity of hasty

burial for the prevention of contagion. In a few instances on the

battle-field sudden syncope, or apparent death, has possibly led to

premature interment; but in the present day this is surely a very rare

occurrence. There is also a danger of mistake from cases of

asphyxiation, drowning, and similar sudden suspensions of the vital

functions.

It is said that in the eighty-fourth Olympiad, Empedocles restored to

life a woman who was about to be buried, and that this circumstance

induced the Greeks, for the future protection of the supposed dead, to

establish laws which enacted that no person should be interred until

the sixth or seventh day. But even this extension of time did not give

satisfaction, and we read that when Hephestion, at whose funeral

obsequies Alexander the Great was present, was to be buried his funeral

was delayed until the tenth day. There is also a legend that when

Acilius Aviola fell a victim to disease he was burned alive, and

although he cried out, it was too late to save him, as the fire had

become so widespread before life returned.

While returning to his country house Asclepiades, a physician

denominated the "God of Physic," and said to have been a descendant of

aesculapius, saw during the time of Pompey the Great a crowd of

mourners about to start a fire on a funeral pile. It is said that by

his superior knowledge he perceived indications of life in the corpse

and ordered the pile destroyed, subsequently restoring the supposed

deceased to life. These examples and several others of a similar nature

induced the Romans to delay their funeral rites, and laws were enacted

to prevent haste in burning, as well as in interment. It was not until

the eighth day that the final rites were performed, the days

immediately subsequent to death having their own special ceremonies.

The Turks were also fearful of premature interment and subjected the

defunct to every test; among others, one was to examine the

contractility of the sphincter and, which shows their keen observation

of a well-known modern medical fact.

According to the Memoirs of Amelot de la Houssaye, Cardinal Espinola,

Prime Minister to Philip II, put his hand to the embalmer's knife with

which he was about to be opened; It is said that Vesalius, sometimes

called the "Father of Anatomy," having been sent for to perform an

autopsy on a woman subject to hysteric convulsions, and who was

supposed to be dead, on making the first incision perceived by her

motion and cries that she was still alive. This circumstance, becoming

known, rendered him so odious that he had to leave the community in

which he practiced, and it is believed that he never entirely recovered

from the shock it gave him. The Abbe Prevost, so well known by his

works and the singularities of his life, was seized by apoplexy in the

Forest of Chantilly on October 23, 1763. His body was carried to the

nearest village, and the officers of justice proceeded to open it, when

a cry he sent forth frightened all the assistants and convinced the

surgeon in charge that the Abbe was not dead; but it was too late to

save him, as he had already received a mortal wound.

Massien speaks of a woman living in Cologne in 1571 who was interred

living, but was not awakened from her lethargy until a grave-digger

opened her grave to steal a valuable ring which she wore. This instance

has been cited in nearly every language. There is another more recent

instance, coming from Poitiers, of the wife of a goldsmith named

Mernache who was buried with all her jewels. During the night a beggar

attempted to steal her jewelry, and made such exertion in extracting

one ring that the woman recovered and was saved. After this

resurrection she is said to have had several children. This case is

also often quoted. Zacchias mentions an instance which, from all

appearances, is authentic. It was that of a young man, pest-stricken

and thought to be dead, who was placed with the other dead for burial.

He exhibited signs of life, and was taken back to the pest-hospital.

Two days later he entered a lethargic condition simulating death, and

was again on his way to the sepulcher, when he once more recovered.

It is said that when the body of William, Earl of Pembroke, who died

April 10, 1630, was opened to be embalmed, the hand raised when the

first incision was made. There is a story of an occurrence which

happened on a return voyage from India. The wife of one of the

passengers, an officer in the army, to all appearances died. They were

about to resort to sea-burial, when, through the interposition of the

husband, who was anxious to take her home, the ship-carpenters started

to construct a coffin suitable for a long voyage, a process which took

several days, during which time she lay in her berth, swathed in robes

and ready for interment. When the coffin was at last ready the husband

went to take his last farewell, and removed the wedding-ring, which was

quite tightly on her finger. In the effort to do this she was aroused,

recovered, and arrived in England perfectly well.

It is said that when a daughter of Henry Laurens, the first President

of the American Congress, died of small-pox, she was laid out as dead,

and the windows of the room were opened for ventilation. While left

alone in this manner she recovered. This circumstance so impressed her

illustrious father that he left explicit directions that in case of his

death he should be burned. The same journal also contains the case of a

maid-servant who recovered thrice on her way to the grave, and who,

when really dead, was kept a preposterous length of time before burial.

The literature on this subject is very exhaustive, volumes having been

written on the uncertainty of the signs of death, with hundreds of

examples cited illustrative of the danger of premature interment. The

foregoing instances have been given as indicative of the general style

of narration; for further information the reader is referred to the

plethora of material on this subject.

Postmortem Anomalies.--Among the older writers startling movements of a

corpse have given rise to much discussion, and possibly often led to

suspicion of premature burial. Bartholinus describes motion in a

cadaver. Barlow says that movements were noticed after death in the

victims of Asiatic cholera. The bodies were cold and expressions were

death-like, but there were movements simulating natural life. The most

common was flexion of the right leg, which would also be drawn up

toward the body and resting on the left leg. In some cases the hand was

moved, and in one or two instances a substance was grasped as if by

reflex action. Some observers have stated that reflex movements of the

face were quite noticeable. These movements continued sometimes for

upward of an hour, occurring mostly in muscular subjects who died very

suddenly, and in whom the muscular irritability or nervous stimulus or

both had not become exhausted at the moment of dissolution. Richardson

doubts the existence of postmortem movements of respiration.

Snow is accredited with having seen a girl in Soho who, dying of

scarlet fever, turned dark at the moment of death, but in a few hours

presented such a life-line appearance and color as to almost denote the

return of life. The center of the cheeks became colored in a natural

fashion, and the rest of the body resumed the natural flesh color. The

parents refused to believe that death had ensued. Richardson remarks

that he had seen two similar cases, and states that he believes the

change is due to oxidation of the blood surcharged with carbon dioxid.

The moist tissues suffuse carbonized blood, and there occurs an osmotic

interchange between the carbon dioxid and the oxygen of the air

resulting in an oxygenation of the blood, and modification of the color

from dark venous to arterial red.

A peculiar postmortem anomaly is erection of the penis. The Ephemerides

and Morgagni discuss postmortem erection, and Guyon mentions that on

one occasion he saw 14 negroes hanged, and states that at the moment of

suspension erection of the penis occurred in each; in nine of these

blacks traces of this erectile state were perceived an hour after death.

Cadaveric perspiration has been observed and described by several

authors, and Paullini has stated that he has seen tears flow from the

eyes of a corpse.

The retardation of putrefaction of the body after death sometimes

presents interesting changes. Petrifaction or mummification of the body

are quite well known, and not being in the province of this work, will

be referred to collateral books on this subject; but sometimes an

unaccountable preservation takes place. In a tomb recently opened at

Canterbury Cathedral, a for the purpose of discovering what

Archbishop's body it contained, the corpse was of an extremely

offensive and sickening odor, unmistakably that of putrefaction. The

body was that of Hubert Walter, who died in 1204 A.D., and the

decomposition had been retarded, and was actually still in progress,

several hundred years after burial.

Retardation of the putrefactive process has been noticed in bodies some

years under water. Konig of Hermannstadt mentions a man who, forty

years previous to the time of report, had fallen under the waters of

Echoschacht, and who was found in a complete state of preservation.

Postmortem Growth of Hair and Nails.--The hair and beard may grow after

death, and even change color. Bartholinus recalls a case of a man who

had short, black hair and beard at the time of interment, but who, some

time after death, was found to possess long and yellowish hair.

Aristotle discusses postmortem growth of the hair, and Garmanus cites

an instance in which the beard and hair were cut several times from the

cadaver. We occasionally see evidences of this in the dissecting-rooms.

Caldwell mentions a body buried four years, the hair from which

protruded at the points where the joints of the coffin had given away.

The hair of the head measured 18 inches, that of the beard eight

inches, and that on the breast from four to six inches. Rosse of

Washington mentions an instance in which after burial the hair turned

from dark brown to red, and also cites a case in a Washington cemetery

of a girl, twelve or thirteen years old, who when exhumed was found to

have a new growth of hair all over her body. The Ephemerides contains

an account of hair suddenly turning gray after death.

Nails sometimes grow several inches after death, and there is on record

the account of an idiot who had an idiosyncrasy for long nails, and

after death the nails were found to have grown to such an extent that

they curled up under the palms and soles.

The untoward effects of the emotions on the vital functions are quite

well exemplified in medical literature. There is an abundance of cases

reported in which joy, fear, pride, and grief have produced a fatal

issue. In history we have the old story of the Lacedemonian woman who

for some time had believed her son was dead, and who from the sudden

joy occasioned by seeing him alive, herself fell lifeless. There is a

similar instance in Roman history. Aristotle, Pliny, Livy, Cicero, and

others cite instances of death from sudden or excessive joy. Fouquet

died of excessive joy on being released from prison. A niece of the

celebrated Leibnitz immediately fell dead on seeing a casket of gold

left to her by her deceased uncle.

Galen mentions death from joy, and in comment upon it he says that the

emotion of joy is much more dangerous than that of anger. In discussing

this subject, Haller says that the blood is probably sent with such

violence to the brain as to cause apoplexy. There is one case on record

in which after a death from sudden joy the pericardium was found full

of blood. The Ephemerides, Marcellus Donatus, Martini, and Struthius

all mention death from joy.

Death from violent laughter has been recorded, but in this instance it

is very probable that death was not due to the emotion itself, but to

the extreme convulsion and exertion used in the laughter. The

Ephemerides mentions a death from laughter, and also describes the

death of a pregnant woman from violent mirth. Roy, Swinger, and

Camerarius have recorded instances of death from laughter. Strange as

it may seem, Saint-Foix says that the Moravian brothers, a sect of

Anabaptists having great horror of bloodshed, executed their condemned

brethren by tickling them to death.

Powerfully depressing emotions, which are called by Kant "asthenic,"

such as great and sudden sorrow, grief, or fright, have a pronounced

effect on the vital functions, at times even causing death. Throughout

literature and history we have examples of this anomaly. In

Shakespeare's "Pericles," Thaisa, the daughter to Simonides and wife of

Pericles, frightened when pregnant by a threatened shipwreck, dies in

premature childbirth.

In Scott's "Guy Mannering," Mrs. Bertram, on suddenly learning of the

death of her little boy, is thrown into premature labor, followed by

death. Various theories are advanced in explanation of this anomaly. A

very plausible one is, that the cardiac palsy is caused by energetic

and persistent excitement of the inhibitory cardiac nerves. Strand is

accredited with saying that agony of the mind produces rupture of the

heart. It is quite common to hear the expression, "Died of a broken

heart;" and, strange to say, in some cases postmortem examination has

proved the actual truth of the saying. Bartholinus, Fabricius Hildanus,

Pliny, Rhodius, Schenck, Marcellus Donatus, Riedlin, and Garengeot

speak of death from fright and fear, and the Ephemerides describes a

death the direct cause of which was intense shame. Deleau, a celebrated

doctor of Paris, while embracing his favorite daughter, who was in the

last throes of consumption, was so overcome by intense grief that he

fell over her corpse and died, and both were buried together.

The fear of child-birth has been frequently cited as a cause of death

McClintock quotes a case from Travers of a young lady, happily married;

who entertained a fear of death in child-birth; although she had been

safely delivered, she suddenly and without apparent cause died in six

hours. Every region of the body was examined with minutest care by an

eminent physician, but no signs indicative of the cause of death were

found. Mordret cites a similar instance of death from fear of labor.

Morgagni mentions a woman who died from the disappointment of bearing a

girl baby when she was extremely desirous of a boy.

The following case, quoted from Lauder Brunton, shows the extent of

shock which may be produced by fear: Many years ago a janitor of a

college had rendered himself obnoxious to the students, and they

determined to punish him. Accordingly they prepared a block and an axe,

which they conveyed to a lonely place, and having appropriately dressed

themselves, some of them prepared to act as judges, and sent others of

their company to bring him before them. He first affected to treat the

whole affair as a joke, but was solemnly assured by the students that

they meant it in real earnest. He was told to prepare for immediate

death. The trembling janitor looked all around in the vain hope of

seeing some indication that nothing was really meant, but stern looks

met him everywhere. He was blindfolded, and made to kneel before the

block. The executioner's axe was raised, but, instead of the sharp

edge, a wet towel was brought sharply down on the back of the neck. The

bandage was now removed from the culprit's eyes, but to the horror and

astonishment of the students they found that he was dead. Such a case

may be due to heart-failure from fear or excitement.

It is not uncommon that death ensues from the shock alone following

blows that cause no visible injury, but administered to vital parts.

This is particularly true of blows about the external genital region,

or epigastrium, where the solar plexus is an active factor in

inhibition. Ivanhoff of Bulgaria in 1886 speaks of a man of forty-five

who was dealt a blow on the testicle in a violent street fight, and

staggering, he fell insensible. Despite vigorous medical efforts he

never regained consciousness and died in forty-five minutes. Postmortem

examination revealed everything normal, and death must have been caused

by syncope following violent pain. Watkins cites an instance occurring

in South Africa. A native shearing sheep for a farmer provoked his

master's ire by calling him by some nickname. While the man was in a

squatting posture the farmer struck him in the epigastrium. He followed

this up by a kick in the side and a blow on the head, neither of which,

however, was as severe as the first blow. The man fell unconscious and

died. At the autopsy there were no signs indicative of death, which

must have been due to the shock following the blow on the epigastrium.

As illustrative of the sensitiveness of the epigastric region, Vincent

relates the following case: "A man received a blow by a stick upon the

epigastrium. He had an anxious expression and suffered from oppression.

Irregular heart-action and shivering were symptoms that gradually

disappeared during the day. In the evening his appetite returned and he

felt well; during the night he died without a struggle, and at the

autopsy there was absolutely nothing abnormal to be found." Blows upon

the neck often produce sudden collapse. Prize-fighters are well aware

of the effects of a blow on the jugular vein. Maschka, quoted by

Warren, reports the case of a boy of twelve, who was struck on the

anterior portion of the larynx by a stone. He fell lifeless to the

ground, and at autopsy no local lesion was found nor any lesion

elsewhere. The sudden death may be attributed in this case partly to

shock and partly to cerebral anemia.

Soldiers have been seen to drop lifeless on the battle-field without

apparent injury or organic derangement; in the olden times this death

was attributed to fear and fright, and later was supposed to be caused

by what is called "the wind of a cannon-ball." Tolifree has written an

article on this cause of sudden death and others have discussed it. By

some it is maintained that the momentum acquired by a cannon-ball

generates enough force in the neighboring air to prostrate a person in

the immediate vicinity of its path of flight.