Chapter LXXVIII: Section II: Of the Action of the Salts of Baryta, and the Symptoms they

excite in Man._

The action of the barytic salts on the body is energetic. Like most metallic poisons, they seem to possess a twofold action,—one local and irritating, the other remote and indicated by narcotic symptoms. This narcotic action is more decided and invariable than in the instance of any of the metallic poisons hitherto noticed. Such at least is the result of the experiments of Sir B. Brodie,[1381] which have since been amply confirmed by Professor Orfila[1382] and Professor Gmelin.[1383] Orfila found that when the chloride was injected into the veins of a dog in the dose of five grains only, death ensued in six minutes, and was preceded by convulsions, at first partial, but afterwards affecting the whole body. Sir B. Brodie found the same effects follow in twenty minutes, when ten grains were applied to a wound in the back of a rabbit,—the convulsions being preceded by palsy, and ending in coma. Half an ounce when injected into the stomach excited the same symptoms in a cat, and proved fatal in sixty-five minutes, though the animal vomited. Schloepfer observed, that when a scruple, dissolved in two drachms of water, was injected into the windpipe of a rabbit, it fell down immediately, threw back its head, was convulsed in the fore-legs, and died in twelve minutes.[1384] Gmelin observed in his experiments that it caused slight inflammation of the stomach, and strong symptoms of an action on the brain, spine, and voluntary muscles. He found the voluntary muscles destitute of contractility immediately after death; yet the heart continued to contract vigorously for some time, even without the application of any stimulus. From some experiments made on horses by Huzard and Biron, by order of the Société de Santé of Paris, it appears that the hydrochlorate, when given to these animals in the dose of two drachms daily, produced sudden death about the fifteenth day, without previous symptoms of any consequence.[1385] In the experiments now related, very little appearance of inflammation was found in the parts to which the poison was directly applied. It is also worthy of remark that the heart does not seem to have been particularly affected; and yet according to the recent researches of Mr. Blake, the barytic salts are the most powerful of all inorganic poisons in their action on the heart, when they are injected into the veins. A quarter of a grain of the chloride appreciably depresses arterial action; two grains completely arrest the heart’s contractions in twelve seconds; and when it is injected back into the aorta from the axillary artery, it causes at first some obstruction to the capillary circulation, but soon arrests the action of the heart, as when it is introduced into the veins.[1386]

The pure earth appears to produce nearly the same effects in an inferior dose. When swallowed, the symptoms of local irritation are more violent; but death ensues in a very short space of time, and is preceded by convulsions and insensibility. The stomach after death is found of a reddish-black colour, and frequently with spots of extravasated blood in its villous coat.

The carbonate in a state of minute division is scarcely less active than the hydrochlorate, since it is dissolved by the acid juices of the stomach. A drachm killed a dog in six hours; vomiting, expressions of pain, and an approach to insensibility preceded death; and marks of inflammation were found in the stomach.[1387] Pelletier made many experiments on the poisonous properties of the carbonate. Fifteen grains of the native carbonate killed one dog in eight hours, and another in fifteen.[1388] Dr. Campbell found it to be a dangerous poison, even when applied externally. Twelve grains introduced into a wound in the neck of a cat, excited on the third day languor, slow respiration, and feeble pulse; towards evening the animal became affected with convulsions of the hind-legs and with dilated pupils; and death followed not long afterwards.[1389] This substance, before its real nature was known, used at one time to be employed in some parts of England as a variety of arsenic for poisoning rats.

The salts of baryta are absorbed in the course of their action. The chloride has been detected by Dr. Kramer both in the blood and urine by incineration with carbonate of potash, washing the ashes with weak solution of carbonate of potash, dissolving the residue in diluted nitric acid, and testing the solution for baryta.[1390] Orfila has also obtained baryta, by his process alluded to above, in the liver, kidneys, and spleen of animals killed by the chloride.[1391]

The symptoms produced by the salts of baryta in man have seldom been particularly described. An instance is shortly noticed in the Journal of Science, where an ounce of the hydrochlorate was taken by mistake for Glauber’s salt, and proved fatal. The patient immediately after swallowing it felt a sense of burning in the stomach; vomiting, convulsions, headache, and deafness ensued; and death took place within an hour.[1392] A similar case, fatal in two hours, has been related by Dr. Wach of Merseburg. A middle-aged woman who, though generally in good health, had suffered for a day or two from pains in the stomach, took one morning a solution of half an ounce of chloride of barium by mistake for sulphate of soda. She was soon seized with sickness, retching, convulsive twitches of the hands and feet, vomiting of clear mucus, great anxiety, restlessness, and loss of voice; and she died under constant efforts to vomit, and violent convulsive movements, but with her faculties entire.[1393]

Unpleasant effects have been observed from too large doses of the chloride administered medicinally. A case is mentioned in the Medical Commentaries of a gentleman who was directed to take a solution as a stomachic, but swallowed one evening by accident so much as seventy or eighty drops. He had soon after profuse purging without tormina, then vomiting, and half an hour after swallowing the salt excessive muscular debility, amounting to absolute paraplegia of the limbs. This state lasted about twenty-four hours, and then gradually went off.[1394] I have known violent vomiting, gripes, and diarrhœa produced in like manner by a quantity not much exceeding the usual medicinal doses.

Dr. Wilson of London has lately described a distinct case of poisoning with the carbonate. The quantity taken was half a tea-cupful; but emetics were given, and operated before any symptoms showed themselves. In two hours the patient complained of dimness of sight, double vision, headache, tinnitus, and a sense of distension in the stomach, and subsequently of pains in the knees and cramps of the legs, with occasional vomiting and purging next day; for some days afterwards the head symptoms continued, though more mildly, and she was much subject to severe palpitations; but she was in the way of recovery when the account of her case was published.[1395] Mr. Parkes mentions that, according to information communicated to him by the proprietor of an estate in Lancashire, where carbonate of baryta abounds, many domestic animals on his estate died in consequence of licking the dust of the carbonate, and that it once proved fatal to two persons, a woman and her child, who took each about a drachm.[1396] Dr. Johnstone says he once swallowed ten grains of this compound, without experiencing any bad effect.[1397]