Muriaticum acidum

Volume I — Main text

ACIDUM MURIATICUM.

Muriatic acid, hydrochloric acid. — An aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid gai (HCl) obtained by submitting a mixture of chloride of sodium and sulphuric acid to distillation, and condensing the gas which passes over in water, op. gr. iNwiH be 1.7. (Ertt. Pharm.)

1. Provlngs, — I. Hahnemann, Materia Medica Pura^ vol. v of original, vol. ii of English translation. Contains 61 symptomi from sclf^ 196 from six fellow-observers, and 22 from authors.

2. Ibid. Chronic Diseases, Part iv of original, vol. oftransiation. The same, with some additional symptoms from author amd Rummel, and from

3. Nenning. Hartlaub and Trinks' i/r2«rtW//////Ar#. (Translated in Annals of British Homoeopathic Society^ A pp. to vol. x.) Incorporatcil, so far as deemed valuable, in pathogenesis of Chronic Diseases.

4. In small doses, medicinal muriatic acid occasions an agreeable warmth in the stomach, and generally some quickening of the pulse, cheerfulness, flushing of the face, and an increased flow of urine. Its protracted use sometimes occasions salivation. In larger doses, it excites the brain in a peculiar manner, causing giddiness, confusion of the senses, a sort of intoxication, in fine. (Stille, Mat. Mid^ sub voce. To the same cflFect Pereira.)

II. Poisonings. — In the few cases that have been observed, die symptoms were those of pure local corrosion. (See Orfila, Tsxsir., one case ; Quekett, Med, Gaz,^ xxv, 285.)

III. Experiments on animals, — When dogs are made to swallow the

• Senator (ZiemssenS CyclotaJia, xvi, 16 — a 8) states that Rauch alfo thought himself to have obtained similar resultS| but that M oiler and Reyher have proved either to be erroneous.

strong acid (6 — 8 grms. in small dogs) they at once experience a great failure of strength, they exhale by the mouth and by the nose thick vapours of the acid. They vomit after some minutes brown-greenish stringy matters, as if bilious. They raise plaintive cries, and die in 4 to 6 h. Death is almost a!ways preceded by convulsive movements of violent character, especially In muscles of neck and spine. In some cases these organs arc so strongly contracted that the head is drawn backwards, and forms with the spine a curvature of remarkable concavity. On opening stomach one finds the mucous membrane inflamed, and of a cherry-red colour all over. Sometimes near the pylorus the mucous membrane shows stains oC a black or exceedingly deep red colour, which are true eschars, and which might be taken for masses of black blood extravasated on the mucous membrane. Sometimes finally one notices holes in the places which correspond to these eschars, and then there is an effusion into the belly of acid and blackish liquids. The other viscera present no changes of note. (Orfila, TaxicologU^ sub voce.)