Mercurius Cyanatus

Cyanide of mercury, Hg(Cn)2.

Preparation for use , Solutions.

Authorities.

1 , Olivier and Kapeler, fatal poisoning by about 23 1/2 grains, Archiv. Gén. de Méd., 1825, vol. 9, p. 99 (Bibl. Hom., 1869); 2 , L. Simon, poisoning of M. X., aged nineteen, by about a teaspoonful of a saturated solution, Bull. d. l. Soc. Mod. Hom. de France, 1863, x, p. 340; 3 , Moose, Virchow's Archiv, 1864 (S. J., 125, 174), a student took a solution of 2 grains in beer; 4 , Thibert, fatal poisoning by 100 grains, Christison on Poisons, fourth edition, p. 427 (Bibl. Hom., 1869).

MIND

• Excitement, at night (second day), 2.
• Night sleepless; great excitement and incessant talking; is angry with the attendant, and raved furiously (first and third day), 2.

HEAD

• Vertigo.
• Vertigo, 3.
• Vertigo, on sitting up, with loud ringing in the ears, on sitting up in bed (second day), 2.
• Head.
• Headache and vertigo, several days, 3.
• Very severe headache (fourth day), 1 ; at night (second day), 2.
• Tearing headache, especially in the forepart of the night (eight day), 2.

EYE

• Eyes sunken (after eleven hours), 2.
• Eyes fixed (fourth day), 1. [10.]
• Conjunctiva injected (fourth day), 1.
• Pupils greatly dilated, 3.

EAR

• Ringing in the ears (second day), 2.

NOSE

• Profuse epistaxis, recurring several times a day, for two weeks (after four days), 3.

FACE

• Expression serious (fourth day), 1.
• Face flushed (fourth day), 1.
• Face cyanotic, 3.
• Complexion slightly cyanotic (after eleven hours), 2.
• Face pale and wan (after eleven hours), 2.

MOUTH

• Teeth.
• Teeth painful (eleventh day), 2.
• Gums. [20.]
• Gums swollen, and covered with a thin, adhesive, whitish coating, above which is a border of bluish-red (third day), 2.
• Tongue.
• Tongue pale (after eleven hours); with yellow coating at base (after nineteen hours); edges of tongue redder, base covered with a gray metallic-looking coat, in morning (second day); tongue swollen, red on the edges, and covered by a very adhesive gray coating (third day); tongue again covered with a grayish coating (ninth day); tongue still covered with a grayish coat (thirteenth day), 2.
• Eight blisters on the left margin of the tongue and on the soft palate, opening and developing into irregular ulcers; these ulcers afterwards from on the right margin of the tongue (fourth day), 3.
• General Mouth.
• Buccal mucous membrane red and injected (third day); a round ulcer, with grayish base and upright edges, and encircled with bright red, on the inside of the right cheek (fourth day); the ulcer in the mouth has spread, and is covered by a large gray leathery coating (fifth and sixth days), 2.
• Inflammation of the whole buccal cavity, 4.
• The lips, tongue, and inside of cheeks covered with a grayish-white pulp (fourth day), 1.
• Saliva.
• Constant and copious flow of saliva, smelling as in mercurial salivation (fourth day), 1.
• Taste.
• Bitter taste, 3.
• Very disagreeable styptic taste in mouth (after eleven hours), 2.
• Very disagreeable metallic taste (ninth day), 2.

THROAT. [30.]

• Great redness of the fauces, with difficulty of swallowing (third day), 2.*
• Redness and injected appearance at the base of the pharynx (after nineteen hours), 2.
• The mucous lining of the pharynx is red and injected (third day), 2.
• A white opalescent coating, resembling the superficial mucous patches of syphilis, on the pillars of the velum palati, and on the tonsils (fourth day), 2.*
• Roughness of throat (after nineteen hours), 2.
• *Difficult deglutition (after nineteen hours), 2.
• Salivary glands swollen (fourth day), 1.

STOMACH

• Appetite.
• Aversion to food (ninth day), 2.
• Thirst.
• Thirst, 3.
• Great thirst (fourth day), 1. [40.]
• Intense thirst; but drinks are speedily vomited (after eleven hours); burning thirst, without vomiting of ingesta (after nineteen hours); intense thirst; but he cannot bear soups or hot drinks, which always seem to salt (fifth and sixth days); thirst returned (ninth day), 2.
• Hiccough.
• Incessant hiccough, for twenty-four hours (seventh day), 2.
• No vomiting, but very troublesome hiccough (eighth and night days), 1.
• Nausea and Vomiting.
• Violent retching from merely thinking of sugared water (after eleven hours), 2.
• Nausea and vomiting (soon), 2.
• Drinks a great deal of milk and albuminous water; vomits six times, but much less than he had drank (first night), 2.
• Constant nausea, with frequent vomiting after drinking (fourth day), 1.
• Persistent vomiting (after a few minutes), 3.
• Nausea; and a little greenish-yellow vomiting, after soup (ninth day), 2.
• Bilious vomiting twice, with scanty ejecta, but a great deal of retching (first day), 2. [50.]
• Repeated vomiting of bloody matter (immediately), 1.
• Stomach.
• Burning at the stomach (after nineteen hours), 2.
• Epigastrium sensitive to pressure (after nineteen hours), 2.
• Violent irritation of the stomach, 4.

ABDOMEN

• Abdomen soft; not painful on pressure (fourth day), 1.
• Some pain in abdomen; yet it is not swollen, and is but little sensitive (fifth and sixth days), 2.
• Very severe pains in the whole abdomen (immediately), 1.
• Colic (ninth day), 2.
• Excessive colic, aggravated by every evacuation, 2.
• Abdomen slightly painful (on pressure), (after nineteen hours), 3. [60.]
• Abdomen not swollen; rather sensitive to pressure (after nineteen hours), 2.

RECTUM AND ANUS

• Small hæmorrhoidal tumors around the anus, with knobby swelling of the mucous membrane (twentieth day), 2.
• Pains in the rectum, and around the anus, when sitting (fourteenth and fifteenth days). Pains in the rectum intolerable; sensitive, light-red swelling around the anus (seventeenth day). No stool; but, on straining, a little clear black blood is discharged (nineteenth day). Hæmorrhage occurred six times, and was profuse (twentieth day). Grayish diphtheritic-looking deposit around the anus, quite similar to that on the inside of the cheeks; the part is also eroded; it looks exactly like what are called "ulcerated mucous patches" (twenty-first and twenty-third days). Fetid liquid discharge from the rectum, having a gangrenous odor, and leaving large black stains on the linen (twenty-fourth day). Gangrenous odor much less; discharge still copious; but more decidedly purulent-looking (twenty-fifth day). Diminished discharge, serous, and almost odorless (twenty-eighth day), 2.
• Urging.
• Frequent urging to stool, preceded and accompanied by tenesmus (fourth day), 1.
• Great desire for stool, with diarrhœa and vomiting (after ten minutes), 3.

STOOL

• Diarrhœa.
• Frequent diarrhœic stools, preceded by very severe colic (soon). Six bad-smelling diarrhœic stools (first day). Eight offensive, green, slimy stools (first night). Six slimy diarrhœic stools, with a little tenesmus (third day). Diarrhœa (eighth day). A hard, followed by a soft stool; at night, two liquid stools, preceded by severe griping (ninth day). Very copious diarrhœa; twelve stools daily, black, liquid, and highly offensive (eleventh and twelfth days). Eight stools in twenty-four hours; more yellow; one of them somewhat bloody (thirteenth day), 2.
• Frequent and copious stools (immediately), 1.
• Thin blood stools, 3.
• The stools were mixed with blood, for five days, after which they were mostly pasty, dark-colored and flocculent, then becoming normal; after about two weeks the patient was obstinately constipated, 3.
• Stools scanty, and mixed with blood (after four days), 1.
• Constipation. [70.]
• Constipation (fifth and sixth days), 2.
• No stools (ninth day), 1.

URINARY ORGANS

• Micturition.
• Micturition somewhat painful (second day), 2.
• Retention of urine, 4 ; (after four days), 1 ; for twenty-four hours (after eleven hours), 2.
• Urine.
• Urine amber-yellow (second day), 2.
• Complete suppression of urine for five days (the bladder was always completely empty); the secretion of urine then gradually returned; the urine contained at first much albumen, afterwards less, and after two weeks became perfectly normal (after three days), 3.
• Urine found in bladder was highly albuminous, 4.

SEXUAL ORGANS

• Semi-erection of penis (persisting even after death), (fourth day), 1.
• Dark-blue color of scrotum and penis (persistent after death), (fourth day), 1.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS

• Slight cough (fourth day), 1. [80.]
• Respiration free (fourth day), 1.

CHEST

• Chest sounds clear throughout (fourth day), 1.

HEART AND PULSE

• Heart's Action.
• Violent and abrupt beating of the heart (sixth day), 1.
• Strong palpitation of the heart, lifting up the hand applied to the chest (fourth day), 1.
• Heart's impulse and sound weak, 3.
• Pulse.
• Pulse weak, 130, 3.
• Pulse 70 to 76; small but compressible (after eleven hours). Pulse 90; stronger and more frequent (after nineteen hours). Pulse 70 to 75, weak (eighth day). Pulse weak, but quicker (ninth day). Pulse 100; stronger (thirteenth day), 2.
• Pulse moderately frequent, rather slow, but full and hard (fourth day), 1.
• Pulse small, slow, and contracted (eighth day), 1.
• The pulse continued to sink constantly for twelve days, until it was only 52, after which it rose during the next week to 104; in the evening of the eighteenth day it was 88; nineteenth day 76, and regular; during the first two weeks it had been irregular and intermitting, 3.

EXTREMITIES IN GENERAL. [90.]

• Slight spasms of the extremities (seventh and eighth days), 1.

INFERIOR EXTREMITIES

• Severe pain in left calf; the veins of the part form two hard cords, which meet together a little above the popliteal space. The slightest contact is very painful (twenty-fifth day). Leg about same; it swells when standing (twenty-eighth day), 2.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

• General appearance as in the first stage of severe epidemic cholera (after eleven hours), 2.
• Lying on right side, supported on the arm (fourth day), 1.
• General debility (eighth day), 1 ; (ninth day), 2.*
• *Great weakness, so that he cannot stand up (second day), 2.
• Great weakness and prostration in consequence of frequent bleeding of the nose, for two or three weeks, 3.
• *Extreme prostration (ninth day), 1.
• General debility during the diarrhœa, and at last he fell to the floor in a swoon, 2.
• Repeated swoons (ninth day), 1. [100.]
• Frequent fainting (eighth day), 1.

SLEEP

• Drowsiness, with easy waking (eighth day), 1.
• Night restless; not sleep (sixth day), 1.

FEVER

• Icy coldness (soon), 2.
• Icy coldness of skin (after eleven hours), 2.
• Skin has recovered warmth (after nineteen hours), 2.
• Great sensation of coldness, 3.
• Extremities cold, in the evening (eighth day), 1.
• Extremities very cold, 3.
• Fever at night, with sleeplessness and severe pains in the head (fourth day), 2. [110.]
• Skin moist and cold (ninth day), 2.*