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.*

Mercurius Cyanatus