lauber's salts dissolved in a pint of water will answer the purpose
admirably. After this an emetic of sulphate of zinc may be given. White
of egg and water or olive-oil may prove useful. Warmth should be applied
to the body.

_Fatal Dose._--One drachm, but recovery has taken place after much
larger quantities, if well diluted or taken after a meal.

_Tests_ are not necessary, as the smell of carbolic acid is
characteristic.

_Local action_ of carbolic acid produces anaesthesia and necrosis.
Accidents sometimes happen from too strong lotions applied as surgical
dressings.

=Lysol= is a compound of cresol and linseed-oil soap, and is much less
toxic than carbolic acid.

XV.--POTASH, SODA, AND AMMONIA

=Caustic Potash= occurs in cylindrical sticks, is soapy to the touch,
has an acrid taste, is deliquescent, fusible by heat, soluble in water.
=Liquor Potassae= is a strong solution of caustic potash, and has a
similar reaction. =Carbonate of Potassium=, also known as potash,
pearlash, salt of tartar, is a white crystalline powder, alkaline and
caustic in taste, and very deliquescent. The bicarbonate is in
colourless prisms, which have a saline, feebly alkaline taste, and are
not deliquescent.

_Symptoms._--Acrid soapy taste in mouth, burning in throat and gullet,
acute pain at pit of stomach, vomiting of bloody or brown mucus, colicky
pains, bloody stools, surface cold, pulse weak. These preparations are
not volatile, so that there is not much fear of lung trouble. In chronic
cases death occurs from stricture of the oesophagus causing starvation.

_Post-Mortem Appearances._--Soapy feeling, softening, inflammation, and
corrosion of mucous membrane of mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, and
intestines. Inflammation may have extended to larynx.

_Method of Extraction from the Stomach._--If the contents of the stomach
have a strong alkaline action, dilute with water, filter, and apply
tests.

_Tests._--The carbonates effervesce with an acid. The salts give a
yellow precipitate with platinum chloride, and a white precipitate with
tartaric acid. They are not dissipated by heat, and give a violet colour
to the deoxidizing flame of the blowpipe. Stains on dark clothing are
red or brown.

_Treatment._--Vinegar and water, lemon-juice and water, acidulated
stimulant drinks, oil, linseed-tea, opium to relieve pain, stimulants in
collapse. Do not use the stomach-tube. The glottis may be inflamed, and
if there is