rrific, and they
pursue all sorts of deceptions to enable them to get their enslaving
drug. Patients have been known to conceal tubes in their mouths, and
even swallow them, and the authors know of a fatal instance in which a
tube of hypodermic tablets of the drug was found concealed in the
rectum.

The administration of such an inert substance as the infusion of
orange-peel has been sufficient to invariably produce nervous
excitement in a patient afflicted with carcinoma.

Sonnenschein refers to a case of an infant of five weeks who died from
the effects of one phosphorous match head containing only 1/100 grain
of phosphorus. There are certain people who by reason of a special
susceptibility cannot tolerate phosphorus, and the exhibition of it
causes in them nausea, oppression, and a feeling of pain in the
epigastric region, tormina and tenesmus, accompanied with diarrhea, and
in rare cases jaundice, sometimes lasting several months. In such
persons 1/30 grain is capable of causing the foregoing symptoms. In
1882 a man was admitted to Guy's Hospital, London, after he had taken
half of a sixpenny pot of phosphorous paste in whiskey, and was
subsequently discharged completely recovered.

A peculiar feature of phosphorus-poisoning is necrosis of the jaw. This
affection was first noticed in 1838, soon after the introduction of the
manufacture of phosphorous matches. In late years, owing to the
introduction of precautions in their manufacture, the disease has
become much less common. The tipping of the match sticks is
accomplished by dipping their ends in a warm solution of a composition
of phosphorus, chlorate of potassium, with particles of ground flint to
assist friction, some coloring agent, and Irish glue. From the contents
of the dipping-pans fumes constantly arise into the faces of the
workmen and dippers, and in cutting the sticks and packing the matches
the hands are constantly in contact with phosphorus. The region chiefly
affected in this poisoning is the jaw-bone, but the inflammation may
spread to the adjoining bones and involve the vomer, the zygoma, the
body of the spheroid bone, and the basilar process of the occipital
bone. It is supposed that conditions in which the periosteum is exposed
are favorable to the progress of the disease, and, according to Hirt,
workmen with diseased teeth are affected three times as readily as
those with healthy teeth, and are therefore carefully excluded from
some of the