Note 76 — CHAP. II.
Reading edition
This accident happened in the Cyclops frigate in September, 1780. Mr. Gordon, the surgeon, favoured me with the following account of it:
“Mr. Smith, an officer, John Barber and Anthony Wright, seamen, having eat some victuals prepared in a foul copper, complained soon after of violent gripes, giddiness, and vomiting, and they had a few loose stools. There was intense heat; the pulse was quick, full, and hard; a tremor of the hands and tongue, and wildness of the eyes. The looseness was soon succeeded by obstinate costiveness, tension of the abdomen, difficult breathing, and loss of deglutition. In the night, towards the morning, there came on insensibility, with an increase of all the symptoms, except the heat. The body was violently convulsed, with cold clammy sweats and coldness of the extremities. The abdomen subsided a short time before they died, and, before they expired, a small quantity of greenish matter, mixed with phlegm, issued from the mouths of two of them.
Thirty three other men were put upon the sick list with similar symptoms in a less degree, and some of them continued on the list for five or six weeks before they perfectly recovered.”
It is not said what means were attempted for the recovery of these men; but, besides emetics and milk, or oil, a dilute solution of the fixed alkali in water has been recommended against this poison.