A curious case is mentioned in which three mustard
plasters, one on the throat, one on the back of the neck, and
another on the left shoulder of a woman, produced symptoms
similar to strychnin poisoning. They remained in position for
about thirty minutes, and about thirty hours afterward a painful
stinging sensation commenced in the back of the neck, followed by
violent twitching of the muscles of the face, arms, and legs,
which continued in regular succession through the whole of the
night, but after twelve hours yielded to hot fomentations of
poppy-heads applied to the back of the neck. It could not be
ascertained whether any medicine containing strychnin had been
taken, but surely, from the symptoms, such must have been the
case.
Tobacco.--O'Neill a gives the history of a farmer's wife, aged
forty, who wounded her leg against a sewing-machine, and by lay
advice applied a handful of chopped wet tobacco to it, from which
procedure, strange to say, serious nicotin-poisoning ensued. The
pupils were dilated, there were dimness of vision, confusion of
thought, and extreme prostration. The pulse was scarcely
apparent, the skin was white and wet with clammy perspiration.
Happily, strychnin was given in time to effect recovery, and
without early medical assistance she would undoubtedly have
succumbed.
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