This section is from the book "A Manual of Materia Medica and Pharmacology", by David M. R. Culbreth. Also available from Amazon: Manual of Materia Medica and Pharmacology.
Lead and Barium Salts: Give magnesium or sodium sulphate (℥ss; 15 Gm.) in a glass of water to form insoluble sulphate, then vomit, follow with purgative enema, demulcent drinks, milk, egg-white, diffusible stimulants, opium for pain; for lead colic apply hot-water bag, hot fomentations; for chronic lead-poisoning, recognized by blue line (sulphide) along margin of gums, drop-wrist (extensors paralyzed), constipation, etc., give iodides to saturation (sodium and calcium being best), sulphur or sulphurated potassa baths, sulphuric acid, friction to muscles, calomel, lemonade, strychnine, faradic current.
Lobelia: If patient has failed to vomit, use emetic, follow with tannin, cardiac and respiratory stimulants, strychnine or picrotoxin hypo-dermically, opium, thebaine, alcohol, digitalis, atropine, ergot; caustic alkalies decompose lobeline, also preparations; 3j (4 Gm.) has killed.
Mercury and Copper Salts (Corrosive Sublimate, Nitrate, White Precipitate, etc.): Give egg-white, beaten up with water (1 egg for every 4 grains (.26 Gm.) of corrosive sublimate), follow with emetic at once, to avoid re-solution, after this demulcent drinks, stimulants, warmth, friction, opium or morphine for pain; in the absence of egg-white, use flour-paste, or milk, or meat-broth; for copper salts may give additionally reduced iron, weak solution of potassium ferrocyanide, then potassium iodide until system saturated to promote elimination; tannin, strong coffee, tea useful in combating these metallic salts; for salivation, use bismuth, sodium sulphite, weak nitric or sulphurous acid, belladonna to diminish ptyalism; corrosive sublimate gr. 3-5 (.2 - 3 Gm.) are usually fatal in 1/2 - 2 days; copper sulphate and acetate, 3viij (30 Gm.) and 3iv (15 Gm.), respectively, have killed in 4-12 hours.
Mezereum: Evacuate stomach with warm albuminous or mucilaginous drinks, then milk, fatty oils, demulcent enemas, opium for depression, cold poultices to abdomen.
Mushrooms, Poisonous Fungi, Muscarine: Empty stomach, give hypodermic atropine or tincture of belladonna, tannin, castor oil and enema to remove fungi from lower bowel, alcoholic stimulants, warmth, friction, poultice to abdomen.
Nitroglycerin, Amyl Nitrite: Give atropine, strychnine, picrotoxin, digitalis to increase functional activity of spinal cord and sympathetic system, stimulants, artificial respiration, alternate cold and hot douche to head, ergotin.
Opium, Lactucarium, Morphine, Codeine, Laudanum, etc.: If taken by mouth, give at once \ p. c. solution of potassium permanganate (℥ viij; 240 Ml. (Cc.W, then empty stomach by pump, apomorphine, etc., washing it out well with strong hot coffee, leaving therein at least a pint (.5 L.), tannin solution, keep body warm but alternate hot and cold douche to the head, hypodermic atropine and strychnine as respiratory stimulants (every 15 minutes for 3 doses), electricity to chest muscles, artificial respiration, digitalis as heart stimulant, ammonia inhalations, amyl nitrite, keep awake by shaking, flicking with a towel, cold water over face and chest, walking between attendants; evacuate bladder often to prevent reabsorption. If poison taken hypodermi-cally, proceed as outlined, omitting chemical antidote and vomiting; opium gr. 5 (.3 Gm.), or morphine gr. 1 (.06 Gm.), usually prove fatal in 5-12 hours.
Phenol (Carbolic Acid), Creosote, Resorcinol: The pneumogastric filaments, in mucous membrane of the stomach, are usually so obtunded as not to respond to emetics, so if considered safe, empty stomach with pump or hypodermic of apomorphine, or give as soon as possible alcohol ℥iv (120 Ml. (Cc.)) mixed with equal quantity of water, remove at once by emetic or tube, repeat this every 5-10 minutes for 4 to 8 times; alcohol stimulates and protects stomach from corrosive action of poison, may employ diluted acetic acid for alcohol; or may wash out the stomach with 10 p. c. solution sodium bicarbonate (℥ viij; 240 Ml. (Cc.)), following with antidote - magnesium or sodium sulphate (℥ ij; 60 Gm.), in weak solution, to form harmless sulphophenolate, then demulcent drinks, egg-white (to protect mucous surfaces), but no oils or glycerin; stimulate with whisky, brandy, alcohol, ammonia, and if necessary digitalis, strychnine, warmth and friction to extremities (feet, hands), counter-irritants to abdomen, opium for pain, atropine. To local abrasions apply sodium carbonate solution, using same for mouthwash; the brownish or blackish urine and eschars serve to identify this poison.
Phosphorus, Rat Paste, Matches: Empty stomach, preferably with copper sulphate (gr. 3; .2 Gm., repeated 2-4 times at 5-minute intervals) to form insoluble black phosphide, follow every half-hour with old viscid (oxygenated, acid, French) oil of turpentine (3 j; 4 Ml. (Cc.)), floated on water, follow with magnesium sulphate (℥j-3; 30-90 Gm.) in a glass of water as a cathartic; may give hydrated magnesia, lime water, charcoal. If the phosphorus be taken in solution, give potassium permanganate to cause oxidation, opium for pain; albumin, egg-white valuable, but never fats or fatty oils, as these are solvents, hence aid its absorption; empty bladder often; phosphorus gr. 1 (.06 Gm.) is usually fatal in 1 - 5 days.
Physostigma, Physostigmine, (Eserine): Evacuate stomach, give tannin, coffee, tea, hypodermic atropine every 15 minutes until pupils dilated and pulse strong; if this should fail, give hydrated chloral (gr. 10; .6 Gm.) at same intervals, or hypodermic strychnine, then cardiac stimulants (alcohol, coffee, digitalis, ammonia), artificial heat and respiration, electricity; empty bladder often; 6 seeds have killed.
Phytolacca: Similar to aconite and veratrum, but unlike the latter in that vomiting ensues much more slowly; within 2 hours usually acts per se as an emeto-cathartic, after which give cardiac stimulants (alcohol, ammonia, ether, digitalis, etc.), opium for pain.
Pilocarpus, Pilocarpine: Similar to physostigma; evacuate stomach, washing it out well with tannin solution, follow with hypodermic atropine (gr. 1/60 .001 Gm.), or tincture of belladonna (exx; 1.3 Ml. (Cc.)), every 20 minutes until pupils dilated; morphine to control nausea and vomiting, cardiac (diffusible) stimulants.
Ptomaines: Toxic alkaloids in meat, sausage, pork, fish, lobster (canned or otherwise), poisoned game, putrescent food, cheese, etc.): Empty stomach at once, using large draughts of warm water, tannin, coffee, tea; castor oil as a purgative, after this operates give diluted vinegar, sponging the body with some weak alkaline solution, alcoholic stimulants for depression, warmth to abdomen, friction to extremities, opium for spasms.
Savin, Sabina Oil and Tops, Tansy and Oil: If not already vomited give at once an emetic, move bowels freely with Epsom salt, castor oil (full dose), stimulants, allay pain with morphine and demulcents, flaxseed meal poultice to stomach.
Poison Ivy (Oak): Apply at once locally soap and water with scrubbing-brush, then lead water, alkaline solutions (sodium bicarbonate, sulphite, chlorinated, diluted ammonia, soapsuds, alum curd), tincture or infusion of lobelia, grindelia, sassafras, impatiens biflora, cocaine solution, aristol, opium; internally cooling drinks, low diet, saline purgatives, quietness.
Quinine, etc.: Give potassium bromide, hydrobromic acid, cardiac and respiratory stimulants; morphine counteracts cerebral action, atropine the nervous, cardiac, and antipyretic effects.
Silver Salts, Nitrate, Lunar Caustic: Give sodium chloride (table salt) 3iv (15 Gm.), dissolved in a glass of warm water to form insoluble silver chloride, or use egg-white, or milk, follow with emetic and large draughts of warm water, demulcent drinks; may use alkalies, alkaline carbonates, lime water, tannin. Following prolonged usage, give purgatives, diuretics, potassium iodide, sodium hyposulphite baths. . Staphisagria, Stavesacre: Similar to aconite and veratrum; evacuate stomach, then tannin, charcoal, diffusible stimulants, keep quiet, recumbent, feet elevated, extremities warm; chloroform inhalations for spasms, or hydrated chloral (gr. 30; 2 Gm.), or potassium bromide (3j-2; 4-8 Gm.); use all haste, as death is by asphyxia.
Strychnine, Brucine, Nux Vomica, Ignatia, Picrotoxin, Cocculus Indicus, Hydrastis: Remove patient from all noise, quickly evacuate stomach, give tannin (gr. 30; 2 Gm.) dissolved in water, or iodide of starch to form insoluble strychnine perhydroiodide, charcoal; control spasms by inhaling chloroform or ether, or by large doses of hydrated chloral and potassium bromide in solution by mouth or rectum, thus keeping up mild narcosis for several hours if necessary; spasms may stop respiration, hence control these at all risk, amyl nitrite, artificial respiration, soluble iodides, tobacco, opium, physostigmine, atropine, conium, Indian hemp; empty bladder often; nux vomica gr. 30 (2 Gm.), or extract gr. 3 (.2 Gm.), or strychnine gr. 1/2-l (.03-.06 Gm.), is each usually fatal in 1/4 - 3 hours.
Tobacco, Nicotine: Induce vomiting if not already accomplished, give quietness, recumbent position, tannin, strong coffee, tea, then an emetic, hypodermic strychnine (physiological antidote) or tincture of nux vomica by mouth, diffusible stimulants alcohol, brandy, whisky, ether, etc.), warmth to body, ergot, digitalis, belladonna, iodides, artificial respiration, cold douche to head; nicotine exv-60 (1-4 Ml. (Cc.)) are fatal in 1-3 hours.
Tin Salts: Empty stomach, then milk of magnesia, demulcent drinks, opium for pain.
Turpentine: Emetics, if no purging give enema, then plenty of water and demulcent drinks, hot fomentations to loins, opium to allay pain.
Zinc Salts, Sulphate, Chloride, Burnett's and Piatt's Solutions: Should vomiting not have occurred, give plenty warm water containing sodium carbonate or bicarbonate to form insoluble zinc carbonate, or mustard (3ij; 8 Gm.), then egg-white and milk, tannin solution, strong coffee, tea, to form insoluble tannate, opium, morphine, hot fomentations to allay abdominal pain; sulphate 3xij (45 Gm.) are usually fatal.
Veratrum Viride, Veratrum Alburn, Veratrine, Sabadilla: Evacuate stomach, unless veratroidine constituent has thus acted, recumbent position, feet elevated, dry warmth to body (wraps, blankets, bottles, etc.), tannin, strong hot coffee, tea, cardiac (diffusible) stimulants (alcohol, brandy, ammonia, etc.), atropine to antagonize cardiac depression, strychnine as respiratory and nervous stimulant, morphine, electricity, artificial respiration.
 
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