This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ... poison almost always, except perhaps in the case of suicides, attacks persons who are asleep, and in the night-time, so that any intervention, which would have the efiect of saving their lives, if timely, does 'not and cannot usually occur until some hours at least have elapsed, perhaps not till next day. If carbonic oxide and the gases usually associated with it are allowed to operate persistently, they bring about a fatal termination in a few hours. If the poisoned persons are more or less quickly removed from the injurious vapors, either recovery takes place after a little while, with gradual vanishing of the symptoms, or death occurs in a day or two, various symptoms persisting in the meantime. Carbonic oxide cannot therefore be reckoned amongst the very rapidly killing poisons like prussic acid.. The corpses of those dying from carbonic oxide poisoning show a remarkable resistance to putrefaction, and exhibit outwardly certain characteristic signs of the mode of death. Amongst these are broad and extensive irregularly outlined bright-red spots or patches on the anterior surface of the whole body, the color depending on the impregnation of the blood with carbonic oxide. Sometimes a darker or more violet hue is seen, particularly if the carbonic oxide has been already converted into carbonic acid, or if the gaseous mixture contained an overwhelming proportion of the latter gas. A similar rose-red coloration is often met with in the internal organs, in the muscles and serous membranes (peritoneal coat of the intestines). The changes in the blood itself are just as little constant, the characteristic cherry-red being often replaced by the commoner dark coloration of the blood often seen in corpses. The question whether these...