MINERAL ACIDS—­SULPHURIC ACID (OIL OF VITRIOL), NITRIC ACID (AQUA FORTIS), MURIATIC ACID (SPIRITS OF SALTS).—­Symptoms:  Acid, burning taste in the mouth, acute pain in the throat, stomach and bowels; frequent vomiting, generally bloody, mouth and lips excoriated, shriveled, white or yellow; hiccough, copious stools, more or less bloody, with great tenderness in the abdomen; difficult breathing, irregular pulse, excessive thirst, while drink increases the pain and rarely remains in the stomach; frequent but vain efforts to urinate; cold sweats, altered countenance; convulsions generally preceding death; nitric acid causes yellow stains; sulphuric acid, black ones.  Treatment:  Mix calcined magnesia in milk or water to the consistence of cream, and give freely to drink a glassful every couple of minutes, if it can be swallowed.  Common soap (hard or soft), chalk, whiting, or even mortar from the wall mixed in water, may be given, until magnesia can be obtained.  Promote vomiting by tickling the throat, if necessary, and when the poison is got rid of, flaxseed or elm tea, gruel, or other mild drinks.  The inflammation which always follows wants good treatment to save the patient’s life.

VEGETABLE ACIDS—­ACETIC, CITRIC, OXALIC, TARTARIC.—­Symptoms:  Intense burning pain of mouth, throat and stomach; vomiting blood which is highly acid, violent purging, collapse, stupor, death.

OXALIC ACID is frequently taken in mistake for Epsom salts, to which in shops it often bears a strong resemblance.  Treatment:  Give chalk or magnesia in a large quantity of water, or large draughts of lime water.  If these are not at hand, scrape the wall or ceiling, and give the scrapings, mixed with water.

PRUSSIC OR HYDROCYANIC ACID—­LAUREL WATER, CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM, BITTER ALMOND OIL, ETC.—­Symptoms:  In large doses almost invariably instantaneously fatal, when not immediately fatal, sudden loss of sense and control of the voluntary muscles; the odor of the poison generally susceptible on the breath.  Treatment:  Chlorine, in the form of chlorine water, in doses of from one to four fluid drachms, diluted.  Weak solution of chloride lime of soda; water of ammonia (spirits of hartshorn) largely diluted may be given, and the vapor of it cautiously inhaled.  Cold affusion, and chloroform in half to teaspoonful doses in glycerine or mucilage, repeated every few minutes, until the symptoms are ameliorated.  Artificial respiration.

ACONITE—­MONKSHOOD, WOLFSBANE.—­Symptoms:  Numbness and tingling in the mouth and throat, and afterwards in other portions of the body, with sore throat, pain over the stomach, and vomiting; dimness of vision, dizziness, great prostration, loss of sensibility and delirium.  Treatment:  An emetic and then brandy in tablespoonful doses, in ice-water, every half hour; spirits of ammonia in half teaspoonful doses in like manner; the cold douche over the head and chest, warmth to the extremities, etc.