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The normal amount of sulphuric acid excreted daily, according to Thudichum, is from 1·5 to 2·5 grms., and organic sulphur up to ·2 grm. in the twenty-four hours, but very much more has been excreted by healthy persons.

Lehmann made some observations on himself, and found that, on an animal diet, he excreted no less than 10·399 grms. of sulphuric acid per day, while on mixed food a little over 7 grms.; but, as Thudichum justly observes, this great amount must be referred to individual peculiarity. The amount of sulphates has a decided relation to diet. Animal food, although not containing sulphates, yet, from the oxidation of the sulphur-holding albumen, produces a urine rich in sulphate. Thus Vogel found that a person, whose daily average was 2·02 grms., yielded 7·3 on a meat diet. The internal use of sulphur, sulphides, and sulphates, given in an ordinary medicinal way, is traceable in the urine, increasing the sulphates. In chronic diseases the amount of sulphates is decreased, in acute increased.

Finally, it would appear that the determination of sulphates in the urine is not of much value, save when the normal amount that the individual secretes is primarily known. On the other hand, a low amount of sulphates in the urine of a person poisoned by sulphuric acid has not been observed within three days of the taking of the poison, and one can imagine cases in which such a low result might have forensic importance.

The presence of albumen in the urine has been considered by some a constant result of sulphuric acid poisoning, but although when looked for it is usually found, it cannot be considered constant. O. Smoler,[79] in eighteen cases of various degrees of sulphuric acid poisoning, found nothing abnormal in the urine. Wyss[80] found in the later stages of a case indican and pus. E. Leyden and Ph. Munn[81] always found blood in the urine, as well as albumen, with casts and cellular elements. Mannkopf[82] found albuminuria in three cases out of five; in two of the cases there were fibrinous casts; in two the albumen disappeared at the end of the second or third day, but in one it continued for more than twenty days. Bamberger[83] has observed an increased albuminuria, with separation of the colouring matter of the blood. In this case it was ascribed to the action of the acid on the blood.

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§ 66. The Blood.—In Casper’s case, No. 193, the vena cava of a child, who died within an hour after swallowing a large dose of sulphuric acid, was filled with a cherry-red, strongly acid-reacting blood. Again, Casper’s case, No. 200, is that of a young woman, aged 19, who died from a poisonous dose of sulphuric acid. At the autopsy, four days after death, the following peculiarities of the blood were thus noted:—“The blood had an acid reaction, was dark, and had (as is usual in these cases) a syrupy consistence, while the blood-corpuscles were quite unchanged. The blood was treated with an excess of absolute alcohol, filtered, the filtrate concentrated on a water-bath, the residue exhausted with absolute alcohol, &c. It yielded a small quantity of sulphuric acid.”

Other similar cases might be noted, but it must not for a moment be supposed that the mass of the blood contains any free sulphuric acid during life. The acidity of the blood in the vena cava may be ascribed to post-mortem endosmosis, the acid passing through the walls of the stomach into the large vessel.

§ 67. Sulphates.—If the acid swallowed should have been entirely neutralised by antidotes, such as chalk, &c., it becomes of the first importance to ascertain, as far as possible, by means of a microscopical examination, the nature of the food remaining in the stomach, and then to calculate the probable contents in sulphates of the food thus known to be eaten. It will be found that, with ordinary food, and under ordinary circumstances, only small percentages of combined sulphuric acid can be present.

As an example, take the ordinary rations of the soldier, viz.:—12 oz. of meat, 24 oz. of bread, 16 oz. of potatoes, 8 oz. of other vegetables; with sugar, salt, tea, coffee, and water. Now, if the whole quantity of these substances were eaten at a meal, they would not contain more than from 8 to 10 grains (·5 to ·6 grm.) of anhydrous sulphuric acid, in the form of sulphates.

So far as the contents of the stomach are concerned, we have only to do with sulphates introduced in the food, but when once the food passes further along the intestinal canal, circumstances are altered, for we have sulphur-holding secretions, which, with ordinary chemical methods, yield sulphuric acid. Thus, even in the newly-born infant, according to the analyses of Zweifler, the mineral constituents of meconium are especially sulphate of lime, with a smaller quantity of sulphate of potash. The amount of bile which flows into the whole tract of the intestinal canal is estimated at about half a litre in the twenty-four hours; the amount of sulphur found in bile varies from ·89 to 3 per cent., so that in 500 c.c. we might, by oxidising the sulphur, obtain from 2·2 to 7·5 grms. of sulphuric anhydride.

It is therefore certain that large quantities of organic sulphur-compounds may be found in the human intestinal canal, for with individuals who suffer from constipation, the residues of the biliary secretion accumulate for many days. Hence, if the analyst searches for sulphates in excretal matters, all methods involving destruction of organic substances, whether by fire or by fluid-oxidising agents, are wrong in principle, and there is nothing left save to separate soluble sulphates by dialysis, or to precipitate direct out of an aqueous extract.

Again, sulphate of magnesia is a common medicine, and so is sodic sulphate; a possible medicinal dose of magnesia sulphate might amount to 56·7 grms. (2 oz.), the more usual dose being half that quantity. Lastly, among the insane there are found patients who will eat plaster-of-Paris, earth, and similar matters, so that, in special cases, a very large amount of combined sulphuric acid may be found in the intestinal tract, without any relation to poisoning by the free acid; but in such instances it must be rare, indeed, that surrounding circumstances or pathological evidence will not give a clue to the real state of affairs.

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II.—Hydrochloric Acid.

§ 68. General Properties.—Hydrochloric acid, otherwise called muriatic acid, spirit of salt, is, in a strictly chemical sense, a pure gas, composed of 97·26 per cent. of chlorine, and 2·74 per cent. of hydrogen; but, in an ordinary sense, it is a liquid, being a solution of the gas itself.

Hydrochloric acid is made on an enormous scale in the United Kingdom, the production being estimated at about a million tons annually.

The toxicology of hydrochloric acid is modern, for we have no evidence that anything was known of it prior to the middle of the seventeenth century, when Glauber prepared it in solution, and, in 1772, Priestley, by treating common salt with sulphuric acid, isolated the pure gas.

The common liquid hydrochloric acid of commerce has a specific gravity of from 1·15 to 1·20, and contains usually less than 40 parts of hydrochloric acid in the 100 parts. The strength of pure samples of hydrochloric acid can be told by the specific gravity, and a very close approximation, in default of tables, may be obtained by simply multiplying the decimal figures of the specific gravity by 200. For example, an acid of 1·20 gravity would by this rule contain 40 per cent. of real acid, for ·20 × 200 = 40.

The commercial acid is nearly always a little yellow, from the presence of iron derived from metallic retorts, and usually contains small quantities of chloride of arsenic,[84] derived from the sulphuric acid; but the colourless hydrochloric acid specially made for laboratory and medicinal use is nearly always pure.

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The uses of the liquid acid are mainly in the production of chlorine, as a solvent for metals, and for medicinal and chemical purposes. Its properties are briefly as follows:—

It is a colourless or faintly-yellow acid liquid, the depth of colour depending on its purity, and especially its freedom from iron. The liquid is volatile, and can be separated from fixed matters and the less volatile acids by distillation; it has a strong attraction for water, and fumes when exposed to the air, from becoming saturated with aqueous vapour. If exposed to the vapour of ammonia, extremely dense clouds arise, due to the formation of the solid ammonium chloride. The acid, boiled with a small quantity of manganese binoxide, evolves chlorine. Dioxide of lead has a similar action; the chlorine may be detected by its bleaching action on a piece of paper dipped in indigo blue; a little zinc foil immersed in the acid disengages hydrogen. These two tests—viz., the production of chlorine by the one, and the production of hydrogen by the other—separate and reveal the constituent parts of the acid. Hydrochloric acid, in common with chlorides, gives a dense precipitate with silver nitrate. The precipitate is insoluble in nitric acid, but soluble in ammonia; it melts without decomposition. Exposed to the light, it becomes of a purple or blackish colour. Every 100 parts of silver chloride are equal to 25·43 of hydrochloric acid, HCl, and to 63·5 parts of the liquid acid of specific gravity 1·20.

The properties of pure hydrochloric acid gas are as follows:—Specific gravity 1·262, consisting of equal volumes of hydrogen and chlorine, united without condensation. 100 cubic inches must therefore have a weight of 39·36 grains. The gas was liquefied by Faraday by means of a pressure of 40 atmospheres at 10°; it was colourless, and had a less refractive index than water.

Water absorbs the gas with avidity, 100 volumes of water absorbing 48,000 volumes of the gas, and becoming 142 volumes. The solution has all the properties of strong hydrochloric acid, specific gravity 1·21. The dilute hydrochloric acid of the Pharmacopœia should have a specific gravity of 1·052, and be equivalent to 10·58 per cent. of HCl.

§ 69. Statistics of Poisoning by Hydrochloric Acid.—The following tables give the deaths, with age and sex distribution, due to hydrochloric acid for ten years (1883-92):—

DEATHS FROM HYDROCHLORIC ACID IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE TEN YEARS ENDING 1892.

Accident or Negligence.
Ages,	Under 1	1-5	5-15	15-25	25-65	65 and above	Total
Males,	1	16	2	...	26	3	48
Females,	...	8	...	...	9	1	18
Totals,	1	24	2	...	35	4	66
Suicide.
Ages,			5-15	15-25	25-65	65 and above	Total
Males,			...	2	73	8	83
Females,			1	8	42	65	116
Totals,			1	10	115	73	199

In 1889 a solitary case of the murder of a child is on record from hydrochloric acid; hence, with that addition, the total deaths from hydrochloric acid amount to 266 in the ten years, or about 26 a year.

§ 70. Fatal Dose.—The dose which destroys life is not known with any accuracy. In two cases, adults have been killed by 14 grms. (half an ounce) of the commercial acid; but, on the other hand, recovery is recorded when more than double this quantity has been taken. A girl, fifteen years of age, died from drinking a teaspoonful of the acid.[85]

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§ 71. Amount of Free Acid in the Gastric Juice.—Hydrochloric acid exists in the gastric juice. This was first ascertained by Prout[86] in 1824; he separated it by distillation. The observation was afterwards confirmed by Gmelin,[87] Children,[88] and Braconnot.[89] On the other hand, Lehmann[90] pointed out that, as the stomach secretion contained, without doubt, lactic acid, the act of distillation, in the presence of this lactic acid, would set free hydrochloric acid from any alkaline chlorides. Blondlot and Cl. Bernard also showed that the gastric juice possessed no acid which would dissolve oxalate of lime, or develop hydrogen when treated with iron filings; hence there could not be free hydrochloric acid which, even in a diluted state, would respond to both these tests. Then followed the researches of C. Schmidt,[91] who showed that the gastric secretion of men, of sheep, and of dogs contained more hydrochloric acid than would satisfy the bases present; and he propounded the view that the gastric juice does not contain absolutely free hydrochloric acid, but that it is in loose combination with the pepsin.

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The amount of acid in the stomach varies from moment to moment, and therefore it is not possible to say what the average acidity of gastric juice is. It has been shown that in the total absence of free hydrochloric acid digestion may take place, because hydrochloric acid forms a compound with pepsin which acts as a solvent on the food. The amount of physiologically active acid varies with the food taken. It is smallest when carbohydrates are consumed, greatest with meat. The maximum amount that Jaksch found in his researches, when meat was ingested, was ·09 per cent. of hydrochloric acid. It is probable that anything above 0·2 per cent. of hydrochloric acid is either abnormal or owing to the recent ingestion of hydrochloric acid.

§ 72. Influence of Hydrochloric Acid on Vegetation.—Hydrochloric acid fumes, if emitted from works on a large scale, injure vegetation much. In former years, before any legal obligations were placed upon manufacturers for the condensing of the volatile products, the nuisance from this cause was great. In 1823, the duty on salt being repealed by the Government, an extraordinary impetus was given to the manufacture of hydrochloric acid, and since all the volatile products at that time escaped through short chimneys into the air, a considerable area of land round the works was rendered quite unfit for growing plants. The present law on the subject is, that the maximum quantity of acid escaping shall not exceed 2 grains per cubic foot of the air, smoke, or chimney gases; and, according to the reports of the alkali inspectors, the condensation by the improved appliances is well within the Act, and about as perfect as can be devised.

It appears from the reports of the Belgian Commission in 1855, when virtually no precautions were taken, that the gases are liable to injure vegetation to the extent of 2000 metres (2187 yards) around any active works; the more watery vapour the air contains, the quicker is the gas precipitated and carried to the earth. If the action of the vapour is considerable, the leaves of plants dry and wither; the chlorophyll becomes modified, and no longer gives the normal spectrum, while a thickening of the rind of trees has also been noticed. The cereals suffer much; they increase in stalk, but produce little grain. The leguminosæ become spotted, and have an air of dryness and want of vigour; while the potato, among plants utilised for food, appears to have the strongest resistance. Vines are very sensitive to the gas. Among trees, the alder seems most sensitive; then come fruit-trees, and last, the hardy forest-trees—the poplar, the ash, the lime, the elm, the maple, the birch, and the oak.[92]

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§ 73. Action upon Cloth and Manufactured Articles.—On black cloth the acid produces a green stain, which is not moist and shows no corrosion. On most matters the stain is more or less reddish; after a little time no free acid may be detected, by simply moistening the spot; but if the stain is cut out and boiled with water, there may be some evidence of free acid. The absence of moisture and corrosion distinguishes the stain from that produced by sulphuric acid.

§ 74. Poisonous Effects of Hydrochloric Acid Gas.—Eulenberg[93] has studied the effects of the vapour of this acid on rabbits and pigeons. One of these experiments may be cited in detail. Hydrochloric acid gas, prepared by heating together common salt and sulphuric acid, was passed into a glass shade supported on a plate, and a rabbit was placed in the transparent chamber thus formed. On the entrance of the vapour, there was immediate blinking of the eyes, rubbing of the paws against the nostrils, and emission of white fumes with the expired breath, while the respiration was irregular (40 to the minute). After the lapse of ten minutes, the gas was again introduced, until the atmosphere was quite thick; the symptoms were similar to those detailed above, but more violent; and in fourteen minutes from the commencement, the rabbit sank down on its right side (respirations 32). When twenty-two minutes had elapsed, the gas was again allowed to enter. The rabbit now lay quiet, with closed eyes and laboured respiration, and, finally, after half-an-hour of intermittent exposure to the gas, the animal was removed.

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The cornea were opalescent, and the eyes filled with water; there was frequent shaking of the head and working of the forepaws. After three minutes’ exposure to the air, the respirations were found to be 128 per minute; this quickened respiration lasted for an hour, then gave place to a shorter and more superficial breathing. On the second day after the experiment, the rabbit suffered from laboured respiration (28 to the minute) and pain, and there was a rattling in the bronchial tubes. The animal died on the third day, death being preceded by slow respiration (12 to the minute).

The appearances twenty-four hours after death were as follows:—The eyes were coated with a thick slime, and both cornea were opalescent; there was strong rigidity of the body. The pia mater covering the brain was everywhere hyperæmic, and at the hinder border of both hemispheres appeared a small clot, surrounded by a thin layer of bloody fluid. The plex. venos spin. was filled with coagulated blood, and there was also a thin extravasation of blood covering the medulla and pons. The lungs were mottled bright brown-red; the middle lobe of the right lung was dark brown, solid, and sank in water; the lower lobe of the same lung and the upper lobe of the left lung were nearly in a similar condition, but the edges were of a bright red. The parenchyma in the darker places on section did not crepitate. On the cut surface was a little dark, fluid, weakly-acid blood; the tracheal mucous membrane was injected. The heart was filled with thick coagulated blood; the liver was congested, of a reddish-brown colour, and rich in dark, fluid blood: in the vena cava inferior was coagulated blood. The kidneys were not hyperæmic; the intestines were superficially congested.

I think there can be little doubt that the symptoms during life, and the appearances after death, in this case are perfectly consistent with the following view:—The vapour acts first as a direct irritant, and is capable of exciting inflammation in the lung and bronchial tissues; but besides this, there is a secondary effect, only occurring when the gas is in sufficient quantity, and the action sufficiently prolonged—viz., a direct coagulation of the blood in certain points of the living vessels of the lungs. The consequence of this is a more or less general backward engorgement, the right side of the heart becomes distended with blood, and the ultimate cause of death is partly mechanical. The hyperæmia of the brain membranes, and even the hæmorrhages, are quite consistent with this view, and occur in cases where the obstruction to the circulation is of a coarser and more obvious character, and can therefore be better appreciated.

§ 75. Effects of the Liquid Acid.—There is one distinction between poisoning by hydrochloric and the other mineral acids—namely, the absence of corrosion of the skin. Ad. Lesser[94] has established, by direct experiment, that it is not possible to make any permanent mark on the skin by the application even of the strongest commercial acid (40 per cent.). Hence, in any case of suspected poisoning by acid, should there be stains on the lips and face as from an acid, the presumption will be rather against hydrochloric. The symptoms themselves differ very little from those produced by sulphuric acid. The pathological appearances also are not essentially different, but hydrochloric is a weaker acid, and the extensive disorganisation, solution, and perforation of the viscera, noticed occasionally with sulphuric acid, have never been found in hydrochloric acid poisoning. We may quote here the following case:—

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A woman, under the influence of great and sudden grief—not unmixed with passion—drew a bottle from her pocket, and emptied it very quickly. She immediately uttered a cry, writhed, and vomited a yellow-green fluid. The abdomen also became enlarged. Milk was given her, but she could not swallow it, and death took place, in convulsions, two hours after the drinking of the poison.

The post-mortem appearances were briefly as follows:—Mouth and tongue free from textural change: much gas in the abdomen, more especially in the stomach; the membranes of the brain congested; the lungs filled with blood. The stomach was strongly pressed forward, of a dark brown-red, and exhibited many irregular blackish spots, varying from two lines to half an inch in diameter (the spots were drier and harder than the rest of the stomach); the mucous membrane, internally, was generally blackened, and changed to a carbonised, shaggy, slimy mass, while the organ was filled with a blackish homogeneous pulp, which had no odour. The gullet was also blackened. A considerable quantity of hydrochloric acid was separated from the stomach.[95]

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The termination in this instance was unusually rapid. In a case detailed by Casper,[96] in which a boy drank an unknown quantity of acid, death took place in seven hours. In Guy’s Hospital museum, the duodenum and stomach are preserved of a patient who is said to have died in nine and a half hours from half an ounce of the acid. The same quantity, in a case related by Taylor, caused death in eighteen hours. From these and other instances, it may be presumed that death from acute poisoning by hydrochloric acid will probably take place within twenty-four hours. From the secondary effects, of course, death may take place at a remote period, e.g., in a case recorded by Dr. Duncan (Lancet, April 12, 1890), a man drank about 1 oz. of HCl accidentally, was admitted to Charing Cross Hospital the same day, and treated with small quantities of sodium carbonate, and fed by the rectum. On the eighth day he brought up 34 oz. of blood; in a month he left apparently perfectly well, but was admitted again in about six weeks, and died of contraction of the stomach and stricture of the pylorus on the ninety-fourth day.

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§ 76. Post-mortem Appearances.—The pathological appearances are very similar to those found in the case already detailed; though the skin of the face may not be eroded in any way by the acid, yet the more delicate mucous membrane of the mouth, gullet, &c., appears mostly to be changed, and is usually white or whitish-brown. There is, however, in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons the stomach and gullet (No. 2386c.) of an infant thirteen months old; the infant drank a tea-cupful of strong hydrochloric acid, and died nine hours after the dose. The pharynx and the upper end of the gullet is quite normal, the corrosive action commencing at the lower end, so that, although the acid was concentrated, not the slightest effect was produced on the delicate mucous membrane of the throat and upper part of the gullet. The lower end of the gullet and the whole of the stomach were intensely congested; the rugæ of the latter were ecchymosed and blackened by the action of the acid. There were also small hæmorrhages in the lungs, which were ascribed to the action of the acid on the blood. Perforation of the stomach has not been noticed in hydrochloric acid poisoning.

In Guy’s Hospital museum (prep. 1799¹⁰), the stomach and duodenum of the case mentioned exhibit the mucous membrane considerably injected, with extravasations of blood, which, at the time when the preparation was first arranged, were of various hues, but are now somewhat altered, through long keeping in spirit. In St. George’s Hospital museum (ser. x. 43, d. 200) are preserved the stomach and part of the duodenum of a person who died from hydrochloric acid. The case is detailed in the Medical Times and Gazette for 1853, vol. ii. p. 513. The whole inner surface appears to be in a sloughing state, and the larynx and lung were also inflamed.

A preparation, presented by Mr. Bowman to King’s College Hospital museum, exhibits the effects of a very large dose of hydrochloric acid. The gullet has a shrivelled and worm-eaten appearance; the stomach is injected with black blood, and was filled with an acid, grumous matter.[97]

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Looking at these and other museum preparations illustrating the effects of sulphuric and hydrochloric acids, I was unable (in default of the history of the cases) to distinguish between the two, by the naked eye appearances, save in those cases in which the disorganisation was so excessive as to render hydrochloric acid improbable. On the other hand, the changes produced by nitric acid are so distinctive, that it is impossible to mistake its action for that of any other acid. The nitric acid pathological preparations may be picked out at a glance.

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Detection and Estimation of Free Hydrochloric Acid.

§ 77. (1) Detection.—A large number of colouring reagents have been proposed as tests for the presence of free mineral acid; among the best is methyl-aniline violet decolorised by a large amount of hydrochloric acid; the violet turns to green with a moderate quantity, and to blue with a small quantity.

Tropæolin (00), in the presence of free mineral acid, strikes a ruby-red to a dark brown-red.

Congo-red is used in the form of paper dyed with the material; large amounts of free hydrochloric acid strike blue-black, small quantities blue.

Günzburg’s test is 2 parts phloroglucin and 1 part vanillin, dissolved in 100 parts of alcohol. Fine red crystals are precipitated on the addition of hydrochloric acid. To test the stomach contents for free hydrochloric acid by means of this reagent, equal parts of the fluid and the test are evaporated to dryness in the water-bath in a porcelain dish. If free hydrochloric acid be present, the evaporated residue shows a red colour; 1 mgrm. of acid can by this test be detected. The reaction is not interfered with by organic acids, peptones, or albumin.

Jaksch speaks highly of benzopurpurin as a test. Filter-paper is soaked in a saturated aqueous solution of benzopurpurin 6 B (the variety 1 or 4 B is not so sensitive), and the filter-paper thus prepared allowed to dry. On testing the contents of the stomach with the reagent, if there is more than 4 parts per 1000 of hydrochloric acid the paper is stained intensely blue-black; but if the colour is brown-black, this is from butyric or lactic acids, or from a mixture of these acids with hydrochloric acid. If the paper is washed with pure ether, and the colour was due only to organic acids, the original hue of the paper is restored; if the colour produced was due to a mixture of mineral and organic acids, the brown-black colour is weakened; and, lastly, if due to hydrochloric acid alone, the colour is not altered by washing with ether. Acid salts have no action, nor is the test interfered with by large amounts of albumins and peptones.

A. Villiers and M. Favolle[98] have published a sensitive test for hydrochloric acid. The test consists of a saturated aqueous solution of colourless aniline, 4 parts; glacial acetic acid, 1 part; 0·1 mgrm. of hydrochloric acid strikes with this reagent a blue colour, 1 mgrm. a black colour. The liquid under examination is brought by evaporation, or by the addition of water, to 10 c.c. and placed in a flask; to this is added 5 c.c. of a mixture of equal parts of sulphuric acid and water, then 10 c.c. of a saturated solution of potassic permanganate, and heated gently, conveying the gases into 3 to 5 c.c. of the reagent contained in a test-tube immersed in water. If, however, bromine or iodine (one or both) should be present, the process is modified as follows:—The hydracids are precipitated by silver nitrate; the precipitate is washed, transferred to a small flask, and treated with 10 c.c. of water and 1 c.c. of pure ammonia. With this strength of ammonia the chloride of silver is dissolved easily, the iodide not at all, and the bromide but slightly. The ammoniacal solution is filtered, boiled, and treated with SH₂; the excess of SH₂ is expelled by boiling, the liquid filtered, reduced to 10 c.c. by boiling or evaporation, sulphuric acid and permanganate added as before, and the gases passed into the aniline. The process is inapplicable to the detection of chlorides or hydrochloric acid if cyanides are present, and it is more adapted for traces of hydrochloric acid than for the quantities likely to be met with in a toxicological inquiry.

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(2) Quantitative estimation of Free Hydrochloric Acid.—The contents of the stomach are diluted to a known volume, say 250 or 500 c.c. A fractional portion is taken, say 10 c.c., coloured with litmus or phenol-phthalein, and a decinormal solution of soda added drop by drop until the colour changes; this gives total acidity. Another 10 c.c. is shaken with double its volume of ether three times, the fluid separated from ether and titrated in the same way; this last titration will give the acidity due to mineral acids and acid salts;[99] if the only mineral acid present is hydrochloric acid the results will be near the truth if reckoned as such, and this method, although not exact for physiological research, is usually sufficient for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of hydrochloric acid or other mineral acids in a case of poisoning. It depends on the fact that ether extracts free organic acids, such as butyric and lactic acids, but does not extract mineral acids.

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The free mineral acid, after extracting the organic acid by ether, can also be saturated with cinchonine; this hydrochlorate of cinchonine is extracted by chloroform, evaporated to dryness, and the residue dissolved in water acidified by nitric acid and precipitated by silver nitrate; the silver chloride produced is collected on a small filter, washed, and the filter, with its contents, dried and ignited in a porcelain crucible; the silver chloride, multiplied by 0·25426, equals HCl.

The best method of estimating free hydrochloric acid in the stomach is that of Sjokvist as modified by v. Jaksch;[100] it has the disadvantage of its accuracy being interfered with by phosphates; it also does not distinguish between actual free HCl and the loosely bound HCl with albuminous matters,—this in a toxicological case is of small importance, because the quantities of HCl found are likely to be large.

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The method is based upon the fact that if carbonate of baryta be added to the contents of the stomach, the organic acids will decompose the barium carbonate, forming butyrate, acetate, lactate, &c., of barium; and the mineral acids, such as hydrochloric acid, will combine, forming salts of barium.

On ignition, chloride of barium will be unaffected, while the organic salts of barium will be converted into carbonate of barium, practically insoluble in carbonic acid free water.

The contents of the stomach are coloured with litmus, and barium carbonate added until the fluid is no longer acid (as shown by the disappearance of the red colour); then the contents are evaporated to dryness in a platinum dish, and ignited at a dull red heat; complete burning to an ash is not necessary. After cooling, the burnt mass is repeatedly exhausted with boiling water and filtered; the chloride of barium is precipitated from the filtrate by means of dilute sulphuric acid; the barium sulphate filtered off, washed, dried, and, after ignition, weighed; 233 parts of barium sulphate equal 73 parts of HCl.

A method somewhat quicker, but depending on the same principles, has been suggested by Braun.[101] A fractional part, say 10 c.c., of the fluid contents is coloured by litmus and titrated with decinormal soda. To the same quantity is added 2 or 3 more c.c. of decinormal soda than the quantity used in the first titration; this alkaline liquid is evaporated to dryness and ultimately ignited. To the ash is now added exactly the quantity of decinormal sulphuric acid as the decinormal soda last used to make it alkaline—that is to say, if the total acidity was equal to 3·6 d.n. soda, and 5·0 d.n. soda was added to the 10 c.c. evaporated to dryness and burned, then 5·6 c.c. of d.n. sulphuric acid is added to the ash. The solution is now warmed to get rid of carbon dioxide, and, after addition of a little phenolphthalein, titrated with d.n. soda solution until the change of colour shows saturation, the number of c.c. used, multiplied by 0·00365, equals the HCl.

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