Petroleum

Authorities. 23, G. W. Haile, M.D., Cincin. Journ. of Med., May, 1867, p. 300, Mary-, aged eighteen months, drank an indefinite quantity; 24, Dr. O. Lassar, Virchow’s Archiv, Jan. 1878 (Lond. Med. Rec., 1878, p. 163), effects of inunction.

Rolling its eyes up occasionally (after fifteen minutes),”.—Pupils slightly contracted (after fifteen minutes),”.—Breath smelt very strongly of the oil (after fifteen minutes),”.—A kind of spasmodic cough (after fifteen minutes),”.—Very hard convulsion (soon),”.—The urine had been highly albuminous, and contained “hyalin and granular cylinders.” At the necropsy, the body was extremely oedematous, and the epidermis in places was raised in little blebs; dissection showed dropsy of the cavities and oedema of the lungs, but no lesion of any organ to account for the dropsy, the kidneys being perfectly normal in all respects. “ The most scrupulous histological investigation failed to find a trace of interstitial growth, proliferation of nuclei, amyloid degeneration, or more than traces of fatty degeneration of the epithelium.” On inquiry, it turned out that this man had dated the commencement of his illness from an extensive inunction of his body with Petroleum, which about four months before his death, he had employed as a means of relieving himself from scabies. He used the Petroleum for four days, and a week elapsed before he noticed swelling of the feet, which, rapidly increasing, spread over the abdomen and thorax; in the course of a fortnight it disappeared, but returned after eight days, and persisted up till his death. While in hospital, the radial pulse was noted to be small, empty, and of low tension; the blood-corpuscles were few, but their relative proportions were normal. Temperature was normal. Histological examination of the skin showed localized areas of inflammation ; along the veins and lymphatics a small-celled growth existed, and in all the layers of the cutis there was a widely distributed nuclear proliferation,’^*.—Much inclined to sleep (after fifteen minutes),