HOW POISON WORKS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4511, 5 January 1923, Page 3

HOW POISON WORKS.

(By a physician, in the “Daily Mail.”) v T n connection 'With the attempt to poison Sir William Horwopd, the Commissioner of Police, .the statement has been-made that the amount of poison taken was sufficient to have proved fatal in an average case. One of the problems which faces the expert : n all poisoning cases is whether the poispn found was sufficient toTcause death. For all the common poisons there is a figure which is called the “m'nimum fatal dose.” This is based on the smallest dose which /the records show to have caus"ed the death of an individual. But minimum fatal doses must be taken into calculation only with other factors. The dose of a drug which would be innocuous in the case of a . healthy hdult might prove fatal to a child or a debilitated old man. Apart from the question of age and .■’■' physical condition bulk of body also plays a part. Experiments op animals, such as those of Falck with strychnine and Guinard with morphia, show that the fatal dose of drugs depends very largely on the weight of the animal. So well established : s this that, in estimating the susceptibility of aniamls to poisons, it is usual to state the amount of poison per kilogramme which produced symptoms of poisoning. It is probable that this applies also to human beings, and that, apart from resistance due to good health, physique plays a great part in warding off the effects of a poison. Sir •William Horwood is a man of fine physical development, and the dose of a drug which would be fatal to an 'ordinary individual might well cause only severe illness in his case. *“■- The method of administration and the time at which the poison was administered also have an effect on its probable fatality. Poisons are most quickly absorbed into the system wiheil they are inhaled. ' r The next most rapid method of I poisoning is that by injection into the blood stream. Poisons given by the mouth and those applied to the un- ? broken skin are much slower in their action. The rapidity with which a poison is absorbed has an important ■ influence on/the issue, for if a drug be slowly absorbed the system is not palled ■ - ufibn to deal with a rapid and concentrated onslaught, but only with smaller amounts arriving at intervals.