Poise

“ We should add that poise, in giving one ease, imparts to the slightest gesture a fittingness that constitutes a special grace, that one can not always define, but where appearance can never be mistaken. ”

“ Do not confuse this serenity of manner with cowardice; for the calm dignity that forbids one to be ill-mannered also forbids one to endure insolence. By learning to control the temper, one develops that kind of poise which is undeniably one of the greatest assets in the social and business worlds. ”

“ Poisons are those substances, inorganic or organic, existing in the organism or introduced from the outside, produced artificially or formed as natural products, which, through their chemical nature, under definite conditions, so affect some organ of a living organism that the health or well-being of the organism is temporarily or chronically injured. ”

“ The vegetable poisons, like the animal ones, produce more sudden and dangerous effects, when instilled into a wound, than when taken into the stomach; whence the families of Marfi and Psilli, in antient Rome, sucked the poison without injury out of wounds made by vipers, and were supposed to be indued with supernatural powers for this purpose. ”

“ CHAPTER II. DIAGNOSIS OF POISONING—DUTIES OF THE PRACTITIONER. The chief characteristics of poisoning mentioned by authors of repute are, that the symptoms commence suddenly after taking any substance or fluid into the stomach, the individual being in a state of health; that they increase steadily, and are uniform in their nature throughout their course; and that they prove rapidly fatal. There are many exceptions to these rules. Thus if the stomach be loaded the appearance of the symptoms will often be delayed some few hours. ”

“ If the death has really taken place from disease, and not from poison, or if it has been caused by poison, and yet no definite hint of the particular poison can be obtained either by the symptoms or by the attendant circumstances, the analyst has the difficult task of endeavouring to initiate a process of analysis which will be likely to discover any poison in the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom. ”

“ For many times one particular part of the body is most afflicted by the poison, suppose the stomach, liver, brain, or any other part: such as cherish and strengthen those parts, being weakened, may be said to resist poison. ”

“ How can any one in his [Pg 118] senses believe that any human being can take poison enough into the stomach in one day to kill 185 rabbits and not suffer from it?—or that the uses of this poison can be continued from day to day without injury to health and life? ”

“ At some future time, with a more intimate knowledge of the way in which each poison acts upon the various forms of animal and vegetable life, it may be possible to give a truly scientific and philosophical classification of poisons—one based neither upon symptoms, upon local effects, nor upon chemical structure, but upon a collation and comparison of all the properties of a poison, whether chemical, physical, or physiological. ”

“ Every case may be clearly made out by attending to the relative effects of poisons on the dead and on the living tissues;—a subject which will receive some notice under the head of the principal poisons in common use. ”

“ Is the febrile poison, whether of vegetable or animal origin, or whether composed of both, capable of adhering to clothes, apparel, and other substances, in such a manner as truly to infect them, so that when applied to the bodies of the healthy, at any distance of place, and at some distance of time, the specific effects of the poison are produced? ”

“ The mysterious effect of certain substances upon the animal system and the fact that a knowledge of the nature of poisonous herbs was part of the lore of the old women who dealt in love-philtres, fully explains this association of poison with black magic. ”

“ On attending to the effects which follow the application of a poison to the body, we perceive that they are sometimes confined to the part where it is applied, and at other times extend to distant organs. ”

“ But although the ancient physiologists maintained that the prime organs of the animal frame suffer sympathetically in cases of poisoning, they did not hold, it will be remarked, that all poisons exert their primary action on the nervous system. ”

“ Some years since a French chemist discovered a dreadful preparation, a subtle poison, which, falling upon the ground, being heavier than the air and yet expansive, rolls, 'like a slow blot that spreads,' steadily over the earth in all directions, bringing sudden death to those that breathe it. ”

“ Physicians, says Petrarch, regard fruit as almost equally poisonous with aconite and henbane; if this be true, surely Nature is a cruel step-mother to have given to fruits such beauty of colouring, such a delightful perfume, and so agreeable a taste, purposely to seduce and draw us into the snare. Would a good mother present poison to her children, covered with honey? ”

“ Bright, translucent and harmless though it looks, there is nothing more powerful, more deadly than the poison this phial contains. I tell you this in order that there may be no secrets between us. Five years ago it was given to me in Rome, by one who had chosen for his study the direct action of poisons on the physical and mental powers. He is dead now, but this secret of his is alive with me.
“If a few drops of this potent poison volatilised are inhaled by any one, a dull faintness immediately ensues. Ha! I saw you start. You are right, though, you have breathed it. Listen! ”

“ The symptoms, you say, are uniform. Will you describe them?—The animal, for about five or six minutes, does not appear to suffer, but moves about gently; when the poison begins to act it suddenly falls on its side, there is a trembling, a quivering motion, of the whole of the muscles of the body, arising from the poison producing violent and involuntary{52} contraction. ”

“ Mineral poisons are least, and animal poisons are most, affected in their action by differences of tissue, while vegetable poisons hold the middle place:—an arrangement which coincides with the respective difficulty of decomposition among mineral, vegetable, and animal substances generally, whether under physical or under vital processes. ”

“ There is, of course, less prima facie objection to those agents which consist of assimilable elements, such as are found making a part of healthy tissues. These are divisible into three classes,—foods, poisons, and inert, mostly because insoluble, substances. The food of one animal or of one human being is sometimes poison to another, and vice versa; inert substances may act mechanically, so as to produce the effect of poisons ”

“ However brief and imperfect the foregoing historical sketch of the part that poison has played may be, it is useful in showing the absolute necessity of a toxicological science—a science embracing many branches of knowledge. ”

“ A peculiar variety of this mode of introducing poisons deserves to be distinguished, namely, the application of them to a wound. If the surface bleeds freely, they may not act at all, because they are washed away. ”

“ On the Continent grooms have been known to put a piece of arsenic, the size of a pea, in a little oatmeal, make it into a ball, tie it up in a linen rag, and attach it to the bit; the saliva dissolves, little by little, the poison, while both the gentle irritation and physiological action excite a certain amount of salivation, and the white foam at the mouth, and the champing of the horse, are thought vastly to improve the appearance. ”

“ Section II.—Of the Morbid Appearances caused by Irritant Poisons, compared with those of certain natural diseases. The next subject for consideration is the morbid appearances produced by the irritants as a class, together with those of a similar nature, which arise from natural causes. ”

“ The effect of poison depends upon an interaction of the poison and the organism, or its single organs. Selection as regards quality and quantity is a property of the organism as well as of the poison: the nature and amount of the poison taken in are determining factors on the one side, and on the other the constitution, size, and weight of the affected organism. ”

“ The poison suspected was corrosive sublimate. The symptoms were those of irritation in the alimentary canal,—vomiting, purging, and pain. In the dead body there was not any particular redness either of the intestines or of the stomach. ”

“ That this conception should have taken possession of the minds of men, is most natural from the symptoms which characterize these diseases, but when we come to enquire into the nature of these agents, or supposed poisons, we are at once struck with the idea that they exhibit one peculiarity which separates them in a marked manner, from those poisons with which we are familiar; for the poisons of Small Pox, Measles, Scarlet Fever, Hooping Cough, Fever, &c. ”

“ Both reasoning and experiment, indeed, render it probable, that some orders, even of the perfect animals, such as the Ruminantia, are much less sensible than man to many poisons, and especially to poisons of the vegetable kingdom. ”

“ The poison of all snakes let the rivers carry away; slain [are] the cross-lined ones, crushed down the pṛ́dākus.
21. I choose as it were the filaments of herbs successfully; I conduct as it were mares; O snake, let thy poison come out.
Apparently processes analogous to that of extracting the poison are referred to. The pada-division sādhu॰yā́ is prescribed by Prāt. iv. 30. There seems to be no reason why the Anukr. should call the verse kakummatī.
22. What poison is in fire, in the sun, what in the earth, in herbs, kāndā-poison, kanáknaka—let thy poison come out; let it come. ”

“ It may happen also, where poison has been administered, that death resulted from natural causes. The presence of poison may be ascertained from symptoms during life, the post mortem appearances, the moral circumstances, and the discovery of the existence of poison in the body, in the matter ejected from the stomach, or in food or drink of which the sufferer has partaken. ”

“ Poisons, Their Symptoms and Antidotes.—When a person has taken poison, the first thing to do is to compel the patient to vomit, and for that purpose give any emetic that can be most readily and quickly obtained, and which is prompt and energetic, but safe in its action. ”

“ This poison, the doctor observes, may convey itself into living bodies by more ways than one; for example, through the pores of the skin, along with the breath we draw, along with our food of any kind, &c. ”

“ Symptoms in Man.—Its effects on man are similar. A singular account of several cases of poisoning with the root is contained in Rust’s Journal. A family of eight people, in consequence of eating bread for a whole week, in which the powder of the root had been introduced by mistake instead of cumin seeds, were attacked with pains in the belly, a sensation as if the whole intestines were wound up into a clue, swelling of the tongue, soreness of the mouth, and giddiness ”

“ It is only when they find their proper food, decaying matter, that they begin to multiply, and in that act they secret a poison, toxin, which is absorbed, and, entering the circulation, causes in the individual a special class of symptoms peculiar to that toxin, or poison. ”

“ During the poison régime I became quite accustomed to dying, and had but one mishap to shake my growing confidence. Scarifying a number of lesser blood vessels in my arm. he introduced a minute quantity of that most frightful of poisons, the arrow poison, or curare. I lost consciousness at the start, quickly followed by the cessation of respiration and circulation, and so far had the solidification of the protoplasm advanced, that he gave up all hope. ”

“ Now observe, this slander is compared in the text to poison—“the tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” The deadliest poisons are those for which no test is known: there are poisons so destructive that a single drop insinuated into the veins produces death in three seconds, and yet no chemical science can separate that virus from the contaminated blood, and show the metallic particles of poison glittering palpably, and say, “Behold, it is there!” ”

“ On the whole, it appears that in the present state of our knowledge, experiments or accidental observations on the effects of the contents of the stomach, or of vomited matter, on animals are equivocal in their import. At the same time it may be observed, as with regard to articles of food, drink, or medicine, that the effects of some poisons on man may be developed so characteristically on animals by the contents of the stomach, as to supply very pointed evidence indeed. ”

“ And if any one puts one of the fruits among his clothes, it keeps them from the moth. And it is useful when any one has taken poison injurious to life; for when given in wine it produces a strong effect on the bowels, and draws out the poison. ”

“ There are ten kinds of poison, and when they soak it in one poison, it injures like so, and when they soak it in another poison it does more damage. And so there are ten kinds of poison, each one worse than the other, that is, more harmful. ”

“ But being digested by the Liquor of fixt Niter, they deposit their venemous quality and become wholsome Medicaments. So then all the maturation of things consisteth in heat, but Poison consisteth in cold, witness Wine and the Fruits of Trees, the which being ripened by the solar heat, men may feed on them without hurt, but if they be eaten raw and unripe they corrupt their Stomachs. Now as we have said of Animals and Vegetables, the same is also to be understood of the unripe minerals and metals. ”

“ They tell us that some poisoners have a custom of mixing honey with the poison in the cups which they prepare; that the injurious ingredient may be concealed by the sweet: and while a man is charmed with the sweetness of the honey, he may be destroyed by the deadly poison. ”

“ Mustard over the stomach, and brandy and ammonia.
Mercury.—Corrosive Sublimate (bug poisons frequently contain this poison) , Red Precipitate, Chinese or English Vermillion.—Symptoms: Acrid, metallic taste in the mouth, immediate constriction and burning in the throat, with anxiety and tearing pains in both stomach and bowels, sickness, and vomiting of various colored fluids, and sometimes bloody and profuse diarrhoea, with difficulty and pain in urinating; pulse quick, small and hard; faint sensations, great debility, difficult breathing, cramps, cold sweats, syncope and convulsions. ”