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NAPHTHALENE                                                        661

Poisoning has occurred from the absorption of aniline and its derivatives through
the unbroken skin. In 1939 two coolies of Kidderpore Dock rubbed paranitra-anilme on
their bodies, and became unconscious in about three hours. One of them died of aniline
poisoning on the third day.03 In January 1944, a case occurred in a nursery in the Touro
Infirmary, where 17 infants developed aniline poisoning from wearing diapers stamped
with ink containing aniline dye.04 If the diapers are boiled after they are stamped and
dried thoroughly before they are used, the dye becomes fixed and absorption does not
occur.

Landouzy and Brouardel quote an instance, where ten children suffered from
poisonous symptoms after wearing boots, which had been covered with a yellow pigment
containing 90 per cent of aniline.^5 Arthur J. Pathek00 also reports three cases in which
a girl, aged 13, and two brothers, aged 11 and 13, suffered from poisonous symptoms after
wearing shoes dyed with a colour which contained aniline.

Chronic poisoning occurs among those who are exposed to its fumes in industrial
arts. The symptoms are loss of appetite, digestive disturbances, anaemia, headache, ecze-
matous ulcerations, cough, nervous symptoms and blindness. Carcinomatous tumours of
the bladder are sometimes found in those who work continuously for a long time in the
aniline industry.

Phenylenediamines.—These are used as fur and hair dyes, and may produce poison-
ing, especially in hypersensitive individuals. The symptoms are dermatitis, conjuncti-
vitis, giddiness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cardiac weakness, cyanosis of the lips and
face, toxic jaundice, convulsions, coma and death. Autopsy shows atrophy of the liver
with necrosis of its cells. Workers engaged in, the manufacture of these substances may
sometimes get asthmatic attacks by inhaling them. In his letter dated September 26,
1946, the Chemical Analyser, Bombay, describes the case of a woman, who committed
suicide by taking paraphenylenediamine, a hair dye.

Pyridine, CBHBN.—This coal-tar derivative is a volatile liquid, having a penetrating
and nauseating odour and taste, and is used for mixing with alcohol to render it un-
drinkable. It is an irritant poison and depresses the cardiac and respiratory centres in
the medulla. The symptoms are nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cyanosis, dyspnoea, quick
pulse, rise in temperature, prostration, oedema of the lungs, delirium, coma and death
from asphyxia. The treatment consists in washing out the stomach and administering
a saline purgative. Treat the symptoms as they arise and resort to artificial respiration'
with oxygen inhalations if necessary.

The post-mortem appearances are congestion of the oasophagus and stomach. There
may be congestion of the duodenum. The lungs are congested or may be oedematous.

In his annual report for the year 1949, the Chemical Examiner, Bengal, cites a case
from Howrah, in which a man and a woman tried to commit suicide by drinking pyridine,
but they were saved by prompt treatment in hospital. Pyridine was detected in the
stomach-washes.

Pyridine is contained in the fumes of tobacco smoke and is responsible for irrita-
tion of the mouth, throat, nose, eyes and lungs.

COAL-TAR NAPHTHA

Coal-tar naphtha is a term generally applied to the first distillates when coal-tar is
distilled. It is inflammable, and has the most disagreeable smell.

Symptoms.—Inhaled as a vapour, coal-tar naphtha produces headache, giddiness,
difficulty in speech, irritation of the respiratory tract, and broncho-pneumonia.

Taken internally, it produces burning pain in the mouth, throat and stomach, vomit-
ing, thirst, colic, restlessness, shallow respirations, weak pulse, insensibility, collapse
and death.

Treatment.—Emetics or washing out of the stomach with warm water; purgatives,
especially magnesium sulphate; stimulants and artificial respiration, if necessary.

NAPHTHALENE  (NAPHTHALINE, TAR CAMPHOR), C10H8

This is a hydrocarbon contained in the middle oil distillate of coal-tar. It occurs
in large, lustrous, crystalline plates, having a persistent odour. It melts at 80 QC., boils
at 218°C,, but sublimates at a lower temperature. It is insoluble in water, but dissolves
freely in ether, chloroform, alcohol and oils.

93.    Ghosh and Bagchi, Organ, arid Toxicol. Chemistry, Ed. IV, p. 476.

94.    Granbarth, Bloom, Coleman and Soloman, Jour. Amer. Med, Assoc., Aug. 18, 1945,
Vol. 128, p. 1155 ; see also Betty E. Howarth, Lancet, April 28, 1951, p. 934.

95.   Bulletin de V Academic de Medecine; Brit. Med. Jcwr., Sep. 29, 1900, p. 946.

96.   Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., March 27, 1926, p. 944,