Acute Nitroglycerine Poisoning.

THIS paper was prompted by my experience recently in a case in which a man was tried for a common assault which it was alleged he committed while under the influence of alcohol. In accordance with the medical evidence, I expressed the opinion that, though the behaviour of the accused was consistent with intoxication from alcohol, it was not only also consistent with, but overwhelmingly in favour of, intoxication from nitroglycerine. Owing to the requirements of war, many thousands of people are now exposed daily to nitroglycerine and nitroglycerine-containing materials. My purpose, therefore, is to outline briefly the toxicology of nitroglycerine; the resemblance between nitroglycerine poisoning and alcoholic intoxication; the peculiar eSfect of even small amounts of alcohol on a person who has absorbed nitroglycerine and, thus, the hazards and necessary precautions in the manufacture and handling in general of nitroglycerine and nitroglycerinecontaining materials.