Vesicants mortality rate

In discussing the effect of mustard on the intestinal tract, Cullumbine pointed out that severely poisoned men suffered loss of water and electrolytes because of vomiting, diarrhea, and vesication. Oligemia and irreversible circulatory failure follow, much as in thermal burns. He showed the importance of the loss of water and electrolytes by experiments in which the mortality rate of poisoned rats and rabbits was greatly reduced by the administration of physiologic saline solution either by mouth or by injection. 

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