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POISONS: THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

Fourth Edition. At Press.

FOODS: THEIR COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS.

With numerous Tables and Illustrations.

=General Contents.=

History of Adulteration--Legislation, Past and Present--Apparatus useful to the Food Analyst--“Ash”--Sugar--Confectionery--Honey-- Treacle--Jams and Preserved Fruits--Starches--Wheaten-Flour--Bread-- Oats--Barley--Rye--Rice--Maize--Millet--Potato--Peas--Chinese Peas-- Lentils--Beans--MILK--Cream--Butter--Cheese--Tea--Coffee--Cocoa and Chocolate--Alcohol--Brandy--Rum--Whisky--Gin--Arrack--Liqueurs--Beer-- Wine--Vinegar--Lemon and Lime Juice--Mustard--Pepper--Sweet and Bitter Almond--Annatto--Olive Oil--Water. Appendix: Text of English and American Adulteration Acts.

“Will be used by every Analyst.”--Lancet.

“STANDS UNRIVALLED for completeness of information. . . . A really ‘practical’ work for the guidance of practical men.”--Sanitary Record.

“An ADMIRABLE DIGEST of the most recent state of knowledge. . . . Interesting even to lay-readers.”--Chemical News.

In Large 8vo, Handsome Cloth. 21_s._

FORENSIC MEDICINE AND TOXICOLOGY.

BY J. DIXON MANN, M.D., F.R.C.P.,

Professor of Medical Jurisprudence and Toxicology in Owens College, Manchester; Examiner in Forensic Medicine in the University of London, and in the Victoria University; Physician to the Salford Royal Hospital.

PART I.--Forensic Medicine. PART II.--Insanity in its Medico-legal Bearings. PART III.--Toxicology.

“By far the MOST RELIABLE, MOST SCIENTIFIC, and MOST MODERN book on Medical Jurisprudence with which we are acquainted.”--Dublin Medical Journal.

“A MOST USEFUL work of reference. . . . Of value to all those who, as medical men or lawyers, are engaged in cases where the testimony of medical experts forms a part of the evidence.”--The Law Journal.

LONDON: CHARLES GRIFFIN & CO., LTD., EXETER ST., STRAND.

POISONS: THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION.

A MANUAL FOR THE USE OF ANALYTICAL CHEMISTS AND EXPERTS.

_WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON THE GROWTH OF MODERN TOXICOLOGY._

BY ALEXANDER WYNTER BLYTH, M.R.C.S., F.I.C., F.C.S., &c., BARRISTER-AT-LAW; PUBLIC ANALYST FOR THE COUNTY OF DEVON; AND MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH AND PUBLIC ANALYST FOR ST. MARYLEBONE.

THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

With Tables and Illustrations.

LONDON: CHARLES GRIFFIN AND COMPANY, LIMITED, EXETER STREET, STRAND. 1895.

D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, NEW YORK.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The present edition, which appears on the same general plan as before, will yet be found to have been in great part re-written, enlarged, and corrected.

Analytical methods which experience has shown to be faulty have been omitted, and replaced by newer and more accurate processes.

The intimate connection which recent research has shown to exist between the arrangement of the constituent parts of an organic molecule and physiological action, has been considered at some length in a separate chapter.

The cadaveric alkaloids or ptomaines, bodies playing so great a part in food-poisoning and in the manifestations of disease, are in this edition treated of as fully as the limits of the book will allow.

The author, therefore, trusts that these various improvements, modifications, and corrections will enable “POISONS” to maintain the position which it has for so many years held in the esteem of toxicologists and of the medical profession generally.

THE COURT HOUSE, ST. MARYLEBONE, W. June, 1895.

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I. INTRODUCTORY

I. THE OLD POISON-LORE.

Section Page

1. The History of the Poison-lehre--The Origin of Arrow-Poison-- Greek Myths, 1 2. Knowledge of the Egyptians relative to Poisons--Distillation of Peach-Water, 2 3. Roman and Greek Knowledge of Poison--Sanction of Suicide among the Ancients--The Classification of Poisons adopted by Dioscorides, 2-4 4. Poisoning among Eastern Nations--Slow Poisons, 4, 5 5. Hebrew Knowledge of Poisons, 5 6. The part which Poison has played in History--Statira--Locusta-- Britannicus--The Rise of Anatomy--The Death of Alexander the Great--of Pope Alexander VI.--The Commission of Murder given by Charles le Mauvais--Royal Poisoners--Charles IX.--King John--A Female Poisoner boiled alive, 5-9 7. The Seventeenth Century Italian Schools of Criminal Poisoning-- The Council of Ten--John of Ragubo--The Professional Poisoner-- J. B. Porta’s Treatise on Natural Magic--Toffana and the “Acquetta di Napoli”--Organic Arsenical Compounds--St. Croix and Madame de Brinvilliers--Extraordinary Precautions for the Preservation from Poison of the Infant Son of Henry VIII., 9-13

II. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN METHODS OF CHEMICALLY DETECTING POISONS.

8. Phases through which the Art of Detecting Poisons has passed, 13 9. Treatise of Barthélémy d’Anglais--Hon. Robert Boyle--Nicolas l’Emery’s Cours de Chimie--Mead’s Mechanical Theory of Poisons--Rise of Modern Chemistry--Scheele’s Discoveries, 13, 14 10. History of Marsh’s Test, 14, 15 11. Orfila and his Traité de Toxicologie--Orfila’s Method of Experiment, 15 12. The Discovery of the Alkaloids--Separation of Narcotine, Morphine, Strychnine, Delphinine, Coniine, Codeine, Atropine, Aconitine, and Hyoscyamine, 15, 16 13. Bibliography of the Chief Works on Toxicology of the Nineteenth Century, 16-19

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II. I. DEFINITION OF POISON

14. The Legal Definition of Poison--English Law as to Poison, 20, 21 15. German Law as to Poisoning--French Law as to Poisoning, 21, 22 16. Scientific Definition of a Poison--The Author’s Definition, 22, 23

II. CLASSIFICATION OF POISONS.

17. Foderé’s, Orfila’s, Casper’s, Taylor’s, and Guy’s Definition of Poisons--Poisons arranged according to their Prominent Effects, 23, 24 18. Kobert’s Classification, 24, 25 19. The Author’s Arrangement, 25-28

III. STATISTICS.

20. Statistics of Poisoning in England and Wales during the Ten Years 1883-92--Various Tables, 28-31 21. German Statistics of Poisoning, 31-33 22. Criminal Poisoning in France, 33, 34

IV. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN TOXIC ACTION AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION.

23. The Influence of Hydroxyl--The Replacement of Hydrogen by a Halogen--Bamberger’s Acylic and Aromatic Bases, 35, 36 24. The Replacement of Hydrogen by Alkyls in Aromatic Bodies, 36-38 25. The Influence of Carbonyl Groups, 39 26. Oscar Loew’s Theory as to the Action of Poisons, 39-41 27. Michet’s Experiments on the relative Toxicity of Metals, 41, 42

V. LIFE TESTS: OR THE IDENTIFICATION OF POISON BY EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS.

28. The Action of Poisons on Infusoria, Cephalopoda, Insects, 42-44 29. Effect of Poisons on the Heart of Cold-blooded Animals, 44, 45 30. The Effect of Poisons on the Iris, 45, 46

VI. GENERAL METHOD OF PROCEDURE IN SEARCHING FOR POISON.

31. Concentration in a Vacuum--Drying the Substance--Solvents-- Destruction of Organic Matter, 46-50 32. Autenrieth’s General Process--Distillation--Shaking up with Solvents--Isolation of Metals--Investigation of Sulphides Soluble in Ammonium Sulphide--of Sulphides Insoluble in Ammonium Sulphide--Search for Zinc and Chromium--Search for Lead, Silver, and Barium, 50-53

VII. THE SPECTROSCOPE AS AN AID TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF CERTAIN POISONS.

33. The Micro-Spectroscope--Oscar Brasch’s Researches of the Spectra of Colour Reactions--Wave Lengths, 54-56

Examination of Blood or of Blood-Stains.

34. Naked-eye Appearance of Blood-Stains--Dragendorff’s Process for Dissolving Blood, 56, 57 35. Spectroscopic Appearances of Blood--Spectrum of Hydric Sulphide Blood--of Carbon Oxide Hæmoglobin--Methæmoglobin--of Acid Hæmatin--Tests for CO Blood--Piotrowski’s Experiments on CO Blood--Preparation of Hæmatin Crystals--The Guaiacum Test for Blood, 57-62 36. Distinction between the Blood of Animals and Men--The Alkalies in various Species of Blood, 62, 63

PART III.--POISONOUS GASES: CARBON MONOXIDE--CHLORINE--HYDRIC SULPHIDE.

I. CARBON MONOXIDE.

37. Properties of Carbon Monoxide, 64 38. Symptoms--Acute Form--Chronic Form, 64-66 39. Poisonous Action on the Blood--Action on the Nervous System, 66, 67 40. Post-mortem Appearances, 67 41. Mass Poisonings by Carbon Monoxide--The Leeds Case--The Darlaston Cases, 67-70 42. Detection of Carbon Monoxide--The Cuprous Chloride Method-- Wanklyn’s Method--Hempel’s Method, 70, 71

II. CHLORINE.

43. Chlorine; its Properties--The Weldon Process of manufacturing “Bleaching Powder,” 71, 72 44. Effects of Chlorine, 72 45. Post-mortem Appearances, 72 46. Detection of Free Chlorine, 72

III. HYDRIC SULPHIDE (SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN).

47. Properties of Hydric Sulphide, 72, 73 48. Effects of breathing Hydric Sulphide--Action on the Blood--The Cleator Moor Case, 73, 74 49. Post-mortem Appearances, 74 50. Detection, 74

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IV. ACIDS AND ALKALIES

SULPHURIC ACID--HYDROCHLORIC ACID--NITRIC ACID--ACETIC ACID--AMMONIA --POTASH--SODA--NEUTRAL SODIUM, POTASSIUM, AND AMMONIUM SALTS.

I. SULPHURIC ACID.

51. Varieties and Strength of the Sulphuric Acids of Commerce-- Properties of the Acid--Nordhausen Sulphuric Acid, 75, 76 52. Properties of Sulphuric Anhydride, 76 53. Occurrence of Free Sulphuric Acid in Nature, 76 54. Statistics--Comparative Statistics of different Countries, 76, 77 55. Accidental, Suicidal, and Criminal Poisoning--Sulphuric Acid in Clysters and Injections, 77, 78 56. Fatal Dose, 78, 79 57. Local Action of Sulphuric Acid--Effects on Mucous Membrane, on the Skin, on Blood, 79, 80 58. Action of Sulphuric Acid on Earth, Grass, Wood, Paper, Carpet, Clothing, Iron--Caution necessary in judging of Spots-- Illustrative Case, 80, 81 59. Symptoms--(1) External Effects--(2) Internal Effects in the Gullet and Stomach--Intercostal Neuralgia, 81-83 60. Treatment of Acute Poisoning by the Mineral Acids, 83 61. Post-mortem Appearances--Rapid and Slow Poisoning-- Illustrative Cases, 83-85 62. Pathological Preparations in the different London Hospital Museums, 85, 86 63. Chronic Poisoning, 86

Detection and Estimation of Free Sulphuric Acid.

64. General Method of Separating the Free Mineral Acids--The Quinine Process--The Old Process of Extraction by Alcohol--Hilger’s Test for Mineral Acid, 87, 88 65. The Urine--Excretion of Sulphates in Health and Disease--The Characters of the Urine after taking Sulphuric Acid, 88-90 66. The Blood in Sulphuric Acid Poisoning, 90 67. The Question of the Introduction of Sulphates by the Food-- Largest possible Amount of Sulphates introduced by this Means-- Sulphur of the Bile--Medicinal Sulphates, 90, 91

II. HYDROCHLORIC ACID.

68. General Properties of Hydrochloric Acid--Discovery--Uses-- Tests, 91, 92 69. Statistics, 92, 93 70. Fatal Dose, 93 71. Amount of Free Acid in the Gastric Juice, 93, 94 72. Influence of Hydrochloric Acid on Vegetation--Present Law on the Subject of Acid Emanations from Works--The Resistant Powers of various Plants, 94 73. Action on Cloth and Manufactured Articles, 95 74. Poisonous Effects of Hydrochloric Acid Gas--Eulenberg’s Experiments on Rabbits and Pigeons, 95, 96 75. Effects of the Liquid Acid--Absence of Corrosion of the Skin-- Pathological Appearances--Illustrative Cases, 96, 97 76. Post-mortem Appearances--Preparations in the different London Museums, 97, 98 77. (1) Detection of Free Hydrochloric Acid--Günzburg’s Test--A. Villiers’s and M. Favolle’s Test--(2) Quantitative Estimation, Sjokvist’s Method--Braun’s Method, 98-101 78. Method of Investigating Hydrochloric Acid Stains on Cloth, &c., 101, 102

III. NITRIC ACID.

79. Properties of Nitric Acid, 102, 103 80. Use in the Arts, 103 81. Statistics, 103 82. Fatal Dose, 104 83. Action on Vegetation, 104 84. Effects of Nitric Acid Vapour--Experiments of Eulenberg and O. Lassar--Fatal Effect on Man, 104, 105 85. Effects of Liquid Nitric Acid--Suicidal, Homicidal, and Accidental Deaths from the Acid, 105, 106 86. Local Action, 106 87. Symptoms--The Constant Development of Gas--Illustrative Cases, 106, 107 88. Post-mortem Appearances--Preparations in various Anatomical Museums, 107-109 89. Detection and Estimation of Nitric Acid, 109, 110

IV. ACETIC ACID.

90. Symptoms and Detection, 110

V. AMMONIA.

91. Properties of Ammonia, 111 92. Uses--Officinal and other Preparations, 111, 112 93. Statistics of Poisoning by Ammonia, 112 94. Poisoning by Ammonia Vapour, 112 95. Symptoms--Illustrative Case, 112, 113 96. Chronic Effects of the Gas, 113 97. Ammonia in Solution--Action on Plants, 113 98. Action on Human Beings and Animal Life--Local Action on Skin-- Action on the Blood--Time of Death, 113-115 99. Post-mortem Appearances, 115 100. Separation of Ammonia--Tests, 115, 116 101. Estimation of Ammonia, 116

VI. CAUSTIC POTASH AND SODA.

102. Properties of Potassium Hydrate, 116, 117 103. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 117 104. Carbonate of Potash, 117 105. Bicarbonate of Potash, 117 106. Caustic Soda--Sodium Hydrate, 117, 118 107. Carbonate of Soda, 118 108. Bicarbonate of Soda, 118 109. Statistics, 118 110. Effects on Animal and Vegetable Life, 118, 119 111. Local Effects, 119 112. Symptoms, 119 113. Post-mortem Appearances, 119-121 114. Chemical Analysis, 121 115. Estimation of the Fixed Alkalies, 121, 122

VII. NEUTRAL SODIUM, POTASSIUM, AND AMMONIUM SALTS.

116. Relative Toxicity of Sodium, Potassium, and Ammonium Salts, 122 117. Sodium Salts, 122 118. Potassium Salts--Potassic Sulphate--Hydropotassic Tartrate-- Statistics, 122 119. Action on the Frog’s Heart, 122 120. Action on Warm-Blooded Animals, 122, 123 121. Elimination, 123 122. Nitrate of Potash, 123 123. Statistics, 123 124. Uses in the Arts, 123 125. Action of Nitrates of Sodium and Potassium--Sodic Nitrite, 123, 124 126. Post-mortem Appearances from Poisoning by Potassic Nitrate, 124 127. Potassic Chlorate, 124 128. Uses, 124 129. Poisonous Properties, 124 130. Experiments on Animals, 124, 125 131. Effects on Man--Illustrative Cases of the Poisoning of Children by Potassic Chlorate, 125 132. Effects on Adults--Least Fatal Dose, 126 133. Elimination, 126 134. Essential Action of Potassic Chlorate on the Blood and Tissues, 126 135. Detection and Estimation of Potassic Chlorate, 126, 127

Toxicological Detection of Alkali Salts.

136. Natural occurrence of Potassium and Sodium Salts in the Blood and Tissues--Tests for Potassic and Sodic Salts--Tests for Potassic Nitrate--Tests for Chlorates--Ammonium Salts, 127, 128

PART V.--MORE OR LESS VOLATILE POISONOUS SUBSTANCES CAPABLE OF BEING SEPARATED BY DISTILLATION FROM NEUTRAL OR ACID LIQUIDS.

HYDROCARBONS--CAMPHOR--ALCOHOL--AMYL NITRITE--ETHER--CHLOROFORM AND OTHER ANÆSTHETICS--CHLORAL--CARBON BISULPHIDE--CARBOLIC ACID--NITRO-BENZENE--PRUSSIC ACID--PHOSPHORUS.

I. HYDROCARBONS.

1. Petroleum.

137. Petroleum, 129 138. Cymogene, 129 139. Rhigolene, 129 140. Gasolene, 129 141. Benzoline--Distinction between Petroleum-Naphtha, Shale-Naphtha, and Coal-Tar Naphtha, 129, 130 142. Paraffin Oil, 130 143. Effects of Petroleum--Experiments on Rabbits, &c., 130, 131 144. Poisoning by Petroleum--Illustrative Cases, 131 145. Separation and Tests for Petroleum, 131

2. Coal-Tar Naphtha--Benzene.

146. Composition of Commercial Coal-Tar Naphtha, 131 147. Symptoms observed after Swallowing Coal-Tar Naphtha, 132 148. Effects of the Vapour of Benzene, 132

Detection and Separation of Benzene.

149. Separation of Benzene--(1) Purification; (2) Conversion into Nitro-Benzene; (3) Conversion into Aniline, 132, 133

3. Terpenes--Essential Oils--Oil of Turpentine.

150. Properties of the Terpenes, Cedrenes, and Colophenes, 133

4. Oil of Turpentine--Spirits of Turpentine.

151. Terebenthene--Distinction between French and English Turpentine, 133, 134 152. Effects of the Administration of Turpentine, 134

II. CAMPHOR.

153. Properties of Camphor, 135 154. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 135 155. Symptoms of Poisoning by Camphor, 135 156. Post-mortem Appearances, 136 157. Separation from the Contents of the Stomach, 136

III. ALCOHOLS.

1. Ethylic Alcohol.

158. Chemical Properties of Alcohol--Statistics of Poisoning by Alcohol, 136 159. Criminal or Accidental Alcoholic Poisoning, 137 160. Fatal Dose, 137 161. Symptoms of Acute Poisoning by Alcohol, 137, 138 162. Post-mortem Appearances, 138, 139 163. Excretion of Alcohol, 139, 140 164. Toxicological Detection, 140

2. Amylic Alcohol.

165. Properties of Amylic Alcohol, 140 166. Experiments as to the Effect on Animals of Amylic Alcohol, 140, 141 167. Detection and Estimation of Amylic Alcohol, 141 168. Amyl Nitrite--Properties--Symptoms--Post-mortem Appearances, 141

IV. ETHER.

169. Properties of Ethylic Ether, 141, 142 170. Ether as a Poison, 142 171. Fatal Dose, 142 172. Ether as an Anæsthetic, 142, 143 173. Separation of Ether from Organic Fluids, &c., 143

V. CHLOROFORM.

174. Discovery of Chloroform--Properties, Adulterations, and Methods for Detecting them, 143-145 175. Methods of Manufacturing Chloroform, 145, 146

Poisonous Effects of Chloroform.

1. As a Liquid.

176. Statistics, 146 177. Local Action, 146 178. Action on Blood, Muscle, and Nerve-Tissue, 146 179. General Effects of Liquid Chloroform--Illustrative Cases, 146, 147 180. Fatal Dose, 147 181. Symptoms, 148 182. Post-mortem Appearances, 148

2. The Vapour of Chloroform.

183. Statistics of Deaths through Chloroform--Anæsthesia, 148, 149 184. Suicidal and Criminal Poisoning--Illustrative Cases, 149, 150 185. Physiological Effects, 150 186. Symptoms witnessed in Death from Chloroform Vapour, 150, 151 187. Chronic Chloroform Poisoning--Mental Effects from Use of Chloroform, 151, 152 188. Post-mortem Appearances, 152 189. The Detection and Estimation of Chloroform--Various Tests, 152, 153 190. Quantitative Estimation, 153

VI. OTHER ANÆSTHETICS.

191. Methyl Chloride--Methene Dichloride, &c., 154 192. Pentane, 154 193. Aldehyde, 154 194. Paraldehyde, 154

VII. CHLORAL.

195. Chloral Hydrate; its Composition and Properties, 154, 155 196. Detection, 155 197. Quantitative Estimation of Chloral Hydrate, 155, 156 198. Effects of Chloral Hydrate on Animals--Depression of Temperature --Influence on the Secretion of Milk, &c., 156, 157 199. Action upon the Blood, 157 200. Effects on Man, 157, 158 201. Fatal Dose, 158, 159 202. Symptoms, 159 203. Action of Chloral upon the Brain, 159 204. Treatment of Acute Chloral Poisoning, 160 205. Chronic Poisoning by Chloral Hydrate, 160, 161 206. Manner in which Chloral is Decomposed in, and Excreted from, the Body, 161, 162 207. Separation from Organic Matters--Tests for Chloral, 162, 163

VIII. BISULPHIDE OF CARBON.

208. Properties of Bisulphide of Carbon, 163 209. Poisoning by Bisulphide of Carbon, 163 210. Action on Animals, 163, 164 211. Chronic Poisoning by Bisulphide of Carbon--Effects on the Brain, &c., 164, 165 212. Post-mortem Appearances, 165 213. Separation and Detection of Carbon Bisulphide--Tests, 165 214. Xanthogenic Acid, 165 215. Potassic Xanthogenate, 165

IX. THE TAR ACIDS--PHENOL--CRESOL.

216. Properties and Sources of Carbolic Acid, 165, 166 217. Different Forms of Carbolic Acid--Calvert’s Carbolic Acid Powder --Carbolic Acid Soaps, 166, 167 218. Uses of Carbolic Acid, 167 219. Statistics Relative to Poisoning by Carbolic Acid, 167-169 220. Fatal Dose, 169 221. Effects on Animals--Infusoria--Fish--Frogs, 169, 170 222. Effects on Warm-Blooded Animals, 170 223. Symptoms Produced in Man--External Application--Action on the Skin--Effects of the Vapour--Use of Carbolic Acid Lotions-- Injections, &c.--Illustrative Cases, 170-172 224. Internal Administration--Illustrative Cases, 173 225. General Review of the Symptoms induced by Carbolic Acid, 173, 174 226. Changes Produced in the Urine by Carbolic Acid, 174, 175 227. The Action of Carbolic Acid considered Physiologically, 175, 176 228. Forms under which Carbolic Acid is Excreted, 176 229. Post-mortem Appearances, 176, 177

Tests for Carbolic Acid.

230. (1) The Pine-Wood Test--(2) Ammonia and Hypochlorite Test--(3) Ferric Chloride--(4) Bromine, 177, 178 231. Quantitative Estimation of Carbolic Acid, 178, 179 232. Properties of Cresol, and Tests for Distinguishing Cresol and Carbolic Acid, 179 233. Properties of Creasote--Tests, 179, 180 234. Separation of Carbolic Acid from Organic Fluids or Tissues, 180, 181 235. Examination of the Urine for Phenol or Cresol, 181 236. Assay of Disinfectants, Carbolic Acid Powders--E. Waller’s Process--Koppeschaar’s Volumetric Method--Colorimetric Method of Estimation, 181-183 237. Carbolic Acid Powders, 183 238. Carbolic Acid Soaps, 183

X. NITRO-BENZENE.

239. Properties and Varieties, 183, 184 240. Effects of Poisoning by Nitro-Benzene, 184 241. Illustrative Cases of Poisoning by Nitro-Benzene Vapour, 184, 185 242. Effects Produced by taking Liquid Nitro-Benzene, 185, 186 243. Fatal Dose, 186, 187 244. Pathological Appearances, 187 245. The Essential Action of Nitro-Benzene, 187, 188 246. Detection and Separation from the Animal Tissues, 188

XI. DINITRO-BENZOL.

247. Properties of Ortho-, Meta-, and Para-Dinitro-Benzol, 189 248. Effects of Dinitro-Benzol, 189, 190 249. The Blood in Nitro-Benzol Poisoning, 191 250. Detection of Dinitro-Benzol, 192

XII. HYDROCYANIC ACID.

251. Properties of Hydrocyanic Acid, 192 252. Medicinal Preparations of Prussic Acid--Various Strengths of the Commercial Acid, 192, 193 253. Poisoning by Prussic Acid--Uses in the Arts--Distribution in the Vegetable Kingdom, 193-195 254. Composition and Varieties of Amygdalin, 195 255. Statistics of Poisoning by Prussic Acid, 195-197 256. Accidental and Criminal Poisoning, 197, 198 257. Fatal Dose, 198 258. Action of Hydric and Potassic Cyanides on Living Organisms, 198, 199 259. Symptoms observed in Animals, 199, 200 260. Length of Interval between taking the Poison and Death in Animals, 200, 201 261. Symptoms in Man, 201, 202 262. Possible Acts after taking the Poison--Nunneley’s Experiments, 202, 203 263. Chronic Poisoning by Hydric Cyanide, 203 264. Post-mortem Appearances, 203, 204 265. Tests for Hydrocyanic Acid and Cyanide of Potassium--Schönbein’s Test--Kobert’s Test, 204-206 266. Separation of Hydric Cyanide or Potassic Cyanide from Organic Matters--N. Sokoloff’s Experiments, 206-208 267. How long after Death can Hydric or Potassic Cyanide be Detected? 208, 209 268. Estimation of Hydrocyanic Acid or Potassic Cyanide, 209 269. Case of Poisoning by Bitter Almonds, 209, 210

Poisonous Cyanides other than Hydric and Potassic Cyanides.

270. General Action of the Alkaline Cyanides--Experiments with Ammonic Cyanide Vapour, 210 271. The Poisonous Action of several Metallic and Double Cyanides-- The Effects of Mercuric and Silver Cyanides; of Potassic and Hydric Sulphocyanides; of Cyanogen Chloride; of Methyl Cyanide, and of Cyanuric Acid, 210, 211

XIII. PHOSPHORUS.

272. Properties of Phosphorus--Solubility--Effects of Heat on Phosphorus, 212, 213 273. Phosphuretted Hydrogen--Phosphine, 213 274. The Medicinal Preparations of Phosphorus, 213 275. Matches and Vermin Paste, 213-215 276. Statistics of Phosphorus Poisoning, 215, 216 277. Fatal Dose, 216 278. Effects of Phosphorus, 217 279. Different Forms of Phosphorus Poisoning, 217, 218 280. Common Form, 218, 219 281. Hæmorrhagic Form, 219 282. Nervous Form, 219 283. Sequelæ, 219, 220 284. Period at which the First Symptoms commence, 220 285. Period of Death, 220 286. Effects of Phosphorus Vapour--Experiments on Rabbits, 220, 221 287. Effects of Chronic Phosphorus Poisoning, 221, 222 288. Changes in the Urinary Secretion, 222 289. Changes in the Blood, 222, 223 290. Antidote--Treatment by Turpentine, 223 291. Poisonous Effects of Phosphine, 223, 224 292. Coefficient of Solubility of Phosphine in Blood compared with Pure Water, 224 293. Post-mortem Appearances--Effects on the Liver, 224-228 294. Pathological Changes in the Kidneys, Lungs, and Nervous System, 228 295. Diagnostic Differences between Acute Yellow Atrophy of the Liver and Fatty Liver produced by Phosphorus, 228, 229 296. Detection of Phosphorus--Mitscherlich’s Process--The Production of Phosphine--Tests Dependent on the Combustion of Phosphine, 229-232 297. The Spectrum of Phosphine--Lipowitz’s Sulphur Test--Scherer’s Test, 232, 233 298. Chemical Examination of the Urine, 233, 234 299. Quantitative Estimation of Phosphorus, 234 300. How long can Phosphorus be recognised after Death? 234, 235

PART VI.--ALKALOIDS AND POISONOUS VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES SEPARATED FOR THE MOST PART BY ALCOHOLIC SOLVENTS.

DIVISION I.--VEGETABLE ALKALOIDS.

I. GENERAL METHOD OF TESTING AND EXTRACTING ALKALOIDS.

301. General Tests for Alkaloids, 236 302. Group-Reagents, 236, 237 303. Phosphomolybdic, Silico-Tungstic, and Phospho-Tungstic Acids as Alkaloidal Reagents, 237-239 304. Schulze’s Reagent, 239 305. Dragendorff’s Reagent, 239 306. Colour Tests, 239 307. Stas’s Process, 239

Methods of Separation.

308. Selmi’s Process for Separating Alkaloids, 240, 241 309. Dragendorff’s Process, 241-254 310. Shorter Process for Separating some of the Alkaloids, 254, 255 311. Scheibler’s Process for Alkaloids, 255 312. Grandval and Lajoux’s Method, 255, 256 313. Identification of the Alkaloids, 256 314. Sublimation of the Alkaloids, 256-261 315. Melting-point, 261 316. Identification by Organic Analysis, 261, 262 317. Quantitative Estimation of the Alkaloids--Mayer’s Reagent-- Compound of the Alkaloids with Chlorides of Gold and Platinum, 262-264

II. LIQUID VOLATILE ALKALOIDS.

1. The Alkaloids of Hemlock (Conium).

318. Botanical Description of Hemlock, 264 319. Properties of Coniine--Tests, 264-266 320. Other Coniine Bases, 266 321. Pharmaceutical Preparations of Hemlock, 266, 267 322. Statistics of Coniine Poisoning, 267 323. Effects of Coniine on Animals, 267, 268 324. Effects of Coniine on Man, 268 325. Physiological Action of Coniine, 268 326. Post-mortem Appearances--Fatal Dose, 268, 269 327. Separation of Coniine from Organic Matters or Tissues, 269

2. Tobacco--Nicotine.

328. General Composition of Tobacco, 269, 270 329. Quantitative Estimation of Nicotine in Tobacco, 270, 271 330. Nicotine; its Properties and Tests, 271-273 331. Effects of Nicotine on Animals, 273, 274 332. Effects of Nicotine on Man, 274, 275 333. Some Instances of Poisoning by Tobacco and Tobacco Juice, 275-277 334. Physiological Action of Nicotine, 277, 278 335. Fatal Dose, 278 336. Post-mortem Appearances, 278 337. Separation of Nicotine from Organic Matters, &c., 278, 279

3. Piturie.

338. Properties of Piturie, 279

4. Sparteine.

339. Properties of Sparteine, 279, 280

5. Aniline.

340. Properties of Aniline, 280 341. Symptoms and Effects, 280, 281 342. Fatal Dose, 281 343. Detection of Aniline, 281

III. THE OPIUM GROUP OF ALKALOIDS.

344. General Composition of Opium, 281, 282 345. Action of Solvents on Opium, 282, 283 346. The Methods of Teschemacher and Smith, of Dott and others for the Assay of Opium, 283, 284 347. Medicinal and other Preparations of Opium, 284-288 348. Statistics of Opiate Poisoning, 288, 289 349. Poisoning of Children by Opium, 289 350. Doses of Opium and Morphine--Fatal Dose, 289, 290 351. General Method for the Detection of Opium, 290, 291 352. Morphine; its Properties, 291, 292 353. Morphine Salts; their Solubility, 292, 293 354. Constitution of Morphine, 293, 294 355. Tests for Morphine and its Compounds--Production of Morphine Hydriodide--Iodic Acid Test and other Reactions--Transformation of Morphine into Codeine, 294-296 356. Symptoms of Opium and Morphine Poisoning--Action on Animals, 296-298 357. Physiological Action, 298, 299 358. Physiological Action of Morphine Derivatives, 299 359. Action on Man--(a) The Sudden Form; (b) the Convulsive Form; (c) a Remittent Form of Opium Poisoning--Illustrative Cases, 299-303 360. Diagnosis of Opium Poisoning, 303, 304 361. Opium-Eating, 304-306 362. Treatment of Opium or Morphine Poisoning, 306 363. Post-mortem Appearances, 306, 307 364. Separation of Morphine from Animal Tissues and Fluids, 307 365. Extraction of Morphine, 308, 309 366. Narcotine; its Properties and Tests, 309, 310 367. Effects of Narcotine, 310 368. Codeine--Properties of Codeine, 310, 311 369. Effects of Codeine on Animals--Claude Bernard’s Experiments, 311 370. Narceine--Properties of Narceine--Tests, 312, 313 371. Effects of Narceine, 313, 314 372. Papaverine--Properties of Papaverine--Tests, 314 373. Effects of Papaverine, 314 374. Thebaine; its Properties, 314, 315 375. Thebaine; its Effects, 315 376. Cryptopine, 315, 316 377. Rhœadine, 316 378. Pseudomorphine, 316 379. Opianine, 316 380. Apomorphine, 316, 317 381. Reactions of some of the Rarer Opium Alkaloids, 317 382. Tritopine, 317 383. Meconin (Opianyl), 317 384. Meconic Acid--Effects of Meconic Acid--Tests, 318, 319

IV. THE STRYCHNINE OR TETANUS-PRODUCING GROUP OF ALKALOIDS.

1. Nux Vomica Group--Strychnine--Brucine--Igasurine.

385. Nux Vomica--Characteristics of the Entire and of the Powdered Seed, 319 386. Chemical Composition of Nux Vomica, 319 387. Strychnine--Microscopical Appearances--Properties--Medicinal Preparations--Strychnine Salts, 319-322 388. Pharmaceutical and other Preparations of Nux Vomica, with Suggestions for their Valuation--Vermin-Killers, 322-324 389. Statistics, 324-325 390. Fatal Dose--Falck’s Experiments on Animals as to the Least Fatal Dose--Least Fatal Dose for Man, 325-328 391. Action on Animals--Frogs, 328, 329 392. Effects on Man--Symptoms--Distinction between “Disease Tetanus” and “Strychnos Tetanus,” 329-331 393. Diagnosis of Strychnine Poisoning, 331, 332 394. Physiological Action--Richet’s Experiments--The Rise of Temperature--Effect on the Blood-Pressure, 332, 333 395. Post-mortem Appearances, 333 396. Treatment, 333 397. Separation of Strychnine from Organic Matters--Separation from the Urine, Blood, and Tissues, 334-337 398. Identification of the Alkaloid--Colour Tests--Physiological Tests, 337-339 399. Hypaphorine, 339 400. Quantitative Estimation of Strychnine, 339, 340 401. Brucine; its Properties, 340, 341 402. Physiological Action of Brucine--Experiments of Falck, 341, 342 403. Tests for Brucine, 342, 343 404. Igasurine, 344 405. Strychnic Acid, 344

2. The Quebracho Group of Alkaloids.

406. The Alkaloids of Quebracho--Aspidospermine--Quebrachine, 344

3. Pereirine.

407. Pereirine, 344, 345

4. Gelsemine.

408. Properties of Gelsemine, 345 409. Fatal Dose of Gelsemine, 345 410. Effects on Animals--Physiological Action, 345 411. Effects of Gelsemine on Man, 346 412. Extraction from Organic Matters, or the Tissues of the Body, 347

5. Cocaine.

413. Cocaine; its Properties, 47, 348 414. Cocaine Hydrochlorate, 348 415. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 348 416. Separation of Cocaine and Tests, 348, 349 417. Symptoms, 349 418. Post-mortem Appearances, 349, 350 419. Fatal Dose, 350

6. Corydaline.

420. Properties of Corydaline, 350

V. THE ACONITE GROUP OF ALKALOIDS.

421. Varieties of Aconite--Description of the Flower, and of the Seeds, 350, 351 422. Pharmaceutical Preparations of Aconite, 351 423. The Aconite Alkaloids, 351 424. Aconitine, 351, 352 425. Tests for Aconitine, 352 426. Benzoyl-Aconine Properties--Recognition of Benzoic Acid, 353, 354 427. Pyraconitine, 354 428. Pyraconine, 354 429. Aconine, 355 430. Commercial Aconitine--English and German Samples of Aconitine-- Lethal Dose of the Alkaloid and of the Pharmaceutical Preparations, 355-358 431. Effects of Aconitine on Animal Life--Insects, Fish, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals, 358-360 432. Statistics, 361 433. Effects on Man, 361 434. Poisoning by the Root (Reg. v. M’Conkey), 361, 362 435. Poisoning by the Alkaloid Aconitine--Three Cases of Poisoning, 363, 364 436. Lamson’s Case, 364, 365 437. Symptoms of Poisoning by the Tincture, &c., 365, 366 438. Physiological Action, 366 439. Post-mortem Appearances, 366, 367 440. Separation of Aconitine from the Contents of the Stomach or the Organs, 367, 368

VI. THE MYDRIATIC GROUP OF ALKALOIDS--ATROPINE--HYOSCYAMINE--SOLANINE --CYTISINE.

1. Atropine.

441. The Atropa belladonna; its Alkaloidal Content, 368, 369 442. The Datura stramonium--Distinction between Datura and Capsicum Seeds, 369, 370 443. Pharmaceutical Preparations--(a) Belladonna; (b) Stramonium, 370, 371 444. Properties of Atropine, 371, 372 445. Tests for Atropine, Chemical and Physiological, 372-374 446. Statistics of Atropine Poisoning, 375 447. Accidental and Criminal Poisoning by Atropine--Use of Dhatoora by the Hindoos, 375, 376 448. Fatal Dose of Atropine, 376, 377 449. Action on Animals, 377 450. Action on Man, 377-380 451. Physiological Action of Atropine, 380 452. Diagnosis of Atropine Poisoning, 380 453. Post-mortem Appearances, 380 454. Treatment of Cases of Poisoning by Atropine, 380, 381 455. Separation of Atropine from Organic Matters, &c., 381

2. Hyoscyamine.

456. Distribution of Hyoscyamine--Properties, 381-383 457. Pharmaceutical and other Preparations of Henbane, 383, 384 458. Dose and Effects, 384 459. Separation of Hyoscyamine from Organic Matters, 385

3. Hyoscine.

460. Hyoscine, 385

4. Solanine.

461. Distribution of Solanine, 385, 386 462. Properties of Solanine, 386 463. Solanidine, 386, 387 464. Poisoning from Solanine, 387 465. Separation from Animal Tissues, 387

5. Cytisine.

466. The Cytisus laburnum, 387 467. Reactions of Cytisine, 388 468. Effects on Animals, 389 469. Effects on Man--Illustrative Cases, 389, 390

VII. THE ALKALOIDS OF THE VERATRUMS.

470. The Alkaloids found in the Veratrum Viride and Veratrum Album--Yield per Kilogram, 390-392 471. Veratrine--Cevadine, 392 472. Jervine, 393 473. Pseudo-jervine, 393 474. Protoveratridine, 393 475. Rubi-jervine, 394 476. Veratralbine, 394 477. Veratroidine, 394 478. Commercial Veratrine, 394, 395 479. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 395 480. Fatal Dose, 395 481. Effects on Animals--Physiological Action, 395, 396 482. Effects on Man--Illustrative Cases, 396 483. Symptoms of Acute and Chronic Poisoning, 396, 397 484. Post-mortem Signs, 397 485. Separation of the Veratrum Alkaloids from Organic Matters, 397

VIII. PHYSOSTIGMINE.

486. The Active Principle of the Calabar Bean, 397, 398 487. Physostigmine or Eserine--Properties, 398, 399 488. Tests, 399 489. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 399, 400 490. Effects on Animals--On Man--The Liverpool Cases of Poisoning, 400 491. Physiological Action, 401 492. Post-mortem Appearances, 401 493. Separation of Physostigmine, 401, 402 494. Fatal Dose of Physostigmine, 402

IX. PILOCARPINE.

495. Alkaloids from the Jaborandi, 402 496. Pilocarpine, 402, 403 497. Tests, 403 498. Effects of Pilocarpine, 403, 404

X. TAXINE.

499. Properties of Taxine, 404 500. Poisoning by the Common Yew, 404 501. Effects on Animals--Physiological Action, 404 502. Effects on Man, 404, 405 503. Post-mortem Appearances, 405

XI. CURARINE.

504. Commercial Curarine--Properties, 405-407 505. Physiological Effects, 407 506. Separation of Curarine, 407, 408

XII. COLCHICINE.

507. Contents of Colchicine in Colchicum Seeds, 408, 409 508. Colchicine--Method of Extraction--Properties, 409 509. Tests, 409, 410 510. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 410 511. Fatal Dose, 410, 411 512. Effects of Colchicine on Animals, 411 513. Effects of Colchicum on Man--Illustrative Cases, 411, 412 514. Symptoms Produced by Colchicum--Post-mortem Appearances, 412, 413 515. Separation of Colchicine from Organic Matters, 413

XIII. MUSCARINE AND THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLES OF CERTAIN FUNGI.

516. Description of the Amanita Muscaria--Use of it by the Natives of Kamschatka, 413, 414 517. Cases of Poisoning by the Fungus itself, 414, 415 518. Muscarine--Its Properties and Effects, 415, 416 519. Antagonistic Action of Atropine and Muscarine, 416 520. Detection of Muscarine, 416, 417 521. The Agaricus Phalloides--Phallin, 417 522. Post-mortem Appearances, 417, 418 523. The Agaricus Pantherinus--The Agaricus Ruber--Ruberine --Agarythrine, 418 524. The Boletus Satanus, or Luridus, 418 525. Occasional Effects of the Common Morelle, 418

Division II.--GLUCOSIDES

I. DIGITALIS GROUP.

526. Description of the Digitalis Purpurea, or Foxglove, 419 527. Active Principles of the Foxglove--The Digitalins, 419 528. Digitalein, 420 529. Digitonin--Digitogenin, 420 530. Digitalin, 420 531. Digitaletin, 420 532. Digitoxin--Toxiresin, 420, 421 533. Digitaleretin--Paradigitaletin, 421 534. Other Active Principles in Digitalis; such as Digitin, Digitalacrin, Digitalein, &c., 421, 422 535. Reactions of the Digitalins, 422 536. Pharmaceutical Preparations of Digitalin, 422 537. Fatal Dose, 422-424 538. Statistics of Poisoning by Digitalis, 424 539. Effects on Man--Illustrative Cases, 424-427 540. Physiological Action of the Digitalins, 427 541. Local Action of the Digitalins, 427, 428 542. Action on the Heart and Circulation, 428, 429 543. Action of the Digitalins on the Muco-Intestinal Tract and other Organs, 429 544. Action of Digitalin on the Common Blow-Fly, 429 545. Action of the Digitalins on the Frog’s Heart, 429, 430 546. Post-mortem Appearances, 430 547. Separation of the Digitalins from Animal Tissues, &c.--Tests, Chemical and Physiological, 431

II. OTHER POISONOUS GLUCOSIDES ACTING ON THE HEART.

1. Crystallisable Glucosides.

548. Antiarin--Chemical Properties, 432 549. Effects of Antiarin, 432 550. Separation of Antiarin, 432 551. The Active Principles of the Hellebores--Helleborin-- Helleborein--Helleboretin, 433 552. Symptoms of Poisoning by Hellebore, 433 553. Euonymin, 433 554. Thevetin, 434

2. Substances partly Crystallisable, but which are not Glucosides.

555. Strophantin, 434 556. Apocynin, 434

3. Non-Crystallisable Glucosides almost Insoluble in Water.

557. Scillain, or Scillitin--Adonidin, 434 558. Oleandrin, 435 559. Neriin, or Oleander Digitalin, 435 560. Symptoms of Poisoning by Oleander, 435, 436 561. The Madagascar Ordeal Poison, 436

4. Substances which, with other Toxic Effects, behave like the Digitalins.

562. Erythrophlein, 436

III. SAPONIN--SAPONIN SUBSTANCES.

563. The Varieties of Saponins, 436, 437 564. Properties of Saponin, 437 565. Effects of Saponin, 437, 438 566. Action on Man, 438 567. Separation of Saponin, 438, 439 568. Identification of Saponin, 439

DIVISION III.--CERTAIN POISONOUS ANHYDRIDES OF ORGANIC ACIDS.

I. SANTONIN.

569. Properties of Santonin, 439, 440 570. Poisoning by Santonin, 440 571. Fatal Dose, 440 572. Effects on Animals, 440 573. Effects on Man--Yellow Vision, 440, 441 574. Post-mortem Appearances, 441 575. Separation from the Contents of the Stomach, 441, 442

II. MEZEREON.

576. Cases of Poisoning by the Mezereon, 442

DIVISION IV.--VARIOUS VEGETABLE POISONOUS PRINCIPLES--NOT ADMITTING OF CLASSIFICATION UNDER THE PREVIOUS THREE DIVISIONS.

I. ERGOT OF RYE.

577. Description of the Ergot Fungus, 442, 443 578. Chemical Constituents of Ergot--Ergotinine--Ecboline-- Scleromucin--Sclerotic Acid--Sclererythrin--Scleroidin-- Sclerocrystallin--Sphacelic Acid--Cornutin, 443-445 579. Detection of Ergot in Flour, 445 580. Pharmaceutical Preparations, 445 581. Dose, 446 582. Ergotism--Historical Notice of Various Outbreaks, 446, 447 583. Convulsive Form of Ergotism, 447 584. Gangrenous Form of Ergotism--The Wattisham Cases, 447, 448 585. Symptoms of Acute Poisoning by Ergot, 448 586. Physiological Action, as shown by Experiments on Animals, 448-450 587. Separation of the Active Principles of Ergot, 450

II. PICROTOXIN, THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF THE COCCULUS INDICUS.

588. Enumeration of the Active Principles contained in the Menispermum Cocculus, 451 589. Picrotoxin; its Chemical Reactions and Properties, 451, 452 590. Fatal Dose, 452 591. Effects on Animals, 452, 453 592. Effects on Man, 453 593. Physiological Action, 453 594. Separation from Organic Matters, 453, 454

III. THE POISON OF ILLICIUM RELIGIOSUM.

595. Dr. Langaard’s Researches, 454

IV. PICRIC ACID AND PICRATES.

596. Properties of Picric Acid, 454 597. Effects of Picric Acid, 454, 455 598. Tests, 455

V. CICUTOXIN.

599. Description of the Cicuta Virosa, 456 600. Effects on Animals, 456 601. Effects on Man, 456, 457 602. Separation of Cicutoxin from the Body, 457

VI. ÆTHUSA CYNAPIUM (FOOL’S PARSLEY).

603. Dr. Harley’s Experiments, 457

VII. ŒNANTHE CROCATA.

604. The Water Hemlock--Description of the Plant--Cases of Poisoning, 457, 458 605. Effects of the Water Hemlock, as shown by the Plymouth Cases, 458 606. Post-mortem Appearances, 459

VIII. OIL OF SAVIN.

607. Effects and Properties of Savin Oil, 459 608. Post-mortem Appearances, 460 609. Separation and Identification, 460

IX. CROTON OIL.

610. Chemical Properties of Croton Oil, 461 611. Dose--Effects--Illustrative Cases, 461 612. Post-mortem Appearances, 461 613. Chemical Analysis, 462

X. THE TOXALBUMINS OF CASTOR OIL SEEDS AND ABRUS.

614. The Toxalbumin of Castor Oil Seeds, 462 615. Toxalbumin of Abrus, 462, 463

XI. ICTROGEN.

616. Ictrogen, 463

XII. COTTON SEEDS.

617. Cotton Seeds as a Poison, 464

XIII. LATHYRUS SATIVUS.

618. Poisonous Qualities of Vetchlings, 464, 465

XIV. ARUM--LOCUST-TREE--BRYONY--MALE FERN.

619. Arum Maculatum, 465 620. The Black Bryony, 465 621. The Locust Tree, 465 622. Male Fern 465, 466

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VII. POISONS DERIVED FROM LIVING OR DEAD ANIMAL SUBSTANCES

DIVISION I.--POISONS SECRETED BY LIVING ANIMALS.

I. POISONOUS AMPHIBIA.

623. Poisonous Properties of the Skin of the Salamandra Maculosa --Salamandrine, &c., 467 624. Poison from the Toad, 468

II. THE POISON OF THE SCORPION.

625. Various Species of Scorpions--Effects of the Scorpion Poison, 468

III. POISONOUS FISH.

626. Poisonous Fish--Illustrative Cases, 468-470

IV. POISONOUS SPIDERS AND INSECTS.

627. The Bite of the Tarantula--The Bite of the Latrodectus Malmignatus, 470 628. Effects of the Bite of the Katipo, 471 629. Ants, &c., 471 630. The Poison of Wasps, Bees, and Hornets, 471 631. Cantharides, 471 632. Cantharidin, 471, 472 633. Pharmaceutical Preparations of Cantharides, 472 634. Fatal Dose, 472 635. Effects on Animals--Radecki’s Experiments--Effects on Man-- Heinrich’s Auto-Experiments, 472, 473 636. General Symptoms Produced by Cantharides, 473, 474 637. Post-mortem Appearances, 474 638. Tests for Cantharidin--Distribution in the Body--Dragendorff’s Process, 475-477

V. SNAKE POISON.

639. Classes of Poisonous Snakes, 477 640. The Poison of the Cobra, 478 641. Fatal Dose of Cobra Poison, 479 642. Effects on Animals, 479 643. Effects on Man, 479, 480 644. Antidotes and Treatment--Halford’s Treatment by Ammonia-- Permanganate of Potash, 480, 481 645. Detection of the Cobra Venom, 482 646. Effects of the Bite of the Duboia Russellii, or Russell’s Viper, 483 647. The Poison of the Common Viper--The Venom of Naja Haje (Cleopatra’s Asp), 483, 484

DIVISION II.--PTOMAINES--TOXINES.

648. Definition of a Ptomaine, 485

Isolation of Ptomaines.

649. Gautier’s Process, 485 650. Brieger’s Process, 485-487 651. Benzoyl Chloride Method, 487, 488 652. The Amines, 488-490 653. Methylamine, 491 654. Dimethylamine, 491 655. Trimethylamine, 491 656. Ethylamine, 491 657. Diethylamine, 491 658. Triethylamine, 491 659. Propylamine, 491 660. Isoamylamine, 492

Diamines.

661. Rate of Formation of Diamines, 492 662. Ethylidenediamine, 492 663. Neuridine, 493, 494 664. Cadaverine, 494-496 665. Putrescine, 496 666. Metaphenylenediamine, 497 667. Paraphenylenediamine, 497 668. Hexamethylenediamine, 497 669. Diethylenediamine, 497, 498 670. Mydaleine, 498 671. Guanidine, 498, 499 672. Methylguanidine, 499, 500 673. Saprine, 500 674. The Choline Group, 500, 501 675. Neurine, 501 676. Betaine, 501, 502 677. Peptotoxine, 502 678. Pyridine-like Alkaloid from the Cuttle-fish, 502, 503 679. Poisons connected with Tetanus--Tetanine, 503 680. Tetanotoxine, 503, 504 681. Mydatoxine, 504 682. Mytilotoxine, 505 683. Tyrotoxicon, 504, 505 684. Toxines connected with Hog Cholera, 505, 506 685. Other Ptomaines, 506

DIVISION III.--FOOD POISONING.

686. The Welbeck--The Oldham--The Bishop Stortford--The Wolverhampton--The Carlisle, and other Mass Poisonings by changed Food--Statistics of Deaths from Unwholesome Food, 506-508 687. German Sausage Poisoning, 509

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VIII. THE OXALIC ACID GROUP OF POISONS

688. Distribution of Oxalic Acid in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, 510 689. Properties and Reactions of Oxalic Acid, 510, 511 690. Oxalate of Lime; its Properties, 511, 512 691. Use of Oxalic Acid in the Arts, 512 692. Properties of Hydropotassic Oxalate (Binoxalate of Potash), 512 693. Statistics of Oxalic Acid Poisoning, 512 694. Fatal Dose of Oxalic Acid, 513 695. Effects of Oxalic Acid and Oxalates on Animals, 513 696. Researches of Kobert and Küssner on the Effects of Sodic Oxalate, 513, 514 697. Effects of Vaporised Oxalic Acid, 514, 515 698. Effects of Oxalic Acid and Hydropotassic Oxalate on Man-- Illustrative Cases, 515, 516 699. Physiological Action, 516, 517 700. Pathological Changes produced by Oxalic Acid and the Oxalates, 517, 518 701. Preparations in Museums Illustrative of the Effects of Oxalic Acid, 518 702. Pathological Changes produced by the Acid Oxalate of Potash, 518, 519 703. Separation of Oxalic Acid from Organic Substances, the Tissues of the Body, &c., 519-521 704. Oxalate of Lime in the Urine, 521 705. Estimation of Oxalic Acid, 521, 522

Certain Oxalic Bases--Oxalmethyline--Oxalpropyline.

706. The Experiments of Schulz and Mayer on Oxalmethyline, Chloroxalmethyline, and Oxalpropyline, 522, 523

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IX. INORGANIC POISONS

I. PRECIPITATED FROM A HYDROCHLORIC ACID SOLUTION BY HYDRIC SULPHIDE-- PRECIPITATE YELLOW OR ORANGE.

ARSENIC--ANTIMONY--CADMIUM.

1. Arsenic.

707. Metallic Arsenic; its Chemical and Physical Properties, 524 708. Arsenious Anhydride--Arsenious Acid; its Properties and Solubility, 524, 525 709. Arseniuretted Hydrogen (Arsine), 525-527 710. Arseniuretted Hydrogen in the Arts, &c, 527 711. The Effects of Arseniuretted Hydrogen on Man--Illustrative Cases, 527, 528 712. The Sulphides of Arsenic, 528, 529 713. Orpiment, or Arsenic Trisulphide, 529 714. Haloid Arsenical Compounds--Chloride of Arsenic--Iodide of Arsenic, 529 715. Arsenic in the Arts, 529, 530 716. Pharmaceutical Preparations of Arsenic--Veterinary Arsenical Medicines--Rat and Fly Poisons--Quack Nostrums--Pigments-- External Application of Arsenic for Sheep--Arsenical Soaps-- Arsenical Compounds used in Pyrotechny, 530-534 717. Statistics of Poisoning by Arsenic, 534 718. Law Relative to the Sale of Arsenic, 535 719. Dose of Arsenic, 535 720. Effects of Arsenious Acid on Plants, 535, 536 721. Effects of Arsenic upon Life--Animalcules--Annelids--Birds-- Mammals, 536-538 722. Effects of Arsenious Acid on Man--Arsenic Eaters, 538, 539 723. Manner of Introduction of Arsenic, 539 724. Cases of Poisoning by the External Application of Arsenic, 539-541 725. Arsenic in Wall-Papers, 541, 542 726. Forms of Arsenical Poisoning--Acute Form, 542 727. Subacute Form--Case of the Duc de Praslin, 543 728. Nervous Form--Brodie’s Experiments on Rabbits--A “Mass” Poisoning reported by Dr. Coqueret, 544, 545 729. Absence of Symptoms, 545, 546 730. Slow Poisoning, 546 731. The Maybrick Case, 546-548 732. Post-mortem Appearances met with in Animals after Arsenical Poisoning--The Researches of Hugo, 548, 549 733. Post-mortem Appearances in Man--Illustrative Pathological Preparations in Various Museums, 549-551 734. Pathological Changes induced in the Gullet and Stomach--Fatty Degeneration of the Liver and Kidneys--Glossitis--Retardation of Putrefaction, 551, 552 735. Physiological Action of Arsenic, 552, 553 736. Elimination of Arsenic--Question of Accumulation of Arsenic, 553 737. Antidotes and Treatment, 553, 554 738. Detection of Arsenic--Identification of Arsenious Acid in Substance--Test of Berzelius--Identification of Arsenites and Arseniates--Detection of Arsenious Acid in Solution-- Distinguishing Marks between the Sulphides of Tin, Cadmium, Antimony, and Arsenic--Marsh’s Original Test for Arsenic-- Blondlot’s Modification of Marsh’s Test--Distinguishing Marks between Arsenical and Antimonial Mirrors--Reinsch’s Tests, 554-560 739. Arsenic in Glycerin, 560 740. Arsenic in Organic Matters--Orfila’s Method of Destroying Organic Matter--Extraction with Hydrochloric Acid--Modifications in the Treatment of Oils--Resinous Matters--Experiments on the Distribution of Arsenic by Scolosuboff, Ludwig, and Chittenden-- The Question of Contamination of a Corpse by Arsenical Earth, 560-562 741. Imbibition of Arsenic after Death--Mason’s Case, 563-565 742. Analysis of Wall-Paper for Arsenic, 565, 566 743. Estimation of Arsenic--Galvanic Process of Bloxam--Colorimetric Methods, 566-568 744. Destruction of the Organic Matter by Nitric Acid, and Subsequent Reduction of the Arsenic Acid to Arseniuretted Hydrogen, and Final Estimation as Metallic Arsenic, 568-571 745. Arsine developed from an Alkaline Solution, 571 746. Precipitation as Tersulphide--Methods of Dealing with the Sulphides obtained--(a) Solution in Ammonia and Estimation by Iodine--(b) Drying the Purified Precipitate at a High Temperature, and then directly weighing--(c) Oxidation of the Sulphide and Precipitation as Ammonia Magnesian Arseniate, or Magnesia Pyro Arseniate--(d) Conversion of the Trisulphide of Arsenic into the Arseno-Molybdate of Ammonia--Conversion of the Sulphide into Metallic Arsenic, 571-575 747. Conversion of Arsenic into Arsenious Chloride, 575, 576

2. Antimony.

748. Properties of Metallic Antimony, 577 749. Antimonious Sulphides, 577, 578 750. Tartarated Antimony--Tartar Emetic, 578, 579 751. Metantimonic Acid, 579 752. Pharmaceutical, Veterinary, and Quack Preparations of Antimony-- (1)Pharmaceutical Preparations--(2) Patent and Quack Pills--(3) Antimonial Medicines, chiefly Veterinary, 579-582 753. Alloys, 582 754. Pigments, 582 755. Dose, 582 756. Effects of Tartar Emetic on Animals--Influence on Temperature-- Dr. Nevin’s Researches on Rabbits, 582, 583 757. Effects of Tartar Emetic on Man--Illustrative Cases, 583, 584 758. Chronic Antimonial Poisoning, 585 759. Post-mortem Appearances--Preparations in Museums--Pathological Appearances in Rabbits, according to Nevin, 585, 586 760. Elimination of Antimony, 586 761. Antidotes for Tartar Emetic, 586 762. Effects of Chloride or Butter of Antimony, 587 763. Detection of Antimony in Organic Matters, 587-589 764. Quantitative Estimation of Antimony, 589, 590

3. Cadmium.

765. Properties of the Metal Cadmium, 590 766. Cadmium Oxide, 590 767. Cadmium Sulphide, 590 768. Medicinal Preparations of Cadmium--Cadmium Iodide--Cadmium Sulphate, 590 769. Cadmium in the Arts, 590 770. Fatal Dose of Cadmium, 590 771. Separation and Detection of Cadmium, 590, 591

II. PRECIPITATED BY HYDRIC SULPHIDE IN HYDROCHLORIC ACID SOLUTION-- BLACK.

LEAD--COPPER--BISMUTH--SILVER--MERCURY.

1. Lead.

772. Lead and its Oxides--Litharge--Minium, or Red Lead, 591, 592 773. Sulphide of Lead, 592 774. Sulphate of Lead, 592 775. Acetate of Lead, 592 776. Chloride of Lead--Carbonate of Lead, 592, 593 777. Preparations of Lead used in Medicine, the Arts, &c.--(1) Pharmaceutical--(2) Quack Nostrums--(3) Preparations used in the Arts--Pigments--Hair Dyes--Alloys, 593, 594 778. Statistics of Lead-Poisoning, 594 779. Lead as a Poison--Means by which Lead may be taken into the System, 595, 596 780. Effects of Lead Compounds on Animals, 596, 597 781. Effects of Lead Compounds on Man--Acute Poisoning--Mass Poisoning by Lead--Case of Acute Poisoning by the Carbonate of Lead, 597-599 782. Chronic Poisoning by Lead, 599, 600 783. Effects of Lead on the Nervous System--Lead as a Factor of Insanity 600, 601 784. Amaurosis Caused by Lead-Poisoning--Influence on the Sexual Functions--Caries--Epilepsy, 601-603 785. Uric Acid in the Blood after Lead-Poisoning, 603 786. Influence of Lead on Pregnant Women and on Fœtal Life--The Keighley Case of Poisoning by Water Contaminated by Lead--Case of Reg. v. L. J. Taylor, 603-605 787. Post-mortem Appearances, 605 788. Physiological Action of Lead, 605, 606 789. Elimination of Lead, 606 790. Fatal Dose, 606, 607 791. Antidotes and Treatment, 607 792. Localisation of Lead, 607, 608 793. Detection and Estimation of Lead, 608, 609 794. Detection of Lead in Tartaric Acid, in Lemonade and Aërated Waters, 609, 610

2. Copper.

795. Properties of Copper, 610 796. Cupric Oxide, 610 797. Cupric Sulphide, 610 798. Solubility of Copper in Water and Various Fluids--Experiments of Carnelley, W. Thompson, and Lehmann, 610-612 799. Copper as a Normal Constituent of Animal, Vegetable, and other Matters--Dupré’s Experiments--Bergeron and L. L’Hôte’s Researches, 612-614 800. The “Coppering” of Vegetables--Copper in Green Peas-- Phyllocyanic Acid, 614, 615 801. Preparations of Copper used in Medicine and the Arts--(1) Medicinal Preparations--(2) Copper in the Arts, 615, 616 802. Dose--Medicinal Dose of Copper, 616, 617 803. Effects of Soluble Copper Salts on Animals, 617-619 804. Toxic Dose of Copper Salts, 619 805. Cases of Acute Poisoning, 619, 620 806. Effects of Subacetate, Subchloride, and Carbonate of Copper, 620 807. Post-mortem Appearances seen in Acute Poisoning by Copper, 620, 621 808. Chronic Poisoning by Copper, 621, 622 809. Detection and Estimation of Copper--General Method--Special Method for Copper in Solution in Water and other Liquids-- Detection of Copper in Animal Matters, 622-624 810. Volumetric Processes for the Estimation of Copper, 624

3. Bismuth.

811. Bismuth as a Metal, 624 812. Teroxide of Bismuth, 624 813. The Sulphide of Bismuth, 624 814. Preparations of Bismuth used in Medicine and the Arts--(1) Pharmaceutical Preparations--(2) Bismuth in the Arts, 624, 625 815. Medicinal Doses of Bismuth, 625 816. Toxic Effects of Sub-nitrate of Bismuth, 625, 626 817. Extraction and Detection of Bismuth in Animal Matter, 626, 627 818. Estimation of Bismuth--Volumetric Processes, 627, 628

4. Silver.

819. Properties of Metallic Silver, 628, 629 820. Chloride of Silver, 629 821. Sulphide of Silver, 629 822. Preparations of Silver used in Medicine and the Arts--(1) Medicinal Preparations--(2) Silver in the Arts, 629, 630 823. Medicinal Dose of Silver Compounds, 630 824. Effects of Nitrate of Silver on Animals--Chronic Poisoning, 630, 631 825. Toxic Effects of Silver Nitrate on Man--(1) Acute--(2) Chronic Poisoning, 631, 632 826. Post-mortem Appearances, 632 827. Detection and Estimation of Silver, 632, 633

5. Mercury.

828. The Metal Mercury--Mercurous Chloride, or Calomel, 633, 634 829. Sulphide of Mercury, 634 830. Medicinal Preparations of Mercury, 634-638 831. Mercury in the Arts--The Sulphocyanide of Mercury--Acid Solution of Nitrate of Mercury, 639 832. The more common Patent and Quack Medicines containing Mercury, 639, 640 833. Mercury in Veterinary Medicine, 640 834. Medicinal and Fatal Dose, 640, 641 835. Poisoning by Mercury--Statistics, 641 836. Effects of Mercurial Vapour and of the Non-Corrosive Compounds of Mercury--(a) On Vegetable Life--(b) On Animal Life, 641, 642 837. Effects on Man, 642, 643 838. Absorption of Mercury by the Skin, 643 839. Symptoms of Poisoning by Mercury Vapour, 643, 644 840. Mercurial Tremor, 644, 645 841. Mercuric Methide--Effects of, as Illustrated by two Cases, 645, 646 842. Effects of the Corrosive Salts of Mercury, 646, 647 843. Death from the External Use of Corrosive Sublimate, 647 844. Effects of the Nitrates of Mercury, 647 845. Case of Reg. v. E. Smith, 648 846. Mercuric Cyanide, 648 847. White Precipitate, 648 848. Treatment of Acute and Chronic Poisoning, 648 849. Post-mortem Appearances--Pathological Preparations in Various Anatomical Museums, 648-650 850. Pathological Appearances from the Effects of Nitrate of Mercury, 650 851. Elimination of Mercury, 650, 651 852. Tests for Mercury, 651, 652 853. The Detection of Mercury in Organic Substances and Fluids, 652-654 854. Estimation of Mercury--The Dry Method, 654 855. Volumetric Processes for the Estimation of Mercury, 654, 655

III. PRECIPITATED BY HYDRIC SULPHIDE FROM A NEUTRAL SOLUTION.

ZINC--NICKEL--COBALT.

1. Zinc.

856. Properties of Metallic Zinc, 655, 656 857. Carbonate of Zinc, 656 858. Oxide of Zinc, 656 859. Sulphide of Zinc--Sulphate of Zinc, 656 860. Preparation and Uses of Chloride of Zinc, 656, 657 861. Zinc in the Arts--Zinc Chromate--Zinc Pigments--Action of Fluids on Zinc Vessels, 657, 658 862. Effects of Zinc, as shown by Experiments on Animals, 658 863. Effects of Zinc Compounds on Man--Zinc Oxide, 658, 659 864. Sulphate of Zinc, 659 865. Zinc Chloride, 659, 660 866. Post-mortem Appearances--Illustrated by Specimens in Pathological Museums, 660, 661 867. Detection of Zinc in Organic Liquids or Solids, 661, 662 868. Identification of Zinc Sulphide, 662

2. Nickel--Cobalt.

869. Experiments of Anderson Stuart on the Toxic Action of Nickel and Cobalt, 662, 663 870. Symptoms witnessed in various Classes of Animals after taking Doses of Nickel or Cobalt, 663, 664 871. Effects on the Circulation and Nervous System, 664 872. Action on Striped Muscle, 664 873. Separation of Nickel or Cobalt from the Organic Matters or Tissues, 664, 665 874. Estimation of Cobalt or Nickel, 665

IV. PRECIPITATED BY AMMONIUM SULPHIDE.

IRON--CHROMIUM--THALLIUM--ALUMINIUM--URANIUM.

1. Iron.

875. Poisonous and Non-Poisonous Salts of Iron, 665 876. Ferric Chloride--Pharmaceutical Preparations of Ferric Chloride, 666 877. Effects of Ferric Chloride on Animals, 666 878. Effects on Man--Criminal Case at Martinique, 666, 667 879. Elimination of Ferric Chloride, 667, 668 880. Post-mortem Appearances, 668 881. Ferrous Sulphate, 668, 669 882. Search for Iron Salts in the Contents of the Stomach, 669, 670

2. Chromium.

883. Neutral Chromate of Potash, 670 884. Potassic Bichromate, 670 885. Neutral Lead Chromate, 670, 671 886. Use in the Arts, 671 887. Effects of some of the Chromium Compounds on Animal Life, 671 888. Effects of some of the Chromium Compounds on Man--Bichromate Disease, 671, 672 889. Acute Poisoning by the Chromates--Illustrative Cases, 672, 673 890. Lethal Effects of Chromate of Lead, 673 891. Post-mortem Appearances, 674 892. Detection of the Chromates and Separation of the Salts of Chromium from the Contents of the Stomach, 674, 675

3. Thallium.

893. Discovery of Thallium--Its Properties, 675, 676 894. Effects of Thallium Salts, 676 895. Separation of Thallium from Organic Fluids or Tissues, 676

4. Aluminium.

896. Aluminium and its Salts, 676, 677 897. Action of Alum Salts--Siem’s Researches--Alum Baking-Powders, 677, 678 898. Post-mortem Appearances, 678 899. Detection of Alumina, 678, 679

5. Uranium.

900. Poisonous Properties of Uranium Salts, 679 901. Detection and Estimation of Uranium, 679

V. ALKALINE EARTHS.

BARIUM.

902. Salts of Barium in Use in the Arts, 679, 680 903. Chloride of Barium, 680 904. Baric Carbonate, 680 905. Sulphate of Barium, 680 906. Effects of the Soluble Salts of Barium on Animals, 681 907. Effects of the Salts of Barium on Man--Fatal Dose, 681, 682 908. Symptoms, 682, 683 909. Distribution of Barium in the Body, 683 910. Post-mortem Appearances, 683, 684 911. Separation of Barium Salts from Organic Solids or Fluids, and their Identification, 684

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Appendix

TREATMENT, BY ANTIDOTES OR OTHERWISE, OF CASES OF POISONING.

912. Instruments, Emetics, and Antidotes Proper for Furnishing an Antidote Bag, 685, 686 913. Poisons Arranged Alphabetically--Details of Treatment, 687-700

DOMESTIC READY REMEDIES FOR POISONING.

914. The “Antidote Cupboard,” and How to Furnish it, 701

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Williams’ Apparatus for Investigating Action of Poisons on the Frog’s Heart, 44 Ether Recovery Apparatus, 47 Micro-spectroscope, 48 Diagram showing Absorption Bands Produced from Colour Reactions, 55 Hæmatin Crystals, 61 Tube for Treatment of Liquids by Ethereal Solvents, 156 Diagram of Visual Field in Dinitro-benzol Poisoning, 190 Blondlot’s Apparatus for Production of Phosphine, 231 Apparatus for Sublimation, 258 Brucine Hydriodide, 342 Bocklisch’s Flask for Distillation in a Vacuum, 486 Berzelius’ Tube for Reduction of Arsenic, 554 Bent Tube for Assay of Mercury, 654

Folding-Chart (Deaths from Intemperance and Liver Disease), to face p. 136

POISONS: THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION.

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I. INTRODUCTORY

I.--The Old Poison-Lore.

§ 1. It is significant that the root “tox” of the modern word toxicology can be traced back to a very ancient word meaning “bow” or “arrow,” or, in its broadest sense, some “tool” used for slaying: hence it is no far-fetched supposition that the first poison-knowledge was that of the septic poisons. Perchance the savage found that weapons soiled with the blood of former victims made wounds fatal; from this observation the next step naturally would be that of experiment--the arrow or spear would be steeped in all manner of offensive pastes, and smeared with the vegetable juices of those plants which were deemed noxious; and as the effects were mysterious, they would be ascribed to the supernatural powers, and covered with a veil of superstition.

The history of the poison-lehre, like all history, begins in the region of the myths: there was a dark saga prevailing in Greece, that in the far north existed a land ruled by sorcerers--all children of the sun--and named Aeëtes, Perses, Hecate, Medea, and Circe. Later on, the enchanted land was localised at Colchis, and Aeëtes and Perses were said to be brothers. Hecate was the daughter of Perses; she was married to Aeëtes, and their daughters were Medea and Circe. Hecate was the discoverer of poisonous herbs, and learned in remedies both evil and good. Her knowledge passed to Medea, who narcotised the dragon, the guardian of the golden fleece, and incited Jason to great undertakings.

In the expedition of the Argonauts, the poets loved to describe Hecate’s garden, with its lofty walls. Thrice-folding doors of ebony barred the entrance, which was guarded by terrible forms: only the initiated few, only they who bore the leavened rod of expiation, and the concealed conciliatory offering of the Medea, could enter into the sanctuary. Towering above all was the temple of the dread Hecate, whose priestesses offered to the gods ghastly sacrifices.

§ 2. The oldest Egyptian king, Menes, and Attalus Phylometer, the last king of Pergamus, were both famous for their knowledge of plants. Attalus Phylometer was acquainted with hyoscyamus, aconite, conium, veratrum, and others; he experimented on the preparation of poisons, and occupied himself in compounding medicines. Mithradetes Eupator stood yet higher: the receipt for the famous theriaca, prepared in later years at an enormous price, and composed of fifty-four different ingredients, is ascribed to him. The wonderful skill shown by the Egyptians in embalming and technical works is sufficient to render it fairly certain that their chemical knowledge was considerable; and the frequent operations of one caste upon the dead must have laid the foundations of a pathological and anatomical culture, of which only traces remain.

The Egyptians knew prussic acid as extracted in a dilute state from certain plants, among the chief of which was certainly the peach; on a papyrus preserved at the Louvre, M. Duteil read, “Pronounce not the name of I. A. O. under the penalty of the peach!” in which dark threat, without doubt, lurks the meaning that those who revealed the religious mysteries of the priests were put to death by waters distilled from the peach. That the priests actually distilled the peach-leaves has been doubted by those who consider the art of distillation a modern invention; but this process was well known to adepts of the third and fourth centuries, and there is no inherent improbability in the supposition that the Egyptians practised it.

§ 3. From the Egyptians the knowledge of the deadly drink appears to have passed to the Romans. At the trial of Antipater,[1] Verus brought a potion derived from Egypt, which had been intended to destroy Herod; this was essayed on a criminal, he died at once. In the reign of Tiberius, a Roman knight, accused of high treason, swallowed a poison, and fell dead at the feet of the senators: in both cases the rapidity of action appears to point to prussic acid.

[1] Jos. Ant., B. xvii. c. 5.

The use of poison by the Greeks, as a means of capital punishment, without doubt favoured suicide by the same means; the easy, painless death of the state prisoner would be often preferred to the sword by one tired of life. The ancients looked indeed upon suicide, in certain instances, as something noble, and it was occasionally formally sanctioned. Thus, Valerius Maximus tells us that he saw a woman of quality, in the island of Ceos, who, having lived happily for ninety years, obtained leave to take a poisonous draught, lest, by living longer, she should happen to have a change in her good fortune; and, curiously enough, this sanctioning of self-destruction seems to have been copied in Europe. Mead relates that the people of Marseilles of old had a poison, kept by the public authorities, in which cicuta was an ingredient: a dose was allowed to any one who could show why he should desire death. Whatever use or abuse might be made of a few violent poisons, Greek and Roman knowledge of poisons, their effects and methods of detection, was stationary, primitive, and incomplete.

Nicander of Colophon (204-138 B.C.) wrote two treatises, the most ancient works on this subject extant, the one describing the effects of snake venom; the other, the properties of opium, henbane, certain fungi, colchicum, aconite, and conium. He divided poisons into those which kill quickly, and those which act slowly. As antidotes, those medicines are recommended which excite vomiting--e.g., lukewarm oil, warm water, mallow, linseed tea, &c.

Apollodorus lived at the commencement of the third century B.C.: he wrote a work on poisonous animals, and one on deleterious medicines; these works of Apollodorus were the sources from which Pliny, Heraclitus, and several of the later writers derived most of their knowledge of poisons.

Dioscorides (40-90 A.D.) well detailed the effects of cantharides, sulphate of copper, mercury, lead, and arsenic. By arsenic he would appear sometimes to mean the sulphides, sometimes the white oxide. Dioscorides divided poisons, according to their origin, into three classes, viz.:--

1. =Animal Poisons.=--Under this head were classed cantharides and allied beetles, toads, salamanders, poisonous snakes, a particular variety of honey, and the blood of the ox, probably the latter in a putrid state. He also speaks of the “sea-hare.” The sea-hare was considered by the ancients very poisonous, and Domitian is said to have murdered Titus with it. It is supposed by naturalists to have been one of the genus Aplysia, among the gasteropods. Both Pliny and Dioscorides depict the animal as something very formidable: it was not to be looked at, far less touched. The aplysiæ exhale a very nauseous and fœtid odour when they are approached: the best known of the species resembles, when in a state of repose, a mass of unformed flesh; when in motion, it is like a common slug; its colour is reddish-brown; it has four horns on its head; and the eyes, which are very small, are situated between the two hinder ones. This aplysia has an ink reservoir, like the sepia, and ejects it in order to escape from its enemies; it inhabits the muddy bottom of the water, and lives on small crabs, mollusca, &c.

2. =Poisons from Plants.=--Dioscorides enumerates opium, black and white hyoscyamus (especially recognising the activity of the seeds), mandragora, which was probably a mixture of various solanaceæ, conium (used to poison the condemned by the people of Athens and the dwellers of ancient Massilia), elaterin, and the juices of a species of euphorbia and apocyneæ. He also makes a special mention of aconite, the name of which is derived from Akon, a small city in Heraclea. The Greeks were well aware of the deadly nature of aconite, and gave to it a mythical origin, from the foam of the dog Cerberus. Colchicum was also known to Dioscorides: its first use was ascribed to Medea. Veratrum album and nigrum were famous medicines of the Romans, and a constituent of their “rat and mice powders;” they were also used as insecticides. According to Pliny, the Gauls dipped their arrows in a preparation of veratrum.[2] Daphne mezereon, called by the Romans also smilax and taxus, appears to have been used by Cativolcus, the king of the Eburones, for the purpose of suicide, or possibly by “taxus” the yew-tree is meant.[3]

[2] Pliny, xxv. 5.

[3] De Bello Gallico, vi. 31.

The poisonous properties of certain fungi were also known. Nicander calls the venomous mushrooms the “evil fermentation of the earth,” and prescribes the identical antidotes which we would perhaps give at the present time--viz., vinegar and alkaline carbonates.

3. =Mineral Poisons.=--Arsenic has been already alluded to. The ancients used it as a caustic and depilatory. Copper was known as sulphate and oxide; mercury only as cinnabar: lead oxides were used, and milk and olive-oil prescribed as an antidote for their poisonous properties. The poison-lehre for many ages was considered as something forbidden. Galen, in his treatise “On Antidotes,” remarks that the only authors who dared to treat of poisons were Orpheus, Theologus, Morus, Mendesius the younger, Heliodorus of Athens, Aratus, and a few others; but none of these treatises have come down to us. From the close similarity of the amount of information in the treatises of Nicander, Dioscorides, Pliny, Galen, and Paulus Ægineta, it is probable that all were derived from a common source.

§ 4. If we turn our attention to early Asiatic history, a very cursory glance at the sacred writings of the East will prove how soon the art of poisoning, especially in India, was used for the purpose of suicide, revenge, or robbery.

The ancient practice of the Hindoo widow--self-immolation on the burning pile of her husband--is ascribed to the necessity which the Brahmins were under of putting a stop to the crime of domestic poisoning. Every little conjugal quarrel was liable to be settled by this form of secret assassination, but such a law, as might be expected, checked the practice.

Poison was not used to remove human beings alone, for there has been from time immemorial in India much cattle-poisoning. In the Institutes of Menu, it is ordained that when cattle die the herdsman shall carry to his master their ears, their hides, their tails, the skin below their navels, their tendons, and the liquor oozing from their foreheads. Without doubt these regulations were directed against cattle-poisoners.

The poisons known to the Asiatics were arsenic, aconite, opium, and various solanaceous plants. There has been a myth floating through the ages that a poison exists which will slay a long time after its introduction. All modern authors have treated the matter as an exaggerated legend, but, for my own part, I see no reason why it should not, in reality, be founded on fact. There is little doubt that the Asiatic poisoners were well acquainted with the infectious qualities of certain fevers and malignant diseases. Now, these very malignant diseases answer precisely to the description of a poison which has no immediate effects. Plant small-pox in the body of a man, and for a whole fortnight he walks about, well and hearty. Clothe a person with a garment soaked in typhus, and the same thing occurs--for many days there will be no sign of failure. Again, the gipsies, speaking a tongue which is essentially a deformed prakrit, and therefore Indian in origin, have long possessed a knowledge of the properties of the curious “mucor phycomyces.” This was considered an alga by Agaron, but Berkeley referred it to the fungi. The gipsies are said to have administered the spores of this fungi in warm water. In this way they rapidly attach themselves to the mucous membrane of the throat, all the symptoms of a phthisis follow, and death takes place in from two to three weeks. Mr Berkeley informed me that he has seen specimens growing on broth which had been rejected from the stomach, and that it develops in enormous quantities on oil-casks and walls impregnated with grease. The filaments are long, from 12 to 18 inches, and it is capable of very rapid development.

There is also a modern poison, which, in certain doses, dooms the unfortunate individual to a terrible malady, simulating, to a considerable extent, natural disease,--that is phosphorus. This poison was, however, unknown until some time in the eleventh century, when Alchid Becher, blindly experimenting on the distillation of urine and carbon, obtained his “escarboucle,” and passed away without knowing the importance of his discovery, which, like so many others, had to be rediscovered at a later period.

§ 5. The Hebrews were acquainted with certain poisons, the exact nature of which is not quite clear. The words “rosch” and “chema” seem to be used occasionally as a generic term for poison, and sometimes to mean a specific thing; “rosch,” especially, is used to signify some poisonous parasitic plant. They knew yellow arsenic under the name of “sam,” aconite under the name of “boschka,” and possibly “son” means ergot.[4] In the later period of their history, when they were dispersed through various nations, they would naturally acquire the knowledge of those nations, without losing their own.

[4] R. J. Wunderbar, Biblisch-talmudische Medicin. Leipzig, 1850-60.

§ 6. The part that poison has played in history is considerable. The pharmaceutical knowledge of the ancients is more graphically and terribly shown in the deaths of Socrates, Demosthenes, Hannibal, and Cleopatra, than in the pages of the older writers on poisons.

In the reign of Artaxerxes II. (Memnon), (B.C. 405-359), Phrysa poisoned the queen Statira by cutting food with a knife poisoned on one side only. Although this has been treated as an idle tale, yet two poisons, aconite and arsenic, were at least well known; either of these could have been in the way mentioned introduced in sufficient quantity into food to destroy life.

In the early part of the Christian era professional poisoners arose, and for a long time exercised their trade with impunity. Poisoning was so much in use as a political engine that Agrippina (A.D. 26) refused to eat of some apples offered to her at table by her father-in-law, Tiberius.

It was at this time that the infamous Locusta flourished. She is said to have supplied, with suitable directions, the poison by which Agrippina got rid of Claudius; and the same woman was the principal agent in the preparation of the poison that was administered to Britannicus, by order of his brother Nero. The details of this interesting case have been recorded with some minuteness.

It was the custom of the Romans to drink hot water, a draught nauseous enough to us, but, from fashion or habit, considered by them a luxury; and, as no two men’s tastes are alike, great skill was shown by the slaves in bringing the water to exactly that degree of heat which their respective masters found agreeable.[5]

[5] Tacitus, lib. xii., xiii. Mentioned also by Juvenal and Suetonius.

The children of the Imperial house, with others of the great Roman families, sat at the banquets at a smaller side table, while their parents reclined at the larger. A slave brings hot water to Britannicus; it is too hot; Britannicus refuses it. The slave adds cold water; and it is this cold water that is supposed to have been poisoned; in any case, Britannicus had no sooner drunk of it than he lost voice and respiration. Agrippina, his mother, was struck with terror, as well as Octavia, his sister. Nero, the author of the crime, looks coldly on, saying that such fits often happened to him in infancy without evil result; and after a few moments’ silence the banquet goes on as before. If this were not sudden death from heart or brain disease, the poison must have been either a cyanide or prussic acid.

In those times no autopsy was possible: although the Alexandrian school, some 300 years before Christ, had dissected both the living and the dead, the work of Herophilus and Erasistratus had not been pursued, and the great Roman and Greek writers knew only the rudiments of human anatomy, while, as to pathological changes and their true interpretation, their knowledge may be said to have been absolutely nil. It was not, indeed, until the fifteenth century that the Popes, silencing ancient scruples, authorised dissections; and it was not until the sixteenth century that Vesalius, the first worthy of being considered a great anatomist, arose. In default of pathological knowledge, the ancients attached great importance to mere outward marks and discolorations. They noted with special attention spots and lividity, and supposed that poisons singled out the heart for some quite peculiar action, altering its substance in such a manner that it resisted the action of the funeral pyre, and remained unconsumed. It may, then, fairly be presumed that many people must have died from poison without suspicion, and still more from the sudden effects of latent disease, ascribed wrongfully to poison. For example, the death of Alexander was generally at that time ascribed to poison; but Littré has fairly proved that the great emperor, debilitated by his drinking habits, caught a malarious fever in the marshes around Babylon, and died after eleven days’ illness. If, added to sudden death, the body, from any cause, entered into rapid putrefaction, such signs were considered by the people absolutely conclusive of poisoning: this belief, indeed, prevailed up to the middle of the seventeenth century, and lingers still among the uneducated at the present day. Thus, when Britannicus died, an extraordinary lividity spread over the face of the corpse, which they attempted to conceal by painting the face. When Pope Alexander VI. died, probably enough from poison, his body (according to Guicciardini) became a frightful spectacle--it was livid, bloated, and deformed; the gorged tongue entirely filled the mouth; from the nose flowed putrid pus, and the stench was horrible in the extreme.

All these effects of decomposition, we know, are apt to arise in coarse, obese bodies, and accompany both natural and unnatural deaths; indeed, if we look strictly at the matter, putting on one side the preservative effects of certain metallic poisons, it may be laid down that generally the corpses of those dying from poison are less apt to decompose rapidly than those dying from disease--this for the simple reason that a majority of diseases cause changes in the fluids and tissues, which render putrefactive changes more active, while, as a rule, those who take poison are suddenly killed, with their fluids and tissues fairly healthy.

When the Duke of Burgundy desired to raise a report that John, Dauphin of France, was poisoned (1457), he described the imaginary event as follows:--

“One evening our most redoubtable lord and nephew fell so grievously sick that he died forthwith. His lips, tongue, and face were swollen; his eyes started out of his head. It was a horrible sight to see--for so look people that are poisoned.”

The favourite powder of the professional poisoner, arsenic, was known to crowned heads in the fourteenth century; and there has come down to us a curious document, drawn out by Charles le Mauvais, King of Navarre. It is a commission of murder, given to a certain Woudreton, to poison Charles VI., the Duke of Valois, brother of the king, and his uncles, the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon:--

“Go thou to Paris; thou canst do great service if thou wilt: do what I tell thee; I will reward thee well. Thou shalt do thus: There is a thing which is called sublimed arsenic; if a man eat a bit the size of a pea he will never survive. Thou wilt find it in Pampeluna, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and in all the good towns through which thou wilt pass, at the apothecaries’ shops. Take it and powder it; and when thou shalt be in the house of the king, of the Count de Valois, his brother, the Dukes of Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon, draw near, and betake thyself to the kitchen, to the larder, to the cellar, or any other place where thy point can be best gained, and put the powder in the soups, meats, or wines, provided that thou canst do it secretly. Otherwise, do it not.” Woudreton was detected, and executed in 1384.[6]

[6] Trésor de Chartes. Charles de Navarre. P. Mortonval, vol. ii. p. 384.

A chapter might be written entitled “royal poisoners.” King Charles IX. even figures as an experimentalist.[7] An unfortunate cook has stolen two silver spoons, and, since there was a question whether “Bezoar” was an antidote or not, the king administers to the cook a lethal dose of corrosive sublimate, and follows it up with the antidote; but the man dies in seven hours, although Paré also gives him oil. Truly a grim business!

[7] Œuvres de Paré, 2nd ed., liv. xx. Des Vennes, chap. xliv. p. 507.

The subtle method of removing troublesome subjects has been more often practised on the Continent than in England, yet the English throne in olden time is not quite free from this stain.[8] The use of poison is wholly opposed to the Anglo-Saxon method of thought. To what anger the people were wrought on detecting poisoners, is seen in the fact that, in 1542, a young woman was boiled alive in Smithfield for poisoning three households.[9]

[8] For example, King John is believed to have poisoned Maud Fitzwalter by “a poisoned egg.”

“In the reign of King John, the White Tower received one of the first and fairest of a long line of female victims in that Maud Fitzwalter who was known to the singers of her time as Maud the Fair. The father of this beautiful girl was Robert, Lord Fitzwalter, of Castle Baynard, on the Thames, one of John’s greatest barons. Yet the king, during a fit of violence with the queen, fell madly in love with this young girl. As neither the lady herself nor her powerful sire would listen to his disgraceful suit, the king is said to have seized her by force at Dunmow, and brought her to the Tower. Fitzwalter raised an outcry, on which the king sent troops into Castle Baynard and his other houses; and when the baron protested against these wrongs, his master banished him from the realm. Fitzwalter fled to France with his wife and his other children, leaving his daughter Maud in the Tower, where she suffered a daily insult in the king’s unlawful suit. On her proud and scornful answer to his passion being heard, John carried her up to the roof, and locked her in the round turret, standing on the north-east angle of the keep. Maud’s cage was the highest, chilliest den in the Tower; but neither cold, nor solitude, nor hunger could break her strength. In the rage of his disappointed love, the king sent one of his minions to her room with a poisoned egg, of which the brave girl ate and died.”--Her Majesty’s Tower, by Hepworth Dixon. Lond., 1869; i. p. 46.

[9] “This yeare, the 17th of March, was boyled in Smithfield one Margaret Davie, a mayden, which had pouysoned 3 householdes that she dwelled in. One being her mistress, which dyed of the same, and one Darington and his wyfe, which she also dwelled with in Coleman Street, which dyed of the same, and also one Tinleys, which dyed also of the same.”--Wriotherley’s Chronicle, A.D. 1542.

§ 7. Two great criminal schools arose from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries in Venice and Italy. The Venetian poisoners are of earlier date than the Italian, and flourished chiefly in the fifteenth century. Here we have the strange spectacle, not of the depravity of individuals, but of the government of the State formally recognising secret assassination by poison, and proposals to remove this or that prince, duke, or emperor, as a routine part of their deliberations. Still more curious and unique, the dark communings of “the council of ten” were recorded in writing, and the number of those who voted for and who voted against the proposed crime, the reason for the assassination, and the sum to be paid, still exist in shameless black and white. Those who desire to study this branch of secret history may be referred to a small work by Carl Hoff, which gives a brief account of what is known of the proceedings of the council. One example will here suffice. On the 15th of December 1513 a Franciscan brother, John of Ragubo, offered a selection of poisons, and declared himself ready to remove any objectionable person out of the way. For the first successful case he required a pension of 1500 ducats yearly, which was to be increased on the execution of future services. The presidents, Girolando Duoda and Pietro Guiarina, placed the matter before the “ten” on the 4th of January 1514, and on a division (10 against 5) it was resolved to accept so patriotic an offer, and to experiment first on the Emperor Maximilian. The bond laid before the “ten” contained a regular tariff--for the great Sultan 500 ducats, for the King of Spain 150 ducats, but the journey and other expenses were in each case to be defrayed; the Duke of Milan was rated at 60, the Marquis of Mantua at 50, the Pope could be removed at 100 ducats. The curious offer thus concludes:--“The farther the journey, the more eminent the man, the more it is necessary to reward the toil and hardships undertaken, and the heavier must be the payment.” The council appear to have quietly arranged thus to take away the lives of many public men, but their efforts were only in a few cases successful. When the deed was done, it was registered by a single marginal note, “factum.”

What drugs the Venetian poisoners used is uncertain. The Italians became notorious in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for their knowledge of poisons, partly from the deeds of Toffana and others, and partly from the works of J. Baptista Porta, who wrote a very comprehensive treatise, under the title of Natural Magic,[10] and managed to slide into the text, in the sections on cooking (De Re Coquinaria, lib. xiv.), a mass of knowledge as to the preparation of poisons. There are prescriptions that little accord with the title, unless indeed the trades of cook and poisoner were the same. He gives a method of drugging wine with belladonna root, for the purpose of making the loaded guest loathe drink; he also gives a list of solanaceous plants, and makes special mention of nux vomica, aconite, veratrum, and mezereon. Again, in the section (De Ancupio, lib. xv.) he gives a recipe for a very strong poison which he calls “venenum lupinum;” it is to be made of the powdered leaves of Aconitum lycoctonum, Taxus baccata, powdered glass, caustic lime, sulphide of arsenic, and bitter almonds, the whole to be mixed with honey, and made into pills the size of a hazel-nut.

[10] J. Bapt. Porta, born 1537, died 1615. Neapolitani Magiæ Naturalis. Neapoli, 1589.

In the section De Medicis Experimentis he gives a process to poison a sleeping person: the recipe is curious, and would certainly not have the intended effect. A mixture of hemlock juice, bruised datura, stramonium, belladonna, and opium is placed in a leaden box with a perfectly fitting cover, and fermented for several days; it is then opened under the nose of the sleeper. Possibly Porta had experimented on small animals, and had found that such matters, when fermented, exhaled enough carbonic acid gas to kill them, and imagined, therefore, that the same thing would happen if applied to the human subject. However this may be, the account which Porta gives of the effects of the solanaceous plants, and the general tone of the work, amply prove that he was no theorist, but had studied practically the actions of poisons.

The iniquitous Toffana (or Tophana) made solutions of arsenious acid of varying strength, and sold these solutions in phials under the name of “Acquetta di Napoli” for many years. She is supposed to have poisoned more than 600 persons, among whom were two Popes--viz., Pius III. and Clement XIV. The composition of the Naples water was long a profound secret, but is said to have been known by the reigning Pope and by the Emperor Charles VI. The latter told the secret to Dr Garelli, his physician, who, again, imparted the knowledge to the famous Friedrich Hoffman in a letter still extant. Toffana was brought to justice in 1709, but, availing herself of the immunity afforded by convents, escaped punishment, and continued to sell her wares for twenty years afterwards. When Kepfer[11] was in Italy he found her in a prison at Naples, and many people visited her, as a sort of lion (1730). With the Acqua Toffana, the “Acquetta di Perugia” played at the same time its part. It is said to have been prepared by killing a hog, disjointing the same, strewing the pieces with white arsenic, which was well rubbed in, and then collecting the juice which dropped from the meat; this juice was considered far more poisonous than an ordinary solution of arsenic. The researches of Selmi on compounds containing arsenic, produced when animal bodies decompose in arsenical fluids, lend reason and support to this view; and probably the juice would not only be very poisonous, but act in a different manner, and exhibit symptoms different from those of ordinary arsenical poisoning. Toffana had disciples; she taught the art to Hieronyma Spara, who formed an association of young married women during the popedom of Alexander VII.; these were detected on their own confession.[12]

[11] Kepfer’s Travels. Lond., 1758.

[12] Le Bret’s Magazin zu Gebrauche der Staat u. Kirchen-Geschichte, Theil 4. Frankfort and Leipzig, 1774.

Contemporaneously with Toffana, another Italian, Keli, devoted himself to similar crimes. This man had expended much as an adept searching for the philosopher’s stone, and sought to indemnify himself by entering upon what must have been a profitable business. He it was who instructed M. de St. Croix in the properties of arsenic; and St. Croix, in his turn, imparted the secret to his paramour, Madame de Brinvilliers. This woman appears to have been as cold-blooded as Toffana; she is said to have experimented on the patients at the Hôtel Dieu, in order to ascertain the strength of her powders, and to have invented “les poudres de succession.” She poisoned her father, brothers, sister, and others of her family; but a terrible fate overtook both her and St. Croix. The latter was suffocated by some poisonous matters he was preparing, and Madame de Brinvilliers’ practices having become known, she was obliged to take refuge in a convent. Here she was courted by a police officer disguised as an abbé, lured out of the convent, and, in this way brought to justice, was beheaded[13] and burnt near Nôtre Dame, in the middle of the reign of Louis XIV.[14]

[13] The Marchioness was imprisoned in the Conciergerie and tortured. Victor Hugo, describing the rack in that prison, says, “The Marchioness de Brinvilliers was stretched upon it stark naked, fastened down, so to speak, quartered by four chains attached to the four limbs, and there suffered the frightful extraordinary torture by water,” which caused her to ask “How are you going to contrive to put that great barrel of water in this little body?”--Things seen by Victor Hugo, vol. i.

The water torture was this:--a huge funnel-like vessel was fitted on to the neck, the edge of the funnel coming up to the eyes; on now pouring water into the funnel so that the fluid rises above the nose and mouth, the poor wretch is bound to swallow the fluid or die of suffocation; if indeed the sufferer resolve to be choked, in the first few moments of unconsciousness the fluid is swallowed automatically, and air again admitted to the lungs; it is therefore obvious that in this way prodigious quantities of fluid might be taken.

[14] For the court of poisoners (chambre ardente) and the histories of St. Croix, De Brinvilliers, the priest Le Sage, the women La Voisin, and La Vigoureux, the reader may be referred to Voltaire’s Siècle de Louis XIV., Madame de Sévigné’s Lettres, Martinière’s Hist. de la Règne de Louis XIV., Strutzel, De Venenis, &c.

The numerous attempts of the Italian and Venetian poisoners on the lives of monarchs and eminent persons cast for a long time a cloud over regal domestic peace. Bullets and daggers were not feared, but in their place the dish of meat, the savoury pasty, and the red wine were regarded as possible carriers of death. No better example of this dread can be found than, at so late a period as the reign of Henry VII.,[15] the extraordinary precautions thought necessary for preserving the infant Prince of Wales.

[15] Henry VIII., at one time of his life, was (or pretended to be) apprehensive of being poisoned; it was, indeed, a common belief of his court that Anne Boleyn attempted to dose him. “The king, in an interview with young Prince Henry, burst into tears, saying that he and his sister (meaning the Princess Mary) might thank God for having escaped from the hands of that accursed and venomous harlot, who had intended to poison them.”--A Chronicle of England during the Reign of the Tudors, by W. J. Hamilton. Introduction, p. xxi.

“No person, of whatsoever rank, except the regular attendants in the nursery, should approach the cradle, except with an order from the king’s hand. The food supplied to the child was to be largely ‘assayed,’ and his clothes were to be washed by his own servants, and no other hand might touch them. The material was to be submitted to all tests. The chamberlain and vice-chamberlain must be present, morning and evening, when the prince was washed and dressed, and nothing of any kind bought for the use of the nursery might be introduced until it was washed and perfumed. No person, not even the domestics of the palace, might have access to the prince’s rooms except those who were specially appointed to them, nor might any member of the household approach London, for fear of their catching and conveying infection.”[16]

[16] Froude’s History of England, vol. iii. p. 262.

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. If it is impossible now for Toffanas, Locustas, and other specimens of a depraved humanity to carry on their crimes without detection; if poison is the very last form of death feared by eminent political persons; it is not so much owing to a different state of society, as to the more exact scientific knowledge which is applied during life to the discrimination of symptoms, distinguishing between those resulting from disease and those due to injurious substances, and after death to a highly developed pathology, which has learned, by multiplied observations, all the normal and abnormal signs in tissues and organs; and, finally, to an ever-advancing chemistry, which is able in many instances to separate and detect the hurtful and noxious thing, although hid for months deep in the ground.

II.--Growth and Development of the Modern Methods of Chemically Detecting Poisons.

§ 8. The history of the detection of poisons has gone through several phases. The first phase has already been incidentally touched upon--i.e., detection by antecedent and surrounding circumstances, aided sometimes by experiments on animals. If the death was sudden, if the post-mortem decomposition was rapid, poison was indicated: sometimes a portion of the food last eaten, or the suspected thing, would be given to an animal; if the animal also died, such accumulation of proof would render the matter beyond doubt. The modern toxicologists are more sceptical, for even the last test is not of itself satisfactory. It is now known that meat may become filled with bacilli and produce rapid death, and yet no poison, as such, has been added.

In the next phase, the doctors were permitted to dissect, and to familiarise themselves with pathological appearances. This was a great step gained: the apoplexies, heart diseases, perforations of the stomach, and fatal internal hæmorrhages could no longer be ascribed to poison. If popular clamour made a false accusation, there was more chance of a correct judgment. It was not until the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the present century, however, that chemistry was far enough advanced to test for the more common mineral poisons; the modern phase was then entered on, and toxicology took a new departure.

§ 9. From the treatise of Barthélémy d’Anglais[17] in the thirteenth century (in which he noticed the poisonous properties of quicksilver vapour), up to the end of the fifteenth century, there are numerous treatises upon poison, most of which are mere learned compilations, and scarcely repay perusal. In the sixteenth century, there are a few works, such, for example, as Porta, which partook of the general advancement of science, and left behind the stereotyped doctrine of the old classical schools.[18]

[17] De Rerum Proprietaribus.

[18] In the sixteenth century it was not considered proper to write upon poisons. Jerome Cardan declared a poisoner worse than a brigand, “and that is why I have refused not only to teach or experiment on such things, but even to know them.”--J. Cardan: De Subtilitate. Basel, 1558.

In the seventeenth century the Honourable Robert Boyle made some shrewd observations, bearing on toxicology, in his work on “The usefulness of Natural Philosophy,” &c.: Oxford, 1664. Nicolas L’Emery also wrote a Cours de Chimie,--quite an epitome of the chemical science of the time.[19]

[19] Cours de Chimie, contenant la manière de faire les opérations qui sont en usage dans la Médecine. Paris, 1675.

In the eighteenth century still further advances were made. Richard Mead published his ingenious Mechanical Theory of Poisons. Great chemists arose--Stahl, Marggraf, Brandt, Bergmann, Scheele, Berthollet, Priestley, and lastly, Lavoisier--and chemistry, as a science, was born. Of the chemists quoted, Scheele, in relation to toxicology, stands chief. It was Scheele who discovered prussic acid,[20] without, however, noting its poisonous properties; the same chemist separated oxalic acid from sorrel,[21] and made the important discovery that arsenic united with hydrogen, forming a fœtid gas, and, moreover, that this gas could be decomposed by heat.[22] From this observation, a delicate test for arsenic was afterwards elaborated, which for the first time rendered the most tasteless and easily administered poison in the whole world at once the easiest of detection. The further history of what is now called “Marsh’s Test” is as follows:--

[20] Opuscula Chemica, vol. ii. pp. 148-174.

[21] De Terra Rhubarbi et Acido Acetosellæ. Nova Acta Acad. Veg. Sued. Anni, 1784. Opuscula Chemica, vol. ii. pp. 187-195.

Bergmann first described oxalic acid as obtained by the oxidation of saccharine bodies; but Scheele recognised its identity with the acid contained in sorrel.

[22] Mémoires de Scheele, t. i., 1775.

§ 10. Proust[23] observed that a very fœtid hydrogen gas was disengaged when arsenical tin was dissolved in hydrochloric acid, and that arsenic was deposited from the inflamed gas on cold surfaces which the flame touched. Trommsdorff next announced, in 1803, that when arsenical zinc was introduced into an ordinary flask with water and sulphuric acid, an arsenical hydrogen was disengaged; and if the tube was sufficiently long, arsenic was deposited on its walls.[24] Stromeyer, Gay-Lussac, Thénard, Gehlen, and Davy later studied this gas, and Serullas in 1821 proposed this reaction as a toxicological test. Lastly, in 1836, Marsh published his Memoir.[25] He elaborated a special apparatus of great simplicity, developed hydrogen by means of zinc and sulphuric acid, inflamed the issuing gas, and obtained any arsenic present as a metal, which could be afterwards converted into arsenious acid, &c.

[23] Proust, Annales de Chimie, t. xxviii., 1798.

[24] Nicholson’s Journal, vol. vi.

[25] “Description of a New Process of Separating Small Quantities of Arsenic from Substances with which it is mixed.” Ed. New. Phil. Journal, 1836.

This brief history of the so-called “Marsh’s Test” amply shows that Marsh was not the discoverer of the test. Like many other useful processes, it seems to have been evolved by a combination of many minds. It may, however, be truly said that Marsh was the first who perfected the test and brought it prominently forward.

§ 11. Matthieu Joseph Bonaventura Orfila must be considered the father of modern toxicology. His great work, Traité de Toxicologie, was first published in 1814, and went through many editions. Orfila’s chief merit was the discovery that poisons were absorbed and accumulated in certain tissues--a discovery which bore immediate fruit, and greatly extended the means of seeking poisons. Before the time of Orfila, a chemist not finding anything in the stomach would not have troubled to examine the liver, the kidney, the brain, or the blood. The immense number of experiments which Orfila undertook is simply marvellous. Some are of little value, and teach nothing accurately as to the action of poisons--as, for example, many of those in which he tied the gullet in order to prevent vomiting, for such are experiments under entirely unnatural conditions; but there are still a large number which form the very basis of our pathological knowledge.

Orfila’s method of experiment was usually to take weighed or measured quantities of poison, to administer them to animals, and then after death--first carefully noting the changes in the tissues and organs--to attempt to recover by chemical means the poison administered. In this way he detected and recovered nearly all the organic and inorganic poisons then known; and most of his processes are, with modifications and improvements, in use at the present time.[26]

[26] Orfila’s chief works are as follows:--

Traité de Toxicologie. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1814.

Leçons de Chimie, appliquées à la Méd. Pratique. 16mo. Brussels, 1836.

Mémoire sur la Nicotine et la Conicine. Paris, 1851.

Leçons de la Méd. Légale. 8vo. Paris, 1821.

Traité des Exhumations Juridiques, et Considérations sur les Changemens Physiques que les Cadavres éprouvent en se pourrissant. 2 tom. Paris, 1831.

§ 12. The discovery of the alkaloids at the commencement of this century certainly gave the poisoner new weapons; yet the same processes (slightly modified) which separated the alkaloids from plants also served to separate them from the human body. In 1803 Derosne discovered narcotine and morphine, but he neither recognised the difference between these two substances, nor their basic properties. Sertürner from 1805 devoted himself to the study of opium, and made a series of discoveries. Robiquet, in 1807, recognised the basic characters of narcotine. In 1818 Pelletier and Caventou separated strychnine; in 1819 brucine; and in the same year delphinine was discovered simultaneously by Brande, Lassaigne, and Feneuille. Coniine was recognised by Giesecke in 1827, and in the following year, 1828, nicotine was separated by Reimann and Posselt. In 1832 Robiquet discovered codeine; and in 1833 atropine, aconitine, and hyoscyamine were distinguished by Geiger and Hesse. Since then, every year has been marked by the separation of some new alkaloid, from either animal or vegetable substances. So many workers in different countries now began to study and improve toxicology, that it would exceed the limits and be foreign to the scope of this treatise to give even a brief résumé of their labours. It may, notwithstanding, be useful to append a short bibliography of the chief works on toxicology of the present century.

§ 13.--BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CHIEF WORKS ON TOXICOLOGY (NINETEENTH CENTURY).

ANGLADA, JOS.--“Traité de Toxicologie Générale, &c.” Montpellier et Paris, 1835.

AUTENRIETH.--“Kurze Anleitung zur Auffindung der Gifte.” Freiburg, 1892.

BANDLIN, O.--“Die Gifte.” Basel, 1869-1873.

BAUMERT, G.--“Lehrbuch der gerichtl. Chemie.” Braunschweig, 1889-92.

BAYARD, HENRI.--“Manuel Pratique de Médecine Légale.” Paris, 1843.

BELLINI, RANIERI.--“Manuel de Tossicologia.” Pisa, 1878.

BERLIN, N. J.--“Nachricht, die gewöhnlichen Gifte chemisch zu entdecken.” Stockholm, 1845.

BERNARD, C.--“Leçons sur les Effets des Substances Toxiques et Médicamenteuses.” Paris, 1857.

BERTRAND, C. A. R. A.--“Manuel Médico-Légale des Poisons introduits dans l’Estomac, et les Moyens Thérapeutiques qui leur conviennent: suivi d’un Plan d’Organisation Médico-Judiciaire, et d’un Tableau de la Classification Générale des Empoisonnemens.” Paris, 1818.

BINZ, C.--“Intoxicationen” in Gerhardt’s “Handbuch der Kinderkrankheiten.” iii. Heft. Tübingen, 1878.

BLYTH, A. WYNTER.--“A Manual of Practical Chemistry: The Analysis of Foods and the Detection of Poisons.” London, 1879.

BOCKER, FRIEDER. WILHELM.--“Die Vergiftungen in forensischer u. klinischer Beziehung.” Iserlohn, 1857.

BÖHM, R., NAUNYN, B., und VON BOECK, H.--“Handbuch der Intoxicationen.” (Bd. 15 of the German edition of Ziemssen’s Cyclopædia.)

BRANDT, PHÖBUS, und RATZEBURG.--“Deutschlands Giftgewächse.” Berlin, 1834-38 (2 vols. with 56 coloured plates).

BRIAND, J., et CHAUDE, ERN.--“Manuel Complet de Médecine Légale.” (The latest edition, 1879.) The chemical portion is by J. Bouis.

BUCHNER, E.--“Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin für Aerzte u. Juristen.” 3rd ed. München, 1872.

CASPER, J. L.--“Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin.” 7th ed. Berlin, 1881.

CHEVALLIER, A.--“Traité de Toxicologie et de Chimie Judiciaire.” Paris, 1868.

CHIAJE, STEF.--“Enchiridis di Tossicologia teorico-pratica.” 3rd ed. Napoli, 1858.

CHRISTISON, ROBERT.--“A Treatise on Poisons.” Edinburgh, 1830. (A third edition appeared in 1836.)

CORNEVIN, C.--“Des Plantes Vénéneuses.” Paris, 1887.

DEVERGIE, ALPHONSE.--“Médecine Légale, Théorique, et Pratique.” 3rd ed. Paris, 1852.

DRAGENDORFF, JEAN GEORGES.--“Die gerichtlich-chemische Ermittelung von Giften in Nahrungsmitteln, Luftgemischen, Speiseresten, Körpertheilen.” &c. St. Petersburg, 1868. 3rd ed. Göttingen, 1888.

---- “Untersuchungen aus dem Pharmaceutischen Institute in Dorpat. Beiträge zur gerichtlichen Chemie einzelner organischer Gifte.” Erstes Heft. St. Petersburg, 1871.

---- “Jahresbericht über die Fortschritte der Pharmacognosie, Pharmacie, und Toxicologie.” Herausgegeben von Dr. Dragendorff. 1876.

DUFLOS, A.--“Handbuch der angewandten gerichtlich-chemischen Analyse der chemischen Gifte, ihre Erkennung in reinem Zustande u. in Gemengen betreffend.” Breslau u. Leipzig, 1873.

EULENBERG, DR. HERMANN.--“Handbuch der Gewerbe-Hygiene.” Berlin, 1876.

FALCK, C. PH.--“Die Klinischwichtigen Intoxicationen.” (Handbuch der spec. Pathologie u. Therapie red. von R. Virchow, Bd. 2.) Erlangen, 1854.

FALCK, FERD. AUG.--“Lehrbuch der praktischen Toxicologie.” Stuttgart, 1880.

FLANDIN, C.--“Traité des Poisons, ou Toxicologie appliquée à la Médecine Légale, à la Physiologie, et à la Thérapeutique.” Paris, 1847, 1853.

FRÖHNER, EUG.--“Lehrbuch der Toxicologie für Thierärzte.” Stuttgart, 1890.

GALTIER, C. P.--“Traité de Toxicologie Médico-Légale et de la Falsification des Aliments,” &c. Paris, 1845.

---- “Traité de Toxicologie Médicale, Chimique et Légale,” &c. Paris, 1855. A later edition of the same work.

GREENE, WILL. H.--“A Practical Handbook of Medical Chemistry, applied to Clinical Research and the Detection of Poisons.” Philadelphia, 1880.

GUÉRIN, G.--“Traité Pratique d’Analyse Chimique et de Recherches Toxicologiques.” Paris, 1893.

GUY, W. A., and FERRIER, DAVID.--“Principles of Forensic Medicine.” London, 1874.

HARNACK, ERICH.--“Lehrbuch der Arzneimittellehre,” &c. Hamburg, 1883.

HASSELT, VAN, A. W. M.--“Handbuch der Giftlehre für Chemiker, Aerzte, Apotheker, u. Richtspersonen.” (A German translation of the original Dutch edition, edited by J. B. Henkel. Braunschweig, 1862. Supplemental vol. by N. Husemann, Berlin, 1867.)

HELWIG, A.--“Das Mikroskop in der Toxicologie.” 64 photographs, roy. 8vo, Mainz, 1865.

HEMMING, W. D.--“Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology.” London, 1877.

HERMANN, L.--“Lehrbuch der experimentellen Toxicologie.” 8vo. Berlin, 1874.

HOFFMANN, E. R.--“Lehrbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin.” 5th ed. Wien, 1890-91.

HUSEMANN and A. HILGER.--“Die Pflanzenstoffe in chemischer, pharmakologischer, u. toxicologischer Hinsicht.” 2nd ed. Berlin, 1882.

HUSEMANN, TH., and HUSEMANN, A.--“Handbuch der Toxicologie.” Berlin, 1862. (Suppl. Berlin, 1867.)

KOBERT, RUD.--“Lehrbuch der Intoxicationen.” Stuttgart, 1893.

KOEHLER, R.--“Handbuch der speciellen Therapie, einschliesslich der Behandlung der Vergiftungen.” 3rd ed. 2 vols. roy. 8vo. Tübingen, 1869.

LESSER, ADOLF.--“Atlas der gerichtlichen Medicin.” Berlin, 1883.

LOEW, OSCAR.--“Ein natürliches System der Gift-Wirkungen.” München, 1893.

LUDWIG, E.--“Medicinische Chemie in Anwendung auf gerichtliche Untersuchungen.”

MAHON, A.--“Médecine Légale et Police Médicale.” Paris, 1807.

MARX, K. F. H.--“Die Lehre von den Giften.” Göttingen, 1827-29.

MASCHKA, J.--“Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin.” Tübingen, 1881-82. This work is under the editorship of Dr. Maschka, and contains separate articles on medico-legal and toxicological questions by various eminent toxicologists, somewhat after the manner of Ziemssen’s Cyclopædia.

MENDE, LUD. JUL. CASP.--“Ausführliches Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin.” 1819-32.

MOHR, FRIED.--“Chemische Toxicologie.” Braunschweig, 1874.

MONTGARNY, H. DE.--“Essai de Toxicologie, et spécialement avec la Jurisprudence Médicale.” Paris, 1878.

MONTMAHON, E. S. DE.--“Manuel Médico-Légale des Poisons,” &c. Paris, 1824.

MUTEL, D. PH.--“Des Poisons, considérés sous le rapport de la Médecine Pratique,” &c. Montpellier et Paris, 1835.

NACQUET, A.--“Legal Chemistry: A guide to the detection of Poisons, Examination of Stains, &c., as applied to Chemical Jurisprudence.” New York, 1876.

A translation from the French; see “Foods, their Composition and Analysis,” page 43.

NICOLAI, JOH. ANT. HEINR.--“Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medicin.” Berlin, 1841.

The chemical portion is by F. R. Simon.

OGSTON, F.--“Lectures on Medical Jurisprudence.” London, 1878.

ORFILA, MATTHIEU JOS. BONAVENTURA.--“Traité des Poisons, ou Toxicologie Générale.” Paris, 1st ed., 1814; 5th ed., 1852.

ORFILA et LESUEUR.--“Traité de Médecine légale.” Paris, 1821; 4th ed., Paris, 1848.

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I. INTRODUCTORY

II. I. DEFINITION OF POISON

IV. ACIDS AND ALKALIES

VII. POISONS DERIVED FROM LIVING OR DEAD ANIMAL SUBSTANCES

VIII. THE OXALIC ACID GROUP OF POISONS

IX. INORGANIC POISONS

Appendix

I. INTRODUCTORY