

CHEMISTRY. 289 



properties and effects have been made by various experimentalists of reputation. 

 The following are some of the most valuable of the contributions to our 

 knowledge on this subject : 



On Severed New Methods of Delecting Strychnia andBruda. The following 

 is the resume of a report made to the British Association, 185G, by Mr. T. 

 Horsley on the subject of Strychnia, especial reference being due to the laf/o 

 Palmer poisoning case in England. Mr. Horsley observed that the circum- 

 stances attending Palmer's trial induced him to make a series of experiments 

 on the subject, and he tried the effects of a precipitant formed of one part of 

 bichromate of potash dissolved in fourteen parts of water, to which were 

 afterwards added two parts in bulk of strong sulphuric acid. This being tried 

 upon a solution of strychnine, the bulk was entirely precipitated in the form 

 of a beautiful golden colored and insoluble chromate. The experiment, as per- 

 formed by Mr. Horsley, was very interesting, and scarcely a trace of bitterness 

 was left in the filtered liquor. He did not claim to have originated this disco- 

 very of the use of a chromic salt and an acid liquor ; but the point to which 

 he called attention was the essential difference in the mode of application, 

 and he maintained that it was as much out of the power of any human being 

 to define the limit of sensibility which he had attained, as it would be to count 

 the sands or to measure the drops of the ocean. Taking thirty drops of a 

 solution of strychnia containing half a grain, he diluted it with four drachms of 

 water. He then dropped in six drops of a solution of bichromate of potash, 

 when crystals immediately formed, and decomposition was complete. Splitting 

 up the half grain of strychnia into millions of atoms of minute crystals, he 

 said that each of these atoms, if they could be separated, w r ould as effectually 

 demonstrate the chemical characteristics of strychnia as though he had 

 operated with a pound weight of the same. He then showed the chemical 

 reaction with those crystals. Dropping a drop of liquor containing the 

 chromate of strychnia into an evaporating dish and shaking it together, he 

 added a drop or two of strong sulphuric acid, and showed the effect as 

 previously noted. He next showed the discoloration produced in chromate of 

 strychnia and chromate of brucia by sulphuric acid, the former being changed 

 to a deep purple and then to a violet and red. 



It had been asserted since the trial of Palmer that the non-detection of 

 strychnine in the body of Cook was owing to the antimony taken by the 

 deceased having somewhat interfered with the tests. Such a supposition 

 was, in his (Mr. Horsley's) opinion, absurd. Nothing, he considered, could 

 more incontestably disprove the fallacy than either of two new tests which he 

 then performed. These he considered double tests, because they had first the 

 obtainment of a peculiar crystalline compound of strychnine, which was after- 

 wards made to develop the characteristic effects by w'hich strychnine is re- 

 cognised. Mr. Horsley next related a series of experiments which he had 

 made on animals with strychnine, and entered into the probable reasons for 

 its non-detection in certain cases, although (as he has just shown before) a 

 method of detecting infinitesimal quantities of strychnia by tests. He pro- 

 cured three rats at seven o'clock P. 11., he gave each rat a quarter of a grain 

 of powdered strychnia, and two hours afterwards a quarter and half a grain 



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