CHEMISTRY. 291 



" I dissolved one part of acetate of strychnia in one thousand parts of dis- 

 tilled water, adding a drop or two of acetic acid. I then took a frog, and 

 having added to one ounce of water l-100th part of a grain of acetate of 

 strychnia, placed the frog in this dilute solution. No efiect having been pro- 

 duced, 1-lOOth of a grain of the acetate was carefully added. This having 

 produced no effect, in another hour l-100th of a grain of the acetate was 

 again added, making 3-100ths, or about the 33d part of a gram. In a few 

 minutes, the frog became violently tetanic, and though taken out and washed, 

 died in the course of the night. I thus detected, in the most indubitable 

 manner, one thirty-third part of a grain of the acetate of strychnia. It 

 appeared to me that had more tune been given to the experiment, a much 

 minuter quantity would be detectable. I placed a second frog in one ounce 

 of distilled water, to which I added the 1 -200th part of a grain of the 

 acetate of strychnia. At the end of the first, second, and third hours, other 

 similar additions were made, no symptoms of strychnism having appeared. 

 At the end of the fifth hour, the frog having been exposed to the action of 

 l-50th part of a grain of the acetate of strychnia, tetanus came on, and under 

 the same circumstances of removal and washing as in the former experiment) 

 proved fatal in its turn. I thus detected l-50th part of a gram of the poison- 

 ous salt by a phenomenon too vivid to admit of a moment's doubt ; the animal, 

 on the slightest touch, became seized with the most rigid general spasmodic 

 or rather tetanoid rigidity. And this phenomenon, alternating with perfect 

 relaxation, was repeated again and again. 



" As the nerve and muscles of the frog's leg, properly prepared, have been 

 very aptly designated as galvanoscopic, so the whole frog, properly employed, 

 becomes strychnoscopic. In cases of suspected poison from strychnia, the 

 contents of the stomach and the intestines, and the contents of the heart, 

 blood vessels, &c., must be severally and carefully evaporated, and made to 

 act on lively frogs just taken from the ponds or mud. I need scarcely say, 

 that taken in winter, the frog will prove more strychnoscopic than in sum- 

 mer, in the early morning than in the evening." 



Professor Trail of Edinburgh has published the following paper on the 

 detection of strychnine : 



1. The best method of eliminating this powerful poison from the contents 

 of the stomach, is certainly by digesting these matters with alcohol, filtering 

 and concentrating the filtered liquid by a gentle heat. To separate any ani- 

 mal matter taken up with the strychnine, boiling this liquid with a little 

 acetic acid, and again filtering, will eflect a clear solution of the strychnine, 

 and this concentrated will afford the poison in a fit state for administering it 

 to small animals, or for the application of chemical tests. 



2. After many trials of various tests, that which seems one of the best is a 

 neutral solution of chloride of gold, especially if a sh'ght excess of acetic acid 

 exists in the liquid, or be added with chloride. This addition throws down 

 from the solutions of strychnine a gamboge yellow precipitate, which, if the 

 quantity of the strychnine be considerable, shows a tendency to form minute 

 crystals, while the chloride of platinum forms a less copious precipitate, of an 

 orange-yellow color ; b*;t the chloride of gold is most to be depended on. 



