184 Scientific Intelligence. — Chemistry. 



any taste being perceived. We have been informed by Dr 

 Christison, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in this Univer- 

 sity, that, in reference to the evidence of Mrs Smith's trial, he 

 has recently made some experiments on the subject, and that 

 others have been made, at his request, by Dr Duncan Ji^n., and 

 Dr Turner and other two gentlemen ; and the following is the 

 general reeult :— The quantity of the solid poison tasted, varied 

 from two to four grains ; and the duration of the tasting from half 

 a minute to a minute and a half. Two only thought they perceived, 

 towards the close, a very faint sweetish taste; the rest declared the 

 powder to be tasteless. As to the solution, its taste appeared to 

 most to be very faintly sweetish. What may be its taste, when 

 allowed to pass to the root of the tongue, it is not easy to de- 

 termine, as the experiment, made with a sufficient quantity, 

 would be unsafe. But it has certainly been swallowed without 

 the person remarking any particular taste at the time ; and the 

 most common account has been that it tasted sweetish. The 

 particulars may be seen in a paper in the Edinburgh Medical 

 and Surgical Journal for this quarter. 



3. On the Freservative Power of Arsenic over the bodies of 

 persons poisoned with it. — This property has been introduced 

 for the first time to public notice in Britain by the evidence 

 on the trial of Mrs Smith. It appears from the reports of the 

 medical gentlemen employed on that occasion, that, in the body 

 of the person poisoned, although it had been three weeks buried, 

 and the external parts were a good deal decayed, the stomach 

 and intestines were in a state of very high, if not perfect, preser- 

 vation ; so that the diseased appearances, caused by the inflam- 

 mation which the arsenic excited, were quite distinct. It farther 

 appears, that very little difference took place for three weeks after- 

 ward. This property has been for some time known in Germany. 

 On several occasions, the bodies of persons poisoned with arsenic 

 have been found after three, five, six, seven months, two years, 

 two years and a half, converted externally into a species of adi- 

 pocirous matter, and the stomach and intestines firm, flexible, 

 reddish, or as if they had been pickled ; and the appearances of 

 disease, caused by the arsenic, were often as distinct as in a re- 

 cent body. Dr Christison has collected several of these remark- 

 able facts, in the paper ah*eady referred to. The following are 



