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22. PoiSOJfS Iv^OT ALWAYS PoiSONS. 



By John Attfield, Ph.D., F.C.S, 



Professor of Practical Chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great 

 Britain, etc. 



[A Lecture delivered 9th January, 1879.] 



Aboft this time last evening, our Secretaiy called iipon me and 

 told me that the lecturer whom you expected to address you to-night 

 was unable to fulfil his engagement, and paid me the compliment 

 of asking me to read to you a paper, or deliver a lecture in 

 the place of Mr. Lobley. Seeing that original papers are not pro- 

 duced at a notice of twenty-four hours, or seldom in that number 

 of days, or even weeks, I need not say that I at once declined to 

 produce for you the result of any original unpublished investiga- 

 tions. But your Secretary suggested, with that cool boldness which 

 is characteristic of most Englishmen, and I am sure characteristic 

 of good secretaries, that, nevertheless, probably in twenty-four hours 

 I could think over a subject which might answer the purpose. In 

 accordance with his suggestion, I looked up matter which I thought 

 might be interesting enough to bring before you ; and if you will 

 allow me to call it a lecture — it will be a very short one — and if 

 you will grant some indulgence to one who is quite unaccustomed 

 to lecture at all, you will enable me to tell you something of what 

 I have observed myself and have, indeed, already partly published. 

 "Were I to read a paper, I should not think of offering you matter 

 that I had previously made public. 



The subject is one that, in the title, at all events, would appear 

 to have no connexion, or very little, with the objects of this 

 Society ; though I could, perhaps, give it a title which certainly 

 would link it strongly to Natural History, and that would be, 

 " Some observations on three new species of animals." The class 

 to which these animals belong is common enough. An allied 

 species is particularly common, for you meet with specimens at 

 almost all dinner tables, in a piece of good old cheese. But I 

 should not like to speak from the point of view that title suggests, 

 because I should soon be wading into the systems of Natural 

 History, and as I am not a naturalist, I should very soon be out 

 of my depth. If I may treat of these little animals from the 

 standpoint of " Poisons not always Poisons," I shall be more at 

 home, and, I trust, you will be more interested. 



I had occasion, a few years ago, to examine what medical men 

 commonly term "medicinal extracts." An extract, in the sense of 

 which I shall speak of extracts to-night, is simply an evaporated 

 infusion or decoction of some herb. I need not remind you that the 

 common sweet termed Spanish liquorice is an extract. Li(|uorice 

 root is infused or boiled in water, the fibre is thrown away, the 

 water boiled off, and you have Spanish liquorice as the extract. I 

 desire to speak to you of such extracts. For instance, the common 



