1888.] on Poisons and Poisoning. 223 



" more or less," that is, according to the strength of the acid and the 

 time of contact. 



Charred : — This implies a chemical act, dependent on the power 

 of sulphuric acid to combine with water. 



The portion of the body thus charred dies. We call this mole- 

 cular death. (This does not imply that the person is dead. Health 

 is disturbed. Health is derived from the old Saxon word " Wholth," 

 signifying entirety. Health implies the perfect rhjthmicity of the 

 bodily functions. It is that condition expressed with charming sim- 

 plicity by Suffolk folk, who describe being " quite well " by the j)hrase, 

 " they feel all over alihe." The charring process (molecular death) 

 has disturbed rhythmicity.) Before long all the members suffer with 

 the charred stomach. The death, localised in the first instance, 

 becomes general, the death of the entire body, i. e. of the person, 

 eventually taking place. We call that somatic death. This is 

 poisoning by sulphuric acid. But the primary act of disturbance — 

 the first interference with the rhythmicity of health — resulted from 

 the chemical power of sulphuric acid to combine with water. It 

 will be evident that the chemical action of a poison depends on the 

 chemical relationships of that poison. 



(2) Carbonic Oxide. — Carbonic oxide is a true poison. It is a 

 gas that may often be seen burning with a blue flame on the top of a 

 bright fire in the open fire-stove. 



Its importance amongst poisonous bodies depends on the cir- 

 cumstance that it is evolved in many manufacturing operations 

 (e. g. lime and brick kilns, iron blast furnaces, copper-refining 

 furnaces, &c.), and that it is always present in small quantity in 

 coal gas, constituting its true toxic constituent. 



What then is the mechanism whereby carbonic oxide destroys 

 life? — The active agent of the blood is its red colouring matter 

 {Esemoglohin). To the chemist this substance abounds in wonder. 



We have reason to believe that haemoglobin is formed from the 

 albumenoids, the synthesis of which albumenoids is limited to the 

 vegetable. Essential as the albumenoids are to animal life, the animal 

 is dependent for their formation on the synthetical processes taking 

 place in the plant laboratory. The animal, however, can transmute 

 one albumenoid into another (e. g. he can change albumen into a 

 peptone), whilst he can also form from them bodies of less com- 

 plicated constitution (e. g. fat) : — in other words, he can lower them 

 in the scale. But, save with one exception, he cannot use them to 

 effect higher synthetical formations. This single exception is h^emo- 

 globin. 



It is no matter for surprise that a body like haemoglobin — one of 

 the chief actors, so to speak, in the curious drama of life and living 

 — which comes on the scene through a stage opening, of which we 

 neither know construction nor whereabouts — should possess unique 

 chemical properties and relationships. I shall only trouble you this 

 evening with one of these relationships. 



