342 



ash test, there was no reduction of the oxide of copper. 

 Chemical evidence, therefore, showed it to be Cane 

 Sugar, and not Glucose. 



Br. Jackson also exhibited a Sugar which he had ob- 

 tained from the Spanish Earth Almond, Cyperus escu- 

 lent us. 



Mr. John Green stated that he had detected unequiv- 

 ocal signs of Strychnine in the liver of a skunk which 

 was said to have been killed by this poison. The process 

 by which it was found is that proposed by Flandin, 

 which Mr. G. had described in the Boston Medical and 

 Surgical Journal, June, 1855. As is well known, there 

 is great difficulty in detecting minute quantities of vege- 

 table poisons in the animal body, and the theory has 

 been advanced that they are destroyed before reaching 

 the liver. 



Dr. A. A. Hayes remarked that the communication of Mr. 

 Green had interested him, and he deemed it highly important, on 

 account of the positive fact of the detection of strychnia, after a 

 moderate dose had caused death. From personal experience, he 

 was led to add his testimony to the efficiency and simplicity of 

 the method of M. Ch. Flandin, for detecting the poisonous alka- 

 loids in the tissues of the organs ; as well as in the contents of the 

 stomach. 



In some trials, in the way of testing this method, Dr. Hayes 

 stated, that using simple extract of opium, and pursuing morphia 

 and meconic acid, he had been led to the conclusion that the ex- 

 cess of lime might react on the alkaloids, at the temperature of 

 the water-bath, and thus reduce the amount of any alkaloid it 

 would be possible to detect. In some cases, too, the dry mass 

 containing the alkaloid with a large excess of lime, even in the 

 state of fine powder, was slowly acted on by alcohol : — a great 

 abundance of lime combinations with fatty acids being present. 

 He had found it advantageous, especially when opei'ating on par- 

 tially digested food in stomach contents, to add a small portion of 

 chloride of calcium solution, which has the power of dissolving 



