TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. ' 55 



Experiments on Animals with Strychnia, and probable reasons for the non- 

 detection of the Poison in certain cases. By John Hoksley. 



The author next related his experiments on three white rats with strychnine. To 

 each rat was given a quarter of a grain of powdered strychnia. In little more than 

 an hour a quarter-grain dose was given to the largest rat, and in about another hour 

 half a grain more was given to the same animal. At 4 o'clock the next morning 

 they were all alive, having eaten bread and milk, but shortly after 7 o'clock they 

 were all dead, one having lived just twelve hours after taking the quarter-grain dose. 



In about three hours afterwards not the least indication of strychnine could be 

 obtained by the usual tests, and all traces of bitterness were lost. Every portion of 

 their bodies gave the same negative results. Was, then, the strychnia decomposed in 

 the organism, and its nature changed, as Liebig intimated ? 



The strychnine might have been absorbed into the albumen or other solid animal 

 matter, and thus abstracted from the fluid, forming perhaps by coagulation in the 

 blood, a solid albuminate as in the case of the glairy white of egg with strychnia, the 

 full quantity of the alkaloid not being recoverable. 



In his second experiment the author gave full three-quarters of a grain to a wild 

 rat, which was killed by a dog four or five days afterwards, exhibiting but little of 

 the effects of the poison ; the palms of the feet having cedematous swellings, and one 

 of the fore-feet being contracted. In the third experiment, Mr. H. gave a pill of two 

 grains of strychnia wrapped in blotting-paper, to a full-sized terrier dog. It was ap- 

 parently well for at least five hours, but in the morning was found dead, as though 

 asleep. When taken up, blood flowed freely from its mouth. The right ventricle 

 and auricle of the heart contained no blood ; the left was full of partly liquid, partly 

 clotted blood. The stomach was detached with both orifices closed. On incision, 

 the paper wrapper, so far from being reduced to a pulp by the action of the stomach, 

 was found in the same state as when the pill was given, and contained nearly all the 

 strychnine. 



None of the absorbed strychnia could be detected in the blood or elsewhere after 

 the most careful experiments. 



Mr. H. subsequently made experiments proving the great probability that a more 

 or less insoluble compound of organic or animal matter is found in combination with 

 strychnia. _____^ 



On the Products and Composition of Wheat-Grain. 

 By J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., and Dr. Gilbert. 



On the Detection of Strychnine. By Stevenson Macadam, Ph.D., F.R.S.E., 

 F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall; in the 

 School of Arts ; and to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Edin- 

 burgh. 

 Four points were sought to be determined by the present investigation. 



(1) Can strychnine which has been administered as a poison be thereafter detected 

 in the animal systean ? 



(2) Will antimony, morphine, coniine, or other chemical agent, conceal strychnine, 

 when such has been given to the animal ? 



(3) Will time, with its host of putrefying agents, so far destroy strychnine as to 

 render its detection unlikely or impossible 1 And 



(4) Can strychnine which has been given to the animal in minimum doses remain 

 in its organism in such quantity as afterwards to be isolated and recognized? 



In examining animal matter for strychnine, the author has found the following 

 process eminently serviceable, and confidently commends it to the notice of analysts 

 as a method which can be depended upon. The animal matter, when solid, is chopped 

 into minute fragments, and treated with a dilute solution of oxalic acid. After stand- 

 ing twenty-four hours, during which time the mass is repeatedly agitated, the whole 

 is filtered through muslin. The contents of the filter are well washed with water, and 

 the washings added to the filtrate. The liquid so obtained is heated to ebullition, 

 when albuminous matters separate, and whilst warm, is filtered through paper. Ani- 



