64 OBSERVATIONS ON 



to the tafte, or inofFenfive to the palate, they 

 pafs unfufpeded into the ftomach j as foon as 

 they take poffeffion there, they lock up both 

 the doors; the upper and lower orifices are 

 at the fame time fhut up by fpafms ; nothing , 

 can be expelled, nor can any thing be got in : 

 all poffibility of relief is cut off; and fliould 

 that principle inherent in animal life, which 

 tends to throw off every thing injurious to the 

 machine, adt, it produces thofe ineffedual 

 heavings and ftruggles, which anfwer no 

 other purpofes than to accelerate and increafe 

 the effed^ of the poifon. 



Sometimes, by fome fecret mode of ope- 

 ration, which we ihall probably never be ac- 

 quainted with, they occafion tjifiantaneous 

 death 5 and when this happens, no traces of 

 the poifon can poffibly be difcovered ; but if 

 epileptic fymptoms take place, fuch appear- 

 ances as epilepfy, either with or without 

 poifon, neceffarily an^^ fjpecific ally produces, 

 may be expedted. 



At a time when putrefaction is far ad- 

 vanced, and at a diftant period from death, 

 fliould the face be difcovered of an intenfe 



black 



