ORGANIC POISONS. 343 



sugar and honey, either into metallic copper, or 

 into the red suboxide, neither of which enters into 

 combination with animal matter. It is well known 

 that sugar has been long employed as the most 

 convenient antidote for poisoning by copper. 



With respect to some other poisons, namely, 

 hydrocyanic acid and the organic bases strychnia 

 and brucia, we are acquainted with no facts calcu- 

 lated to elucidate the nature of their action. It 

 may, however, be presumed with much certainty, 

 that experiments upon their mode of action on 

 different animal substances, would very quickly 

 lead to the most satisfactory conclusions regarding 

 the cause of their poisonous effects. 



There is a peculiar class of substances, which are 

 generated during certain processes of decomposi- 

 tion, and which act upon the animal economy as 

 deadly poisons, not on account of their power of 

 entering into combination with it, or by reason of 

 their containing a poisonous material, but solely by 

 virtue of their peculiar condition. 



In order to attain to a clear conception of the 

 mode of action of these bodies, it is necessary to 

 call to mind the cause on which we have shown the 

 phenomena of fermentation, decay, and putrefaction, 

 to depend. 



This cause may be expressed by the following 

 law, long since proposed by La Place and Berthollet, 

 although its truth with respect to chemical phe- 

 nomena has only lately been proved. " A molecule set 



