PUTRID POISONS. 349 



poisonous properties of the sausages, without them- 

 selves acquiring similar properties. 



Now this is the peculiar character of all sub- 

 stances which exert an action by virtue of their 

 existing condition of those bodies the elements of 

 which are in the state of decomposition or trans- 

 position ; a state which is destroyed by boiling 

 water and alcohol without the cause of the influ- 

 ence being imparted to those liquids ; for a state of 

 action or power cannot be preserved in a liquid. 



Sausages, in the state here described, exercise an 

 action upon the organism, in consequence of the 

 stomach and other parts with which they come in 

 contact not having the power to arrest their de- 

 composition ; and entering the blood in some way 

 or other, while still possessing their whole power, 

 they impart their peculiar action to the constituents 

 of that fluid. 



The poisonous properties of decayed sausages 

 are not destroyed by the stomach as those of the 

 small-pox virus are. All the substances in the 

 body capable of putrefaction are gradually decom- 

 posed during the course of the disease, and after 

 death nothing remains except fat, tendons, bones, 

 and a few other substances which are incapable of 

 putrefying in the conditions afforded by the body. 



It is impossible to mistake the modus operandi 

 of this poison, for Colin has clearly proved that 

 muscle, urine, cheese, cerebral substance, and other 

 matters, in a state of putrefaction, communicate 



