538 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
tion of cadaveric alkaloids or ptomaines in decomposed bodies 
which may in some of their reactions simulate the reactions 
of strychnine. While this is probably true it is impossible 
that any chemist would submit an opinion on a case of strych- 
nine poisoning unless all possible tests, chemical, physiological, 
and morphological had first been tried, and it is hardly likely 
that any alkaloid substance other than strychnine itself could 
be mistaken for it. 
In all of the literature on strychnine and its post-mortem 
separation but little attention is paid to the estimation of 
quantity, most authorities appearing to consider the detection 
of the alkaloid sufficient. Undoubtedly where death has 
occurred accompanied by well defined ante-mortem symptoms 
the finding of even much less than the usual fatal dose would 
seem to be conclusive, since the poison which actually caused 
death has undoubtedly been distributed and absorbed in doing 
its work. Quantitative evidence is, however, always valuable 
and sometimes indispensable before an opinion can be formed 
or submitted in evidence before a jury. 
In the usual method of analysis the material to be examined 
is extracted with alcohol and someacid. The aqueous residue 
that remains after filtering and evaporating off the alcohol 
is diluted and filtered, necessitating an examination of both 
filtrate and residue for the alkaloid, the residue sometimes 
carrying more than the filtrate.* The filtrate is then evapo- 
rated, the extraction with alcohol repeated, and the filtrate 
finally made alkaline and extracted with chloroform. The 
chloroform never separates well from the alkaline liquid at 
this point except on long standing, besides which it takes up 
large quantities of extractive matters and oily bases which 
completely hide the strychnine when the chloroform is evap- 
orated. The strychnine is separated from this mass by digest- 
ing with concentrated sulphuric acid at 100° C. As the 
strychnine as well as the extractive mass is partly decomposed 
by this method,f it is very unsatisfactory, since when very 
small amounts of the sample are submitted, the utmost economy 
in work is necessary. 
* Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., XVI, No. 2. 
+ Ber. der Chem. Ges. XVIII, 3429. 
