THE AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHARMACY. 15 
Tartar emetic, wliicli probably, next to arsenic, lias attained tlie most 
unenviable notoriety in our day for criminal proceedings, was discovered towards 
tlie middle of the seventeenth century. Hydrocyanic acid, the most potent of 
poisons, the vapour of which, accidentally inhaled, has been known to produce 
serious consequences, was only discovered towards the latter end of the eighteenth 
century. Oxalic acid, which has probably caused more deaths than any other 
poison from accidental administration, owing to its having a somewhat distant 
resemblance to the well-known medicine Epsom salts, was discovered about the 
same period. Morphia, the most important and useful of the vegetable poisons, 
although known in a very impure state as “ Magisterium Opii” in the seven- 
teenth century, was not obtained as a well-defined base until the beginning of 
the nineteenth century. Strychnine was discbvered about the same time ; while 
aconitine — first brought into distinctive prominence in this country in connection 
with the notorious criminal, Lamson — was discovered a few years later still. 
After this, in rapid succession, followed the discovery of nicotine, the active 
principle of the tobacco-iffant ; atropine, the active principle of the deadly 
nightshade; chloroform, the well-known anaesthetic; and chloral, long considered 
a chemical curiosity, but, within the last few years, manufactured and used as 
an opiate by the hundredweight. Medicine has at the same time been enriched 
by the addition of such powerful agents as the ordeal or Calabar bean of 
Africa, and the arrow-poison or curara of the Indians. 
The very mention of these deadly agents is sufficient to indicate the diffi- 
culty and importance of the work of the toxicologist, as well as of medical 
men generally, at the present time. The difficulty and importance lie in various 
directions, but particularly in the preliminary detection of the symptoms of 
poisoning, in the prompt administration of the most suitable antidotes, and in 
the 'post-mortem detections of the poison in cases of death. This last point is 
not the least important, as one curious fact in connection with the majority of 
the foregoing poisons is the rapidity of their decomposition, and the consequent 
difficulty of detecting them shortly after death. This is characteristic of every 
organic poison ; but several of those just mentioned are not of organic origin, 
such as hydrocyanic acid, chloroform, chloral, &c., and yet, being volatile, or 
readily decomposed into volatile principles, they also very soon escape the 
possibility of detection. This is not the case, however, with the older and 
better known mineral poisons, as they are all indestructible by the lapse of 
time. Several well-authenticated cases of the detection of mineral poisons long 
after death are given in every text-book on poisons ; but the following remark- 
able cases have not been cited, so far as we are aware. 
A wealthy county farmer in England having died, was buried in the tomb 
where his father had been interred thirty-five years before. An examination of 
certain of the bones of the father disclosed brilliant particles of a metallic- 
looking substance, which, on being collected together, presented a considerable 
quantity of what was proved to be oxide of mercury. The mercury had thus 
been preserved for more than the third of a century in the body of the 
deceased, the probability being that he had been in the habit of taking it 
medicinally during the latter part of his life. An equally remarkable case, or 
rather series of cases, came under the notice of the late eminent chemist, Mr. 
Heripath of Bristol, in which he found abundant traces of arsenic in the bodies 
of several young children after a lapse of eight years ; the evidence both of 
criminal poisoning and of the presence of the poison used being so clear, that 
the jury without hesitation returned a verdict “that the deceased children died 
from the effects of arsenic, but how or by whom administered there is no 
evidence to show. 5 ’ 
