POISONING BY STRYCHNIA. 
399 
those poisoned with it. But to the wretched sufferer science 
brings no relief. The medical man has little else to trust to 
than emetics and the stomach-pump; artificial respiration 
ought also to be resorted to ; and infusion of galls and green 
tea, on account of the tannin they contain, are mentioned as 
worthy of trial. 
“ In 1818, Pelletier and Caventou extracted from nux 
vomica the peculiar ingredient strychnine ; it is to this that 
the seed owes its poisonous properties; it belongs to a class 
of substances which, owing to their action on vegetable co- 
lours, and their forming salts with acids, have been named 
vegetable alkalies or alkaloids, and of which the most familiar 
are morphia, obtained from opium, and quinine from Cinchona 
bark. 
c ‘ Strychnine, which in our own country is exclusively pre- 
pared from nux vomica, is a white crystalline substance, but 
in the chemists 5 shops it is usually to be seen in the form of 
powder. It is odourless, but its taste is so intensely bitter, 
as to be perceptible when one part is diluted in a million 
parts of water. Its bitterness led to the unfounded and mis- 
chievous rumour that it was used in the manufacture of 
bitter beer. 
<c The action of strychnine is about six times as violent as 
the extract of nux vomica. Dr. Christian says — ( I have killed 
a dog in two minutes w T ith the sixth part of a grain injected 
in the form of an alkaline solution into the chest. I have 
seen a wild boar killed in the same manner with the third of 
a grain in ten minutes. 5 Pelletier says — 6 Half a grain blown 
into the mouth of a dog produced death in five minutes. 5 55 
The tests for strychnine and its salts are many. Among 
the most recent is that of adding to the suspected powder a 
drop of undiluted sulphuric acid , so as to moisten it, then a 
little of red prussiate of potash, or ferro-cyanide of potassium ; 
when, if strychnia be present, a fine deep violet colour will 
be immediately produced. 
The bichromate of potash used instead of the prussiate 
will produce the like colour, but it is less abiding, and changes 
to a brown or olive shade, while the first-named ^passes more 
slowly into a light brick-red colour. 
M. Marchaud has proposed as a test for this alkaloid the 
addition of a little peroxide of lead, which on being treated 
with sulphuric acid to which T Joth part of nitric acid has been 
added, a magnificent blue colour is produced, which rapidly 
passes to a violet, then gradually to a red, and lastly it ter- 
minates in a few hours in a canary yellow. One thousandth 
part of a grain of strychnia may be thus detected, and no 
