EXTRACTS FROM A LECTURE ON STRYCHNINE. 673 
and which were in an advanced stage of decomposition, were likewise tested. 
These parts were (1) the contents of the stomach, (2) the muscle, and (3) 
the blood, and strychnine was detected in all. Even the stomach itself, 
which had been exposed above ground for three weeks and a half, on being 
washed free from a portion of the contents which were still adhering to its 
inner coat, chopped up, and analysed, yielded distinct evidence of strychnine. 
Again, as farther proof of the possibility of detecting strychnine some time 
after death, I have to bring forward some observations made upon a duck, 
which was poisoned by strychnine on the same day as the horse. The 
following are the doses given, and the symptoms exhibited by — 
THE DUCK. 
0 minute. 3 grs. strychnine in mash. 
15 minutes. Fluttering of wings — Spasms more or less violent, 
intermitted with periods of repose — at times the 
bird was so rigid that it could be lifted up by the 
foot and held straight out. 
2 hours. ^ gr. strychnine placed on tongue — successive and 
intermittent periods of tetanus and repose. 
3 „ 30 „ Death. 
The dose of strychnine given to the duck was undoubtedly out of pro- 
portion, but it was administered for the purpose of more speedily killing it. 
The bird was partly dissected two days after its death, and was laid aside 
for three weeks and a half. By that time it was much decomposed, and 
maggots were crawling abundantly over and through it. The maggots, it 
must be particularly observed, were living maggots, not dead ones ! On 
examination, strychnine was detected in (1) the gizzard and contents, 
(2) the intestines and contents, and (3) the muscle, with the lungs, liver, 
heart, &c. 
These later experiments demonstrate that strychnine can be discovered 
in the animal system after a reasonable time has been allowed to pass. It 
is quite possible, and I believe it probable, that, by-and-by, when the animal 
matter in which the strychnine is lodged is itself decomposed, that the 
strychnine atoms will likewise resolve themselves into more simple com- 
pounds, and the time come when strychnine can be no longer recognised or 
even traced. It has lately been advanced, that strychnine is so stable and 
indestructible a substance, that it ought to be recognised in the debris 
arising from the decomposition of the animal killed by it ; but such appears 
to me highly improbable. It is doubtless true, that concentrated sulphuric 
acid may be heated over strychnine without decomposing the alkaloid, and 
the tests for strychnine may be as readily observed after the heating with 
sulphuric acid as before. Considering the readiness with which sulphuric 
acid decomposes most organic bodies, this non-action on strychnine must be 
considered a very severe test, and one which says much in favour of the 
stability of strychnine. But it is not a conclusive experiment as regards 
the influence which the natural putrefactive powers may, and can exert on 
one organic substance in presence of a second organic body, which is itself 
undergoing active decomposition. There are changes proceeding every day 
in the putrefaction and decay of vegetable and animal matter which the 
chemist cannot explain, and which, as yet, he has failed to follow in his 
laboratory, with the aid of his glass jars, acids, and alkalies. This remark 
applies with still greater force to the action of a living plant or animal on 
material brought within their reach. We cannot prejudge the processes of 
organic life from experiments upon dead and inorganic substances. There 
xxix. 86 
