I884.J 
Analyses of Books. 
little giound foi doubting that the art of distillation was practised 
by the Egyptian priests. Indeed their knowledge, not only of 
Chemistry, but of Anatomy and Pathology, was assuredly far 
greater than is vulgarly supposed. The records of their lore 
perished,, however, long before the reputed burning of the 
Alexandrian Library of the Arabs. No small portion of the 
guilt of this destruction must rest upon the early Christians (see 
Acfts xix., 19), especially the monks, who played the same part 
in Egypt which they afterwards repeated in Mexico and Peru. 
Nicander, of Colophon (204 — 138 B. C.), is said to have 
written on Snake-venoms, and on the properties of Opium, Hen- 
bane, certain Fungi, Colchicum, Aconite, and Conium. 
On the subject of slow poisons which do not prove fatal until 
a considerable time after their introduction into the human sys- 
tem, Mr. Blyth holds an opinion which is scouted by many 
modem authors, but which we believe to be something more 
than a legend. A few cases of this kind have come^to our 
knowledge. The writer remarks that certain malignant diseases 
answer precisely to the description of a poison which has no 
immediate effects, or which, in technical language, has its “time 
of incubation.’’ The length of time that the poison of rabies 
can thus remain latent is well known, and there is at least no 
inherent impossibility that other poisons may be equally slow 
in developing their effects. Mr. Blyth says that the gipsies 
“ have lon g possessed a knowledge of the properties of the 
curious Mucor phy corny ces. They are said to have administered 
the spores of this fungus in warm water. In this way they (the 
spores) rapidly attach themselves to the mucous membranes of 
the throat, all the symptoms of phthisis follow, and death takes 
place in from two to three weeks.” 
The poisoneis of the East not only seledt an agent which may 
in its effects simulate some natural disease, but, if practicable, 
one to which the intended victim might seem naturally liable. 
The legend of Statira, poisoned by means of food cut with a 
knife, envenomed on one side only, has in it nothing impossible. 
The great schools of poisoning which flourished in Venice and 
in the more southern parts of Italy from the fifteenth to the 
seventeenth centuries are ably described. There is here matter 
which might be welcome to the novelists of the day in their evi- 
dent exhaustion of subjects and inventive power. At Venice the 
Council of Ten had their secret poisoners, who, for a due consi- 
deration, were ready to take in this manner the life of any poten- 
tate whom the Republic might consider dangerous. There was 
a regular tariff agreed on, increasing with the eminence of the 
vidlim, the length of the journey, and the difficulties and dangers 
to be encountered. 
The “Natural Magic ” of Baptista Porta contains many 
curious receipts for poisoning, and in the author’s opinion the 
general tone of this treatise proves that Porta was no mere 
theorist, but had studied the matter experimentally. 
