536 
Notices of Books. 
[October, 
A Course of Practical Chemistry arranged for the Use of Medical 
Students. By W. Odling, M.B., F.R.S. Fifth Edition. 
London : Longmans and Co. 
This is a new and improved edition of Dr. Odling’s well- 
known treatise on chemical manipulation, qualitative analysis, 
toxicology, and animal chemistry. The former portion has been 
carefully revised by Dr. John Watts, and the latter by Dr. T. 
Stevenson, of Guy’s Hospital. 
At the present time it is more than ever imperative upon medi- 
cal students to make themselves perfectly acquainted with the 
aCt ion of poisons upon the animal system, and to acquire at least 
a rudimentary knowledge of toxicology. Taking its cue from 
certain recent cases of a somewhat sensational character, a por- 
tion of the lay press is labouring assiduously for a triple objeCt — 
to create a panic on the subject of secret poisoning ; to proclaim, 
by implication at least, eminent medical and chemical authorities 
as deficient in their knowledge of the symptoms and the behaviour 
of poisons ; and to demand increased restrictions upon the sale 
of substances of a deleterious character. It is darkly hinted 
that were inquiries as careful as that in the Balham case more 
common, many deaths now accepted as “ natural ” would be re- 
moved into another and more alarming category. It is insinuated 
that physicians cannot or do not distinguish the symptoms of 
natural disease from the effects of poisons, and that chemical 
analysis is in complicated cases not to be depended on. 
We cannot accept these views. For the frequency of secret 
poisoning there is no proof, but merely the random surmise of 
“ smart writers ” wishful to create a sensation in the so-called 
“ silly season.” As regards the alleged incompetency of men of 
science, it must be remembered that it was not the medical and 
chemical practitioners who broke down in the “ Balham mystery.” 
The medical experts did not fail to recognise in the symptoms 
exhibited by the patient the effeCts of an irritant poison. The 
chemist detected that poison as present in a fatal quantity. If, 
therefore, a failure of justice has here occurred,- — which it is not 
our province to examine. — it is surely idle in the extreme to 
make of the Bravo tragedy a peg on which to hang scandalous 
charges against men of science. 
As to increased restrictions upon the sale of poisons, we must 
—in the name both of chemical research and chemical manu- 
factures — protest against such a proposal. If we are to banish 
from the workshop every substance which cannot be swallowed 
with impunity, our trade will indeed be imperilled. Not only are 
deadly drugs in constant and necessary use in the faCtory, but 
poisons of the most formidable character can be gathered in 
wood, field, and garden. Further, even if all poisons could be 
kept out of the hands of malicious persons, nothing would be 
gained. Of what use is it, as Milton asks in his “ Samson 
