58 
ON THE SUBLIMATION OF THE ALKALOIDS. 
I subsequently gave a patient, a young man aged seventeen, whose general 
health was good, 5j of the succus ; and to another, a man of middle age, 
suffering from debility of the sexual organs, f ^iss. No effects followed in 
either case. 
With another patient I continued its use every alternate day, in doses in¬ 
creased from f 5j to f 3 viij for some weeks, without any result. 
It is conclusive, therefore, that in medicinal doses the root is quite inert. 
And it appears equally certain from the experiments of Christison and Orfila 
(f and g) that it is not poisonous, even when taken in such quantities as would 
supply the place of vegetables in an ordinary meal. No properly authenticated 
case of poisoning by hemlock root has been recorded ; and the time has arrived, 
I think, when, in reference to a history of hemlock, such accounts as those 
given by Matthioli and Kircher (b and c), and so often adduced by medical 
authors, should be treated as mere fables. Such cases given, even with an 
understood “ valecint quantum valent ,” do much more harm than good. In the 
present instance they have, probably more than any other cause, served to obscure 
and thus retard that clear knowledge of the physiological action of hemlock 
which I believe we now possess. As to Storck’s statement (d), if it be not 
the effect of a greatly excited imagination, it must certainly be referred to 
some other plant, perhaps aconite. And yet such a statement, applied to the 
root of that plant, would still be an exaggeration. 
78, Upper Berkeley Street, W., May 30, 1867. 
ON THE SUBLIMATION OE THE ALKALOIDS. 
BY WILLIAM A. GUY, M.B., F.R.S., F.R.C.P., 
PROFESSOR OF FORENSIC MEDICINE, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON, ETC. 
m. 
From the facts stated in my last communication, it will be inferred that the 
alkaloids and analogous active principles share with a large number of sub¬ 
stances derived from the mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms, the property 
of sublimation. Or (to be more exact) the alkaloids, in common with many 
other bodies, have the property of rising, in the form of vapour or smoke, from 
a heated surface, and being deposited, as a visible spot or crust, on a cooler but 
still hot surface, separated by a short interval from the first. If heated in a 
common reduction tube, the deposit would take place in some higher part of the 
tube; if in a short specimen-tube closed above with a flat disk of glass, partly 
on the walls of the tube, partly on the disk; if in the manner which I recom¬ 
mended in my first paper, as an improvement on Helwig’s process, chiefly on 
the disk of glass, but partly on the microscopic cell. There will also be some 
escape of vapour or smoke : and this may be seen and smelt. This, however, does 
not happen in operating with small quantities, and at a suitable temperature. 
Let us now examine this process, with a view to ascertain what we may ex¬ 
pect to learn from it; and having done so, let us further consider what appa¬ 
ratus we require in order to apply it safely and successfully, and what pre¬ 
cautions we must use in order to obtain accurate and reliable results. 
Now I must observe, in the first place, that the test of sublimation implies 
the joint use of the microscope and of certain simple chemical appliances. 
For this special purpose, the binocular microscope is strongly to be com¬ 
mended ; and the power which will be found amply sufficient, and very conve¬ 
nient in use, is an inch. It suffices for the examination of the crusts and of the 
dry results of the action of reagents upon them; and it leaves sufficient space 
between it and the object to allow of the use of liquid tests, so as to note their 
