195 
ORIGINAL AND EXTRACTED ARTICLES. 
ON THE SUBLIMATION OF THE ALKALOIDS. 
BY WILLIAM A. GUY, M.B., F.R.S., F.R.C.P., 
PROFESSOR OF FORENSIC MEDICINE, KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON, ETC. 
V. 
It may now, I think, be safely affirmed that the alkaloids, in common with 
many other volatile and decomposable substances, yield, when heated, distinct 
and, in some cases, highly characteristic sublimates ; and that these sublimates 
may be obtained from quantities so minute as to justify us in looking forward 
to the admission of the test of sublimation among our processes for the detec¬ 
tion and identification of poisons. I have already, for instance, shown that a 
sublimate of strychnine weighing less than the ^u^th of a grain may itself 
yield three successive, well-defined, and perfectly characteristic sublimates. I 
have also shown that, from similar minute quantities of strychnine deposited 
from a solution of the alkaloid in benzole, or from a solution of the acetate 
neutralized by gaseous ammonia, similar sublimates may be obtained. Let us 
suppose, then, that in a medico-legal case, we have succeeded in extracting from 
the contents of the stomach, or from the tissues of the body, some such quan¬ 
tity of strychnine as the x^oo of a grain, deposited from a solution in benzole, 
ether, or chloroform ; the question would naturally arise, would it be advisable 
to submit this quantity to sublimation, to obtain from it three or more subli¬ 
mates, and to operate on these, rather than be satisfied (as the best toxicological 
authorities would be) with an examination of the deposit by the microscope, 
followed by the application of one of the colour-tests ? Or, to put the question 
in a perfectly unobjectionable form, would it be better to obtain directly from 
the solution in benzole, ether, or chloroform a series of stains of strychnine, and 
apply our tests to them, or to procure a single deposit of strychnine in the 
first instance, and then proceed to obtain from it a like series of sublimates? 
In order to put this question to the test, I selected a solution of strychnine in 
ether as most suitable for the purpose, having found by preliminary experi¬ 
ments, which it is not necessary here to describe, that very distinct and well- 
defined crystalline deposits can be obtained from this menstruum. I accordingly 
dissolved the x^th of a grain of the alkaloid in ether, and distributed the solu¬ 
tion, by successive droppings from & pipette, over fourteen small disks of glass, 
in such a manner that nine of them carried a deposit of 17J V 6 °I a grain, and 
the remaining five a deposit of the °f a grain. The nine deposits of 
xyLyth of a grain each, as well as the five smaller deposits of xwo> were white 
continuous stains without any crystalline appearance ; and, when examined 
under the microscope, proved to be amorphous, with crystalloidal masses scat¬ 
tered over them, but with no crystals of definite shape. On heating these de¬ 
posits, I obtained from each of them a single well-formed, and highly charac¬ 
teristic, sublimate and a carbonaceous residue, from which no further sublimate 
could be procured. 
These results, so unlike those which I had previously obtained with deposits 
from benzole, and from the acetate of strychnine neutralized by the vapours of 
ammonia, led me to repeat the experiment. I accordingly dissolved the xsoth 
a grain of the same specimen of strychnine in ether, from the same bottle, ob¬ 
serving the same precautions, and making no other difference except the substitu¬ 
tion of a watch-glass for a test-tube. But, in this second experiment, all the de¬ 
posits were evidently crystalline, and when placed under the microscope displayed 
all the crystalline forms proper to strychnine,—needles, prisms, rosettes, enve- 
