MODIFICATIONS IN ACTION OF CERTAIN POISONS. 
485 
Phenicienne, discovered in 1863, by M. Roth, is another colouring-matter derived 
from phenic acid; it produces fast colours, from a deep garnet-red to a golden buff. 
Phcnicienne is produced by the action of nitrosulphuric upon carbolic acid. I will now, 
with your permission, gentlemen, leave for a few seconds the products derived from 
phenic acid, in order to place before you certain claims to some inventions not suffi¬ 
ciently recognized by writers on aniline colours. 
In 1860, Messrs. Clift, Lowe, and I took out a patent for the direct production on 
prints, of a green called emeraldine, and the deep blue called azurine, a blue which re¬ 
sembles indigo, and which really, when printed in a concentrated form, may be con¬ 
founded with a black. And although I do not desire to deprive Messrs. Lightfoot, 
Carlos Koechlin, and Lanth of any of the merit which belongs to them for the pro¬ 
duction of the beautiful black which every one must have admired in the Exhibition, 
still I may be permitted to remark that their process is based upon the oxidation of 
aniline by chlorate of potash, and is therefore based on our patent, previously secured 
to their discoverers. The difference between their process and ours consists in the addi¬ 
tion of a salt of copper, which addition is so important that I have no hesitation in say¬ 
ing it has decided the success of a black which now stands unrivalled. 
I cannot conclude this retrospective review without calling your attention to a fact which 
seems to have escaped my colleagues ; it is that the majority of the beautiful colours 
obtained from aniline are due to the industrial application of a discovery made by your 
illustrious president, M. Dumas, more than thirty years since. The discovery I mean is 
the principle, so rich and fruitful, which he named the law of substitutions ; a law which 
has thrown so bright a light on modern chemistry, and which has prepared the way for 
such brilliant achievements, and which, I say, has also been the foundation of the por- 
duction of the beautiful colouring substances which we all so much admire. Thus, in 
order to obtain aniline blues, violets, and greens, produced by the methods devised by 
the illustrious chemist Dr. Hofmann, we substitute for a certain proportion of the hydro¬ 
gen of rosaniline, an equivalent quantity of the alcoholic radicals, called phenyl, ethyl, 
methyl, and amyl. Further, this celebrated chemist has also shown that the blue ob¬ 
tained by Messrs. Girard and Delaire are also due to the same laws. 
I am far, I regret to say, gentlemen, from having named all the remarkable properties 
and applications of carbolic or phenic acid; but I trust I have succeeded in making you 
share my enthusiasm for this, valuable agent, which, after having rendered important 
services to most of the world’s industries, still offers to chemists and to manufacturers a 
wide field for new applications. 
THE MODIFICATIONS PRODUCED BY DIRECT CHEMICAL ADDITION 
UPON THE ACTION OF CERTAIN POISONS. 
Dr. Crum Brown is well known as an able chemist, and his system of graphic nota¬ 
tion is now generally adopted by writers on chemistry ; Dr. Fraser is the author of 
various papers on the physiological action and on the chemistry of active substances. 
In this paper it is asserted that a connection must exist between chemical constitution 
and physiological action. An examination of known facts appears to make it extremely 
probable that chemical condensation is intimately connected with physiological activity, 
and that the greater this is, the greater is the energy of a substance. Carbonic oxide 
and carbonic acid were mentioned among the examples in support of this supposition. 
With the view of examining the nature of this relation, they select, in the first place, 
the modifications produced by direct chemical addition. Some statements by Stahl- 
schmidt and Schroff regarding the changes produced in strychnia when various salts of 
methyl are added to it, induced the authors to examine the action of the compounds of 
several vegetable bases with these substances. The alkaloids they thus examined were 
strychnia, brucia, thebaia, codeia, morphia, and nicotia. 
When iodide of methyl-strychnium was exhibited to rabbits by subcutaneous admi¬ 
nistration, as large a dose as twelve grains caused no effect; fifteen grains produced 
symptoms which were recovered from; and twenty grains was a fatal quantity. 
Twenty grains were given without any effect by the stomach. The value and interest 
of these results are apparent when it is recollected that the one-twentieth of a grain by 
