562 MORPHIA PREVENTS COLOUR-TEST OP STRYCHNIA. 
the power of preventing the effect of chemicals upon strychnia, as ordi¬ 
narily practised ; hut the difficulty of detecting it is more apparent than 
real, all that is necessary being (if the two alkaloids have really been 
extracted from a dead body) to adopt the method of precipitation of 
strychnia by the addition to the concentrated aqueous or neutral 
solution of a few grains of neutral chromate of potash, as suggested by 
me at the British Association for 1856, aiding the formation of the 
golden-coloured crystalline precipitate by brisk agitation for a minute 
or so with a glass rod, then carefully decanting the supernatant liquor 
containing the morphia (the chromate of which is longer forming); or 
it may be passed through a very small filter, and the chromic salt of 
strychnia collected for experiment with strong sulphuric acid, the merest 
particle of the salt being sufficient. Under the microscope, the crystals 
of chromate of strychnia are in the form of little golden-coloured stars; 
but the corresponding salt of morphia is that of little round granules, 
with a dark ring on the outside. As a matter of course, these latter, 
when touched with sulphuric acid, turn green, and so, when in excess, 
have the effect of masking the reaction of strychnia, which remains 
passive.” 
Dr. R. P. Thomas, Professor of Materia Medica in the 
Philadelphia School of Pharmacy, also states, that— 
“ A question of great moment has recently arisen, as to the possibility 
of detecting strychnia at all, if the poison should be associated with an 
equal, or a greater quantity of morphia, or a salt of morphia in the pre¬ 
sence of an organic fluid. 
“The property, referred to morphia when combined with organic 
matter, of preventing the detection of strychnia by colour-tests, will, if 
confirmed, afford a satisfactory explanation of the difficulty experienced 
by Drs. A. S. Taylor, and G. Owen Rees, in their examination of the 
viscera of J. P. Cook, as elicited on the celebrated trial of William 
Palmer for his murder, in May, 1856. They could not detect a trace of 
strychnia, notwithstanding the symptoms antecedent to Cook’s decease 
pointed unequivocally to this alkaloid as the fatal agent. If not decom¬ 
posed, it must have been masked by the presence of morphia, as 
Mr. Bamford, the attending physician, administered half a grain of this 
narcotic each night for three successive nights previous to his decease. 
The circumstances of this trial, and the experiments, described in the 
papers referred to, furnish an imperative reason for a further investi¬ 
gation of the subject; as the suicide or murderer can destroy all traces 
of his work, by simply combining an excess of morphia with a poisonous 
dose of strychnia. The former will not delay the fatal action of the 
latter, but, on the contrary, will rather aid it. 
“ With the view of determining the important question, whether 
strychnia is actually decomposed when treated with test-agents in the 
presence of morphia, or whether it is merely masked by such presence, 
I have performed more than a hundred experiments, of which an account 
of a few of the most valuable and satisfactory is now submitted. Pre¬ 
mising that, in the examination of minute portions of strychnia, success 
or failure depends entirely upon the care given to the details. In all 
of my experiments I employed crystals of the pure alkaloids and of 
their salts. 
“The ‘colour-tests’ referred to in this paper, are those furnished by 
bichromate of potassa, or by the ferricyanuret of potassium (red 
prussiate of potassa), when added to a portion of strychnia previously 
dissolved in a drop of strong sulphuric acid. The discrepancies in the 
