170 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
remaining within the body after death to allow of these 
investigations being carried out. 
Possibly the “ wash-tub” may prove a source of poisoning 
otherwise than from the presence of brine, since when this 
is not large it would not prove injurious. Commonly, in 
addition to salt there will be found nitre, which is also used 
for “ pickling and often there is to be considered the state of 
the brine itself. It is highly charged with animal matter,which 
being in a state of change, will induce the like action in the 
organism, and give rise to disease, acting on the principle of 
a ferment. Besides this, the water in which potatoes are 
boiled, and which is often thrown in with them, or they are 
mashed up in it, has been long known to contain a dele¬ 
terious substance; and what wonder, when the potato 
belongs to the Solanacea , the same class as that which 
furnishes the mandrake, the henbanes, the nightshades, and 
other poisonous plants. Otto discovered solanina , a nar- 
cotico-acrid principle, in the potato, especially in the bud, 
and to this has been attributed the ill effects produced by 
potatoes on cattle, when they have been given in a germi¬ 
nating state. 
That the potato itself when boiled should prove not only 
edible but nutritious, is of course referable to the starch it 
contains; and that a poisonous principle should be combined 
with it is no more surprising than that the recent juice of the 
tubers of th zjatropha manihot ;which when dried and washed fur¬ 
nish tapioca,is found so destructiveof life that it is employed by 
the savages to envenom their spears and darts. Dr. Fermier 
says that half a teaspoonful of it killed a large dog in five 
minutes, and a slave condemned to death was destroyed in 
six minutes by the administration of thirty-five drops. 
Fortunately it is very volatile, passing off as the roots are 
dried, and entirely dissipated by heat [Burnett). 
To this may be added the varieties of the Brassica , as 
cabbages, kales, turnips, &c., the decaying leaves of which, 
and parings, are given as food to pigs. These when under¬ 
going decomposition yield sulphuretted hydrogen. And how 
often is it the case, when cleanliness is not strictly enforced, 
