§ l 6 .] DEFINITION OF POISON. 19 
property of injuring health, will be punished by from two to ten years’ 
imprisonment. 
“ If by such act a serious bodily injury is caused, the imprisonment 
is not to be less than five years ; if death is the result, the imprisonment 
is to be not under ten years or for life. * 
“ If the death is wilfully caused by poison, it comes under the 
general law : 4 Whoever wilfully kills a man, and if the killing is pre¬ 
meditated, is on account of murder punishable with death.’ ” 
The French law runs thus (Art. 301, Penal Code ) :—“ Every attempt 
on the life of a person, by the effect of substances which may cause 
death, more or less suddenly, in whatever manner these substances may 
have been employed or administered, and whatever may have been the 
results, is called poisoning.” 1 
There is also a penalty provided against anyone who “ shall have 
occasioned the illness or incapacity for personal work of another, by the 
voluntary administration, in any manner whatever, of substances which, 
without being of a nature to cause death, are injurious to health.” 2 
§ 16. Scientific Definition of a Poison.— A true scientific definition 
of a poison must exclude all those substances which act mechanically 
—the physical influences of heat, light, and electricity ; and parasitic 
diseases, whether caused by the growth of fungus, or the invasion of an 
organism by animal parasites, as, for example, “ trichinosis,” which are 
not, so far as we know, associated with any poisonous product excreted 
by the parasite ;—on the other hand, it is now recognised that patho¬ 
genic micro-organisms develop poisons, and the symptoms of all true 
infections are but the effects of “ toxines.” The definition of poison, in 
a scientific sense, should be broad enough to comprehend not only the 
human race, but the dual world of life, both animal and vegetable. 
Husemann and Kobert are almost the only writers on poisons who 
have attempted, with more or less success, to define poison by a 
generalisation, keeping in view the exclusion of the matters enumerated. 
Husemann says :—“ We define poisons as such inorganic or organic 
substances as are in part capable of artificial preparation, in part existing, 
ready formed, in the animal or vegetable kingdom, which, without being 
able to reproduce themselves, through the chemical nature of their 
molecules under certain conditions, change in the healthy organism 
the form and general relationship of the organic parts, and, through 
1 “ Est qualifie empoisonnement —tout attentat a la vie d’uno personno par l’offet 
do substances qui peuvent donner la mort plus ou moins promptomont, do quelquo 
maniere quo ces substances aient etc employees ou administreos, ot quelles qu’en 
aient ete les suites.”—Art. 301, Penal Code. 
2 “ Celui qui aura occasionne a autrui uno maladie ou incapacity de travail 
personnel en lui administrant volontairement, de quelquo maniere quo co soit, des 
substances qui, sans etre do nature a donner la mort, sont nuisibles a la sante.”— 
Art. 317, Penal Code. 
