CONTENTS. 
PART I.—INTRODUCTORY. 
SECTION 
I. THE OLD POISON-LORE. 
1. The History of the Poison-Lehre —The Origin of Arrow Poison—Greek 
Myths ............ 
2. Knowledge of the Egyptians relative to Poisons—Distillation of Peach 
Water ............ 
3. Roman and Greek Knowledge of Poisons—Sanction of Suicide among 
the Ancients—The Classification of Poisons adopted by Dioscorides 
4. Poisons among Eastern Nations—Slow Poisons ..... 
5. Hebrew Knowledge of Poisons ........ 
6. The Part which Poison has played in History—Statira—Locusta— 
Britannicus—The Rise of Anatomy—The Death of Alexander the 
Great—The Death of Pope Alexander VI.—The Commission of 
Murder given by Charles le Mauvais—Royal Poisoners—Charles IX. 
—King John—A Female Poisoner boiled alive .... 
7. The Seventeenth-century Italian Schools of Criminal Poisoning— 
The Council of Ten—John of Ragubo—The Professional Poisoner— 
J. B. Porta’s Treatise on Natural Magic —Toffana and the “ Acquetta 
di Najpoli ”—Organic Arsenical Compounds—Extraordinary Pre¬ 
cautions for the Preservation from Poison of the Infant Son of 
Henry VIII. ........... 
II. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OP THE MODERN METHODS OF 
CHEMICALLY DETECTING POISONS. 
8. Phases through which the Art of detecting Poisons has passed . 
9. Treatise of Barthelemy d’Anglais—Hon. Robert Boyle—Nicolas 
l’Emery’s Cours de Chimie —Mead’s Mechanical Theory of Poisons — 
Rise of Modern Chemistry—Scheele’s Discoveries . . . . 
10. History of Marsh’s Test ......... 
11. Orfila and his Traite de Toxicologie —Orfila’s Method of Experiment . 
12. The Discovery of the Alkaloids—Separation of Narcotine, Morphine, 
Strychnine, Delphinine, Coniine, Codeine, Atropine, Aconitine, and 
Hyoscyamine ........... 
13. Bibliography of the Chief Works on Toxicology (Twentieth Century) . 
PART II. 
I. DEFINITION OF POISON. 
14. The Legal Definition of Poison—English Law as to Poison 
15. German Law as to Poison—French Law as to Poison 
16. Scientific Definition of a Poison—The Authors’ Definition . 
II. CLASSIFICATION OF POISONS. 
17. Classification of Poisons :—(A) Causing Death immediately or within 
a few minutes ; (B) Irritant Poisons ; (C) Irritant and Narcotic ; 
(D) Poisons more especially affecting the Nervous System 
18. Robert’s Classification ......... 
19. The Authors’ Arrangement ........ 
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