§36.] 
PROCEDURE IN SEARCHING FOR POISON. 
49 
VI.—General Method of Procedure in Searching 
for Poison. 
§ 36. Mineral substances, or liquids containing only inorganic 
matters, can cause no possible difficulty to anyone who is practised 
in analytical investigation ; but it is otherwise with organic fluids or 
solids. 
The first thing to be done is to note accurately the manner in which 
the samples have been packed, whether the seals have been tampered 
with, whether the vessels or wrappers themselves are likely to have 
contaminated the article sent ; and then to make a very careful observa¬ 
tion of the appearance, smell, colour, and reaction of the matters, not 
forgetting to take the weight, if solid—the volume, if liquid. All these 
are obvious precautions, requiring no particular directions. 
If the object of research is the stomach and its contents, the contents 
should be carefully transferred to a tall conical glass ; the organ cut 
open, spread out on a sheet of glass, and examined minutely by a lens, 
picking out any suspicious-looking substance for closer observation. 
The mucous membrane should now be well cleansed by the aid of a 
wash-bottle, and if there is any necessity for destroying the stomach, it 
may be essential in important cases to have it photographed. The 
washings having been added to the contents of the stomach, the sedi¬ 
ment is separated and submitted to inspection, for it must be remembered 
that, irrespective of the discovery of poison, a knowledge of the nature 
of the food last eaten by the deceased may be of extreme value. 
If the death has really taken place from disease, and not from 
poison, or if it has been caused by poison, and yet no definite hint of the 
particular poison can be obtained either by the symptoms or by the 
attendant circumstances, the analyst has the difficult task of endeavour¬ 
ing to initiate a process of analysis which will be likely to discover any 
poison in the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom. For this purpose 
the following process has been devised, which differs from those published 
at an earlier date mainly in the prominence given to operations in a 
high vacuum, and the utilisation of biological experiment as a matter of 
routine. Taking one of the most difficult cases that can occur—viz. 
one in which a small quantity only of an organic solid or fluid is available 
—the best method of procedure is the following :— 
1. Distillation in a vacuum at a low temperature. 
2. Collecting the volatile products. 
3. Dehydrating the organic substances. 
4. Dissolving out from the dry mass fatty matters and alkaloids, 
glucosides, etc., by ethereal and alcoholic solvents. 
5. Destroying organic matter and searching for metals. 
A small portion is reserved and examined microscopically, and, if 
4 
