STRYCHNINE. 
§ 405-1 
vigorously agitated for several minutes. After separation is complete, the ether- 
chloroform layer is run out into a clean 50 c.c. glass-stoppered burette. The alkaline 
water solution is agitated with 20 c.c. more of the ether-chloroform, separated, and this 
extract added to that in the burette. The burette is now supported over a small 
weighed glass dish, which is kept warm on a water-bath, and the liquid allowed to evapo¬ 
rate gently, drop by drop, until a sufficient quantity of the pure alkaloid has collected 
in the centre of the dish to render an accurate weighing possible, or else all of the alkaloid 
may be collected and weighed at once. After all possible tests have been made upon 
the weighed alkaloid, the remainder is re-dissolved in a drop or two of acetic acid, a 
little water added, and the dish exposed under a bell-glass to the fumes of ammonia. 
After standing some time all the strychnine is found crystallised out in the beautiful 
characteristic needle-formed crystals. The mother-liquor is drawn off with a small fine- 
pointed tube and rubber bulb, the crystals carefully washed with a little water and 
dried over sulphuric acid. The glass dish containing these crystals is kept as the 
final exhibit, and is shown in evidence. Another convenient exhibit may be pre¬ 
pared by moistening a small filter-paper with a solution of the alkaloid in dilute 
acetic acid, then moistening with a solution of potassium dichromate ; this paper, 
on being dried, may be kept indefinitely. On moistening it, and touching it at any 
time with a drop of strong sulphuric acid, a violet film, changing to cherry-red, is 
formed at the place of contact.” 
Should search be made for minute portions of strychnine in the 
tissues, considering the small amount of the poison which may produce 
death, it is absolutely necessary to operate on a very large quantity of 
material. It would be advisable to take the whole of the liver, the 
brain, spinal cord, spleen, duodenum, kidneys, all the blood that can 
be obtained, and a considerable quantity of muscular tissue, so as to 
make in all about one-eighth to one-tenth of the whole body ; this may 
be cut up into small pieces, and boiled in capacious flasks with alcohol 
acidified with acetic acid. Evaporation must be controlled by adapting 
to the cork an upright condenser. 
Should the analyst not have apparatus of a size to undertake this at 
one operation, it may be done in separate portions—the filtrate from 
any single operation being collected in a flask, and the spirit distilled 
off in order to be used for the next. In this way, a large quantity of 
the organs and tissues can be exhausted by half a gallon of alcohol. 
Finally, most of the alcohol is distilled off, and the remainder evaporated 
at a gentle heat in a capacious dish, the final extract being treated, 
evaporating to a syrup, and using Cushman’s process (ante, p. 342) as 
just described. It is only by working on this large scale that there is 
any probability of detecting absorbed strychnine in those cases where 
only one or two grains have destroyed life, and even then it is possible 
to miss the poison. 
Strychnine is separated by the kidneys rapidly. In a suicidal case 
recorded by Schauenstein, 1 death took place in an hour and a half after 
taking strychnine, yet from 200 c.c. of the urine Schauenstein was able 
to separate nitrate of strychnine in well-formed crystals. Dr Kratter 2 
has made some special researches on the times within which strychnine 
1 Maschka’s Handbuch, ii. 620. 
2 Ibid. 
