344 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 406. 
is excreted by the kidneys. In two patients, who were being treated by 
subcutaneous injection, half an hour after the injection of 7-5 mgrms. of 
strychnine nitrate the alkaloid was recognised in the urine. The strych¬ 
nine treatment was continued for eight to ten days, and then stopped ; 
two days after the cessation, strychnine was found in the urine, but none 
on the third day, and the inference drawn is that the elimination was 
complete within forty-eight hours. 
Strychnine has been detected in the blood of dogs and cats in re¬ 
searches specially undertaken for that purpose, but sometimes a negative 
result has been obtained without apparent cause. Dragendorff 1 gave 
dogs the largest possible dose of strychnine daily. On the first few days 
no strychnine was found in the urine, but later it was detected, especially 
if food was withheld. M‘Adam was the first who detected the absorbed 
poison, recognising it in the muscles and urine of a poisoned horse, and 
also in the urine of a hound. Dragendorff has found it in traces in the 
kidneys, spleen, and pancreas ; Gay, in different parts of the central 
nervous system, and in the saliva. So far as the evidence goes, the liver 
is the best organ to examine for strychnine ; but all parts supplied with 
blood, and most secretions, may contain small quantities of the alkaloid. 
At one time it was believed that strychnine might be destroyed by 
putrefaction, but the question of the decomposition of the poison in 
putrid bodies may be said to be settled. So far as all evidence goes, 
strychnine is an extremely stable substance, and no amount of putrescence 
will destroy it. M‘Adam found it in a horse a month after death, and 
in a duck eight weeks after ; Nunneley, in fifteen animals forty-three 
days after death, when the bodies were much decomposed ; Roger, in a 
body after five weeks’ interment; Richter, in putrid tissues exposed for 
eleven years to decomposition in open vessels ; and, lastly, W. A. Noyes, 2 
in an exhumed body after it had been buried 308 days. 
It would appear from Ibsen’s 3 experiments that strychnine gets 
dissolved in the fluids of the dead body—so that whether strychnine 
remains or not, greatly depends on whether the fluids are retained or are 
allowed to soak away ; it is, therefore, most important in exhumations 
to save as much of the fluid as possible. 
§ 406. Identification of the Alkaloid. —A residue containing strych¬ 
nine, or strychnine mixed with brucine, is identified— 
1. By its alkaline reaction and its bitter taste. No substance can 
possibly be strychnine unless it tastes remarkably bitter. 
2. By the extremely insoluble chromate of strychnine, already 
described. 4 A fluid containing 1 : 1000 of strychnine gives with chro- 
1 In an animal rapidly killed by a subcutaneous injection of acetate of strychnine, 
no strychnine was detected either in the blood or liver.— Dragendorff. 
2 Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc., xvi. 2. 3 Viertel. f. gericht. Med., Bd. viii. 
4 1 grm. of strychnine gave 1-280 grm. of the chromate, =78-1 per cent, of 
strychnine ; 3 gave 3-811 of the chromate, =78-77 per cent, of strychnine.— Mohr. 
