274 
VARIETIES. 
form ; it remained still undecayed, and possessed no smell save that pecu- 
liar to this fluid. It is not only over flesh, but over fruits and seeds, that 
Dr. Auguna has found chloroform to possess an antiseptic property. Dr. 
Auguna estimates that l-200th of chloroform is sufficient to oppose the putre- 
faction of a piece of fresh muscular fibre. — Boston Medical and Surgical 
Journal, from Gazetta Medka Italiana. 
Jatropha Urens. — The most deadly plant ever possessed at Kew, the 
jatropha urens, is no longer to be found there ; it has either been killed off 
like a mad dog, or starved to death in isolation like a leper. Its posses, 
sion nearly cost one valuable life, that of Mr. Smith, the present respected 
curator. Some five and twenty years ago. he was reaching over the ja- 
tropha, when its fine bristly stings touched his wrist. The first sensation 
was a numbness and swelling of the lips ; the action of the poison was on 
the heart; circulation Was stopped, and Mr. Smith soon fell, unconscious; 
the last thing he remembered being cries of " Kun for the doctor." Either 
the doctor was skilful, or the dose of poison injected not quite, though near- 
ly enough ; but afterwards the man in whose house it was, got it shoved up 
in a corner, and would not come within arm's length of it. He watered the 
diabolical plant with an indefinitely long spout. If the vase itself contained 
a quid pro quo, he is not to be greatly blamed. Another not much less 
fearful species of jatropha has appeared at Kew and disappeared. — Amer. 
Jour, of Med. Science, April, 1852, from Kew Gardens Quarterly Review, 
December, 1851. 
Elimination of Poisons. — M. F. Orfila, the professor's nephew, has 
read a paper before the Academy of Sciences of Paris, on the above sub- 
ject. He states that a great number of poisons, after being absorbed, mix 
with the products of the various secretions, as urine, perspiration, saliva, 
gastro-intestinal fluids. All poisons do not pass into these secretions, but 
the majority of them may be discovered in the urine. It is rather a re- 
markable fact that arsenic and iodine do not pass into the bile. These are 
the only substances which have hitherto been sought in that secretion ; it 
is, however, probable, that the same results will be obtained when 
other poisons are thus tried. Noxious principles are gradually expelled 
from the body in the manner above described — some in a short time, as 
arsenic and mercury ; but others may be detected in the substance of the 
viscera, four, five, and even eight months after their introduction. The 
more the urine carries off a poison, the sooner will the latter be expelled 
from the economy. Arsenic and mercury pass into the urine so early as 
the seventh day after their introduction into the system, and they are quite 
expelled in a fev. days. Lead and copper are not detected in the urine, 
and the entire expulsion of these metals does not take place for eight 
months. 
