VARIETIES. 
275 
When a poison is absorbed, very good services may be rendered by the 
use of diuretics, purgatives, and diaphoretics. Still, a poison may be 
lodged in the economy, without our being able to suspect the fact by the ana- 
lysis of the urine. As that portion of the poison which has been absorbed 
gradually decreases up to a certain period, it is quite impossible, and even 
absurd, to attempt calculating the amount of the poison which has 
been administered, by the quantity found in the viscera, putting other 
sources of error out of the question, such as vomiting, loss during experi- 
ments, &c. 
It is an error to suppose that, because a poison remains a long time in 
the system, it will continue so for an indefinite period, for which nitrate 
of silver is administered to dogs ; the metal may be found in the liver five 
months afterwards, but not after seven months. It must be supposed that 
the mercury, lodging so long in the viscera, becomes in some degree tolerated 
there. M. F. Orfila believes, with his uncle, that antidotes may do much 
good, and neutralize the action of certain poisons, even when the latter have 
already passed into the blood, the liver, spleen, &c, both by forming less 
poisonous compounds, and by giving rise to certain combinations, which 
are more easily eliminated. — Med. News. 
Mr. Faraday. — He who is universally acknowledged to be the first 
chemist in the world — the pride of science and the especial boast of Eng- 
land — Michael Faraday, was born in 1794. He was the son of a black- 
smith who bound him to a bookbinder in London, with whom he served 
out an apprenticeship till he was twenty-one years of age. He had no 
other education than what he secured by indomitable perseverance under 
the most trying and mortifying circumstances. Having had the luck 
to hear a lecture by Sir Humphrey Davy, a ticket of admission having been 
presented to him for the evening, an instantaneous conviction of his own 
inherent powers seems to have flashed before his mind. He made the 
acquaintance of Sir Humphrey, and afterwards became his assistant, 
secretary, friend, and finally his successor. It is well known that Sir 
Humphrey, in speaking of his own achievements in science, said that 
his greatest discovery was made when he found Michael Faraday. We 
have been present at the Royal Institution when the very aisles were filled 
with peers of the realm, standing for want of seats to listen to the learning 
and wit of this model lecturer. He is the first and only chemist we ever 
heard who made the science irresistibly fascinating. The charm is in 
his natural simplicity— for he is not graceful — his colloquial freedom, and 
unexpected and playful sayings, which prevent any tendency to weariness 
in the audience, combined with a kind and winning manner of address. 
Mr. Faraday puts on no airs, and has the good sense to treat everybody 
with marked politeness. In raising himself to distinguished fame, he has 
retained every former personal friendship, and he is still always accessible 
