300 
NEW TEST FOR STRYCHNINE. 
first portion of the liquor, which contains the major part of 
the aroma, is not subjected to the process of evaporation, 
and the result is twenty ounces, by measure, of a syrup 
possessing all the aromatic properties of the plant. 
Ibid. 
ART. LXXV. — NEW TEST FOR STRYCHNINE. 
By Eugene Marchand. 
It often hapens that the chemist, when called upon to de- 
cide a medico-legal question, experiences some difficulty in 
proving the presence or nature of certain poisonous sub- 
stances, either because he cannot procure a sufficiency of the 
poison, or else the re-agents serving to characterise them are 
too little sensitive, or do not offer that degree of precision 
as to allow you to pronounce with certainty in a capital case. 
Among the organic alkalies thus far known> we are all 
aware that strychnine is the most poisonous. Hence the 
discovery of a reaction which enables you to detect with 
certainty very minimum quantities, becomes a desideraa- 
tum. 
I believe I have attained this object by the following pro- 
cess, which is so sensible as to give a yet very appreciable 
reaction, even when you operate upon an imponderable 
quantity of sulphate of strychnine. 
When you triturate a very small portion of strychnine 
with a few drops of concentrated sulphuric acid contain- 
ing a hundredth of its weight of nitric acid, the strych- 
nine disappears without giving rise to any perceptible 
phenomenon: but if you add to the mixture merely an atom 
