ON  THE  TOXICOLOGY   OF  STRYCHNIA. 
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ON  THE  TOXICOLOGY  OF  STRYCHNIA. 
By  J.  E,  D.  Rodgers,  Esq., 
Lecturer  on  Chemistry  at  St.  George's  School  of  Medicine ;  and 
G.  P.  Girdwood,  Esq., 
Assistant-Surgeon,  Grenadier  Guards. 
Can  strychnine  be  detected  after  death,  when  it  has  been 
administered  in  a  dose  only  sufficient  to  destroy  life  ?  or  is  it  so 
altered  in  the  process  of  destruction  of  life,  as  to  cease  to  be 
strychnine  ?  are  questions  that  it  is  the  object  of  this  paper  to 
answer. 
Let  us  first  inquire  the  facts  upon  which  the  opinion  that 
strychnine  cannot  be  detected  in  the  tissues  and  fluids  of  the 
body  is  based,  and  it  will  soon  be  seen  that  they  are  of  the  most 
slender  nature,  founded  on  the  results  of  experiments  and  analyses 
of  a  most  unsatisfactory  and  imperfect  character. 
Dr.  Christison  many  years  ago,  poisoned  animals  with  doses 
of  strychnine  varying  in  strength,  and  generally  failed  in  its 
discovery  by  subsequent  analysis.  Dr.  Taylor,  at  the  trial  of 
William  Palmer,  gave  in  evidence  that  he  had  killed  four  rabbits 
by  the  administration  of  strychnine.  In  the  first  experiment  he 
gave  two  grains ;  in  the  second  and  third,  one  grain ;  and  in  the 
fourth,  half  a  grain;  and  failed  to  discover  it  by  chemical  means 
in  three  out  of  the  four — the  successful  case  being  that  in  which 
he  had  given  the  large  dose  of  two  grains — a  dose  which  every 
one  must  admit  far  exceeds  the  quantity  necessary  to  destroy 
life.  Drs.  De  Vry  and  Van  de  Burgh,  from  their  interesting 
and  well-devised  series  of  experiments,  the  results  of  which  were 
given  in  a  paper  read  at  the  last  meeting  of  this  Society,  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  can  only  be  detected  when  the 
dose  given  exceeds  that  necessary  to  destroy  life. 
Let  us  next  inquire  what  are  the  essentials  of  a  process  that 
will  enable  the  analyst  to  obtain  the  strychnine  in  such  a  con- 
dition as  to  prove  its  presence  indubitably.  They  are,  that  it 
should  be  capable  of  disintegrating  the  substances  in  which  it  is 
present,  so  completely,  that  it  cannot  escape  solution  ;  and  that, 
finally,  it  should  yield  the  strychnine  in  a  state  of  perfect  free- 
dom from  foreign  organic  matter. 
Have  the  processes  employed  by  Drs.  Christison,  Taylor,  De 
Vry,  and  Van  de  Burgh  these  requisites  ?   Decidedly  not.  The 
