356 
ON  THE  TOXICOLOGY  OF  STRYCHNIA. 
process  given  by  Dr.  Taylor  at  the  trial  of  Palmer — and  Dr. 
Christison  stated  on  that  occasion  that  he  had  pursued  a  similar 
mode  of  analysis — consisted  in  digesting  the  matter  suspected  in 
spirit  of  wine  acidulated  with  sulphuric  acid,  filtering,  gently 
evaporating,  and  finally  adding  carbonate  of  potash  to  precipitate 
the  strychnine,  which  was  then  tested.  We  need  scarcely  remark 
that  such  a  process  would  never  yield  strychnine,  if  present  in 
minute  quantity,  in  that  state  of  freedom  from  organic  matter 
to  admit  of  satisfactory  testing,  and  would  utterly  fail  when 
blood,  urine,  and  tissues  were  the  subjects  of  analysis  ;  indeed,  it 
is  obvious  that  the  minute  quantity  to  be  extracted  in  the  latter 
analysis  could  never  be  precipitated  at  all,  seeing  that  each 
drop  of  water  is  capable  of  retaining  of  a  grain  of  strychnine. 
The  process  of  Staas  adopted  by  Dr.  De  Vry  is  immeasurably 
superior  to  the  preceding,  but  that  it  is  not  possessed  of  the 
requisite  degree  of  perfection  is  evident  from  his  own  experi- 
ment cited  in  proof  of  its  perfection.  This  experiment,  you 
may  remember,  consisted  in  mixing  the  quarter  of  a  grain  of 
strychnine  with  one  egg,  and  then  coagulating  the  mixture  by 
the  heat  of  boiling  water,  and  subjecting  it  to  Staas'  process,  by 
which  he  recovered  "almost  the  whole"  of  the  strychnine.  This 
word  "  almost"  proves  the  imperfection  of  the  process,  for  it 
shows  that  under  favorable  circumstances  a  quantity  appreciable 
by  the  balance  was  lost,  while  in  the  analysis  of  urine,  bones, 
and  small  quantities  of  the  other  tissues,  you  have  to  separate 
an  amount  of  poison  that  is  quite  inappreciable  by  the  balance. 
The  loss  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  spirit  of  wine  and  acid  em- 
ployed do  not  disintegrate  the  tissues  in  the  manner  necessary 
for  the  separation  of  the  quantity  of  strychnine  conveyed  by  the 
blood  to  the  various  tissues  and  organs ;  indeed,  the  hardening 
effect  of  the  spirit  would  rather  favor  the  retention  than  the 
separation  of  the  strychnine. 
The  process  adopted  by  us  is  as  follows : — The  substance 
operated  upon  is  digested  with  dilute  hydrochloric  acid,  one  to 
ten,  until  it  is  apparently  fluid  ;  the  liquid  is  then  filtered  and 
evaporated  to  dryness  over  a  water-bath,  treated  with  spirit  as 
long  as  anything  is  dissolved,  and  the  filtered  tincture  evapo- 
rated as  before,  and  the  residue  treated  with  water  and  filtered ; 
this  aqueous  solution  must  now  be  rendered  alkaline  by  ammonia, 
