35S 
POISONING BY HYDROCYANIC ACID. 
to be acetone enabled him to give the preference to ace- 
tone over pyroxilic spirit, and he still felt that the difficulty 
hitherlo experienced was not yet removed. It appeared 
also that the proposed test was not a conclusive one, for 
he had found that it gave the same reaction with coal-tar 
naphtha as with acetone. 
Mr. Redwood explained that the test was only intended 
to be used as a means of distinguishing between acetone and 
pyroxilic spirit. He thought it was now sufficiently evi- 
dent that the kind of naphtha best suited for use in the 
cases in which it was prescribed by Dr. Hastings, was pu- 
rified pyroxilic spirit, and not acetone, or pyroacetic spirit. 
Mr. Morson had no doubt that pyroxilic spirit, and not 
acetone, was what Dr. Hastings referred to under the name 
naphtha. It was much to be regretted, that the term naph- 
tha had been used to designate this liquid, as it was a very 
indefinite term. He would suggest the substitution of the 
term "wood spirit." It was not all specimens of wood spirit, 
however, that could be used medicinally in the cases alluded 
to. Most of the wood spirit of commerce was very impure, 
and required a particular process of purification to render it 
fit for medicinal use. It might be purified by largely dilut- 
ing it with water, when an oily substance separates, after 
the removal of which, the spirit may be recovered by dis- 
tillation. — Pharmaceutical Journal, April, 1S50. 
ART. LXXX.— POISONING BY HYDROCYANIC ACID, AND 
BY OIL OF CINNAMON. 
Dr. Christison relates, in the Monthly Jour, of Med. Sci. 
(Feb. 1850,) a case of poisoning by hydrocyanic acid which 
is interesting from leading to the following practical deduc- 
tions. 
1. It renders it highly probable that a grain and a half 
