280 
ON THE DETECTION OF ARSENIC. 
tention. The recent case of Madame Laffarge, in Paris, 
charged with the crime of poisoning her husband, which en- 
listed in the cause some of the ablest chemists of Europe, and 
her subsequent conviction, mainly owing to evidence adduced 
through chemical investigation, serves to illustrate the import- 
ance of a familiar acquaintance with this branch of analytic 
chemistry, and likewise the skill requisite in the management 
of such nice operations, in order to arrive at unerring conclu- 
sions. Though viewed but as an accessory branch of che- 
mistry, it behooves every apothecary to perfect himself in the 
knowledge of toxicology. Incompetency, in this respect, 
might lead to the escape of a hardened criminal from merited 
punishment; or, what is worse, consign an innocent fellow 
being to an untimely end. 
From a general belief that physicians and druggists, by vir- 
tue of their vocation are thoroughly versed in all its kindred 
branches, (as they should be,) they are often required to pro- 
nounce upon the exact nature of a substance, used either in 
medicine or the arts. Among these may be found a few whose 
scientific attainments, united to practical experience, would 
justify their being intrusted by a court of justice with any 
object of chemical investigation, but by far the greatest por- 
tion are deficient in the requisite skill, as well as theoretical 
knowledge. These observations apply with peculiar force in 
this country, where the whole range of poisons, is accessible 
to the applicant, and where the want of legislative protection 
engenders so many self constituted apothecaries and physicians. 
To be acquainted with the theory of chemistry only, is not 
enough. The mere experimenter will be embarrassed in the 
application of its principles, and in very simple operations 
connected with the use of re-actives, will fail to establish his 
convictions as to the nature of the substance under examina- 
tion. 
A great bar to an acquisition of the proper knowledge, is 
that most, if not all of the treatises, upon toxicological chemis- 
try, are by foreign writers, and some in a foreign language, 
