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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
the liquid. But this, which is not constant, is foreign to the 
strychnia, and is due to a little brucia which accompanies the 
strychnia in the Faba St. Ignatii and the nux vomica, and 
from which it is separated with difficulty. Chlorine may, 
therefore, be regarded as a proper re-agent to detect the pre- 
sence of brucia in strychnia. 
But, what is of the highest importance in toxicological in- 
vestigations, chlorine is itself a re-agent for the detection of 
strychnia; a re-agent the more important, as no other has as 
yet been discovered for it; while, at the same time, that, by 
means of chlorine, we can manifest its presence, we can also 
act on quantities hardly sensible. We will return again to this 
subject, which requires still further details, and, in the mean- 
while, examine the white matter produced by the action of 
chlorine on strychnia. To obtain this pure and free from 
strychnia, it is proper to form it in a diluted solution, and to 
take for this purpose a pure salt of strychnia and dissolve it in 
one hundred parts of water; the matter should be washed 
first in cold water, afterwards in boiling water, to deprive it 
of every trace of free acid; finally, it should be dissolved in 
sulphuric ether. By spontaneous evaporation, it crystallizes 
in slightly lamellar plates. This solubility in ether will serve 
to distinguish it from the strychnia from which it is produced, 
and likewise to separate these two substances, strychnia being 
scarcely soluble in the ether. Now to consider the characters 
which it presents: it is white, and even of a shining white, 
while moist; by drying it becomes grayish; it is scarcely so- 
luble in water; its taste is bitter but infinitely less so than that 
of strychnia; it is somewhat aromatic; it dissolves very well 
in alcohol, either weak or rectified; it crystallizes in extremely 
fine and almost microscopic needles. Not only it does not 
saturate acids, but it does not appear to be able to combine 
with them; nevertheless they promote its solubility. When 
heated, this matter does not melt; at 150° C. it begins to 
blacken, and becomes charred, giving off* vapors of hydro- 
chloric acid. Some experiments, which it appears to me to 
