^2  INFLUENCE  OF  HYPODEEMIC  INJECTION,  ETC. 
the  tissues ;  but  it  is  questionable  whether  this  was  not  some 
portion  of  the  nicotina  which  had  been  imbibed  rather  than 
absorbed.  Referring  to  his  process,  with  which  all  analytical 
chemists  are  familiar,  he  says  he  has  separated  strychnia  and 
brucia  from  nux  vomica,  veratria  from  extract  of  veratrum, 
emetina  from  extract  of  ipecac,  colchicina  from  wine  of  colchi- 
cum,  hyoscyamia  from  extract  of  henbane,  and  atropia  from 
extract  of  belladonna.  Some  of  the  poisons  mentioned  here  will 
destroy  life — the  fraction  of  a  grain.  Mr.  Morson,  of  England, 
prepares  aconitine,  of  which  T44  of  one  grain  is  the  full  dose, 
and  says  that  perhaps  the  5^  would  prove  fatal  to  an  adult. 
Where  is  the  analytical  chemist  who  could  separate,  in  quantity 
enough  to  give  reliable  color  tests,  and  obtain  crystals,  visible 
even  with  the  strongest  microscope,  this  ^  portion  of  a  grain, 
after  it  has  been  thoroughly  transfused  through  twenty-eight 
pounds  of  blood,  and  all  the  tissues  and  organs  of  the  body  ?* 
He  who  has  this  power  can  detect,  and  separate,  and  weigh  the 
specific  poison  of  rabies  or  of  the  rattlesnake,  and  could  justly 
be  classed  as  a  rival  of  Omnipotence  itself. 
Among  numerous  cases  of  poisoning  by  opium  or  its  alkaloids 
which  have  fallen  to  my  lot  to  examine  and  depose  on,  I  cannot 
conscientiously  say  that  I  evef  detected  absorbed  morphia.^ 
The  same  remark  will  apply  equally  to  strychnia,  and  I  can- 
not see  how  some  men  will  state  definitely  they  can  separate 
absorbed  strychnia,  but  have  never  dared  to  undertake  the  task  ; 
knowing  that  the  patient  dies  from  the  poison  absorbed,  they, 
while  claiming  they  can  detect  and  separate  absorbed  poison, 
contented  themselves  with  extracting  the  contents  of  the  stomach. 
When  we  look  back,  we  find  that  up  to  May,  1856,  as  regarded 
the  detection  and  separation  of  strychnia,  chemical  science  was 
*  Equals  the  -gg  0  0  0  °^  a  grain>  assuming  only  the  blood  contains  it. 
If  diffused  through  the  whole  body,  allowing  128  pounds  for  the  tissues, 
it  would  then  be  reduced  to  the  44  gVoooo- 
f  In  the  case  of  a  woman  who  committed  suicide  at  one  of  our  hotels, 
and  whose  stomach  was  handed  me  immediately  after  death,  I  was  able 
to  separate  only  two  grains,  when  she  had  actually  taken  ten  grains. 
Again,  the  case  of  a  homoeopathic  physician,  who  gave  solution  of  mor- 
phia, I  detected  the  £  of  a  grain  in  a  teaspoonful  of  the  solution,  and 
could  only  get  a  color  test  for  morphia  from  the  stomach. 
