ON  THE  COLOR-TESTS  OF  STRYCHNIA,  ETC. 
227 
ON  THE  COLOR-TESTS  OF  STRYCHNIA,  AS  MODIFIED  BY  THE 
PRESENCE  OF  MORPHIA. 
By  Robert  P.  Thomas,  M.  D., 
Professor  of  Materia  Medica,  in  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy. 
During  the  last  few  years,  the  attention  of  the  profession  has 
been  attracted  to  the  consideration  of  the  various  means  which 
have  been  recommended  for  the  detection  of  strychnia  in  cases 
of  poisoning  by  that  powerful  agent ;  and  some  of  the  ablest 
minds  of  Europe,  and  of  this  country,  have  contributed  the  re- 
sults of  their  labors  to  the  common  stock  of  knowledge  on  this 
important  point.  Having  received  a  thorough  investigation 
from  such  hands,  and  its  relations  traced  in  almost  every  pos- 
sible combination  or  association,  and  the  tests  of  its  presence — 
both  physiological  and  chemical — having  been  proved  to  be  alike 
clear  and  distinctive,  it  would  appear  probable  that  little  more 
could  be  added  towards  the  perfection  of  its  history. 
Nevertheless,  a  question  of  great  moment  has  recently  arisen, 
as  to  the  possibility  of  detecting  it  at  all,  if  the  poison  should  be 
associated  with  an  equal,  or  a  greater  quantity  of  morphia,  or  a 
salt  of  morphia  in  the  presence  of  an  organic  fluid.  An  able 
and  exceedingly  valuable  paper  on  this  subject  was  published  in 
a  late  number  (Oct.  1861)  of  this  Journal,  [see  page  212]  ;  and 
another  article  on  the  same  is  to  be  found  in  the  Ohio  Med.  and 
Surg.  Journal,  for  September,  1859. 
The  property,  referred  to  morphia  when  combined  with  or- 
ganic matter,  of  preventing  the  detection  of  strychnia  by  color- 
tests,  will,  if  confirmed,  afford  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
difficulty  experienced  by  Drs.  A.  S.  Taylor,  and  G.  Owen  Rees, 
in  their  examination  of  the  viscera  of  J.  P.  Cook,  as  elicited  on 
the  celebrated  trial  of  William  Palmer  for  his  murder,  in  Eng- 
land in  May,  1856.  They  could  not  detect  a  trace  of  strychnia, 
notwithstanding  the  symptoms  antecedent  to  Cook's  decease 
pointed  unequivocally  to  this  alkaloid  as  the  fatal  agent.  If 
not  decomposed,  it  must  have  been  masked  by  the  presence  of 
morphia,  as  Mr.  Bamford,  the  attending  physician,  administered 
half  a  grain  of  this  narcotic,  each  night,  for  three  successive 
nights  previous  to  his  decease.  The  circumstances  of  this  trial, 
and  the  experiments,  described  in  the  papers  referred  to,  furnish 
