ON  ARSENICAL  POISONING.  413 
and  entirely  lost  the  mouldy  odor  ;  it  had  also  become  far 
more  soluble  in  ether.     The  croton  oil  obtained  by  pressure 
contained  4  per  cent,  of  crotonole  London  Ohem.  Graz,,  July 
l$th,  1858,  from  Liebig's  Annalen. 
ARSENICAL  POISONING— ARSENIC  IN  SUBNITRATE  OF 
BISMUTH. 
By  Dr.  Robert  E.  Rogers, 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
Dr.  Rogers  called  the  attention  of  the  College  to  a  recent  case 
of  suspected  poisoning  with  arsenic,  the  peculiar  circumstances  of 
which,  as  developed  in  the  course  of  the  legal  investigation,  ren- 
dered it  unusually  interesting  in  a  medico-legal  point  of  view. 
The  trial  was  suddenly  cut  short,  and  the  accused  party  re- 
leased, on  account  of  an  accidental  impurity  discovered  by  him 
(Dr.  Rogers)  in  the  medicine  which  had  been  administered  by 
the  attending  physician  of  the  deceased. 
His  object  was  not  to  discuss  the  evidence  of  poisoning  in  the 
case,  although  he  had  no  doubt  that,  with  all  the  facts  elicited 
at  the  trial  at  his  command,  such  a  discussion  would  both  be  in- 
teresting and  instructive ;  he  wished  to  refer  only  to  the  point 
already  alluded  to  as  having  terminated  the  prosecution  ;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  to  put  the  Fellows  of  the  College  on  their 
guard  against  an  accidental  impurity  of  a  common  remedy,  which 
had  been  hitherto  unsuspected,  viz.,  the  presence  of  arsenic  acid 
in  the  subnitrate  of  bismuth. 
Dr.  Rogers  was  unable,  from  his  own  knowledge,  to  detail  the 
history  of  the  case  from  the  beginning.  His  connection  with  the 
investigation  dated  only  from  the  time  when  the  stomach  and 
intestines  were  brought  to  him,  carefully  separated  from  other 
parts  of  the  body,  and  for  chemical  analysis  alone. 
The  examination  was  conducted  exclusively  for  arsenic,  since 
that  substance  was  known  to  have  been  procured  by  the  accused  ; 
while  there  were  other  circumstances  tending  to  create  the  sus- 
picion that  it  had  been  criminally  administered. 
The  stomach  and  alimentary  canal  contained  a  very  small 
amount  of  pulpy  matter.     This,  taken  from,  the  stomach  and 
