540 
POISONING  BY  COLCHICUM. 
or  less  filled  with  urine.  7.  Liver  healthy,  no  accumulation  of 
blood.  8.  The  right  heart  overfilled  with  blood.  9.  Lungs  about 
normal,  not  too  much  blood.  10.  Large  brains  remarkably  much 
blood. 
A  chemico-legal  examination  was  required  of 
1.  The  stomachs,  &c,  of  all  four  individuals. 
2.  The  contents  of  the  same. 
8.  The  vomited  liquid. 
4.  The  stool  of  one. 
5.  The  balance  of  the  poisonous  liquid. 
This  last  was,  according  to  color,  smell,  taste  and  spec,  gravity 
recognized  as  tincture  sem.  colch.  To  admit  of  no  doubt,  colchi- 
cin  was  to  be  prepared  from  it.  The  tincture  was  evaporated  to 
syrup,  the  residue  extracted  by  absolute  alcohol,  with  a  little 
tartaric  acid,  filtered,  evaporated,  a  little  water  added,  to  sepa- 
rate oil,  saturated  with  bicarbonate  of  soda,  four  times  its  quantity 
of  ether  and  some  caustic  soda  added  to  the  filtered  liquid,  and 
after  shaking  for  some  time,  the  ether  was  allowed  to  evaporate 
spontaneously,  when  a  little  yellowish  residue  was  left,  correspond- 
ing in  its  reactions  with  a  sample  of  colchicin,  obtained  from  Mr. 
Mueller,  in  Breslau,  who  had  prepared  it  himself,  and  stated  that 
he  obtained  5  grs.  of  alkaloid  from  1  lb.  of  sem.  colch.;  it  was 
easily  soluble  in  water  and  alcohol,  less  in  ether  ;  taste  bitter, 
acrid,  not  burning  ;  the  aqueous  solution  occasioning  a  voluminous 
white  precipitate,  with  tannin,  soluble  in  alcohol,  a  kermes-brown 
with  tincture  of  iodine,  and  a  yellow  precipitate  with  chloride  of 
platinum  ;  concentrated  nitric  acid  dissolved  the  substance  with 
a  violet  color,  concentrated  sulph.  acid  produced  a  dark  yellow 
color,  changing  to  a  dirty  green. 
The  identity  of  the  liquid  (No.  5.)  with  the  officinal  tinctura 
seminis  colchici  being  establishedj  beyond  a  doubt,  the  contents 
of  the  stomach  were  next  subjected  to  analysis.  After  proving 
the  absence  of  injurious  metallic  substances,  they  were  mixed 
with  absolute  alcohol,  strained  and  evaporated  at  a  low  heat  to 
a  syrup,  extracted  with  absolute  alcohol  and  tartaric  acid,  and 
proceeded  as  above.  The  residue,  after  the  evaporation  of  the 
ether,  showed  all  the  reactions  of  colchicin. 
No  trace  of  colchicin  could  be  detected  in  the  vomited  liquid 
(No.  3,)  and  an  analysis  of  the  stool  was  therefore  not  deemed 
