458 
CHEMICAL  TESTS  FOR  STRYCHNIA. 
favorable  circumstances  causes  the  premature  death  of  feeble 
children.  Those  only  who  possess  vigorous  constitutions  live  to 
maturity,  while  their  natural  strength  is  increased  by  a  temperate 
manner  of  life,  especially  in  mountainous  regions.  A  rapid  in- 
crease of  population  is  thereby  prevented ;  but  those  who  survive 
are  more  healthy  and  vigorous  than  the  majority  in  civilized 
countries.  When  a  person  is  attacked  with  any  disease,  he  at 
once  avails  himself  of  the  exorcising  prayers  of  his  pope  or  priest, 
and  then  drinks  largely  of  cold  water.    Hydropathy  has,  in 
fact,  been  in  vogue  for  ages  with  the  Grseco-Slaves  American 
Medical  Monthly. 
THE  CHEMICAL  TESTS  FOR  STRYCHNIA. 
By  Mr.  William  Copney. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  class  of  the  community,  the  attention  of 
.  which  has  been  more  properly  arrested  by  the  Rugeley  tragedy, 
than  that  of  Pharmaceutical  Chemists.  To  them  is  entrusted 
the  responsibility  of  preparing,  keeping,  or  dispensing  the  potent 
drug,  which,  by  a  verdict  not  of  the  jury  only,  but  almost  of  the 
entire  country,  was  the  agent  by  means  of  which  the  poisoner 
effected  his  foul  purpose. 
Whatever  opinions  may  have  been  entertained  as  to  the  ne- 
cessity and  importance  of  a  befitting  education  on  the  part  of 
those  who  are  in  the  habit  of  compounding  medicines  containing, 
in  many  instances,  ingredients  of  the  most  energetic  nature,  there 
are  none,  at  the  present  time  at  least,  who  would  be  disposed 
to  call  in  question  its  utility.  It  is  not,  however,  a  matter  of 
education  only — it  is  not  merely  necessary  that  the  Pharmaceu- 
tist should  be  able  to  recognize  the  potent  agents  which  surround 
him,  by  the  physical  and  chemical  properties  which  distinguish 
them,  or  that  he  should  be  familiar  with  their  ordinary  doses  ; 
there  rests  upon  him  a  moral  responsibility :  rigid  and  unceas- 
ing care,  order  and  accuracy,  must  ever  be  added  to  chemical 
knowledge. 
In  whatever  state  the  recent  event  found  the  knowledge  of 
the  Pharmaceutist  in  regard  to  the  characters  of  strychnia,  so 
much  has  been  said  and  written  about  it,  that,  now  at  least,  it  is 
