Chapter III: Part I: Introductory

I. THE OLD POISON-LORE.

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1. The History of the _Poison-lehre_--The Origin of Arrow-Poison--
Greek Myths, 1
2. Knowledge of the Egyptians relative to Poisons--Distillation of
Peach-Water, 2
3. Roman and Greek Knowledge of Poison--Sanction of Suicide among
the Ancients--The Classification of Poisons adopted by
Dioscorides, 2-4
4. Poisoning among Eastern Nations--Slow Poisons, 4, 5
5. Hebrew Knowledge of Poisons, 5
6. The part which Poison has played in History--Statira--Locusta--
Britannicus--The Rise of Anatomy--The Death of Alexander the
Great--of Pope Alexander VI.--The Commission of Murder given by
Charles le Mauvais--Royal Poisoners--Charles IX.--King John--A
Female Poisoner boiled alive, 5-9
7. The Seventeenth Century Italian Schools of Criminal Poisoning--
The Council of Ten--John of Ragubo--The Professional Poisoner--
J. B. Porta’s Treatise on _Natural Magic_--Toffana and the
“_Acquetta di Napoli_”--Organic Arsenical Compounds--St. Croix
and Madame de Brinvilliers--Extraordinary Precautions for the
Preservation from Poison of the Infant Son of Henry VIII., 9-13

II. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN METHODS OF CHEMICALLY
DETECTING POISONS.

8. Phases through which the Art of Detecting Poisons has passed, 13
9. Treatise of Barthélémy d’Anglais--Hon. Robert Boyle--Nicolas
l’Emery’s _Cours de Chimie_--Mead’s _Mechanical Theory of
Poisons_--Rise of Modern Chemistry--Scheele’s Discoveries, 13, 14
10. History of Marsh’s Test, 14, 15
11. Orfila and his _Traité de Toxicologie_--Orfila’s Method of
Experiment, 15
12. The Discovery of the Alkaloids--Separation of Narcotine,
Morphine, Strychnine, Delphinine, Coniine, Codeine, Atropine,
Aconitine, and Hyoscyamine, 15, 16
13. Bibliography of the Chief Works on Toxicology of the Nineteenth
Century, 16-19