Chapter V: Strychnia and Brucia

Contained in St. Ignatius’s bean—False Angostura bark—_Nux
Vomica_, &c.—Properties of strychnia—Facility of detection.
_Tests_: (1) Microscope—(2) Taste—(3) Color test; ditto in
other alkaloids, in bile, and in resinous and saccharine
matters—(4) Physiological test (Marshall Hall)—(5) Bichromate
of potash—(6) Picric acid—(7) Sulphuric acid and sodium
nitrite—(8) Mercuric chloride. Preparations of strychnia:
_Vermin killers_—Battle’s, Gibson’s, Miller’s, Marsden’s,
Barber’s, Hunter’s, Keating’s—_Brucia_—_Igasuria_—_Igasuric
acid_. _Doses of strychnia_: medicinal, fatal, recovery—_Nux
vomica_. _Fatal period_ for strychnia—_Symptoms_ in man,
commencement of symptoms, if given in powder, in solution,
in pills. _Explanation of symptoms_: by hysteria, tetanus,
epilepsy, gritty granules on spinal cord—Angina pectoris.
_Post-mortem_ appearances—Treatment—Antidotes—Dr. Taylor’s
evidence—Ptomaine—Did Cook die from morphia?—_Granular
preparations_ at St. Thomas’s Hospital 276

CHAPTER VI.

TRIALS FOR POISONING BY ARSENIC 294

(1) Madeline Smith (_Glasgow Case_), June, 1857.
(2) Ann Merritt (_Clapton Case_), March, 1850.