Footnote 396:
Where a compound is merely separated it is called an EDUCT; but where
it arises from a new combination of the elements it is distinguished
by the term PRODUCT.
Footnote 397:
Recherches Physico-Chimiques.
Footnote 398:
On the ultimate Analysis of Vegetable and Animal Substances, by
_Andrew Ure_, M.D.F.R.S. Phil. Trans, for 1822, part 2.
Footnote 399:
The author has already in the fifth edition of his Pharmacologia,
entered so fully into the philosophy of medicinal combination, that he
can scarcely feel regret at the limits of the present work not
allowing him to dwell upon the subject.
Footnote 400:
The Cambogia _Gutta_ Lin. (Polyandria Monogynia) and several species
of Hypericum; Chelidonium, &c. also yield a similar juice.
Footnote 401:
The Dutch appear to have first introduced it into Europe about the
middle of the seventeenth century.
Footnote 402:
Ελλεβορος λευκος of Dioscorides.
Footnote 403:
Histoire des Plantes Vénéneuses de la Suisse.
Footnote 404:
The same alkali has been discovered in the seeds of the _Veratrum
Sabadilla_, and in the root of the _Colchicum Autumnale_.
Footnote 405:
It was first cultivated by _Gerarde_ in 1596.
Footnote 406:
See London Medical Repository, vol. xii, no. 67.
Footnote 407:
Pharmacologia, vol. ii, art. _Extract. Elaterii_, p. 204.
Footnote 408:
Fragmenta Chirurg. et Med. p. 66.
Footnote 409:
Obs. Lib. iv, c. xxvi, p. 208.
Footnote 410:
The juice of every species of _spurge_ is so acrid, that it corrodes
and ulcerates the body wherever it is applied. Warts or corns,
annointed with the juice presently disappear; hence this tribe of
plants has derived the popular name of _wart weed_.
Footnote 411:
One of the supposed proofs of the guilt of _Charles Angus_ in the case
of _Margaret Burns_, as stated at page 177, rested upon the fact, that
on searching the prisoner’s bed room, three bottles were found in the
wardrobe, viz. one marked “_poison water_;” a second “_Jacob’s
water_;” and a third “_Savine oil_.”
Footnote 412:
The roman poets constantly use it in the plural number, which
evidently shews that it was meant to denote other kinds of poisons, or
poisons in general; thus JUVENAL in the first satire, v. 156.
“Qui dedit ergo tribus patruis ACONITA, vehetur
Pensilibus plumis,——”
So again _Ovid_ in the first book of Metamorph, v. 47.
“Lurida terribiles miscent ACONITA novercæ.”
Footnote 413:
_Theophrastus_ tells us that a poison may be prepared from _aconite_
so as to occasion death within any definite period; see page 183 in
the present volume.
Footnote 414:
See an account of this process of preparing extracts _in vacuo_, in
Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. x, p. 240; and for a history of their
superior powers, the author begs to refer the reader to an account of
the articles in his Pharmacologia.
Footnote 415:
Pharmacologia, vol. 1, p. 136.
Footnote 416:
Med. Observ. and Inquiries, vol. v. p. 317.
Footnote 417:
It may be obtained from opium by the following process, invented by
ROBIQUET. Three hundred parts of pure opium are to be macerated during
five days, in one thousand parts of common water; to the filtered
solution, fifteen parts of perfectly pure magnesia (carefully avoiding
the _carbonate_) are to be added; boil this mixture (A) for ten
minutes, and separate the sediment (B) by a filter, washing it with
cold water until the water passes off clear; after which, treat it
alternately with hot and cold alcohol (12, 22. Bé) as long as the
menstruum takes up any colouring matter; the residue is then to be
treated with boiling alcohol (22, 32, Bé) on cooling, the solution
will deposit the _Morphia_ in crystals.
_Rationale of the process._ A soluble _meconiate of magnesia_ is, in
the first place, formed; (A) while the sediment (B) consists of
_morphia_, in the state of mixture, with the excess of magnesia; the
boiling alcohol, with which this residuum is treated, exerts no action
upon the magnesia, but dissolves the _morphia_, and, on cooling,
surrenders it in a crystalline state.
Footnote 418:
Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. tom. v.
Footnote 419:
“Confessions of an English opium-eater.” London, 1822.
Footnote 420:
History of Aleppo.
Footnote 421:
_Orfila_ states that animals, on which the section of the _par vagum_
of both sides has been performed, die at the end of two or three
hours; after having experienced intoxication, somnolency, and
convulsions. _Bulletin de la Soc. Philomatique, Mai 1808_, _t._ 1,
_p._ 143.
Footnote 422:
_Toriosa_ (_Istituzioni di Med. For._) has remarked that opium may act
mortally without losing much of its weight in the stomach. We are very
sceptical upon this point.
Footnote 423:
The reader is requested to refer to our chapter “On the Physiological
causes and phenomena of sudden death,” p. 22.
Footnote 424:
See “Cases illustrating the decided efficacy of cold affusion in the
treatment of poisoning by opium, by _S. Wray_.” _London Medical and
Physical Journal_, for September 1822.
“A case of poisoning by opium, in which the cold affusion was
successfully employed; with observations on the medical management of
similar occurrences, by _J. Copland_, M. D.” _Ibid._
“On the most efficacious means of remedying the effects of opium, when
taken in poisonous doses, by _J. H. Sprague_.” _Ibid._
Footnote 425:
Avis au _peuple_, tom. ii, § 535, p. 280, 7th edit.
Footnote 426:
“On the common syringe, with a flexible tube, as applicable to the
removal of opium, and other poisons, from the stomach, by _F. Bush_.”
_London Med. and Phys. Journ._ for September, 1822.
“New means of extracting opium, &c. from the stomach, by _E. Jukes,
Esq_.” _Ibid._ for November, 1822.
Footnote 427:
See Pharmacologia, vol. 1, p. 234.
Footnote 428:
Reports on Water, 1, 80.
Footnote 429:
A very high degree of vascularity is often found in the stomach and
alimentary canal of those who have been suddenly deprived of life. The
reader may consult _Dr. Yelloly’s_ paper in the _Medico-chirurgical
Transactions_, vol. iv, respecting the appearances found in the
stomachs of several executed criminals.
A case of poisoning by opium is given in the foreign department of the
London Medical Repository, for November 1820; in which two drachms of
solid opium had been swallowed, and on dissection a general congestion
of blood was found in the internal organs.
Footnote 430:
The stomach in this case was observed to be red, but the colour was
traced to the tincture of cardamoms, which the deceased had taken.
Footnote 431:
Philosophical Transactions, vol. xl, p. 446.
Footnote 432:
It was discovered by _Scheele_, but _Gay-Lussac_ first succeeded in
depriving it of a very great quantity of the water with which it was
combined, when prepared according to the process of its discoverer.
See _Annales de Chimie_, tom. lxxvii, p. 123.
Footnote 433:
By the decomposition of muriatic acid, and the cyanuret of mercury.
Footnote 434:
_Dr. Majendie_ has informed us that, in consequence of some
carelessness, he breathed a portion of the vapour, while preparing the
acid for the purpose of experiment; and that he suffered very violent
pains in the chest, accompanied by feelings of oppression, which
endured for several hours.
Footnote 435:
“En conservant cet acide dans des vases bien fermés, même sans quil
ait le contact de l’air, il se decompose quelquefois en moins d’une
heure.” _Gay-Lussac._
Footnote 436:
See “An Historical and Practical Treatise on the Internal use of
hydro-cyanic (Prussic) acid, by _A. B. Granville_, M.D.” Second edit.
London, 1820.
Footnote 437:
See, however, an account of “A new substance found accompanying Welsh
Culm, by _J. A. Paris_, M.D.” in the first volume of the Transactions
of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall.
Footnote 438:
The poisonous properties of this plant are alluded to by _Strabo_, who
says that the _Lauro-cerasus_ produces a mode of death, similar to
that of epilepsy.
Footnote 439:
The merits of this case are to be found very fully discussed in a
pamphlet, entitled “Considerations on the criminal proceedings of this
country; on the danger of convictions on circumstantial evidence, and
on the case of _Mr. Donellan_.” By a barrister of the Inner Temple,
London, 1781.
Footnote 440:
“Experiments and Observations on the different modes in which Death is
produced by certain vegetable poisons.” Phil. Trans. vol. 101, for the
year 1811.
Footnote 441:
To those who may wish to gain further information upon this subject,
we beg to recommend the perusal of _Dr. Granville’s_ work above
quoted.
Footnote 442:
Treatise on Prussic acid, sup. citat. p. 96.
Footnote 443:
Journal General de Médecine, 1. xxiv, p 224.
Footnote 444:
Annals of Philosophy, vol. i, p. 2, _new series_.
Footnote 445:
From this person the plant received its generic name, _Nicotiana_; the
specific appellation being taken from _Tabac_, the name of an
instrument used by the natives of America in smoking the herb.
Footnote 446:
In 1624 Pope Urban the VIII, published a decree of excommunication
against all who took snuff in the church. Ten years after this,
smoking tobacco was forbidden in Russia, under the pain of having the
nose cut off. In 1653 the Council of the Canton of Appenzel cited
smokers before them, whom they punished; and they ordered all
inn-keepers to inform against such as were found smoking in their
houses. The police regulations of Berne, made in 1661, were divided
according to the ten commandments, in which the prohibition of smoking
stood immediately beneath the command against adultery. This
prohibition was renewed in 1675, and the tribunal instituted to put it
into execution—viz. “CHAMBRE AU TABAC,” continued to the middle of the
eighteenth century. Pope Innocent the XII, in 1590 excommunicated all
those who were found taking snuff, or using tobacco, in any manner, in
the church of St. Peter at Rome; even so late as 1719 the Senate of
Strasburgh prohibited the cultivation of tobacco, from an apprehension
that it would diminish the growth of corn. Amurath the IV published an
edict which made the smoking tobacco a capital offence; this was
founded on an opinion that it rendered the people infertile.
Footnote 447:
Pharmacologia, vol. 1, 228, and vol. 2, art. Tabaci Folia.
Footnote 448:
Vol. ii, p. 404.
Footnote 449:
We are, however, by no means disposed to assign greater weight to this
expression that it can fairly sustain; it may perhaps refer to the
operation of dropping the poison into the ear, and not to the poison
itself—thus _Juvenal_, “_stillavit_ in aurem.”
Footnote 450:
Ephemerides des Curieux de la Nature, Dec. ii, An. i, p. 46.
Footnote 451:
_Orfila_, Toxicol.
Footnote 452:
Pharmacologia, vol. 1, p. 228.
Footnote 453:
Pliny informs us that the word _cicuta_ amongst the ancients, was not
indicative of any particular species of plant, but of vegetable
poisons in general. We have already made the same remark with respect
to Aconite.
Footnote 454:
Κωνειον of Dioscorides.
Footnote 455:
In the London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 14, p. 425, we shall
find a case wherein the hemlock was eaten through mistake for common
parsley. Similar accidents are also recorded in _Miller’s_ Dictionary.
Footnote 456:
It is figured in the Hortus Malabaricus under the name of _Canirum_.
Footnote 457:
Annales de Chimie, t. 8 to 10.
Footnote 458:
Ibid. t. x, 153.
Footnote 459:
Journal de Physiologie Experimentale, 1^{er} numeroJanvier 1821, in a
paper entitled “_Memoire sur le Méchanisme de l’Absorption_.”
Footnote 460:
We avail ourselves of this report, as given by _Orfila_ in his System
of Toxicology.
Footnote 461:
Bulletin de la Société de Med. Nov. 1807.
Footnote 462:
Analyse Chimique de la Coque du Levant. Paris, 1812.
Footnote 463:
We have already stated that this sauce has been occasionally rendered
poisonous by the presence of copper, p. 290.
Footnote 464:
_Haller_, Helvet. hist.
Footnote 465:
We have explained, at page 150, the sense in which we wish these terms
to be received.
Footnote 466:
Krascheminckow, Histoire Naturel du Kamtschatka, p. 209.
Footnote 467:
Systematic arrangement of British Plants, vol. iv, p. 181.
Footnote 468:
Leçons, faisant partie du Cours de Medecine Legale de _M. Orfila_.
Paris, 1821.
Footnote 469:
This fact is particularized, as some persons have supposed the
symptoms which have arisen from the ingestion of these fungi, may have
been the effect of copper derived from the cooking utensils.
Footnote 470:
Let it be remembered that this term is to be received conventionally;
we merely intend it to express certain phenomena, without any
reference to their cause.
Footnote 471:
_Mr. Brande._ Phil. Trans. 1811 and 1813.
Footnote 472:
“I apprehend that the peculiar flavour of _cogniac_ depends upon the
presence of an æthereal spirit, formed by the action of tartaric, or
perhaps acetic acid upon alcohol. It is on this account that nitric
æther, when added to malt spirits gives them the flavour of brandy.”
Pharmacologia, vol. 2, p. 396.
Footnote 473:
Pharmacologia, vol. 2, p. 397.
Footnote 474:
See our chapter on “_the Physiological causes and Phenomena of Sudden
Death_,” page 16.
In the course of the present work we have frequently recommended the
artificial inflation of the lungs, in cases where life is liable to be
extinguished by suffocation, (_page_ 78); but we have not yet hinted
at the possibility of employing such a resource with success in cases
of narcotic poisoning, wherein the death may be physiologically
considered as analogous to that occasioned by suffocation. _Mr.
Brodie_ was the first philosopher who ventured to propose such an
expedient, and in an experiment carefully performed on an animal under
such circumstances its life was preserved.
The success of the process will depend upon our being able to keep up
an artificial breathing, until the effects of the narcotic have passed
away, and the energy of the brain is restored. As during this interval
the generation of animal heat appears to be in a great measure
suspended, it will be necessary to maintain a sufficient temperature
by art.
Footnote 475:
We have just received from _Mr. Alcock_ a history of the particular
circumstances of the interesting case alluded to at page 58 of the
present volume, and we shall give insertion to it in our chapter on
Anatomical Dissection.
Footnote 476:
Treatise on Nervous Diseases, vol. 1, p. 221.
Footnote 477:
Case of a woman bitten by a viper, _Med. and Phy. Journ._ vol. ii, p.
481.
Footnote 478:
Celsus Medicin. lib. 5, c. 27.
Footnote 479:
Lucan Pharsal, c. 9.
Footnote 480:
See our remarks on the effects produced by the accidental ingestion of
boiling water, page 317, and which will apply to the circumstances of
the present case.
Footnote 481:
Med. Legale, t. iv, 835.
Footnote 482:
Vol. 1, p. 519.
Footnote 483:
See volume 1 of the present work, p. 95.
Footnote 484:
See _Orfila_, vol. 2.
Footnote 485:
See _Dr. Stone_ on the Diseases of the Stomach, p. 80. We also beg to
direct the attention of the medical reader to a paper entitled “On the
effects of certain articles of food, especially oysters, on women
after child-birth, by _John Clarke_, M. D.” Med. Trans. vol. v, p.
109.
Footnote 486:
For October, 1808, vol. iv, p. 393.
Footnote 487:
For June, 1815, vol. 3, p. 445.
Footnote 488:
_Dr. Burrows_ has given us a list of them in the paper above alluded
to; the most poisonous of which is the yellow-bill’d sprat, (_Clupea
Thryssa_.) Indeed, says this author, it has rarely occurred that
_immediate_ death has ensued between the tropics from the virus of any
other fish. _M. Orfila_ observes that the action of this fish is so
rapid, that it has been often seen at _St. Eustatia_ that persons have
expired while still eating it.
Footnote 489:
Med. Rep. vol. 3, p. 445.
Footnote 490:
Gazette de Santé, Ire Mars, 1812, p. 51.—Ibid. 21 Mars, 1813.—Ibid. 1,
Octob. 1812.
Footnote 491:
Tom. iv, p. 85.
Footnote 492:
_Behren’s_ Dissert. de Affect. a comest Mytil.
Footnote 493:
Voyage of Discovery, vol. 2, p. 286, 287.
Footnote 494:
The Principles of Forensic Medicine, _page_ 191.
Footnote 495:
See Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, for Jan. 1811, p. 41.—_Bateman_
on Cutaneous Diseases, art. _Prurigo_.
Footnote 496:
Observ. on the Diseases of the Army in Jamaica, vol. ii, p. 182.
Footnote 497:
Giornale di Fisica, &c. Secondo Bimestre, 1817.
Footnote 498:
There is no trade more immediately destructive of health than dry
grinding steel; the workmen are usually attacked by what is called the
grinder’s asthma at twenty-five or thirty years of age, and few of
them live to forty. The Society of Arts have long offered a reward for
the invention of some mode of securing the workmen from this dreadful
calamity, and in 1822 awarded their gold medal to _Mr. J. H. Abraham_,
of Sheffield, for his Magnetic Guard for Needle-pointers, (see
Transactions for 1822.) The contrivance is likely to answer its
intended purpose, provided the obstinacy and prejudice of the workmen
can be overcome by the perseverance of the master manufacturers, who
are morally bound to adopt every probable means of securing the health
of those employed under them, even though their servants should
themselves neglect it.
Footnote 499:
_Diemerbroeck_, lib. ii, p. 443.
Footnote 500:
The oxide of mercury is not volatile.
Footnote 501:
Where mercury is sublimed, it will usually assume the appearance of a
black powder, in consequence of the extreme state of division it has
undergone. This appearance has no doubt deceived the superficial
observer, and given origin to many erroneous statements.
Footnote 502:
“A small portion of mercury was put through a funnel into a clean dry
bottle, capable of holding about six ounces, and formed a stratum at
the bottom not one-eighth of an inch in thickness; particular care was
taken that none of the mercury should adhere to the upper part of the
inside of the bottle. A small piece of leaf-gold was then attached to
the under part of the stopper of the bottle, so that when the stopper
was put into its place, the leaf-gold was enclosed in the bottle. It
was then set aside in a safe place, which happened to be both dark and
cool, and left for between six weeks and two months. At the end of
that time it was examined, and the leaf-gold was found whitened by a
quantity of mercury, though every part of the bottle and mercury
remained, apparently, just as before. This experiment has been
repeated several times, and always with success. The utmost care was
taken that mercury should not get to the gold, except by passing
through the atmosphere of the bottle. I think therefore it proves that
at common temperatures, and even when the air is present, mercury is
always surrounded by an atmosphere of the same substance.”—_On the
vapour of mercury at common temperatures, by M. Faraday, Chemical
Assistant at the Royal Institution._ Journal of Science and the Arts,
vol. 10, p. 354.
Footnote 503:
_Mr. Plowman_ has since stated, in conversation, that he has seen five
or six mice, in one day, come into the ward-room, leap up a
considerable height, and fall down dead on the deck. He also stated
that the food for the use of the canary bird was kept in well closed
bottles, so that it was impossible for it to have contracted any
metallic impregnation.
Footnote 504:
The gases given off by burning coal, will vary very much according to
the activity of the combustion, and the degree of moisture present; so
that we may expect to receive sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphurous acid,
carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, and carburetted hydrogen.
Footnote 505:
Researches Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning nitrous
oxide, &c. London, 1800.
Footnote 506:
Recherches de Physiologie et de chimie, p. 144, an. 1811.
Footnote 507:
See the case in _Valentini_, _P. M. L._ p. 538, of a woman wilfully
killed by continual and excessive doses of sulphuric acid,
administered to her under pretence of medicine.
Footnote 508:
See the trial of _Jane Butterfield_ for the murder of _Wm. Scawen_,
Esq. published from the short hand writer’s notes, London 1775. _Miss
Butterfield_ was acquitted, the case is therefore put
supposititiously.
Footnote 509:
Such was the case of the ignorant man who went out at night with the
intention of shooting a ghost, which was supposed to haunt the village
of Hammersmith; he actually shot a bricklayer’s labourer who was
returning from his work; this was held to be murder, and the prisoner
was convicted; he was not indeed a fit subject for execution, and was
therefore pardoned; but this should not be extended into a doctrine,
that gross ignorance, producing death, is always a pardonable offence.