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