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