On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred S. Taylor ; edited, with notes and additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred S. Taylor ; edited, with notes and additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    should come in contact with the nervous filaments of any part of the body. In the last case, some have considered that the influence is conveyed by the cerebro-spinal, and others by the ganglionic, system of nerves. It would be out of place to enter into the respective merits of these theories; it will be merely necessary to state a few of the facts which have been derived from experiments on the subject. Absorption.—We shall first inquire whether poisons enter into the blood : and if so, whether the entrance into that fluid is absolutely necessary to the production of their fatal effects. It has been long known that certain mineral substances, when taken internally or applied externally to a wound, can be detected in the blood, and most of the secretions of the body. Among these the acetate of lead, sulphate of iron, and chloride of barium, have been found in the blood; and it is well known that the iodide of potassium can be readily detected in the urine of persons who are taking it medicinally. The following experiment was performed many years 'since by Mr. Key:—a quantity of fer- rocyanide of potassium in powder was rubbed into a wound on the inside of the leg of a donkey; and about six hours afterwards the animal was killed. Mr. Key forwarded to me for analysis one portion of blood taken from the femoral vein, another portion from the mesenteric veins, and lastly the con- tents of the thoracic duct. The ferrocyanide was readily detectecHn the three specimens, being most abundant in the blood of the femoral vein, and least abundant in the contents of the thoracic duct. From experiments similar to this, it has been inferred that most poisons enter into the circulation. But an inference of this kind does not rest upon bare analogy. Within the last few years arsenic has been detected in the blood of persons poisoned by arsenious acid, both during life, and after death. It mattered not from what part of the body the blood was taken, arsenic was equally discovered; so that from these and other experiments, it would appear that the living or dead body in a case of arsenical poisoning, is for a time penetrated throughout by the poison, and during life it appears to be constantly eliminated in the urine and other secretions. The fact that arsenic may be detected in the blood and urine of a person who survives its effects, is a point of considerable importance in a medico-legal view. Thus an analysis of either of these fluids may furnish evidence otherwise only satisfactorily obtained by a post-mortem examination of the body; and cases of the criminal administration of arsenic to the living, which have hitherto escaped the hands of justice, owing to the want of chemi- cal proof, may become as clearly established to the satisfaction of a jury, as if the poison had operated fatally and had been found after death in the stomach. Arsenic has been repeatedly discovered by toxicologists in the viscera of those who have been poisoned by it, even after the bodies have been interred for many years. Antimony has been detected by Orfila in the urine of persons to whom tartar emetic was administered, and also in the substance of the viscera of animals killed by it. It was not discovered by him either in the blood or any of the liquids of the body except the urine. Copper was found by Orfila in the substance of the viscera of animals to which the poisonous salts of this metal were given, but not in the blood or secretions. Tiedemann and Gmelin discovered verdigris in the venous blood of horses poisoned by it; and the same chemists detected acetate of lead under similar circumstances. In an accident which occurred to a cow, where the animal swallowed a quantity of carbonate of lead mixed for paint, I detected traces of lead in the milk drawn some hours after the poison had been taken. M. de Kramer, of Milan, has announced that he has detected nitrate of potash in the blood, urine, and faeces of persons to whom this salt was exhibited,—the iodide of potassium in the blood, chyle, and urine,—and iodine in the blood of a kid which had been made to respire the vapour of that substance. In other experiments, he found