On the detection of strychnine in cases of poisoning / by Dr. J. E. De Vry ... and E. A. Van der Burg.

  • Vrij, J.E. de.
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the detection of strychnine in cases of poisoning / by Dr. J. E. De Vry ... and E. A. Van der Burg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    [From the Pharmaceutical Journal for March, 1857.] *,, c ON THE DETECTION OF STRYCHNINE IN CASES OF POISONING. BY DR. J. E. DE VRY, Lecturer oil Chemistry; and E. A. VAN DER BURG, Pharmaceutical Chemist of the Rotterdam Hospital. . In tlie of September, 1856, we were required by the June J Instruc- tion to make a chemical investigation of the contents of the body of a man, on the cause of whose death there was some suspicion of poisoning. The man having been brought to the hospital in a tetanic state, we were naturally induced to try to find strychnine in the contents of the body ; but neither this nor any other poison was to be found, so that the death of this man remained unexplained. , The discordant opinions of several chemists in the famous trial of Palmer, made it necessary, for our own persuasion of the truth, to institute a series of experiments, to make out :-~-lst. The sensibility of the principal reagents on strychnine; 2nd. The possibility of detecting strychnine with these reagents if the strychnine is mixed with animal substances; 3rd. If strychnine can always be found in the corpse of an individual poisoned by it. 1st. Sensibility of the principal reagents on strychnine : Chromate of potash or femdcyanide of potassium and concentrated sulphuric acid.—By these reagents ■t&fav. a grain of strychnine can be detected, if one drop of a solution containing one grain of strychnine in 60,000 grains of water, is evaporated in a small porcelain dish on a water-bath, and the remaining substance moistened with the smallest possible quantity of pure concentrated sulphuric acid. By introducing in this solution a very small fragment of a crystal of bichromate of potash or femdcyamde of potassium, and moving this fragment with a glass rod m the solution, a beautiful dark purple colour is produced on every part of the surface of the porcelain that has been in contact with the acid solution, and the fragment of one of the two salts. Bm-iodide of potassium, and iodide of mercury and potassium.—By a solution of one of these compounds, of a grain of strychnine can be detected. These reagents, like the following, possess only the ascertained sensibility, provided the drop of liquid is contained in a capillary test-tube, in which the liquid, although only a drop, forms a small column, in which the formation of a precipitate can be observed by comparison with a similar capillary tube filled with pure water, and mixed with the reagent. A 'V if' 0? Ot \f \ l' G.