Strychnia : its source, chemical relations, physiological action (typical and irregular), mode of detection, and methods of treatment in cases of poisoning / by James St Clair Gray.

  • Gray, James St Clair.
Date:
1872
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Strychnia : its source, chemical relations, physiological action (typical and irregular), mode of detection, and methods of treatment in cases of poisoning / by James St Clair Gray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    begin to yield sublimates. At 430'', it melts and continues to yield sublimates till it is exhausted and reduced to a carbonaceous film. When the sublimates are examined under the microscope, they are found to assume many different forms. They may consist of di-ops or wavy patterns, colourless or discolom-ed as if smoked, but the greater number are more or less crystalline, and may present many forms. For representa- tions of the crystalline forms so obtained, see the paper contributed by Dr Guy to the Royal Microscopical Society, October 1867, and published in its Journal. As also Dr Helwig's Photographic Plates, in the work already referred to—Taf. IX. and X., in which also the crystalline forms obtained by treating the sublimate with various chemical reagents are figured. Besides the crystalline forms, an amorphous centre, with penniform or lattice-shaped borders, is not uncommon, and it may be stated generally, that while the sublimates of morphia ( Dr Guy's Forensic Medicine, fig. 104, p. 499,) are made up of cm-ved Hues, those of strychnia consist (Jhid., fig. 134, p. 543,) of lines either straight or slightly curved, with parallel feathery lines at light angles. The sublimates of strychnia then assume so many forms that they are not in themselves conclusive of its presence; but it fortimately happens that there is no form that does not give with certain liquid reagents, results which prove the existence of strychnia beyond the reach of doubt. As already stated, the colom- tests act on the sublimate Avith extreme delicacy, so that to a small spot consisting of the one ten thousandth of a grain, all these tests may be applied with ease and certainty, minimum di'ops of sulphuric acid being used, and the smallest visible speck of the colour producing substance. This test, when carefully performed, affords pretty uni- formly a good result, but as the process of necessity involves a certain loss of substance, it seems to me better calculated to take the place of a corroborative than of a rehable and conclusive test, especially as failure in obtaining a sublimate