application of this poison to a wound in the hand caused death in one hour.

Oil of bitter almonds, bitter almond water, laurel water, and cyanide of potassium may all produce effects similar to those caused by prussic acid. Owing to the extensive use of the last named salt by photographers, many serious accidents have happened. The kernels of peach, apricot and cherry stones may also produce similar symptoms if eatenin quantity.

Alcohol, when swallowed as raw spirits or high wines, may act as a poison. Death may be produced almost instantaneously, or the ordinary symptoms of intoxication may come on after a few minutes, ending in insensibility and convulsions, which latter are often absent. With diluted alcohol excitement may be produced before stupor, but with concentrated, profound coma may be induced in a few minutes.

Acute alcoholism may be mistaken for opiumpoisoning and concussion of the brain. The odour of the breath will generally reveal the nature of the case.

Tobacco, when swallowed in a solid form or as an infusion, may produce faintness, nausea, vomiting, giddiness, delirium, loss of power in the limbs, relaxation of the muscular system, trembling, complete prostration of strength, coldness of the surface, with cold, clammy perspiration; convulsive movements; paralysis and death. Sometimes there is purging, with violent pain in the abdomen; sometimes a sense of sinking or depression in the

region of the heart; slight dilatation of the pupils; dimness of sight, with confusion of ideas; weak pulse and difficulty of breathing are also observed. The poisonous principle of tobacco (nicotine) will cause death with almost the same rapidity as prussic acid, and with very similar symptoms.

The external application of tobacco to the sound or abraded skin may produce fatal results. A wet leaf applied to a child's throat for croup is dangerous. Tobacco smoking has caused death. Cigarettes are worse than cigars or pipes from the custom of inhaling the smoke from the former and thus poisoning the blood.

Fatal Period.-Snuff swallowed in whiskey has caused death in one hour. An enema of tobacco caused death in fifteen minutes in one case, and in thirty-five minutes in another. A decoction of tobacco applied to the skin of a man for an eruptive disease resulted in death in three hours.

Poison of Snakes.-As deaths from snake poisoning may come under the notice of coroners and medical witnesses, the subject may be briefly noticed here. The bites of rattle snakes are the only ones likely to interest Canadians. The late Prof. Croft paid some attention to the question and in a paper from him and read by Dr. White before a joint meeting of the Canadian Institute, and the Natural History Society of Toronto, according to the Daily Empire report, he stated that several hours generally pass before any constitutional effects are felt from the bite, although swelling of the parts adjoining the wound would intervene in a

very short time. That in its properties the poison very much resembled the alkaloids such as strychnine, morphine and atrophine. He gave a test of iodine which produced with the poison an insoluble precipitate, and he based upon this result the opinion that iodine or its preparations, if quickly applied, would no doubt prevent the constitutional effects. of the poison. Other remedies he mentioned were the tubers of the Agave Virginica, the Peta and the Dagger plant. He stated, also, that hunters sometimes open the wound, fill it with gunpowder and then blow up the powder, which he naturally termed a somewhat heroic mode of treatment. Internal remedies other than stimulants he considered useless, and stimulants only to sustain strength. He mentioned also the snake-eating bird, the Pesano, which when wounded by a snake-bite is said to eat the Agave plant and then return to eat the snake.

SPINAL POISONS.

These poisons do not act on the brain, but on the spinal marrow, producing violent convulsions. and rigidity of the muscles, resembling tetanus. The most remarkable among them is nux vomica, and the alkaloids strychnine which is contained in the berries.

Nux Vomica.-The symptoms and treatment of poisoning with nux vomica, are the same as in the poisoning with strychnine.

B.C.-10

Fatal Dose. Of the powder, 30 grains equal to grain strychnia, of the alcoholic extract, three grains.

Fatal Period.. Shortest, fifteen minutes. Average, one to two hours.

Strychnine.-The taste of this substance is intensely bitter, and at an interval of time varying from a few minutes to one hour or more, the person who has taken it is seized with a feeling of suffocation and great difficulty of breathing. The head and limbs are jerked; the whole frame shudders and trembles; tetanic convulsions then suddenly commence; the limbs are stretched out, the hands clenched, the head is bent backwards, and the body assumes a bow-like form, supported on the head and feet (opisthotonos); the soles of the feet are curved; the abdomen hard and tense; the chest spasmodically fixed, so that respiration seems arrested; the eye-balls prominent and staring; the lips livid; a peculiar sardonic grin is noticed on the features. Between the paroxysms the intellect is perfectly clear; but there may be loss of consciousness before death. fits are intermittent, whereby poisoning by strychnine is distinguished from tetanus; moreover, the symptoms come on suddenly, almost without warning. The attacks subside after a few minutes, but return again rapidly, and may be induced by very slight causes. The rigidity of the body and arched position of the feet often remain after death.

The

Upon the trial of Dr. Palmer for the murder of John Parsons Cook, the most eminent men among the English physicians and analysts gave the most contradictory evidence as to the possibility of detecting strychnia.1

In strychnia cases the tissues should always be sent for analysis at the same time as the stomach, but in separate jars.2

Fatal Dose.-Half a grain to a grain for an adult. One-sixteenth of a grain has proved fatal to a child between two and three years old.

are

Fatal Period.-This varies. Deaths recorded in five, ten, fifteen, eighteen and thirty minutes, and up to several hours. The patient generally dies within two hours, and often in less than an hour. The action of strychnine in the form of powder, and in solution differs considerably. As powder it is much slower, and in pills, if hard, slower still. By hypodermic injection the most intense effect is produced."

But few of the other spinal poisons have been used for felonious purposes, but accidents have not unfrequently happened from the accidental use of the roots or leaves of certain plants. The following may be mentioned as occurring in this country:

Cicuta maculata, musquash root, beaver poison. The roots of this plant are sometimes mistaken for parsnips. The symptoms are giddiness; dimness of sight; headache, and difficulty of breathing;

1 For a valuable report of this trial see Browne & Stewart's Reports of Trials for murder by Poisoning.

2 Browne & Stewart, p. 291,

Browne & Stewart, p. 287.