form of powder. It is odourless, but its taste
is so intensely bitter, as to be perceptible
when one part is diluted in a million parts of
water. Its bitterness led to the unfounded
and mischievous rumour that it was used in
the manufacture of bitter beer. This
brilliant idea originating (upon what grounds is
not known) with a French chemist, was for
years noticed by a French professor to his
pupils in the lecture-room; thence it found
its way into the columns of the Times, and
created a panic among the patrons of Messrs.
Bass and Allsopp, that was only allayed after
those gentlemen had been put to considerable
trouble and expense by having their beers
repeatedly analysed, and throwing open their
gigantic breweries to the scrutiny of the
wondering public. Within the last few days
the Times has again alarmed us by a
suspicion of our own correspondent, that
artillery horses are being poisoned wholesale at
Galata-serai. Chemical analysis will soon
decide the truth of this suspicion; in the
meantime, in spite of the symptoms (which
however do not all correspond with those of
strychnia for instance the swelling of the
muscles, whatever that may mean), the
apparent absence of motive for poisoning the
horses, and the extreme improbability of the
animals drinking water rendered bitter by
poisonous doses of strychnia, will incline
most persons to the hope that the present
rumour is as false, if not as unfounded, as
the one of eighteen hundred and fifty- two.

As an article of the Pharmacopoeia,
strychnine is used in the same class of
diseases as nux vomica. Curiously enough, it
has been suggested, though not by followers
of Hahnemann, as a remedy for the only
disease which resembles it in its effects—
tetanus; but there is 110 case recorded of its
having been so used, even on one of the lower
animals.

The action of strychnine is about six times
as violent as the extract of mix vomica. Dr.
Christison says: " I have killed a dog in
two minutes with the sixth part of a grain
injected in the form of an alkaline solution
into the chest. I have seen a wild boar
killed in the same manner with the third of
a grain in ten minutes." Pelletier says:
"Half a grain blown into the mouth of a dog
produced death in tive minutes."

Medical literature abounds with instances
of men and women having been poisoned
by it both by accident and intentionally. A
physician — Dr. Warner — died after taking
half a grain of the sulphate of strychnine in
mistake for morphia.

In eighteen hundred and forty-five, a girl,
thirteen years old, in the Edinburgh Infirmary,
took by way of a joke three pills, each
containing a quarter of a grain, belonging to
another patient. She died in about an hour
after she had swallowed the poison.

In eighteen hundred and forty-three a
German lady, for whom nux vomica had
been prescribed, was seized with convulsions
and fits of tetanus. The apothecary's lad
through an "unhappy mistake" had
substituted two drachms of the extract for one of
the tincture, thereby augmenting the .strength
of the dose ten times. Fortunately the
result was not fatal. Twenty or thirty drops
of a mixture containing aniseed was taken
every five or ten minutes, and the lady
recovered.

In eighteen hundred and fifty-three occurred
another instance of poisoning by mistake.
The chemist misnamed or misunderstood the
prescription he was ordered to make up, and
instead of sending a mixture containing two
scruples of " strychnos nux vomica," he sent
two scruples of nux vomica and two of
strychnine. Death was the result of the
blunder.

It would be impossible to relate anything
that would exhibit more plainly the thoughtless
manner in which prescriptions may be
made up. One other instance, however, may
be mentioned, as it displays the class of men
at whose mercy we are placed by illness. It
happened in the neighbourhood of Romsley,
in eighteen hundred and forty-eight. The
statement which the chemist read to the
coroner and jury at the inquest of the unfortunate
lady whose death was occasioned by his
culpable carelessness, gives the best account
of the accident; " On Monday last," stated
the chemist, " I was called into my shop,
where I saw the head nurse in Captain
Smyth's family. I passed the compliment,
and asked her how she was; and she did the
same. She said she wanted some black
draughts for the children. I began putting
up the draughts and entered into general
conversation. After I had put up the
draughts, she said, ' I think Mrs. Smyth
wants some more of the medicine that she
took last, at all events I will take one bottle.'
I told my assistant to get the prescription
book that I might see the prescription. I
saw it contained salicine; I went up some
steps to get the salicine, which is kept on an
upper shelf. The shelf is in one corner of the
shop where I keep things not often used. I
took down, as I thought, the salicine and
weighed out nine grains of it." This, he went
on to state, was put in a bottle, labelled " the
mixture " as before, and carried away by the
servant. " The following morning," continued
Mr. Jones, " after I had breakfasted and
gone up-stairs to dress, I went into the shop
as usual; my young man said to me ' Did
you see Captain Smyth's servant gallop into
town this morning? ' 'I saw,' said the lad,
' Mr. Taylor, the surgeon, go off directly
afterwards.' I turned towards my desk and
saw the bottle I had used the previous night.
I took it up and saw that it was labelled
' strychnine.' I said, ' Oh! my God! I have
given this in mistake to Mrs. Smyth! '"

A verdict of manslaughter was returned
against the chemist. The jury could have