Hints for the examination of medical witnesses. / By John Gordon Smith.

  • John Gordon Smith
Date:
M.DCCC.XXIX. [1829]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for the examination of medical witnesses. / By John Gordon Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/160 page 5
    MINERAL POISONS. These are Metals, Acids, Alkalies, Earths, Neutral Salts, and ore or two other substances. METALLIC POISONS. Two of these have been for a long period a source of interest and perplexity both to lawyers and phy- Sicians, inasmuch as they have been long and uni- versally known to possess the most virulent powers, and have been considered exceedingly difficult to detect. Arsenic.— This is the proper name of one of the brittle metals; but it may here be remarked, once for all, that naked metals are not known to be poisons; consequently, arsenzc in this form is not to be considered so. It is the vulgar name, however, for a salt of which this metal is the basis—capable of destroying life, when administered in very minute quantity, and fre- quently resorted to for felonious purposes. The common arsenic of the shops is an oxide of the metal in question; which exists in the form of a concrete white powder, resembling sugar in its ex- ternal aspect, and liable to be mistaken for this, at first view. Sometimes it is found in semi-vitreous lumps; but in either form its solubility is not very great. To the taste it is acrid and corrosive, leaving
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