A general system of toxicology, or, a treatise on poisons, found in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, considered in their relations with physiology, pathology, and medical jurisprudence / abridged and partly translated from the French of M.P. Orfila, M.D.P. by Joseph G. Nancrede.

Mathieu Orfila

Date:: Dec. 1, 1817

Credit: A general system of toxicology, or, a treatise on poisons, found in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, considered in their relations with physiology, pathology, and medical jurisprudence / abridged and partly translated from the French of M.P. Orfila, M.D.P. by Joseph G. Nancrede. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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soning, in order to expose the crime, and to enlighten the Magistrate whose duty it is to punish the guilty. The private individual, sensible of the misfortunes of his fellow- creatures, is fond of discoursing on the fatal properties of poisonous substances, and of the astonishing phenomena they give rise to : alarmed at their destructive consequen- ces, he never ceases to deplore the fate of those who are the victims of negligence or mistake, and to feel for the misfortune of the unhappy wretches whom despair has hur- ried on to suicide. Incensed at the most cowardly of crimes, he regards with horror the execrable assassin ; and loudly demands the punishment of a monster, the more dangerous, as he always commits his ravages in silence, and often even upon his benefactors. Having given myself up for a long time to the pursuit of this beautiful part of natural history, it appeared to me a useful undertaking to collect into one work, and that not very voluminous, the most prominent objects that belong to it. Such a work is altogether wanting to Science ; I may affirm more; a very considerable number of the facts which should serve for its basis, are still unknown, or bad- ly studied. The Treatises on Toxicology by Plenck and Franck, which were published a long time since, are no longer on a level with the present state of knowledge, and can only be considered as very imperfect sketches of this important Science. The treatises written particularly on arsenic, sublimate, copper, lead, nitric acid, prussic acid, opium, &c. furnish only the solution of certain problems in Toxi- cology, and ought only to be regarded as so many sepa- rate tracts, fit for furnishing excellent materials to the ar- rangement of some of the articles of a work of this nature. I must confess I have been often discouraged by the

A general system of toxicology, or, a treatise on poisons, found in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, considered in their relations with physiology, pathology, and medical jurisprudence / abridged and partly translated from the French of M.P. Orfila, M.D.P. by Joseph G. Nancrede.

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