Report of the committee of the Westminster Medical Society, on arsenicated candles.
- Westminster Medical Society (London, England)
- Date:
- 1837
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the committee of the Westminster Medical Society, on arsenicated candles. Source: Wellcome Collection.
58/68 page 56
![Mr. Golding Bird, was received on the same night on which that gentleman made it to the Society at large, (Dec. 16,) and is as follows ;] Result of Analytic Examination of the Bodies of the Birds that died after exposure to the exhalations of arseniferous candles with a view to detect the presence of arsenious acid. 1. Two birds first given me for analysis, (their wings and tail-feathers being removed,) were divided longitudinally by one incision, across which several transverse incisions were made with a strong and sharp scalpel, so as to divide repeatedly the thoracic and abdominal viscera. They were then examined by a process analogous to that used in the examination of sto¬ machs suspected to contain arsenic, and minute although distinct traces of that metal were detected. As this investigation only served to demonstrate the presence of arsenic on the persons of the birds without proving its existence in the interior or exte¬ rior of the body alone, three other birds who had died in a similar manner to the two first, were submitted to examination. 2. For this purpose the birds were suspended by pieces of thread in a glass vessel, and their external surface repeatedly washed and digested with boiling distilled water containing small portions of caustic potass ; but on a subsequent and care¬ ful examination of this fluid, not a trace of arsenic could be de¬ tected. As from the first analysis, arsenic was detected on the persons of the birds ; and as, in the second, none was detected on their external surface, may we not admit that the poison existed in their interior, having either been inhaled, or swallow^ed with the water in which it has been already proved to have been depo¬ sited ? Golding Bird, F. L. S,, &c. Dec. 15, 1837.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31942799_0058.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
