1. Sulphuric acid. 2. Hydrochloric acid. 3. Nitric acid. 4. Potash. 5. Soda. 6. Ammonia. 7. Neutral sodium, potassium, and ammonium salts.
In nearly all cases of death from any of the above, the analyst, from the symptoms observed during life, from the surrounding circumstances, and from the pathological appearances and evident chemical reactions of the fluids submitted, is put at once on the right track, and has no difficulty in obtaining decided results.
C.--POISONOUS SUBSTANCES CAPABLE OF BEING SEPARATED BY DISTILLATION FROM EITHER NEUTRAL OR ACID LIQUIDS.
1. Hydrocarbons. 2. Camphor. 3. Alcohols. 4. Amyl-nitrite. 5. Chloroform and other anæsthetics. 6. Carbon disulphide. 7. Carbolic acid. 8. Nitro-benzene. 9. Prussic acid. 10. Phosphorus.
The volatile alkaloids, which may also be readily distilled by strongly alkalising the fluid, because they admit of a rather different mode of treatment, are not included in this class.
D.--ALKALOIDS AND POISONOUS VEGETABLE PRINCIPLES SEPARATED FOR THE MOST PART BY ALCOHOLIC SOLVENTS.
1. Liquid volatile alkaloids, alkaloids of hemlock, nicotine, piturie, sparteine, aniline. 2. The opium group of alkaloids. 3. The strychnine or tetanic group of alkaloids--strychnine, brucine, igasurine. 4. The aconite group of alkaloids. 5. The mydriatic group of alkaloids--atropine, hyoscyamine, solanin, cytisine. 6. The alkaloids of the veratrines. 7. Physostigmine. 8. Pilocarpine. 9. Taxine. 10. Curarine. 11. Colchicin. 12. Muscarine and the active principles of certain fungi.
There would, perhaps, have been an advantage in arranging several of the individual members somewhat differently--_e.g._, a group might be made of poisons which, like pilocarpine and muscarine, are antagonistic to atropine; and another group suggests itself, the physiological action of which is the opposite of the strychnos class; solanin (although classed as a mydriatic, and put near to atropine) has much of the nature of a glucoside, and the same may be said of colchicin; so that, if the classification were made solely on chemical grounds, solanin would have followed colchicin, and thus have marked the transition from the alkaloids to the glucosides.
1. The digitalis group. 2. Other poisonous glucosides acting on the heart. 3. Saponin.