THE ANALYST. 25 R E V I E W S . POISONS : THEIR EFFEUTS AND DBTEUTION. A Zanual for the use of Ana7yticaZ Chemists and Experts. By A. Tynter BJyth, M.3. C.S., F.C.S., tc., Medical O$zcer of Health atad Public Alzalyst for Marylebons. London : Charles Griffin and Go., Exeter Street, Strand. THIS is the second volume of Mr. Blyth’s complete work and is intended as a companion to the volume on Foods : their Compodio~ md AnaJysis, which has already been favourably reviewed in our columns. We may at once say that this book will prove as valuable as the other, and is a monument of research OQ the subjects of which it treats. The sub- title is perhaps not quite happy, because an ultra-critic might urge that, if a man were already an ‘‘ expert,” what use would he have for a manual ? and again, it might be said that in issuing a work to instruct experts,’’ the author was assuming to himself the position of something more than an expert. It is well known, however, that perhaps the most embarrasing part of rt book for an author is the inditing of a good title, and we dare say, when Mr. Blyth sees this, he will feel inciined to alter it in the next edition.The work opens with a most excellent chapter on ‘‘ Poisonlore,” both interesting and well written, and the only matter for criticism offered by it is the use of the German phrase poisoi&hre instead of plain English. Mi.. Blyth is well known as a thorough German scholar, and such a reminder of the fact is unnecessary. Passing then to the consideration of what is the legal definition of a poison, and after discussing the present state of the law, both here and on the continent, Mr.Blyth offers the following, which may be worth the attention of those having in consideration the future penal code. He would define a poison.thus :-‘‘ A sabstawe of dejnite chemical coiyoaition, whether mineral or orgznic, may 6s called a poison, ;f it is capa6le of being $ahen into any living organism, arcd cawes, by its own inherent chemical Izatztre, impairment or destrzcotion of fanotion.” To attempt them definitions is always difficult, and the person making such an effort either generally stops short of the mark or overshoots it. In this case we would respectfully submit that the bullet has missed the bull’s-eye €ram the laiter cause. (‘ Any living organism ’’ is a very wide word and certainly includes plants as well as animals when strictly considered, and indeed it would be difficult to find aayfhing which could not, by a little sophistry, be brought in as a poison under such a definition.But it is not our business to spilt straws with the author on such matters, which to us, as chemists, are of very secondary interest, and had better be left to the specially trained minds of lawyers, and so we turn with relief to the practical portion of the work. This is so complete and well put together as to make it a matter of regret that we have not space to more fully follow the author in the present notice, more especially as it is not a mere scissors and paste collection from other books, but has every now and then agreeab1;e scraps of original matter, the result of personal experience, such as the curious case referred to on page 289, where 8 woman took a sleeping draught containing over one drachm of laudanum, and died in six hours, and yet no trace of either morphine or meconic acid could be found by him, either in her blood, liver or stomach, after a most exhaustive analysis.Again, on page 28’1, Mr. Blyth has the courage to confess, in the interests of science, that he subcutaneously injected Q of a grain of26 THE ANALYST. morphine hydrochlorate into an old gentleman suffering from acute lumbago, but who was otherwise healthy, and in whom no heart disease had been discovered, and nearly killed him. All the portions of the book dealing with the action of poisms is most care€ully put together, and the collection of topical experiments either ita carpore vile by scientists ; or on their fellow creatures by murderers is most complete.In dealing with the chemical detection of organic poisons, Mr. Blyth follows Dragendorf’s method for general researches, using, however, special processes whenever there are symptoms or pat-mortem appearances which point to particular drugs. The mineral portions are as complete as the organic, and the processes given are well considered and carefully, yet not too diffusively, described. In reviewing the same author% book on Food we called special attention to the exhaustive monograph on milk, which it contained, and in this volume we find a corresponding one upon the ptomaines or cadaveric alkaloids with a discussion upon which in Court we were threatened during the Lamson case. Selmi’s investigations are carefully detailed, and in addition we have interesting chapters on the possible synthesis of poison in the living animal, and on poisoning by food in which a ptomaine has been produced by some peculiar decomposition of albumenous substances. On the subject of opium smoking and its attendant horrors to which our Indian merchants are so much blamed by a certain class of enthusiasts for contributing by sending opium-to China, Mr. Blyth is evidently somewhat sceptical. He believes it to be impossible that any moi.phine could be found in the smoke, owing to its high subliming point, and quotes cases to show that opium smoking injures but little, the health of Asiatics, at all events. Taken as a whole, Mr. Blyth’s book is one which should be found on the shelves of all persons interested in toxicology, and is one that Public Analysts may feel pride in pointing to as the work of one of that much abused body of men.