pation and much anxiety" as an apology for the hasty and superficial character of the present volume. He has only to look at the writings of his eminent friend and late colleague at St. George's Hospital, whose time and thoughts must have been quite as much taken up as his own, and he will at once perceive that the excuse put forward is more convenient than well-founded.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE PROVINCIAL MEDICAL AND SURGICAL ASSOCIATION. Instituted 1832. Vol. XV. New Series, Vol. III. 8vo. pp. 440, Lithographs. Churchill, 1847.

THE present volume of the "Transactions" contains some interesting papers, the substance of which we proceed to lay before our readers.

I. AN EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS OF HYDROCYANIC ACID, PRODUCED UPON ANIMAL LIFE. By Thomas Nunneley, Esq., F.R.C.S.E. There is no circumstance more extraordinary or more distressing than the present apathy which prevails in the public mind respecting accidental or wilful Poisoning, and, although medical writers seem doomed to waste their breath in vainly endeavouring to call attention to this strange anomaly, we cannot reconcile to our conscience the omission of any opportu nity of so doing. That homicidal as well as suicidal poisoning are upon the increase in this country, and that greatly so beyond what our aug. mented powers of detection will explain, no one who is at all conversant with what is going on in the criminal courts can be unaware: and that many of such crimes might be prevented if difficulties were thrown in the way of obtaining the instrument of destruction may at least be assumed until these have been contrived and found wanting. At present, an indirect encouragement to the perpetration of crime is distinctly held out in more ways than one. The murderer having determined upon the commission of the deed, and revolved in his mind the different modes of accomplishing it, finds that poison is pre-eminently his implement. In the first place, it is procurable, however deadly be its nature, from any chemist or country huckster, without any inconvenient questions being asked, or, if asked, readily evaded. Next, it may be so easily administered to the victim without exciting his suspicion or in directing this to an innocent quarter. Again, the symptoms its ingestion produces are so similar to, and so liable to be mistaken for, those induced by disease. It is true that the progress of modern chemical science has opposed a vast check to the hopes of escape derivable from this consideration; but while this is still so frequently at fault in the detection of poison in those cases which are fairly brought under its cognizance; and while, under the present defective means of carying on such investigations before Coroner's tribunals, so many others never come under its supervision at all, we cannot consent to deny there is still some validity in the hopes thus engendered. But lastly, the crimi

1847]

Limitation of the Sale of Poisons.

115

nal may have been proved to have administered the poison which has undoubtedly caused the death, and yet the experience of several recent trials assures us that he may count upon the maudlin sympathy of his jury, who, because some one or more of their number find their opinions upon the propriety of the punishment of death clashing with the moral and civic obligations of the oath they have taken, by a curious psychical operation, sacrifice the peremptory requirements of the one to the speculative fancies of the other, and turn a villain loose upon society to perpetrate new iniquities, and to add another example of the impunity to the most deadly crimes afforded by the uncertain and capricious condition of our criminal law.

We are, however, unconsciously wandering from our proper province, our concern being here with the first only of these inducements. And in respect to this, is it too much to suppose that if the murderer, often-times impelled by passion, or the half-wavering suicide, were compelled, by the difficulty he experienced in obtaining the venenous substance, to pause in his designs, his doing so would not frequently end in his abandoning them? That it would sometimes, there can be no doubt, and this is sufficient to call for the creation of the impediments in question. And the most provoking circumstance about this matter is, that such could be contrived, without any detriment to society whatever in any other respect, and yet we go on year after year, no one seeming to think it worth his while to take the initiative. It seems to us that the following provisions might be easily carried out, and would prove effectual to the end proposed. 1. That no person should be allowed to deal in drugs or dispense medicines who had not given proof on examination of his acquaintance with the properties of the substances he intermeddles with. In the rural districts, a few common drugs, such as senna, salts, &c. might be sold, as so many of a dangerous description are at present, by chandlers and the like. 2. That even to the qualified druggist should not be permitted the unrestricted sale of poisonous substances. Some of these (as prussic acid for example) should, in fact, never be sold, except to medical men in the ordinary way of business, and if required by the public, should only be obtainable as part and parcel of a prescription. The suspicion of evil design or the fear of accident justify such restriction upon the use of poisons which are potent in their nature and only medicinal in their proper application. Others, again, of a very destructive character, (as arsenic, corrosive sublimate, oxalic acid, &c.), some of which are the more dangerous as possessing but little taste, are sometimes required for useful purposes, as the killing vermin, cleansing substances, &c. &c. But the intention of so employing them should be rendered at least probable by their purchase being made by persons competent to give an account of it, and in the presence of a witness. This last precaution is indispensible, for that derived from taking down name and address, &c. is a mere farce. Even when the demand of the poison is thus legitimatized, accidents should be guarded against by mixing it with other substances, where practicable, such as fat in the case of arsenic for the destruction of animals, and by selling it only in very minute quantities, just sufficient to accomplish the end in view. As to persons who apply for poisonous drugs (as laudanum, &c.) under the plea of their habitually taking them, they should be expected to make

* I

this out satisfactorily by medical or other testimony. 3. All substances of a poisonous character should not only be carefully labelled as such, but dispensed in papers, boxes and bottles of a distinctive colour. That these and perhaps additional precautions would save many, very many lives, and would, after a while, be attended with little inconvenience, we feel certain ; and at all events we hope the present state of affairs, by which every needy little shopkeeper is allowed thus to trifle with human life, will ere long be remedied.

The frequency of poisoning by Hydrocyanic Acid is a startling fact, seeing the little excuse there is for allowing any of the public to have this deadly substance in their possession. That a chemist or medical man should now and then commit suicide by its agency we can understand; but nothing but the most culpable negligence could ever allow it to become the instrument of murder or suicide in the hands of others. That it has often become so, every one knows; and it is on this account, and because great discrepancy of opinion prevails among professional men respecting the effects which it exerts upon animal life, that Mr. Nunneley has been induced to institute a series of experiments in elucidation of these, in continuation of others which he formerly performed. They are very numerous, amounting in all to between one and two hundred, performed on dogs, cats, rabbits, frogs, fish, insects, &c. : and, from their number, the careful mode in which they were prosecuted, and the details accompanying their narration, constitute the most valuable series of facts of the description we are acquainted with. It is well known that the deductions drawn from a few experiments upon animals made at an early stage of the history of poisoning by this substance were prematurely generalized, subsequent observation having negatived some of them and shown that others were not applicable to man. It became of importance therefore, if information was to be obtained from this source, that the field in which it was sought should be sufficiently extensive. And certainly comparative experiments upon animals are justified here if they are at all, inasmuch as the effects produced upon them by the substance are so similar to those observed in man, that many valuable indications concerning the symptomatology or the treatment of this description of poisoning may be derived.

Mr. Nunneley's experiments have shown that cold-blooded animals do not enjoy the immunity from the effects of this acid supposed by some: although, to produce these to the same extent as in other animals, a larger quantity, and especially a longer time, are required-several minutes often elapsing before any symptom manifests itself. In one case a frog, which afterwards died, leapt the length of a foot half-an-hour after the acid had been given. Even among warm-blooded animals, in which no corresponding difference in the condition of the circulation prevails, some are more easily affected than others. "Thus the rabbit and the mouse (perhaps all rodents) are more susceptible to its action than is the cat, and the young animal of the same species than the old.”

From Mr. Nunneley's observations upon the condition of the Blood in animals who have been poisoned by the acid, we extract the following

"The appearance of the blood to the naked eye is often materially changed, not only in colour, but it looks muddy and broken down, while its important property of coagulation is so interfered with that it seems to be the generally

1847] Nunneley's Experiments with Hydrocyanic Acid. 117

received opinion that, after death from hydrocyanic acid, the blood is almost invariably found in a fluid state: yet this is by no means the case; and unless other observers shall be more successful than myself, the examination of the blood will throw very little light upon the subject. If, however, any inference is to be drawn, it will tend to confirm the opinion that the action of the acid is upon the central nervous mass, the blood being only secondarily involved. Though the blood to the naked eye is often materially changed in appearance, yet when examined under the microscope no decided difference is seen between the globules of blood drawn from an animal before the administration of the acid and that taken immediately after death has ensued from it, whether the acid has been given by the stomach or through the lungs by inhalation.

It might be supposed that the action of the acid was limited to the fibrine, yet it is extremely doubtful if there be any decided change in even the fibrine, for the foregoing observations by no means confirm the idea of the fluidity of the blood after death from the acid; on the contrary, in by far the great majority of the cases the blood was found to coagulate, though by no means invariably so; possibly coagulation is somewhat delayed, and certainly in many cases the coagulum is found less dense than in blood abstracted from the body. But it must be borne in mind that, after death from almost any cause, the coagulation of the blood in the vessels is hardly ever complete, and often very imperfect as compared with that, which possibly has been abstracted from the same body only a few hours before death.

So, also, though the colour of the blood is very frequently darker than natural, it is not always, as several of the experiments show. Thus, in No. 112, where out of four toads which were destroyed in a similar manner, in two the blood was florid, while in one only was it very dark; and in the cats, Nos. 89 and 98, the blood was of the brightest, most florid hue I ever saw any arterial blood, and the blood which flowed from the jugular vein of the dogs Nos. 80 and 81, was certainly not darker than usual." P. 68.

The author delivers a useful caution to experimenters in these days of hasty microscopic deduction, viz. to examine the healthy blood of the same or of corresponding animals. Having found the globules of the blood of a kitten who had been poisoned to be for the most part of a hexahedral or octahedral form, he had nearly attributed this to the effect of the acid, when, upon examining the healthy blood of other kittens, exactly the same shaped globules were observed, these being at once converted into circular ones by the addition of a minute portion of water or of the acid. In an Appendix, Mr. Nunneley gives an account of some experiments he subsequently made by injecting the acid into the external jugular veins. Of these he observes :

"These experiments sufficiently prove, I think, that hydrocyanic acid does not produce any other effect when injected into the blood than when administered in any other way, the only difference being a somewhat speedier effect, and also, I think, somewhat more decided, so that probably a rather smaller quantity would destroy life by injection than when applied upon a membrane; though, when all circumstances are taken into consideration, I doubt whether absolutely the same quantity coming into actual contact, over an equally large surface, upon a mucous membrane, whether alimentary or respiratory, or even the conjunctiva, would not produce, if not as speedy, at least as decisive effects as when injected into the blood. They also confirm what has been stated as to the acid not acting upon the structure of the blood, for here not any difference could be seen in the characters of the blood; its colour and coagulation were as usual." P. 370.

In a medico-legal point of view it is of importance to remember that

Mr. Nunneley's experiments show that the acid acts with nearly if not quite as much rapidity and certainty when applied to any of the mucous membranes, as the vagina, rectum, or conjunctiva, as when swallowed. Other experiments prove, as indeed accidents had already done, that the inhalation of air impregnated with it is another certain and rapid mode of poisoning by it; "one which it would be very easy to employ, but most difficult after a few hours to detect, as the odour, being so diffusible, is very soon dissipated." Its application within the meatus auditorius and to the external surface of the body has produced but little effect.

The following are Mr. Nunneley's opinions upon the mode in which this poison influences the action of the heart.

"I do not agree in the opinion which has been expressed by some (Dr. Lonsdale, Ed. Journal, Vol. 51), that the heart only ceases to beat because of the suspension of respiration, and its consequently only containing dark blood. It rather appears to me that the cause of death is altogether different from what occurs in asphyxia from the oeclusion of the air-passages, the heart being primarily, and to at least an equal extent, affected as respiration. This is not merely a theoretical question, but a most important practical one, as it must materially influence the treatment. If the heart's action only ceases on account of the want of respiration, and the consequent engorgement of its cavities with dark blood, venæsection would be one of the remedies to which we should first have recourse, and from which we should expect the most decided benefit; while, on the contrary, if the state of things be as I suppose-not only that the blood itself is changed by the introduction of the poison, but that the heart is primarily affected, our reasons for having recourse to it would be much less powerful; neither should we expect the same amount of benefit from its employment." P. 72.

After stating that, although the experiments showed little benefit was derivable from venesection, that where congestion occurs it may be usefully, if moderately employed, he continues

"Venæsection may, therefore, in some few cases, in which the dose of the acid has been small, be proper and advisable enough, when practised with the understanding of why we employ it, and too much blood be not abstracted;* but as there is great loss of power as well as spasm at the time, and where recovery takes place considerable weakness and depression are for a while manifested, the taking away a large quantity of blood, in my opinion, is likely to be rather injurious than beneficial. The condition of the heart, at least at first, is one of contraction, not of dilatation. There is a persistence of contraction, not a diminution of contractibility, so long as the spasm continues, and of the left cavities, for long after. The cavities, it is true, may possibly occasionally afterwards become engorged, but this is only when the heart, like the general muscular system, becomes paralysed, and certainly is not supported by the condition of things revealed by the post-mortem examinations above recorded." P. 73.

The author concluded at first, with other observers, that the evidence derivable from post-mortem examination in this description of poisoning is merely negative, so contradictory have the reports furnished been: but,

"Of this, in most cases, there is little danger, as the blood will not flow. Indeed, I am not sure the distress in respiration is not in a great measure caused by the want of blood passing through the lungs. It appears very probable that

but very little blood is passed forward by the heart."