Notes of medico-legal cases : with comments / by John Crawford.

  • Crawford, John (fl. 1850)
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes of medico-legal cases : with comments / by John Crawford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    sisted of sulphide of arsenic, with a considerable admixture of arsenious acid and sulphur, and a small quantity of selenium, d lie re was not a trace of lime. Selenium, which is, in its chemical relations, very analogous to sulphur, is often, I believe, found in conjunction with that sub- stance in certain localities. When reduced to powder, it has a reddish brown tint; and to this being blended with the yellow of the sulphur and the sulphide of arsenic, the singular colour of the specimen in question may be attributed. It is somewhat remark- a jle that the stains found in the stomach were much more yellow than the powder obtained from the shop, and approached nearer to the proper colour of sulphide of arsenic. 1 ois ming by the sulphide of arsenic is by no means so common as we might expect from the facility with which, in its commercial foi ms, it may be obtained. But the obstacles now interposed by Jaw to the obtaining of arsenious acid, may lead to the more fre- quent, use of the sulphide for criminal purposes, and hence I have been led to enter into the above details as to admixtures, which may modify the poisonous activity of orpiment and king’s-yellow as found in the shops or employed in the arts. The actto “ regu- late the sale of arsenic a very short act—which, amid the appalling mass of the “ statutes at large,” affords the solitary example of legislative interference in our country with free trade in poisons appears to have been framed upon the constitutional prin- ciple, that even under the pressure of the clearest and most urgent necessity, tlm interference with time-honoured precedent should never be carried beyond the minimum. For, while it imposes various conditions and restrictions on the sale of arsenic, and in particular, prohibits its retail unless it has been previously mixed with soot or indigo, its last clause bears that, “ in the construction ot this act, the word arsenic shall include arsenious acid and the arsenites, arsenic acid and the arseniates, and all other colourless preparations of arsenic.” On the sale of the sulphides, therefore n°. restriction is imposed! The smallest coin may purchase a poisonous dose at any drug or colour shop. The framers of the act proceeded apparently on the supposition, that those preparations ot arsenic which are not colourless cannot be employed for criminal purposes without detection. The above case shows how erroneous this notion is The witnesses described the colour of the peasemeal as not having been much altered by the admixture, notwithstanding iat the poison had a much redder colour than the pure sulphide! .. atter w°uld nmx with peasemeal with still less chance of de- tection. d or the sake of experiment, I mixed a scruple of it with an ounce of peasemeal; and when, after trituration, the mixture was compared with a portion of the meal free from poison- although the poisoned portion had a slight yellow tint as com- * 14th Viet., cap. 13.