POISON. Separate articles having been devoted to nearly all the substances which are destructive to life when taken by accident or design, or when administered with a criminal intention, it will be necessary here only to consider the subject of poisons generally, referring to the articles ARSENIC, ANTIMONY, COPPER, MERCURY, PAPAVER, &c., for the details relating to each of them in particular. The whole subject may be conveniently and usefully treated by point ing out how in any case of legal investigation the proofs of poisoning may be established.
Omitting those things which are common Wall cases of suicide or homicide, such as the previous circumstances of the person supposed to be poisoned, the conduct of the accused, and those, however im portant they may be, that are matters of common evidence, such as a number of persons who have partaken of the same meal being simul taneously and similarly affected, we propose to consider hero only how in any individual case the influence of poison may be proved. The
chief circumstances in the evidence will be, the symptoms presented during life : the examination of the body after death ; the chemical analysis of the substances in which the poison may be mixed ; and the experiments by which it is attempted to produce similar circumstances in animals by similar means.
The eircumetaucen that usually first excite the suspicion of poison having been taken are, that the person affected is suddenly attacked by symptoms of severe illness, which come on soon after eating or drinking, without any premonitory indications, which regularly in crease in severity without undergoing any important change in their