Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/306

 fail, or shall have been judged inapplicable, as will very generally be the case, the mixture is to be treated in the following manner. In the first place, all particles of seeds, leaves, and other fibrous matter of a vegetable nature, are to be removed as carefully as possible. This being done, the mixture, without undergoing filtration, is to be treated with protochloride of tin as long as any precipitate or coagulum is formed. If there were solid animal matters in the mixture, besides being cut and carefully bruised as directed above, they should also be brought thoroughly in contact with the salt of tin by trituration. The mixture, even if it contains but a very minute proportion of mercury, will acquire a slate-gray tint, and become easily separable into a liquid and coagulum. The coagulum is to be collected, washed and drained on a filter; from which it is then to be removed without being dried; and care should be taken not to tear away with it any fibres of the paper, as these would obstruct the succeeding operations. The mercury exists in it in the metallic state for reasons formerly mentioned.

The precipitate is next to be boiled in a moderately strong solution of caustic potass contained in a glass flask, or still better in a smooth porcelain vessel glazed with porcelain; and the ebullition is to be continued till all the lumps disappear. The animal and vegetable matter, and oxide of tin united with them, will thus be dissolved; and on the solution being allowed to remain at rest, a heavy grayish-black powder will begin to fall down in a few seconds. This is chiefly metallic mercury, of which, indeed, globules may sometimes be discerned with the naked eye or with a small magnifier.

In order to separate it, leave the solution at rest under a temperature a little short of ebullition for fifteen or twenty minutes, or longer, if necessary. Fill up the vessel gently with hot water without disturbing the precipitate, so that a fatty matter, which rises to the surface in the case of most animal mixtures, may be skimmed off first with a spoon, and afterwards with filtering paper. Then withdraw the whole supernatant fluid, which is easily done on account of the great density of the black powder. Transfer the powder into a small glass tube, and wash it by the process of affusion and subsidence till the washings do not taste alkaline. Any fibrous matter which may have escaped notice at the commencement of the process, and any lumpy matter which may have escaped solution by the potass, should now be picked out. The black powder is the only part which should be preserved. If the quantity of powder is very minute, an interval of twelve hours should be allowed for each subsidence, and the tube represented in Fig. 7 should be used.

Lastly, the powder is to be removed, heated, and sublimed, as in the last stage of the process described in page 293, for detecting corrosive sublimate in a pure solution.

The second branch of this process is very delicate. I have detected by it a quarter of a grain of corrosive sublimate mixed with two ounces of beef, or with five ounces of new milk, or porter, or tea made with a liberal allowance of cream and sugar. I have also