These relations are important in a medico-legal point of view on several grounds. On the one hand, the chemical changes which corrosive sublimate undergoes often alter so much the action of its tests, as to render necessary a process of analysis materally different from any hitherto described. And on the other hand, these chemical changes, of which some take place rapidly, others slowly, will hinder the corrosive sublimate, more or less completely, from exerting its usual operation on the animal system; so that it may thus either accidentally fail to act as intended, or be checked in its operation by antidotes administered for the purpose.
It appears from the researches of M. Boullay, confirmed by those of Professor Orfila, that various vegetable fluids, extracts, fixed oils, volatile oils and resins, possess the power of decomposing corrosive sublimate. According to M. Boullay, a part of the chlorine is gradually disengaged in the form of hydrochloric acid, and the salt is consequently converted into calomel, which is deposited in a state of mixture or combination with vegetable matter.[1] Some vegetable fluids produce this change at once, others not for some hours, others not for days, and only when aided by a temperature approaching ebullition. For example, a strong infusion of tea, mixed with a solution of a few grains of corrosive sublimate, becomes immediately muddy, and an insoluble cloud separates in half an hour. But the remaining fluid slowly becomes muddy again, and in eight days a considerable precipitate is formed. Both precipitates contain mercury; the former, I find, contains 31 per cent. On the other hand, an infusion of galls in like circumstances does not become muddy for six or seven hours. A solution of sugar does not undergo any change after being mixed with a solution of corrosive sublimate for months at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere; but at the temperature of ebullition Boullay has found that the usual changes ensue, though to no great extent.
The experiments of Professor Taddei of Florence have farther shown, that the property of decomposing corrosive sublimate is possessed in an eminent degree by one of the vegetable solids, gluten. If the salt in solution is properly mixed with a due proportion of gluten of wheat, that is, about four times its weight, the water will be found no longer to contain any mercury, while the gluten becomes whitish, brittle, hard, and not prone to putrefaction. A ternary compound is formed, the protochloride of mercury and gluten.[2] This change is effected with rapidity.
The researches of Berthollet,[3] repeated and extended by Professor Orfila,[4] have also shown that the same property is possessed by most animal fluids and solids. Among the soluble animal principles, albumen, caesin, osmazôme, and gelatin possess it in a high degree, but above all albumen, the action of which has been examined with
