cases of this kind, asserts that the symptoms produced at first by the nitric acid decrease insensibly; and that at the end of a certain period, the internal membrane of the diges-. tive canal is struck with death, and thrown off, and the person dies of a marasmus. Fordyce relates the case of a woman who was subject to cholics for the space of thirty years in consequence of having once taken an infusion of the pulp of colocynth prepared with beer, This was undoubtedly an extraordinary instance of idiosyncrasy, but it is probable that some organic lesion was occasioned by its operation, to which the subsequent suffering is to be referred. We have hitherto only considered the effects that may arise from the ingestion of a single dose of poison, but there are numerous and very interesting cases in which fatal results have been produced by the repetition of small doses at various intervals. We therefore propose a third, and new subdivision of our subject, viz.

3. Accumulative Poisoning.-By the repeated administration of a substance in doses, of which no single one could oc casion harm; but which, by gradually accumulating in the system, ultimately occasions disease and death.

The familiar operation of mercury will at once suggest itself to the physician, as a striking illustration of that species of poisoning which we have ventured to name Accumulative, and to the forensic student the effects of this metal, in reference to such a quality, will form a more than ordinary object of interest, as involving questions which have frequently embarrassed judicial inquiry; as, for instance, Whether it can lie dormant any considerable time without betraying its effects upon the constitution, and, having displayed its powers, and the symptoms having subsided, viz. salivation, &c. Whether they can be renewed without a fresh application of the substance?

To how many substances this power of accumulation extends, is at present not well understood. It may occur in those that act by absorption, and in those whose action is wholly local. Arsenic, digitalis, and several of the narcotic plants, as hemlock, may undoubtedly occasion serious mischief in this manner, as the author has more fully explained in another work, and we have lately heard of several fatal cases arising from accumulated masses of magnesia in the primæ viæ, from the habitual use of small doses of that earth.

Fragmenta Chirurg. et Med. p. 66.

+ Pharmacologia, fifth edit. vol 1. p. 324.

The history of many of the arts, especially those of metallurgy, would furnish also abundant examples of this kind of poisoning.

These few facts are, we trust, sufficient to authorize the foregoing arrangement, and we apprehend that the adoption of the distinctions upon which it is founded, will be of great service in establishing fixed and definite notions with regard to the chronic operation of poisons. It may perhaps be useful to present the reader with a synoptical recapitulation of the subject.

A Slow Poison.-A single dose is sufficient; which produces upon its administration no sensible effect, but gradually undermines the health.

A Consecutive Poison.-A single dose is sufficient; producing the most violent symptoms, very shortly after its ingestion, but which gradually subside, and the patient is supposed cured; when, at some future time, death takes place from the organic lesions that had been occasioned. An Accumulative Poison.-Many doses are required; the effects being produced by the repetition of doses which would, individually, be harmless.

There still remains another point of view in which it is essential to regard the operation of a poison, in order to establish a distinction between those substances which, in a given dose, will destroy life under every circumstance of constitution, and those which occasion death in consequence of some constitutional peculiarity in the individual to whom they may have been administered, and which are innoxious to the general mass of mankind; the gradations by which food, medicine, and poison, are thus enabled to branch into each other cannot be defined, because the circumstances with which they are related defy generalization. The distinction, however, must be acknowledged and preserved, and we know no terms better adapted for expressing it than those of Absolute and Relative poisons; and our readers are accordingly requested to receive them in conformity with this explanation, whenever they occur in the following pages. Every work professing to treat the subject of poisons, abounds with instances, in which articles that, by universal consent, are considered innocuous, have occasioned the most direful effects. Morgagni relates a case of a person who died from eating bread made with the farina of the chesnut. Dr. Winterbottom* says that he is subject to severe nettle-rash after eating sweet almonds,

Schenkius relates a case in which the general law of astringents and cathartics was always reversed. Donatus tells us of a boy whose jaws swelled, whose face broke out in spots, and whose lips frothed, whenever he eat an egg: we might add many more examples, but it is needless to encumber a subject with illustrations which is already so obvious and indisputable. Nor do the anomalies of constitutional idiosyncrasies end here, for they not only convert food into poison, but they change poison into food, or at least into a harmless repast. The most extraordinary exemplification of this on record is contained in the history of the old man at Constantinople, as related by M. Pouqueville, physician to the French army in Egypt, and who was a prisoner at Constantinople in the year 1798. "This man," says he, "was well known all over Constantinople, by the name of Suleyman Yeyen, or Suleyman, the taker of corrosive sublimate. At the epoch when I was there he was supposed to be nearly 100 years old, having lived under the Sultans, Achmet III. Abdul Hamet, and Selim III. He had in his early life habituated himself to taking opium; but notwithstanding that he constantly increased the dose, he ceased to feel from it the desired effect, and then tried sublimate, the effects of which he had heard highly spoken of; for thirty years this old man never ceased to take it daily, and the quantity he could now bear exceeded a drachm. It is said, at this epoch he came into the shop of a Jewish apothecary, and asked for a drachm of sublimate, which he swallowed immediately, having first mixed it in a glass of water. The apothecary, terrified, and fearing that he should be accused of poisoning a Turk, immediately shut up his shop, reproaching himself bitterly with what he had done; but his surprise was very great, when the next day the Turk came again, and asked for a like dose of sublimate."

Morbid states of the body may also exist which are capable of resisting to a certain extent, or of modifying, the violent operations of particular poisons.

In the history of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 1703, a case is related of a woman who, being tired out by a protracted dropsy, under which her husband had suffered, charitably administered to him fifteen or twenty grains of opium with the intention of despatching him; but the dose immediately produced such copious evacuations by sweat and urine, that it restored him to health. This relation will immediately recall to the recollection of the classical reader the story recorded by Plutarch, in his life of Crassus, of Hyrodes

king of the Parthians, who, having fallen into a dropsical complaint, had poison (aconite) administered to him by his second son, Phraates, but which, instead of destroying the king, as intended, cured his disease. The son, however, having thus failed in his attempt, shortly afterwards smothered his father with his pillow.

ART. XXII.-A Notice of some Parts of the Work of M. Charles Dupin, on the Navy and Commerce of Great Britain. [T.]

THE third part of the series of works, projected by M. Charles Dupin, on the Power of Great Britain, has lately been published in Paris, and the high reputation which the author has gained by the two former parts, is not likely to be diminished by his last publication. M. Dupin is an elève of the polytechnical school. He has attained a place in the institute, and holds a high office as naval engineer. The work of which we propose to give a short account, is the result of several travels in England since 1816. Not able to bear the idleness which fell upon all classes connected with the army and navy, after the disbanding of the forces in 1815, his ar dent mind sought relief in visiting the great public works of England, and after six months' solicitation he obtained leave of absence, from his government, to travel over England. The facts he thus collected he was, on his return, encouraged to publish by the French ministers; which gives his work a semi-official character. The object of the publication seems to have been, to give the enlightened classes in France a better view than they have heretofore possessed of the military and naval resources of England; of the public and private works which the skill and industry of the people have erected for facilitating trade, manufactures, and foreign commerce. A great deal is written on the laws, on the customs, and the details of the administration, as connected with the several arts under consideration, which gives to the work a statistical character, and likewise furnishes the author with an opportunity of displaying an eloquence, which will give his work more general popularity than he could expect for it if it were confined to a simple description of public works and of the practice of the arts.

The great schools, in England, for studying the arts connected with maritime affairs, are at the naval arsenals. These

the government have opened with great liberality since the peace of 1815, compared with its former cautious admission of strangers. They do not, however, by any means, open their gates to an indiscriminate admission of all foreigners. It is necessary, according to M. Dupin, that the ambassador of the nation to which the stranger belongs, should obtain an order from the admiralty, granting permission to visit a particular arsenal. This order the stranger carries with him to the arsenal, the commissioner of which, having already been apprised from the admiralty of the intended visit, gives the stranger a more or less respectful reception, according to his private instructions. The liberality of the government and the higher officers, however, has not yet made its way to the subordinates, who appear still to wonder at the audacity of the Frenchman, who asks for admittance at the gates of an arsenal. Dupin, on his visit to Portsmouth, says,-"On entering the arsenal, I was stopped by an under officer of the guard, who asked me what I wanted: I replied, that I wished to speak with the commissioner. I was dressed in the French fashion, and I express myself in English but very imperfectly. After this, the guard, continuing his interrogation, asked me sharply; 'Of what nation are you? France.' 'Of course you cannot enter.' 'But I only wish to be conducted to the office of the commissioner.' 'You cannot even speak to the commissioner-if you have any business with him,-write."" Dupin, however, was determined to see the great works of England, and to this end to submit, with resignation, to any vexation which could be heaped upon him, in silence. If the object of the British government, in opening their arsenals to the inspection of foreigners, is to impress them with high ideas of their perfection in maritime affairs, as is hinted in the Quarterly Review, they have succeeded with M. Dupin to a degree which must be very satisfactory. They have obtained the admiration of a highly enlightened man; which, in this instance, is the more valuable, as the expression of it, although full and decided, if indeed it is not sometimes to excess, often costs him a struggle with his national feelings.

The work of Dupin, as we have before indicated, is a history of the present state of the arts of Great Britain, connected with war and commerce. It cannot be said to contain many facts which were not already known to some, amongst the enlightened people of England, nor a great number of original and profound speculations or researches, on the theory or practice of the arts. But it does contain much judicious observation, and fair summary of experiments, and as