_Read before the National Academy of Medicine._
GENTLEMEN,—In laying before the Academy a memoir on Nicotine, on the 20th of last month, I stated that I did not think I ought to read it, fearing that it might exercise some influence on the proceedings which were to take place at Mons, eight days afterwards. My scruples are now entirely removed, because I was present at the three first sittings of the Court of Assizes at Hainault, and have heard the examination of the accused persons, and the depositions of some of the witnesses. My memoir, supposing it to be published to-morrow, and consequently much before the sentence will have been pronounced, will not aggravate the situation of the accused, nor increase the power of the ministers of justice. You will see, in fact, that after describing nicotine, I came to the conclusion, that it may be easily detected in the digestive canal, the liver, the lungs, and all those organs into which it has been carried after its absorption. Now, M. de Bocarmé confesses that he prepared some nicotine, that Gustave Fougnies took an appreciable dose of it, and died very shortly afterwards. Consequently, he cannot dispute the fact of M. Stas having found this alkaloid in the body of his brother-in-law. It is of little importance to us that Madame de Bocarmé accuses her husband of being the author of the crime, whilst he, on the other hand, attributes the death of Gustave to a mistake of his wife’s, who might inadvertently have poured the nicotine into a glass instead of wine. It will be for the jury to decide what truth there is in these assertions; as scientific men, we ought to confine ourselves in this case to the solution of the chemical and medical problems relating to this subject.
I think I ought to read to the Academy the textual memoir, without the preamble, which I composed a fortnight ago, when the principal circumstances, which have since been developed, were but imperfectly known.
The principal object of this paper is to show:―
1. That we may characterize pure nicotine as easily as we can a poison derived from the mineral kingdom.
2. That we may detect this alkali in the digestive canal, and assert its existence there, although it is present only to the extent of a few drops. { 18}