On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    PREFACE THE SECOND EDITION. In this new edition of my work on poisons I have been com- pelled to restrict my remarks to a consideration of those sub- stances which give rise to medico-legal inquiries. Toxicology is a wide subject in itself, and it would be hopeless on the part of a writer to endeavour to include in one small volume all those facts and principles which are now comprehended under this department of medical science. One of two coui'sesiis open to him : — he may give a distinct notice of every substance which has been known to have a noxious action on the animal body, and in this case the book would become a catalogue of drugs, with a brief history of poisons, — or he may exclude those sub- stances, which belong rather to the history than the practice of the subject, and thus devote more space to the consideration of substances which, from the frequency of their employment for murder and suicide, are of great practical importance. I have chosen the latter course. My space has been limited, and I have endeavoured to fill it with materials which may be of profit to the practitioners of law and medicine, for whose especial use this volume is intended. Under this view the plan of the former edition has been entirely changed. Many chapters have been struck out, and an equal number of new chapters introduced. The requirements of a period dating no longer ago than ten years arc difl'ercnt from those of tlie present day ; and it is the duty of an author, so far as it may be in his power and con- sistent with the scope of his labours, to fulfil these requirements by an entire remodelling of his subject.