In searching for arsenic in the fluids or tissues of the body, the analyst is generally at the mercy of the pathologist, and sometimes the work of the chemist leads to a negative result, solely from not having the proper organ sent to him.[769]
[769] For example, in cases of poisoning by external application, more than once merely the empty stomach and a piece of intestine have been forwarded to the writer.
Brodie long ago stated that when arsenious acid had been given in solution to any animal capable of vomiting, no arsenic could be detected in the stomach; this statement is too absolute, but in the majority of cases true.
In all cases the chemist should have portions of the brain, spinal cord, liver, kidneys, lungs, and muscular tissue, as well as the stomach and its contents.
According to the experiments of Scolosuboff,[770] arsenic is generally greatest in the marrow, then in the brain, next in the liver, and least in the muscles, and the following may be taken as a fairly accurate statement of the relative proportion in which arsenic is likely to be found in the body, 100 grms. being taken of each:—
[770] Bull. Soc. Chim. (2), xxiv. p. 124.