Letter, 'On the detection of strychnia by the formation of iodostrychnine' from William Bird Herapath to George Gabriel Stokes
Reference number: AP/38/27
Date: 07 June 1856
Description
Herapath asks Stokes to announce to the Royal Society that he has 'been engaged during some time past in the application of [his] discovery of the optical properties of iodostrychnia to the detection of this alkaloid in medico-legal inquiries'. He find it possible to recognize the 10,000th part of a grain of strychnia in pure solutions by his method, even when experimenting on very minute quantities.
Subject: Chemistry
Received and read 12 June 1856. Communicated by Stokes.
This letter was published in full in volume 8 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Letter from Dr. W. Bird Herapath to Professor Stokes, “On the detection of strychnia by the formation of iodostrychnia.” Communicated by Professor Stokes, Sec. R. S'.
- Reference number
- AP/38/27
- Earliest possible date
- 07 June 1856
- Physical description
- Ink on paper
- Page extent
- 6 pages
- Format
- Manuscript
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Citation
William Bird Herapath, Letter, 'On the detection of strychnia by the formation of iodostrychnine' from William Bird Herapath to George Gabriel Stokes, 07 June 1856, AP/38/27, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_38_27/letter-on-the-detection-of-strychnia-by-the-formation-of-iodostrychnine-from-william-bird-herapath-to-george-gabriel-stokes, accessed on 09 February 2026
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Related Publications
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III. Letter from Dr. W. Bird Herapath to Professor Stokes, “On the detection of strychnia by the formation of iodostrychnia.” Communicated by Professor Stokes, Sec. R. S External link, opens in new tab.
Date: 31st December 1857
DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1856.0042
Hierarchy
This item is part of:
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Archived papers: volume 38, scientific papers submitted the Royal Society unpublished or abstracted, 1855-1856
1855-1856 Reference number: AP/38
Related Fellows
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William Bird Herapath
Author -
George Gabriel Stokes
Recipient
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Archived Papers
The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.
Dates: 1768 - 1989
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