Note 154 — GENERAL REMARKS ON THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE REQUIRED TO SUBSTANTIATE AN ACCUSATION OF POISONING.

For the purpose of propitiating the favour of heaven, the alchymist stamped the figure of the cross upon the vessel, in which he expected to obtain the long sought prize that was to convert the baser metals into gold, whence the term Crucible derived its origin. And when the experiments of chemistry began to be considered as the true tests of philosophical truth, the expression of “Experimentum crucis” was adopted to signify the highest degree of proof of which a subject is susceptible.