I will conclude this historical sketch by remarking, and as a remarkable historical fact, that the English firms which in the last century introduced the pianoforte, to whose honorable exertions we owe a debt of gratitude, with the exception of Stodart, still exist, and are in the front rank of the world's competition. I will name Broadwood (whose flag I serve under), Collard (in the last years of the last century known as Longman and Clementi), Erard (the London branch), Kirkman, and, I believe, Wornum. On the Continent there is the Paris Erard house; and, at Vienna, Streicher, a firm which descends directly from Stein of Augsburg, the inventor of the German pianoforte, the favorite of Mozart, and of Beethoven in his virtuoso period, for he used Stein's grands at Bonn. Distinguished names have risen in the present century, some of whom have been referred to. To those already mentioned, I should like to add the names of Hopkinson and Brinsmead in England; Bechstein and Bluthner in Germany; all well-known makers. * * * * * THE POISONOUS PROPERTIES OF NITRATE OF SILVER, AND A RECENT CASE OF POISONING WITH THE SAME. [Footnote: Read before the Medico Legal Society, April 5, 1883.] By HENRY A. MOTT, JR., Ph.D., etc. Of the various salts of silver, the nitrate, both crystallized and in sticks (lunar caustic, _Lapis infernalis_), is the only one interesting to the toxicologist. This salt is an article of commerce, and is used technically and medicinally. Its extensive employment for marking linen, in the preparation of various hair dyes (Eau de Perse, d'Egypte, de Chiene, d'Afrique), in the photographer's laboratory, etc., affords ample opportunity to use the same for poisoning purposes. Nitrate of silver possesses an acrid metallic taste and acts as a violent poison. When injected into a vein of an animal, even in small quantities, the symptoms produced are dyspnoea,[1] choking, spasms of the limbs and then of the trunk, signs of vertigo, consisting of inability to stand erect or walk steadily, and, finally retching and vomiting, and death by asphyxia. These symptoms, which have usually been attributed to the coagulating action of the salt upon the blood, have been shown not to depend upon that change, which, indeed, does not occur, but upon a direct paralyzing operation upon the cerebro-spinal centers and upon the heart; but the latter action is subordinate and secondary, and the former is fatal through asphyxia. [Footnote 1: Nat. Dispensatory. Alf. Stille & John M. Maisch, Phila., 1879, p. 232.] One-third of a grain injected into the jugular vein killed a dog in four and one-half hours, with violent tetanic spasms.[1] [Footnote 1: Medical Jurisprudence. Thomas S. Traill, 1857, p 117.]