He found, to his horror, that in none of the papers or books which he could find bearing on the subject was there a record of any re-agent or test that could be relied upon for the detection of the poison after it had been taken internally. Other poisons had their respective tests, but these deadly principles existing in fungi could be administered criminally with little chance of detection, and no chemist would be able to prove their presence in food or drink to the satisfaction of any jury. CHAPTER XXXV. THE HOBBY OF DR. SONES. Let me be sick myself if sometimes the malady of my patient be not a disease to me. I desire rather to cure his infirmities than my own necessities.—_Sir Thomas Browne._ We own that numbers join with care and skill, A temperate judgment, a devoted will; Men who suppress their feelings, but who feel The painful symptoms they delight to heal.—_Crabbe._ As Mr. Crowe had evidently been for many months engaged in this particular branch of research, it occurred to his assistant that it would be a good idea to take up the same line himself. He was piqued that any new discoveries should be kept from him; and as he had devoted himself heartily to the interests of his chief, he felt he should have been permitted to share in so interesting a study as this promised to be. He had done much valuable microscopical work for the school and the curator of the museum, and here was an opportunity of still further glory. He got his firm of translators to write him an order to the Russian agents for the drugs and the fungi from which they were manufactured, and had the journals and books which recorded Professor Oppenheim’s discoveries sent to his private address. He went further than this. He had often rendered services to one Dr. Newberry Sones, an analyst and specialist in toxicology, who lived in a turning out of Wardour Street, and he determined to enlist him as a partner in the chemical part of his work. Dr. Sones was not in any way connected with St. Bernard’s, nor did he even know Mr. Crowe, except by repute.