Part 24

Examination continued: The lungs were not congested, nor was the brain. In the case of animals which have recovered, the paroxysms have subsided gradually. I never knew a severe paroxysm followed by a long interval of repose. I have experimented upon the discovery of strychnia in the bodies of animals in various stages of decomposition, from a few hours after death up to the forty-third day, in which latter case the body was quite putrid. It has never happened to me to fail to discover the poison. I have experimented in about fifteen cases.

Supposing a person to have died under the influence of strychnia poison in the first paroxysm, and his stomach to have been taken out and put into a jar on the sixth day after death, must strychnia have, by a proper analysis, been found in the body?--Yes. If the strychnia be pure, such as is almost invariably found among medical men and druggists, the test is nitric acid, which gives a red colour, which in a great measure disappears on the addition of protochloride of tin. If the strychnia be pure, it does not undergo any change on the addition of sulphuric acid, but on an addition of a mixture of bichromate of potash, with several other substances, it produces a beautiful purple, which changes to varying shades until it gets to be a dirty red. There are several other tests. In this case the stomach was not, in my opinion, in an unfavourable condition for examination. The circumstances attending its position in the jar, and its removal to London, would give a little more trouble, but would not otherwise effect the result. If the deceased had died from strychnia poison, it ought to have been found in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. I have seen this poison found in similar portions of animals which had been killed by it. I have also seen it found in the blood; that was by Mr. Herepath, of Bristol.

Could the analyses be defeated or confused by the existence in the stomach of any other substance which would produce the same colours?--No. Supposing that pyrozantine and salicine were in the parts examined, their existence would not defeat the analysis. Pyrozantine is very unlikely to be found in the stomach. It is one of the rarest and most difficult to be obtained. The distinction between pyrozantine and strychnia is quite evident; pyrozantine changes to a deep purple on the addition of sulphuric acid alone, and the bichromate of potash spoils the colour. In strychnia no change is produced by sulphuric acid. It requires the addition of the bichromate to produce the colour.

Supposing the death to have been caused by a dose of strychnia, not more than sufficient to destroy the animal, would it be so diffused by the process of absorption that you would not be able by these tests to detect it in any portion of the system?--No; I believe it would not.

Had that question occupied your attention before you were called upon to give evidence upon this trial?--It had.

What is your reason for stating that strychnine, when it has done its work, continues as strychnine in the system?--Those who say that some change takes place argue that as food undergoes a change when taken into the body, so does the poison; it becomes decomposed. But the change in food takes place during digestion; consequently its traces are not found in the blood. Substances like strychnine are absorbed without digestion, and may be obtained unchanged from the blood. They may be administered in various ways.

In your judgment will any amount of putrefaction prevent the discovery of strychnine?--To say that it is absolutely indestructible would be absurd, but within ordinary limits, no. I have found it at the end of forty days.

What is the probable relative rapidity of the action of strychnine in an empty and a full stomach?--The emptier the stomach the quicker the action.

Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL.--I am a lecturer on surgery. Mr. Morley, who was called for the prosecution, is a lecturer on chemistry. Part (perhaps half) of the experiments on the 60 animals were made by me and Mr. Morley jointly. There was nothing to distinguish the experiments which I made alone from those which I made jointly with him. I state the apparent results of the whole. My experiments were spread over a period of thirty years. Many of them have been made since the Leeds case. Some of them were made in reference to this case. I can’t say how many.

Now, don’t put yourself in a state of antagonism to me, but tell me how many of your experiments were made in reference to this particular case?--I cannot answer that question. The great bulk certainly were not. I was first concerned in this case about the time of the death of the person at Leeds. I was applied to. I was in correspondence with the attorney for the defence. The details of the Leeds case were forwarded to him by me, and I called his attention to them. The general dose in these experiments was from half a grain to two grains. Half a grain is sufficient to destroy life in the larger animals. I have seen both a dog and cat die from that dose, but not always. Some animals as a species are more susceptible than those of a different species, and among animals of the same species some are more susceptible than others. The symptoms in the experiments I have mentioned did not appear after so long a period as an hour. We have had to repeat the dose of poison in some instances when half a grain has been given. That happened in the case of a cat. Symptoms of spasm were produced, but the animal did not die. She had not, however, swallowed the doses. I think I have known animals of the cat species killed with half a grain.

Have you any doubt about it?--Yes.

Half a grain, then, is the _minimum_ dose which will kill a cat?--I think it would be the _minimum_ dose in the case of an old strong cat. If administered in a fluid state I think a smaller dose would suffice. Harried breathing is one of the first symptoms, afterwards there are twitching and tremblings of the muscles, then convulsions.

Is there any diversity, as in the intervals and the order of the symptoms, in animals of the same species?--They certainly don’t occur after the same intervals of time, but I should say they generally occur in the order I have described. There is some difference in the periods at which the convulsions take place. Some animals will die after less convulsion than others, but an animal generally dies after four or five. In one or two instances an animal has died after one convulsion. In those instances a dose has been given equal in amount to another dose which has not produced the same effect. The order in which the muscles are convulsed varies to some extent. The muscles of the limbs are generally affected first. The convulsions generally occur simultaneously.

Do you know any case of strychnine in which the rigidity after death was greater than the usual _rigor mortis_?--I think not. I don’t think there is any peculiar rigidity produced by strychnine.

Have you never found undue rigidity in a human subject after death from strychnine?--Considerably less.

In the anonymous case to which we have referred were not the hands curved and the feet arched by muscular contraction?--Not more than is usual in cases of death from ordinary causes. The limbs were rigid, but not more than usual.

In face of the medical profession, I ask you whether you signed a report stating that “the hands were curved and the feet decidedly arched by muscular contraction,” and whether you meant by those words that there was no more than the ordinary rigidity of death?--Certainly; I stated so at the time.

Where? In the report?--No; in conversation. Allow me to explain that a distinction was drawn between the muscles of the different parts of the body. I heard Mr. Morley’s evidence with regard to experiments on animals, and his statement that “after death there was an interval of flacidity, after which rigidity commenced more than if it had been occasioned by the usual _rigor mortis_.”

You don’t agree with that statement?--I do not. I generally found the right side of the heart full.

Does the fact of the heart in Cook’s case having been found empty lead you to the conclusion that death was not caused by strychnine?--Among other things it does. I heard the evidence of Dr. Watson as to the case of Agnes Sennet, in which the heart was found distended and empty; also, that of Mr. Taylor as to the _post-mortem_ examination of Mrs. Smyth. No doubt he stated that the heart in that case also was empty.

And do those facts exercise no influence on your judgment?--They would not unless I knew how the _post-mortem_ examination had been made. If it was commenced at the head, the blood being fluid, the large drains would be opened, and the blood, from natural causes, would drain away.

Do you know how the _post-mortem_ examination was made in this case?--No. Excuse me, I do. The chest and the abdomen, not the head, were first opened.

The heart, then, was not emptied in the first instance?--No.

Then what occasioned the contraction of the heart?--When the heart is emptied it is usually contracted.

But how do you account for its contraction and emptiness?--I cannot say that I am able to account for it.

Lord CAMPBELL: Would the heart contract if there were blood in it?--No.

Lord CAMPBELL: When you find the heart contracted you know, then, that it was contracted at the moment of death?--It is necessary to draw a distinction between the two cavities. It is very common to find the left ventricle contracted and hard, while the right is uncontracted.

Lord CAMPBELL: That is death by asphyxia?--Precisely.

By the ATTORNEY-GENERAL: In Cook’s case the lungs were described as not congested. Entosthema is of two kinds; one of them consists of dilation of the cells, the other of a rupture of the cells. When animals die from strychnine entosthema occurs. I do not know the character of the entosthema in Cook’s case. It did not occur to me to have the question put to the witnesses who described the _post-mortem_ examination.

To what constitutional symptoms about Cook do you ascribe the convulsions from which he died?--Not to any.

Was not the fact of his having syphilis an important ingredient in your judgment upon his case?--It was. I judge that he died from convulsions by the combination of symptoms.

What evidence have you to suppose that he was liable to excitement and depression of spirits?--The fact that after winning the race he could not speak for three minutes.

Anything else?--Mr. Jones stated that he was subject to mental depression. Excitement will produce a state of brain which will be followed, at some distance, by convulsions. I think Dr. Bamford made a mistake when he said the brain was perfectly healthy.

Do you mean to set up that opinion against that of Dr. Devonshire and Dr. Harland, who were present at the _post-mortem_?--My opinion is founded in part upon the evidence taken at the inquest, in part on the depositions. With the brain and the system in the condition in which Cook’s were I believe it quite possible for convulsions to come on and destroy a person. I do not believe that he died from apoplexy. He was under the influence of morphia. I don’t ascribe his death to morphia, except that it might assist in producing a convulsive attack. I should think morphia not very good treatment, considering the state of excitement he was in.

Do you mean to say, on your oath, that you think he was in a state of excitement at Rugeley?--I wish to give my evidence honestly. Morphia, when given in an injured state of the brain, often disagrees with the patient.

But what evidence have you as to the injured state of the brain?--Sickness often indicates it. I can’t say whether the attack of Sunday night was an attack of convulsions. I think that the Sunday attack was one of a similar character, but not so intense, as the attack of Tuesday, in which he died. I don’t think he had convulsions on the Sunday, but he was in that condition which often precedes convulsions. I think he was mistaken when he stated that he was awoke by a noise. I believe he was delirious. That is one of the symptoms on which I found my opinion. Any intestinal irritation will produce convulsions in a tetanic form. I have known instances in children. I have not seen an instance in an animal. Medical writers state that such cases do occur. I know no name for convulsions of that kind.

Have you ever known a case of convulsions of that kind, terminating in death, in which the patient remained conscious to the last?--I have not. Where epilepsy terminates in death, consciousness is gone. I have known four cases of traumatic, and five or six of idiopathic tetanus.

You heard Mr. Jones make this statement of the symptoms of Cook after the commencement of the paroxysms:--After he swallowed the pills he uttered loud screams, threw himself back in the bed, and was dreadfully convulsed. He said, “Raise me up! I shall be suffocated.” The convulsions affected every muscle of the body, and were accompanied by stiffening of the limbs. I endeavoured to raise Cook with the assistance of Palmer, but found it quite impossible, owing to the rigidity of the limbs. When Cook found we could not raise him up, he asked me to turn him over. He was then quite sensible. I turned him on to his side. I listened to the action of his heart. I found that it gradually weakened, and asked Palmer to fetch some spirits of ammonia to be used as a stimulant. When he returned the pulsations of the heart were gradually ceasing, and life was almost extinct. Cook died very quietly a very short time afterwards. When he threw himself back in bed he clinched his hands, and they remained clinched after death. When I was rubbing his neck, his head and neck were unnaturally bent back by the spasmodic action of the muscles. After death his body was so twisted or bowed, that if I had placed it upon its back it would have rested upon the head and the feet.--Now, I ask you to distinguish in any one particular between those symptoms and the symptoms of tetanic convulsions?--It is not tetanus at all; not idiopathic tetanus.

I quite agree with you that it is not idiopathic tetanus, but point out any distinction that you can see between these symptoms and those of real tetanus?--I do not know that there is any distinction, except that in a case of tetanus I never saw rigidity continue till death and afterwards.

Can you tell me of any case of death from convulsions in which the patient was conscious to the last?--I do not know of any; convulsions occurring after poison has been taken are properly called tetanic.

We were told by Sir B. Brodie that while the paroxysms of tetanic convulsion last there is no difference between those which arise from strychnine and those which arise from tetanus properly so called, but the difference was in the course the symptoms took. Now, what do you say is the difference between tetanus arising from strychnine and ordinary tetanus?--The hands are less violently contracted; the effect of the spasm is less in ordinary tetanus. The convulsion, too, never entirely passes away. I have stated that tetanus is a disease of days, strychnine of hours and minutes; that convulsive twitchings are in strychnine the first symptoms, the last in tetanus; that in tetanus the hands, feet, and legs are usually the last affected, while in strychnine they are the first. I gave that opinion after the symptoms in the case of the lady at Leeds, which were described by the witness Witham, and I still adhere to it. I never said that Cook’s case was one of idiopathic tetanus. I do not think it was a case of tetanus in any sense of the word. It differed from the course of tetanus from strychnine in the particulars I have already mentioned.

Repeat them: There was the sudden accession of the convulsions.

Sudden--after what?--After the rousing by Jones. There was also the power of talking.

Don’t you know that Mrs. Smyth talked and retained her consciousness to the end; that her last words were “turn me over?”--She did say something of that kind. No doubt those were the words she used. I believe that in poison from tetanus the symptoms are first observed in the legs and feet. In the animals upon which I have experimented twitchings in the ears and difficulty of breathing having been the premonitory symptoms.

When Cook felt a stiffness and a difficulty of breathing, and said that he should be suffocated on the first night, what were those but premonitory symptoms?--Well, he asked to be rubbed; but, as far as my experience goes with regard to animals--

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL: They can’t ask to have their ears rubbed, of course. (A laugh.)

Mr. Serjeant SHEE said the witness was about to explain the effect of being rubbed upon the animals.

Cross-examined continued: In no single instance could the animals bear to be touched.

Did not Mrs. Smyth ask to have her legs and arms rubbed?--In the Leeds case the lady asked to be rubbed before the convulsions came on, but afterwards she could not bear it, and begged that she might not be touched.

Can you point out any one point, after the premonitory symptoms, in which the symptoms in this case differ from those of strychnine tetanus?--There is the power of swallowing, which is taken away by inability to move the jaw.

But have you not stated that lockjaw is the last symptom that occurs in strychnine tetanus?--I have. I don’t deny that it may be. I am speaking of the general rule. In the Leeds case it came on very early, more than two hours before death, the paroxysms having continued about two hours and a half. In that case we believed that the dose was four times repeated. Poison might probably be extracted by chemical process from the tissues, but I never tried it, except in one case of an animal. I am not sure whether poison was in that case given through the mouth. We killed four animals in reference to the Leeds case, and in every instance we found strychnine in the contents of the stomach. In one case we administered it by two processes, and one failed and the other succeeded.

Re-examined: In making reports upon cases such as that which has been referred to, we state ordinary appearances; we state the facts without anything more.

Mr. WILLIAM HERAPATH, examined by Mr. GROVE, Q.C.: I am a Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology at the Bristol Medical School. I have studied chemistry for more than forty years, and toxicology for thirty. I have experimented on the poison of strychnine. I have seen no case of a human subject during life, but I have examined a human body after death. In one case I examined the contents of the stomach and I found strychnine about three days after death. There are several tests--sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash, sulphuric acid and puce-coloured oxide of lead, sulphuric acid and peroxide of lead, sulphuric acid and peroxide of manganese, &c. The lower oxides of lead would not succeed. These are all colour tests, and produce a purple colour, passing to red. Another class of tests give a different colour with impure, but not with pure, strychnia. The process used previous to these tests is for the purpose of producing strychnia. I obtained evidence of strychnia by the colour tests in the case I have mentioned. I have experimented upon animals with regard to strychnine in eight or nine cases. I have analysed the bodies in two cases in which I destroyed the animals myself. Both of them were cats. I gave the first one grain of strychnia in a solid form. The animal took the poison at night, and I found it dead in the morning. It was dreadfully contorted and rigid, the limbs extended, the head turned round--not to the back, but to the side--the eyes protruding and staring, the iris expanded so as to be almost invisible. I found strychnine in the urine which had been ejected, and also in the stomach, by the tests I have mentioned. I administered the same quantity of strychnine in a solid form to another cat. It remained very quiet for 15 or 16 minutes, but seemed a little restless in its eyes and in breathing. In 35 minutes it had a terrible spasm, the extremities and the head being drawn together, and the feet extended. I watched it for three hours. The first spasm lasted a minute or two. The saliva dripped from its mouth, and it forcibly ejected its urine. It had a second spasm a few minutes afterwards. It soon recovered and remained still, with the exception of a trembling all over. It continued in that state for three hours. During nearly two hours and a half it was in a very peculiar state; it appeared to be electrified all through; blowing upon it or touching the basket in which it was placed produced a kind of electric jump like a galvanic shock. I left it in three hours, thinking it would recover, but in the morning I found it dead, in the same indurated and contorted condition as the former animal. I examined the body 36 hours after death, and found strychnia in the urine, in the stomach and upper intestine, in the liver, and in the blood of the heart. I have discovered strychnia in all other cases by the same tests, but I took extraordinary means to get rid of organic matter. In all cases in which strychnia has been given I have been able to find it, and not only strychnia, but also the nux vomica from which it is taken. I have found nux vomica in a fox and in other animals. The detection of nux vomica is more complicated than that of strychnia. In one case the animal had been buried two months. I have experimented with strychnia not in a body, but mixed purposely with organic putrefying matter. I have found it in all cases, whatever was the state of decomposition of the matter.

Are you of opinion that where strychnia has been taken in a sufficient dose to poison it can and ought to be discovered?--Yes; unless the body has been completely decomposed; that is, unless decomposition has reduced it to a dry powder. I am of opinion from the accounts given by Dr. Taylor and the other witnesses, that if it had existed in the body of Cook it ought to have been discovered. I am aware of no cause for error in the analyses, if the organic matter had been properly got rid of. The experiments I have mentioned were made in Bristol. I have made experiments in London, and found strychnia in the stomach, liver, and blood of an animal.

Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL: I don’t profess to be a physiologist. I have principally experimented on the stomach until lately. I tried my chemical process on the 8th of this month with a view to the present case. The experiment here was on a dog. I experimented on the tissues of a cat at Bristol, and of a dog in London. I found strychnia in the blood, the heart, and the urine of the cat, besides the stomach. One grain was given to the dog. It was a large dog. I have seen a cat killed with a quarter of a grain. I have said that Dr. Taylor ought to have found strychnia.

Have you not said that you had no doubt strychnia had been taken, but that Dr. Taylor had not gone the right way to find it?--I may have said so. I had a strong opinion from reading various newspaper reports--among others the _Illustrated Times_,--that strychnia had been given. I have expressed that opinion, no doubt, freely. People have talked a great deal to me about the matter, and I can’t recollect every word I have said, but that was my general opinion.