Text-book of forensic medicine and toxicology

by R. J. M. Buchanan

STRYCHNINE

Strychnine is very slightly soluble in cold water to the extent of one part in 8300; in boiling water one part dissolves in about 2500. It is more soluble in alcohol, and very soluble in chloroform or ether and chloroform mixed.

It has a bitter taste, so intense, that one part in 70,000 of water can be detected by the taste. Strychnine is not easily decomposed—it resists the action of warm strong sulphuric acid, and is not altered by putrefactive processes when present in viscera. It has been discovered in the body 322 days after death in one case, 368 days in another.

Fig. 40.—Photo-micrograph of crystals of
strychnine sulphate from aqueous solution, × 50.
(R. J. M. Buchanan.)

Fig. 41.—Photo-micrograph of crystal of
strychnine sulphate from aqueous solution, × 50.
(R. J. M. Buchanan.)

Allen detected strychnine in the residue of some viscera from a person who had died of strychnine poisoning, and which he had kept in a jar for six years. Richter found the alkaloid at the end of eleven years in putrid tissues which had been exposed to the air all that time in open vessels.

Symptoms.—Should the poison be in solution, the patient complains of a hot and intensely bitter taste during swallowing. The effects of the poison depending to a great extent on the mode of administration, become manifest in from a few minutes to an hour or more after it is taken. The earliest symptoms are a feeling of suffocation and great difficulty of breathing. These come on suddenly, without any premonitory warnings. Twitching of the muscles rapidly pass into tetanic convulsions of nearly all the muscles of the body, which are simultaneously affected. The head after several jerks becomes stiffened; the neck rigid; the body curved forward, quite stiff, and resting on the back of the head and heels. The face is congested, and the countenance expresses intense anxiety; the eyes staring, the mouth open, and the lips livid. The throat is dry, the thirst great; but when an attempt is made to drink, the jaws are spasmodically closed, and a piece of the vessel may be bitten out. During the intervals of the paroxysms the intellect is usually clear, and the patient appears conscious of his danger, frequently exclaiming, “I shall die!” He is also conscious of the accession of the paroxysms, telling those around him of their approach, and asking to be held. In the case of J. P. Cook, poisoned by Palmer, those about him tried to raise him, but he was so stiff that they found it impossible. He then said, “Turn me over,” which they did, and he died in a few minutes. Intense pain is felt, due to the powerful contractions of the muscles. After the lapse of a minute or two, the spasms subside, a sudden lull takes place, during which the patient feels exhausted and his skin is bathed in sweat.

In poisoning by strychnine, the jaws are slightly, if at all, affected, trismus is a late symptom, and occurs only during a convulsive seizure.

In tetanus the result of disease, the locking of the jaws is an early and a marked symptom.

As death approaches the fits become more frequent, and the patient dies from exhaustion or suffocation.

Post-mortem Appearances.—There is no characteristic appearance found after death. The blood is fluid, the heart empty, with some congestion of the membranes of the brain. Absence of all cause for so violent and sudden a death. Rigor mortis is prolonged for some time.

Fatal Period.—The rapidity in the accession of the symptoms and fatal termination will, to some extent, depend upon the form in which the poison is taken—i.e. in solution or in pill. In most cases the symptoms appear in from three or four minutes to an hour or more after the poison is swallowed, death following in from ten minutes to six hours. As a rule, if the person lives for two hours after the onset of symptoms recovery may be expected.

Fig. 42.—Photo-micrograph of strychnine sulphate,
film preparation from chloroform solution, × 50.
(R. J. M. Buchanan.)

Fig. 43.—Photo-micrograph of
chromate of strychnine, × 50.
(R. J. M. Buchanan.)

Fatal Dose.—A quarter to half a grain; but large doses have been taken, followed by recovery.

Fig. 44.—Photo-micrograph of
sulphocyanate of strychnine, × 50.
(R. J. M. Buchanan.)

Chemical Analysis.—The poison may fail to be detected, and this link in the scientific evidence may be wanting, as was the case in Palmer‘s trial. In that case the strychnine had been administered in pills; and when after death the stomach had been cut open, and the contents lost, there was little hope of discovering the poison. The non-discovery of the poison was made a strong point on the part of the defence, ignoring at the same time the fact that the stomach had been tampered with and the contents spilt. The alkaloid abstracted from the tissues or contents of the stomach by the process generally used for extraction of alkaloids, may have the following tests applied to it:

1. Scarcely soluble in water, but readily soluble in acidulated water.

2. Intensely bitter taste.

3. Not affected by sulphuric acid; but when a little peroxide of lead, or peroxide of manganese, or bichromate of potash, or ferricyanide or permanganate of potassium is added, a magnificent purple-blue colour, changing to crimson, and finally to a light red tint, is the result. The ¹/₂₀₀₀₀ part of a grain of strychnine has been stated to give this reaction.

4. The physiological test consists in introducing a small quantity of the suspected substance under the skin of a frog, and noting whether or not the animal suffers from tetanic spasms.

5. The Galvanic Test.—Place a solution of strychnine, say one part of strychnine in 15,000 of water, in a slight depression in a piece of platinum foil, and allow the mixture to evaporate. When dry, moisten the spot with sulphuric acid, connect the foil with a positive pole of a single-cell Grove‘s battery, and then touch the acid solution with the negative pole. A violet colour will be at once produced, remaining permanent.

6. Bloxam‘s Test.—To the solid alkaloid in a porcelain dish a drop or two of strong nitric acid is added and gently heated; on adding a small quantity of potassium chlorate a scarlet colour is produced. Ammonia changes this colour to brown and a brown precipitate falls. If the mixture he evaporated to dryness it leaves a dark green residue forming a green solution in water, changed to orange-brown with caustic potash and green again with nitric acid. This test distinguishes strychnine from any of the alkaloids which commonly occur in cases of poisoning.

7. Potassium bichromate when added to a solution of a salt of strychnine, produces a yellow crystalline precipitate of chromate of strychnine: the reaction can be done on a microscope slide and the crystals examined. On drying the crystals and then touching them with a drop of strong sulphuric acid, the purple colour changing through red to green is produced.

8. Picric acid gives a yellow crystalline precipitate of the picrate.

9. Ammonium or potassium sulphocyanate produces crystalline precipitates.

10. Ferri-cyanide of potassium produces a crystalline precipitate with solutions of salts of strychnine.

Strychnine may not be found in the body, even after death from poisoning by it, for the following reasons:

1. Smallness of the quantity taken.

2. The time which has elapsed after taking the strychnine until the symptoms commence.

3. If the careful preservation of the stomach and its contents has been overlooked.

4. The alkaloid may have been eliminated from the body before death.

Treatment.—Evacuation of the stomach by emetics and the stomach pump, under anæsthesia, and then the administration of animal charcoal, iodide of potash, tannic acid, and tea; bromide of potassium in large doses (half an ounce), and repeated in smaller doses. Chloral should be given in five-grain doses hypodermically every ten minutes, until the convulsions are subdued. Chloroform should be inhaled for some time. Urethane is said by Anrep to be more useful than chloral, and should be given in drachm doses.