In the cases of Marsh and Shrivell, Neill Cream had tea with them on the night of April 11, and gave them both “three long pills;” half an hour after Neill Cream left them they were found to be dying, and died within six hours. From Marsh 7 grains, from Shrivell nearly 2 grains of strychnine were separated; the probability is that each pill contained at least 3 grains of strychnine. The criminal met Louie Harvey on the Embankment, and gave her “some pills” to take; she pretended to do so, but threw them away. Hence it seems probable that Neill Cream took advantage of the weakness that a large number of the population have for taking pills, and mostly poisoned his victims in this manner. Clover’s case was not diagnosed during life, but strychnine was found six or seven months after burial in the body. It may be mentioned incidentally that the accused himself furnished the clue which led to his arrest, by writing letters charging certain members of the medical profession with poisoning these poor young prostitutes with strychnine.

§ 390. Fatal Dose.—In a research, which may, from its painstaking accuracy, be called classical, F. A. Falck has thrown much light upon the minimum lethal dose of strychnine for various animals. It would seem that, in relation to its size, the frog is by no means so sensible to strychnine as was believed, and that animals such as cats and rabbits take a smaller dose in proportion to their body-weight. The method used by Falck was to inject subcutaneously a solution of known strength of strychnine nitrate, and, beginning at first with a known lethal dose, a second experiment was then made with a smaller dose, and if that proved fatal, with a still smaller, and so on, until such a quantity was arrived at, that the chances as determined by direct observation were as great of recovery as of death. Operating in this way, and making no less than 20 experiments on the rabbit, he found that the least fatal dose for that animal was ·6 mgrm. of strychnine nitrate per kilogramme. Cats were a little less susceptible, taking ·75 mgrm. Operating on fowls, he found that strychnine taken into the crop in the usual way was very uncertain; 50 mgrms. per kilo, taken with the food had no effect, but results always followed if the poison was introduced into the circulation by the subcutaneous needle—the lethal dose for fowls being, under those circumstances, 1 to 2 mgrms. per kilo. He made 35 experiments on frogs, and found that to kill a frog by strychnine nitrate, at least 2 mgrms. per kilo, must be injected. Mice take a little more, from 2·3 to 2·4 mgrms. per kilo. In 2 experiments on the ring adder, in one 62·5 mgrms. per kilo. of strychnine nitrate, injected subcutaneously, caused death in seven hours; in the second, 23·1 mgrms. per kilo. caused death in five days; hence the last quantity is probably about the least fatal dose for this particular snake.

These observations may be conveniently thrown into the following [table] (see next page), placing the animals in order according to their relative sensitiveness.[426]

[426] According to Christison’s researches, 0·2 grm. (about 1⁄3 grain) is fatal to swine; ·03 grm. (1⁄2 grain) to bears, if injected into the pleura. 1 to 3 grains (·0648 to ·1944 grm.) is given to horses in cases of paralysis, although 3 grains cannot but be considered a dangerous dose, unless smaller doses have been previously administered without effect; 10 grains would probably kill a horse, and 15 grains (·972 grm.) have certainly done so.

Now, the important question arises, as to the place in this series occupied by man—a question difficult to solve, because so few cases are recorded in which strychnine has been administered by subcutaneous injection with fatal result. Eulenberg has observed poisonous symptoms, but not death, produced by 6 mgrms. (1⁄11 grain) and by 10 mgrms. (about 1⁄6 grain). Bois observed poisonous symptoms from the similar subcutaneous administrations of 8 mgrms. to a child six years old, and 4 mgrms. to another child four years old—the latter dose, in a case recorded by Christison, actually killing a child of three years of age. On the other hand, the smallest lethal dose taken by an adult was swallowed in solution. Dr. Warner took 32 mgrms. (1⁄2 grain) of strychnine sulphate, mistaking it for morphine sulphate, and died in twenty minutes. In other cases 48 mgrms. (7⁄10 grain) have been fatal. It will be safe to conclude that these doses by the stomach would have acted still more surely and energetically if injected subcutaneously. The case of Warner is exceptional, for he was in weak health; and, if calculated out according to body-weight, presuming that Dr. Warner weighed 68 kilos., the relative dose as strychnine nitrate would be ·24 per kilo.—a smaller dose than for any animal hitherto experimented upon. There is, however, far more reason for believing that the degree of sensitiveness in man is about the same as that of cats or dogs, and that the least fatal dose for man is ·70 per kilo., the facts on record fairly bearing out this view. It is, therefore, probable that death would follow if 38 mgrms. (7⁄10 grain) were injected subcutaneously into a man of the average weight of 68 kilos. (150 lbs.). Taylor estimates the fatal dose of strychnine for adults as from 32·4 to 129·6 mgrms. (·5 to 2 grains); Guy puts the minimum at 16·2 mgrms. (·25 grain).

TABLE SHOWING THE ACTION OF STRYCHNINE ON ANIMALS.

Animal.Manner of
Application.		Reckoned on
1 Kilo. of
Body-weight.
Lowest
Experimental
Lethal Dose.		Highest
Experimental
Lethal Dose.
Dose of
Strychnine Nitrate
in Mgrms.
Rabbit,Subcutaneous.0·500·60
Cat,Subcut„...0·75
Dog,Subcut„...0·75
Do„Taken by the Stomach.2·03·90
Do„Taken „by theRectum....2·00
Do„Taken „by theBladder.5·50...
Fox,Subcutaneous....1·00
Hedgehog,Subcut„1·002·00
Fowl,Subcut„...2·00
Frog,Subcut„2·002·10
Mouse,Subcut„2·362·36
Ring Adder,Subcut„...23·10

Large doses of strychnine may be recovered from if correct medical treatment is sufficiently prompt. Witness the remarkable instances on record of duplex poisonings, in which the would-be-suicide has unwittingly defeated his object by taking strychnine simultaneously with some narcotic, such as opium or chloral. In a case related by Schauenstein,[427] a suicidal pharmacist took ·48 grm. or ·6 grm. (7·4 to 9·25 grains) of strychnine nitrate dissolved in about 30 c.c. of bitter-almond water, and then, after half an hour, since no symptoms were experienced, ·6 grm. (9·25 grains) of morphine acetate, which he likewise dissolved in bitter-almond water and swallowed. After about ten minutes, he still could walk with uncertain steps, and poured some chloroform on the pillow-case of his bed, and lay on his face in order to breathe it. In a short time he lost consciousness, but again awoke, and lay in a half-dreamy state, incapable of motion, until some one entered the room, and hearing him murmur, came to his bedside. At that moment—two and a quarter hours after first taking the strychnine—the pharmacist had a fearful convulsion, the breathing was suspended, and he lost consciousness. Again coming to himself, he had several convulsions, and a physician who was summoned found him in general tetanus. There were first clonic, then tonic convulsions, and finally opisthotonus was fully developed. The treatment consisted of emetics, and afterwards tannin and codeine were given separately. The patient slept at short intervals; in ten hours after the taking of the poison the seizures were fewer in number and weaker in character, and by the third day recovery was complete. Dr. Macredy[428] has also placed on record an interesting case, in which the symptoms, from a not very large dose of strychnine, were delayed by laudanum for eight hours. A young woman, twenty-three years of age, pregnant, took at 10 A.M. a quantity of strychnine estimated at 1·5 grain, in the form of Battle’s vermin-killer, and immediately afterwards 2 ounces of laudanum. She was seen by Dr. Macredy in four hours, and was then suffering from pronounced narcotic symptoms. A sulphate of zinc emetic was administered. In eight hours after taking the strychnine, there were first observed some clonic convulsive movements of the hands, and, in a less degree, the legs. These convulsions continued, at times severe, for several hours, and were treated with chloral. Recovery was speedy and complete.