Dose No. 3, equal as before to 1·6 mgrm., he took in the morning. He experienced almost exactly the same symptoms as before, but convulsions were added, especially of the face; the eyes were also prominent; twenty minutes after he had taken the dose, vomiting came on, after which he again felt better.
He took dose No. 4, and had the same repetition of symptoms, but in the interval between the doses he felt weaker and weaker; he had no energy, and felt as if paralysed. No. 5 was taken, and produced, like the others, vomiting, after which he felt relieved. Neither he nor his wife seemed all this time to have had any suspicion that the medicine was really doing harm, but thought that the effects were due to its constant rejection by vomiting, so, in order to prevent vomiting with No. 6, he drank much cold water. After thus taking the medicine, the patient seemed to fall into a kind of slumber, with great restlessness; about an hour and a half afterwards he cried, “I am chilled; my heart, my heart is terribly cold. I am dying; I am poisoned.” His whole body was covered with perspiration; he was now convulsed, and lost sight and hearing; his eyes were shut, his lips cracked and dry, he could scarcely open his mouth, and he was extremely cold, and thought he was dying. The breathing was difficult and rattling; from time to time the muscular spasms came on. His wife now made a large quantity of hot strong black tea, which she got him to drink with great difficulty; although it was hot, he did not know whether it was hot or cold. About five minutes afterwards he vomited, and did so several times; this apparently relieved him, and he sank into a quiet sleep; during the night he did not urinate. In the morning the wife went to Dr. Carl Meyer, described the symptoms, and accused the medicine. So convinced was Dr. Meyer that the medicine did not cause the symptoms, that he poured out a quantity of the same, equal to 4 mgrms. of aconitine nitrate, and took it himself in some wine, to show that it was harmless, and ordered them to go on with it. The unhappy physician died of aconitine poisoning five hours after taking the medicine.[480] In the meantime, the woman went home, and her husband actually took a seventh, but smaller dose, which produced similar symptoms to the former, but of little severity; no more was taken.
[480] The symptoms suffered by Dr. Meyer are to be found in Neder. Tijdschrift van Geneeskunde, 1880, No. 16.
The absence of diarrhœa, and of the pricking sensations so often described, is in this case noteworthy. Both diarrhœa and formication were also absent in a third case reported by Dr. Busscher in the same paper.
§ 436. The most important criminal case is undoubtedly that of Lamson:—At the Central Criminal Court, in March, 1882, George Henry Lamson, surgeon, was convicted of the murder of his brother-in-law, Percy Malcolm John. The victim was a weakly youth of eighteen years of age, paralysed in his lower limbs from old standing spinal disease. The motive for perpetrating the crime was that Lamson, through his wife (Malcolm John’s sister), would receive, on the death of his brother-in-law, a sum of £1500, and, according to the evidence, it is probable that there had been one or more previous attempts by Lamson on the life of the youth with aconitine given in pills and in powders. However this may be, on November 24, 1880, Lamson purchased 2 grains of aconitine, came down on Dec. 3 to the school where the lad was placed, had an interview with his brother-in-law, and, in the presence of the head-master, gave Malcolm John a capsule, which he filled then and there with some white powder, presumed at the time to be sugar. Lamson only stayed altogether twenty minutes in the house, and directly after he saw his brother-in-law swallow the capsule, he left. Within fifteen minutes Malcolm John became unwell, saying that he felt as if he had an attack of heart-burn, and then that he felt the same as when his brother-in-law had on a former occasion given him a quinine pill. Violent vomiting soon set in, and he complained of pains in his stomach, a sense of constriction in his throat, and of being unable to swallow. He was very restless—so much so that he had to be restrained by force from injuring himself. There was delirium a few minutes before death, which took place about three hours and three-quarters after swallowing the fatal dose. The post-mortem appearances essentially consisted of redness of the greater curvature of the stomach, and the posterior portion of the same organ. In one part there was a little pit, as if a blister had broken; the rest of the viscera were congested, and the brain also slightly congested.[481]
[481] To these cases of poisoning by the alkaloid aconitine may be added one recorded in Bouchardat’s Annuaire de Thérapeutie, 1881, p. 276. The case in itself is of but little importance, save to illustrate the great danger in permitting the dispensing of such active remedies of varying strength. A gentleman suffering from “angina pectoris” was prescribed “Hottot’s aconitine” in granules, and directed carefully to increase the dose up to four granules, according to the effect produced. The prescription was taken to a pharmacist, who, instead of supplying Hottot’s aconitine, supplied some other of unknown origin. The medicine was taken daily, and the dose raised to four granules, which were taken with benefit until the whole was exhausted. He then went to Hottot’s establishment, and had a fresh supply, presumably of the same substance, but a very little time after he had taken his usual dose of four granules, he suffered from symptoms of aconitine poisoning, headache, vertigo, feebleness of the voice, and muscular weakness, and was alarmingly ill. He recovered after some hours of medical treatment.