Jane Witham, examined by Mr. E. James: In March last I was in attendance upon a lady who died. (The learned counsel told the witness she had better not mention the lady’s name.) She took some medicine. After she took it she became ill. She complained first of her back. Her head was thrown back, her body stretched out, and I observed twichings. Her eyes were drawn aside and staring. I put my hand upon her limbs, which did not at all relax. She first complained of being ill in that way on Monday, the 25th of February, and died on Saturday, the 1st of March. She had attacks on the Monday, on the Wednesday, on the Thursday, on the Friday (a very slight one), and at a quarter-past eight o’clock on the Saturday morning. She died about twenty minutes to eleven that night. Between the attacks she was composed. She principally complained of prickings in the legs and twichings in the muscles and in the hands, which she said she could compare to nothing else than a galvanic shock. She wished her husband to rub her legs and arms. She was dead when Dr. Morley came.
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: On the Saturday night she could not bear to have her legs touched when the spasms were strong upon her. Her limbs were rigidly extended when she asked to be rubbed. That was in the interval between the spasms. Touching her then brought on the spasms. Her body was stiff immediately after death, but I did not stay long in the house. On the Saturday she was sensible from half-an-hour to an hour, from a quarter past eight till after nine. I suppose she was insensible the remainder of the time. She did not speak.
Re-examined by Mr. E. James: On the Saturday before she died the symptoms were the same as on the other days—not more violent.
Mr. Morley, examined by Mr. Welsby: I am a surgeon. I attended on the lady to whom the last witness has alluded for about two months before her death. On the Monday before she died she was in bed apparently comfortable, when I observed (as I stood by her side) several slight convulsive twitchings of her arms. I supposed they arose from hysteria, and ordered medicine in consequence. The same symptoms were repeated on the following Wednesday or Thursday. I saw her on Saturday, the day she died. She was apparently better, and quite composed in the middle of the day. She complained of an attack she had had in the night. She spoke of pain and spasms in the back and neck, and of shocks. I and another medical man were sent for hastily on the Saturday night. We were met by the announcement that the lady was dead. On the Monday I accompanied another medical gentleman to the post-mortem examination. We found no disease in any part of the body which would account for death. There was no emaciation, wound, or sore. There was a peculiar expression of anxiety about the countenance. The hands were bent and the fingers curved. The feet were strongly arched. We carefully examined the stomach and its contents to see if we could find poison. We applied several tests—nitric acid, chloride of sulphuric acid, bi-chloride of potash in a liquid state, and also in a solid state. They are the best tests to detect the presence of strychnine. In each case we found appearances characteristic of strychnine. We administered the strychnine taken from the stomach to animals by inoculation. We gave it to a few mice, a few rabbits, and a guinea pig, having first separated it by chemical analysis. We observed in each of the animals more or less of the effects produced by strychnine—namely, general uneasiness, difficult breathing, convulsions of a tetanic kind, muscular rigidity, arching backwards of the head and neck, violent stretching out of the legs. These symptoms appeared in some of the animals in four or five minutes; in others in less than an hour. The guinea-pig suffered but slightly at first and was left, and found dead the next day. The symptoms were strongly marked in the rabbits. After death there was an interval of flaccidity, after which rigidity commenced, more than if it had been occasioned by the usual rigor mortis. I afterwards made numerous experiments on animals with exactly similar results, the poison being administered in a fluid form.
Cross-examined by Mr. Grove: I did not see the patient during a severe attack. I have observed in animals that spasms are brought on by touch. That is a very marked symptom. The spasm is like a galvanic shock. The patient was not at all insensible during the time I saw her, and she was able to swallow, but I did not see her during a severe attack. After death we found the lungs very much congested. There was a small quantity of bloody serum in the pericardium. The muscles of the whole body were dark and soft. There was a decided quantity of effusion in the brain. There was also a quantity of serum tinged with blood in the membranes of the spinal cord. The membranes of the spinal marrow were congested to a considerable extent. We opened the head first, and there was a good deal of blood flowing out. Part of the blood may have flowed from the heart. That might partially empty the heart, and would make it uncertain whether the heart was full or empty at the time of death. I have often examined the hearts of animals poisoned by strychnine. The right side of the heart is generally full. In some cases I think that the symptoms did not appear for an hour after the administration of the poison. I have made the experiments in conjunction with Mr. Nunneley. We have made experiments upon frogs, but they are different in many respects from warm-blooded animals. I have in almost all cases found the strychnine where it was known to have been administered. In one case it was doubtful. We were sure the strychnine had been administered in that case, but we doubted whether it had reached the stomach. There were appearances which might lead one to infer the presence of strychnine, but they were not satisfactory. I have detected strychnine in the stomach nearly two months after death, when decomposition has proceeded to a considerable extent.
Re-examined by the Attorney-General: From half a grain to a grain has been administered to cats, rabbits, and dogs. From one to two grains is quite sufficient to kill a dog.
How does the strychnine act? Is it taken up by the absorbents and carried into the system?—I think it acts upon the nerves, but a part may be taken into the blood and act through the blood. We generally examined the stomach of the animals when the poison had been administered internally. Sometimes we examined the skin. The poison found in the stomach would be in excess of that absorbed into the system.
Are you, then, of opinion that, a portion of the poison being taken into the system and a portion being left in the stomach, the portion taken into the system would produce tetanic symptoms and death?
Mr. Serjeant Shee objected to a question which suggested a theory.
The Attorney-General: What would be the operation of that portion of the poison which is taken into the system?—It would destroy life.