The evidence offered at the trial was almost entirely circumstantial, and the medical testimony was very conflicting. It was supposed, in the first instance, Palmer had administered tartar emetic to his victim, but that for the fatal dose strychnine was used. It was proved Palmer had purchased strychnine under suspicious circumstances on the morning of the day on which Cook died, and could not account for the purchase of it, or state what he had done with it. The symptoms appeared at a time which would correspond to the interval that precedes the action of strychnine, being developed over the entire body and limbs in a few minutes, suddenly and with violence. None of the pills could be obtained for analysis, and Dr. Taylor, who made the analytical examination, was unable to find any trace of strychnine in the portions submitted to him, but he found half a grain of antimony in the blood. He believed Cook died from the effects of strychnine. The great point in the case was, did the tetanic symptoms, under which the deceased man died, depend on disease or poison? Doctors Brodie, Christison and Todd, and other eminent authorities of the time agreed, that when taken as a whole they were not in accordance with any form of disease, but were in perfect accordance with the effects of strychnine. On the other hand, medical men called for the defence testified that tetanus might be caused by natural disease, and the deceased might have died from angina pectoris or epilepsy. In spite of the absence of confirmatory chemical evidence, after one hour and seventeen minutes' deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of "Guilty," and Palmer was sentenced to death, the trial having lasted twelve days.
The rigid and fixed condition of the limbs is a marked feature after poisoning by strychnine. In the recent Horsford case, in which a farmer named Walter Horsford was convicted of the murder of his cousin Annie Holmes, at St. Neot's, in 1897, 3·69 grains of strychnine were recovered from the internal organs, after the body was exhumed, nineteen days after death. Even then, rigidity was very marked, especially in the lower limbs and fingers. The same rigidity was remarked by Dr. Stevenson in the case of Matilda Clover, who was poisoned by Neill Cream with strychnine a few years ago. In this case, the body had been buried from October until May, and the rigidity in the limbs and fingers was still maintained. Dr. Stevenson states that usually when persons are suffering from strychnine poisoning, they are very apprehensive of death. He has known a woman say, "I am going to die" before any intimation of symptoms had occurred. The first apprehension is, that some terrible calamity is about to take place.
CHAPTER XVI
OPIUM EATING AND SMOKING—MESCAL BUTTONS
The narcotic properties of the poppy have been known from times of great antiquity. The first mention we have of its use is by Theophrastus, who lived about 300 years B.C. It is supposed that the potion known under the name of Nepenthe, prepared by Helen of Troy, and given to the guests of Menelaus, to drive away their care, was none other than a wine of opium. This conjecture receives support from Homer, who states that Nepenthe was obtained from Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. According to Prosper Alpinus, the Egyptians were practised opium eaters, and were often faint and languid through the want of it. They prepared and drank it in the form of "Cretic Wine," which they flavoured and made hotter by the addition of pepper and other aromatics. The Turks and Persians employed opium as a medicine, and also for eating, from a very early period. Dioscorides, the ancient Greek pharmacist, describes how the capsules from which the drug is collected should be cut, and Celsus, a Roman physician of the first century, frequently alludes to opium in his works under the quaint name of "poppy tears."
The introduction of opium into India seems to have been connected with the spread of Mahomedanism, the earliest record we have of its use in that country being made by Barbosa in 1511, although it is more than probable it was used in India long before that time. Pyres, the first ambassador from Europe to China in 1516, speaks of the opium of Egypt, Cambay, and the kingdom of Coûs, in Bengal, and states it was eaten by "the kings and lords, and even the common people, though not so much because it costs dear." The Mogul Government uniformly sold the opium monopoly, and the East India Company did likewise.
The properties of opium have also been known from early times to the Persians, who flavoured the drug with aromatics, and held it in great esteem. By them it was commonly called Theriaka. It is supposed to have been first introduced to China by the Arabs, who traded with the Chinese as early as the ninth century. Towards the end of the eighteenth century a trade sprang up with India, which rapidly increased, till it led to political difficulties, culminating in the war of 1842, and the signing of the treaty of Nanking, after which five ports of China were opened to foreign trade, opium being admitted as a legalised import in 1858. Opium smoking in China was practised in the seventeenth century, and gradually extended over the entire empire, and at the present time is almost a recognised habit among the people.
With regard to the introduction of opium into India, the Mahomedans once having established its use began to make it a source of income. The Great Mogul monopolized the opium production and trade, and derived an immense income from the sale of the monopoly. With respect to its use in India, it is not easy to state with certainty whether or not and in what periods, it has increased over the various parts of the country. From the most recent reports it appears that "the largest amount of opium is produced in the central tract of the Ganges, extending from Dinapore in the east, to Agra in the west, and from Gorakhpur in the north to Hazaribagh in the south, and comprising an area of about 600 miles long and 200 miles broad." In the district of Bengal, the Government has the monopoly of the opium industry, and the districts are divided into two agencies, Behar and Benares, which are under the control of officers residing in Patna and Ghazipur. In 1883 the amount of acres under poppy cultivation was in Behar 463,829, and in Benares agency 412,625; but the export of opium has somewhat diminished since then. Any one may undertake the industry, but cultivators are obliged to sell the opium exclusively to the Government agencies, at a price which is fixed beforehand by the officials. The Government sells the ready goods to merchants at a much higher price, which difference is paid by the country to which the opium is exported. In India itself, the sale of opium is restricted to licensed shopkeepers, a practice which has proved to be useful, because in some places, when the licensed shops have been closed, a greater number of unlicensed and secret shops have sprung up, and have made the contract insufficient.