Dr. Ruston. The pills, from their smell, taste, colour, and effects, are evidently no other than the well-known pilulæ cochiæ, with a small addition of calomel.
Couns. for the Prisoner. Did you make no experiment with the pills?
Dr. Ruston. Yes. I poured on one of them a few drops of volatile alkali, and it immediately struck a deep black. The same appearance was produced by salt of tartar, and by lime-water. I then added a few grains of calomel to the pilulæ cochiæ, and repeated the experiments with the same effect.
Couns. for the Prisoner. And what discoveries have you made concerning the drops?
Dr. Ruston. The acid drops with which he prepares his punch, is so obviously of the same nature with the dulcified volatile vitriolic acid that arises during the distillation of æther, and which is the same with what exists in large quantities in the liquor anodinus of Hoffman, that it was unnecessary to submit it to any chemical experiment. There was nothing foreign in its composition.
Couns. for the Cr. Not to interrupt the course of your examination, I beg leave, before you proceed, to ask the Doctor one question. If I remember right, you said, the powder contained ten grains of calomel. Pray, Doctor, is not this an unusual large dose?
Dr. Ruston. As an alterative it certainly is so; and therefore Mr. Sutton’s powders have often been known to salivate the patient. But its activity is somewhat weakened by the sulphur contained in the æthiops.
Couns. for the Cr. But has it not been generally supposed that there was some other powerful ingredient in Mr. Sutton’s medicines?
Dr. Ruston. Yes, antimony. But from my experiments, I am convinced of the contrary.
Couns. for the Pris. Now, Doctor, give me leave to ask you, whether the exhibition of mercury, as preparative to inoculation, be the invention of the Prisoner at the bar?