In conclusion, Palmer afterwards is said to have more or less admitted that he poisoned Cook, “but not with strychnia.” Though the word of such a man is of little value, there are others who have been of this opinion. Mr. Justice Grove is reported to have expressed some hesitation afterwards on this point. Mr. Nunneley, who, although he showed too much partizanship in the trial, yet may be said to have certainly had great experience with animals, asserted that the symptoms did not quite coincide with strychnia. Others followed in this train. The assertion is certainly wrong, but Dr. Guy (Forens. Med. 1881, p. 525) has made a suggestion that may be noticed. After quoting Dr. Shearman’s case of a patient who had taken one and a-half grain of morphia acetate, and who was seized with “twitching of the limbs and face, difficulty in swallowing, spasms of the arms, legs, and abdomen, partial opisthotonos, and great activity of the reflex function” (Med. Times and Gazette, March 7, 1857); another case from orfila, when twenty-two grains of morphia hydrochloride had caused lockjaw, tension of the abdomen, and occasional convulsions; and Castaing’s case, when twenty-six grains of morphia acetate, and twelve grains of tartar emetic, had been purchased, and the victim had “vomiting, purging, convulsions, lockjaw, rigid spasms of the neck and abdomen, inability to swallow, loss of sensibility in the legs, contracted pupils, and stertorous breathing,” Dr. Guy goes on to say that as Cook had probably three grains of morphia acetate within seventy-two hours, and had previously been reduced by tartar emetic, his death may have been due to morphia and not to strychnia. But setting aside the second and third cases where the dose was so large, Cook’s symptoms did not on the whole agree with those of Dr. Shearman’s patient. The dose in the time was not larger, but the effects on Cook were immensely more severe. If these be examples of morphia in its worst and most anomalous aspect, it certainly cannot dispute with strychnia for the responsibility of Cook’s death.[101] See also Dr. Todd’s remark, p. 117.
The three preparations of “gritty granules” on the spinal cord in the museum of St. Thomas’s Hospital, “in which the patients are said to have died from tetanus” (Mr. Nunneley’s evidence, p. 152, also Dr. Macdonald’s evidence, p. 180), are in section N, numbers 113, 114, and 115. They are described in the catalogue as—
“113. Several small patches of earthy matter on the arachnoid of the medulla spinalis.”
“114. A spinal cord. There are numerous large plates of bone on the arachnoid of the lumbar portion, and of the cauda equina.”
“115. A similar preparation. The plates of bone extend as high as the upper dorsal vertebræ.”
Mr. Charles Stewart, professor of comparative anatomy and curator of the museum at St. Thomas’s, tells me that these are calcareous, but not true bone, that they are not uncommon in post-mortems where they have had nothing to do with death, and that if the above had died from tetanus it would probably have been recorded in the catalogue. As there is no mention of the cause of death, it is certain that it had no reference to the so-called “granules.”
The assertion of Mr. Morley (Dove’s Case, p. 245), that strychnia is decomposed into its elements, is obviously incorrect, probably an error of the reporter.
See also an interesting case lately reported (J. de Pharm. et de Chimie, November 1882), where strychnia was found, and also arsenic, in the stomach, liver, and brain.
Dr. John Harley tells me that he finds hemlock juice the best antidote to the convulsions of all kinds of tetanus. He has had many successful cases. Messrs. Mavor, veterinary surgeons, find this remedy most efficacious with horses, in which animal tetanus is very common.