By the Lord Advocate.—“Arsenic, though strictly heavier than water, would remain in suspension?”
Witness.—“The finer parts of the powder would, but not long. I never made any experiment, but should say it would be for a very short time. I should say, speaking on mere hazard, in the course of three or four minutes there would be scarcely any of the arsenic remaining in suspension, and there would only remain what had dissolved. I am speaking, as I said, without having experimented.”
By the Court.—“Has arsenic any taste?”
Witness.—“Your lordship is aware that there is a great deal of dispute about that. After the strong affirmative of its having no taste which I published, a greater authority than I—Professor Orfila of Paris—still adhered to the description that it had a taste. All I can say about that is, that experiments were made by myself and two other medical gentlemen, as far as it was possible to make them with so dangerous a substance, and we found the taste to be very slight indeed; if anything it was rather sweetish, but all but imperceptible.”
To the Court.—“Then there can be no doubt that large quantities of arsenic have been swallowed repeatedly by persons without observing?”
Witness.—“The experiments were made by myself and two other medical gentlemen, and so far as we went we all agreed as to the result. Professor Orfila maintained that it had a taste, though he referred to my experiments. But I think I may add, that it has struck me as very strange, that neither Orfila nor any others who have doubted these observations of mine on the matter, said that they had made any experiments themselves. Orfila does not say so. He merely expresses his belief, notwithstanding what I have stated.”
By the Court.—“If taken in coffee or cream, then, the arsenic, having, if any, a sweetish taste, would not be perceptible?”
Witness.—“Not at all. I could put that in a clearer point of view by a preliminary observation, namely, that several persons who have taken arsenic largely without knowing at the time what they were taking observed no taste; some observed a sweetish taste, and others what they called an acrid taste. With regard to acrimony, however, there were two fallacies. One was that they confounded the acrimony with the roughness of taste in the mouth, and secondly with the burning effects slowly developed by the poison afterwards.”
By the Dean.—“In these cases you have spoken of, in what medium was the arsenic given?”
Witness.—“Sometimes in simple vehicles, such as coffee and water, and sometimes in thicker substances, such as soup. I think there are some instances where some roughness was observed in the case of porridge, but I cannot speak exactly as to the vehicles. I do not think the vehicle had much effect on the different tastes. I cannot state the quantity administered.”