By the Lord Advocate.—“Is it a common thing in cases of this sort to ascertain the quantity of arsenic?”
Witness.—“No. In the great majority of criminal cases it is not ascertained within presumption.”
By the Lord Justice Clerk.—“Are you aware that a great chemist maintained that there was arsenic naturally in the bodies of all human beings?”
Witness.—“I have heard that; but he afterwards surrendered his opinion.”
By the Dean.—“There has been a great shifting of opinion among medical men as to the probable effect of arsenic, has there not?”
Witness.—“Not during the last 35 years. Prior to that our information as to the effects of arsenic was very vague.”
By the Dean.—“Was it not generally thought at one time that there was naturally arsenic in the human stomach?”
Witness.—“It may be so, but it is quite new to me.”
Robert Telfer Corbett, physician in Glasgow, and senior surgeon in the infirmary, who had assisted at the post-mortem examination and joined in the report, was called on the fourth day, and gave the following evidence.
“So far as he could judge without analysis the deceased had died from the effect of poison. The morbid appearances presented were of two kinds—one showing the result of recent action, the other of action at a period antecedent to it. The last of these appearances consisted of several ulcers, each about the 1/16th of an inch in diameter, with elevated edge, on the upper part of the duodenum. They might have been characteristic of the effect of irritant poison at the distance of a month, but it is impossible to fix any date. I think they were such as irritant poison, administered a month before, would have produced. They were of longer standing than immediately antecedent to death. In the duodenum and intestines the body had in colour and otherwise the appearances characteristic of arsenical poisoning. Inflammation and ulceration are the effect of inflammation; jaundice, I mean the yellow tinge of the skin, is an occasional, but not a necessary symptom of death by arsenic, but not a common one. Extreme thirst is one of the symptoms, and shows itself very early. It is not characteristic of British cholera in its earlier stages. The exact time a dose of arsenic takes to exhibit its symptoms is from a half to one hour—that is the average time. Longer periods have been known but are very unusual. They depend more on the mode in which the poison is given, and the state of the stomach, than on the quantity administered. If a person had been the subject of repeated doses, the irritability of the stomach would make it more likely to operate quickly. I have read of cases of murder where large quantities of arsenic have been found in the stomach. I can refer to cases in which details were not given, but the quantity was said to be large.”