[37] A Mr. Devonshire, a late assistant of Dr. Monckton’s, who was present at the post-mortem, was also called to confirm the previous witnesses. He also proved the extraction of the liver, kidneys, spleen, and some blood, and their safe delivery through a clerk (Boycott) to the attorneys at Rugeley to Dr. Taylor for analysis.
[38] Mr. Curling agreed with Dr. Watson, Principles and Practice of Physic, in the cases of “the sticking of a fish bone in the fauces, the stroke of a whip-lash under the eye leaving the skin unbroken, the cutting of a corn, the biting of the finger by a sparrow, the blow of a stick on the neck, the insertion of a seton, the extraction of a tooth, the injection of a hydrocele, and the operation of cupping,” but not with “the percussion of the air caused by a musket-shot.” He also explained that the supposed case of tetanus produced at once where a negro servant cut his thumb with a dish, rested on the authority of an old cyclopædia, and that his judgment was more mature and his experience greater than when, twenty-two years of age, he wrote the treatise in which he had quoted this case. (It was only in Rees’ Cyclopædia.)
[39] Dr. Todd, in reply to Lord Campbell, defined idiopathic tetanus to be “that form of the disease which is produced without any external wound, apparently from internal causes—from a constitutional cause.”
[40] Evidence of Dr. Robert Corbett, physician, of Glasgow, at the time medical clerk at the Glasgow Infirmary; Dr. Watson, surgeon to the infirmary; Dr. J. Patterson, of the infirmary laboratory; and Mary Kelly, patient.
[41] This is a test for brucia and not for strychnia. See p. 285.
[42] See Ptomaine’s or Cadaveric Poisons. Chemical introduction, ante, p. 12, and Chapter V., p. 278.
[43] “Mr. Mayhew called on me with another gentleman with an introduction from Professor Faraday. I received him as I would Professor Faraday, and entered into conversation with him about these cases. He represented, as I understood, that he was connected with some insurance company, and wished for information about a number of cases of poisoning that had occurred during many years. After we had conversed about an hour, he asked if there was any objection to the publication of the details. Still believing him to be connected with an insurance office, I replied that, so far as the correction of error was concerned, I had no objection to anything appearing. On that evening he went away without telling me he was connected with the Illustrated Times, or any other paper. It was not until Thursday that I knew that. It was the greatest deception that ever was practised on a scientific man.”—Dr. Taylor’s evidence. In his charge, Lord Campbell said, “I must say I think it would have been better if Dr. Taylor, trusting to the credit he had before acquired, had taken no notice of what had been said; but it is for you to say, whether, he having been misrepresented, and having written this letter to the Lancet to set himself right, materially detracted from the credit which would otherwise be given to his evidence.” It was these statements in the Illustrated Times, copied into other papers, that led Dove to resort to strychnia to poison his wife.—See his case, post.
[44] On the value of experiments on animals, see Chemical Introduction, ante, p. 6.
[45] “A mixture of sugar and bile, or a substance called pyroxanthine—the product of a distillation of wood—will produce the purple and red tint.”—Taylor’s evidence. But see Chapter V.
[46] Curarine. See Chapter V.