“The contraction of the feet continued, but it had gone off somewhat from the rest of the body. I found no disease in the body. The heart was contracted, and perfectly empty, as were all the large arteries leading from it. I analysed the medicine she had taken with another medical man. It contained a large quantity of strychnia. It had originally contained nine grains; she had taken a third—three grains. I made a very casual examination of the stomach and bowels, as we had plenty of proof that poison had been taken, without the use of tests.”
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee.—“In cases of death from ordinary causes the body is much distorted. It does not generally remain in the same position. If the body is not laid out immediately, probably it is stiffened by the rigor mortis. The ankles were tied by a bandage to keep them together. I commenced to open the body by the thorax and abdomen. The head also was opened.”
The third case was that of a Mr. Clutterbuck, a gentleman suffering from paralysis, on whom, with Dr. Chambers, Mr. E. D. Moore, who detailed the case, had attended some fifteen years before.
“We had been giving him,” said the witness, “small doses of strychnia, when he went to Brighton. On his return he told us he had taken larger doses of it, and we in consequence gave him a stronger dose. I made up three draughts of a quarter of a grain each. He took one in my presence. I remained with him a little time, and he said he felt quite comfortable. About three quarters of an hour afterwards I was summoned to him. I found him stiffened in every limb, and the head drawn back. He was desirous we should move him, and turn him and rub him. We tried to give him ammonia in a spoon, and he snapped at it. He was suffering, I should say, more than three hours. Sedatives were given to him. He survived the attack. He was conscious all the time.”
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee.—“The spasms ceased in about three hours, but the rigidity of the muscles remained till the next day. His hands were at first drawn back, and he was much easier when we got them round clinched together. His paralysis was better after the attack.”
Re-examined by the Attorney-General.—“Strychnia stimulates the nerves which act upon the voluntary muscles, and therefore acts beneficially in cases of paralysis.”
The fourth case of poisoning by strychnia, though at this time given anonymously, as it had not as yet been brought to a public trial, was that of Mrs. Dove, of Leeds, more fully related in the next report. In this case, Mrs. Witham, who had been in attendance on the deceased, described how, after taking the medicine given to her, “She complained first of her back; her head was thrown back; her body stretched out; that she twitched, her eyes were drawn aside, staring, and that when the witness put her hands on the patient’s limbs they did not relax.” In this case the illness commenced on the 25th of February; attacks came on the 27th, 28th, and 29th (the last a very slight one), and then again, about a quarter past eight, on the 1st of March, and the person died about twenty minutes to eleven on that night. “She principally complained of prickings in the legs, twitchings in the muscles and in the hands, which she said she could compare to nothing else than a galvanic shock. Between the attacks, she was composed. She wished her husband to rub her legs and arms. She was dead when the doctor came.”
On cross-examination, the witness said that the sufferer “could not bear to have her legs touched when the spasms were strong upon her. Her limbs were rigidly extended when she asked to be rubbed between the intervals of the spasms. Touching her then brought on the spasms. Her body was stiff immediately after death,” but how long it continued so the witness could not say, as she did not stay long. She was sensible from half an hour to an hour, from a quarter past eight till after nine, and the witness supposed she was insensible the remainder of the time; she did not speak. On the Saturday before she died the symptoms were the same as on the other days—not more violent.”
Mr. Morley, the surgeon who had attended this case, and whose opinion as to the symptoms being identical with those in the present inquiry, was directly opposed by Mr. Nunneley, of Leeds, who had then assisted him in the post-mortem examination, not only detailed the symptoms he then saw, but also the method and results of his subsequent examination of the body.
“I had attended,” said Mr. Morley, “on the lady to whom the last witness has alluded for about two months before her death. On the Monday before she died she was in her bed, apparently comfortable, when I observed (as I stood by her side) several slight convulsive twitchings of her arms. I supposed they arose from hysteria, and ordered medicine in consequence. The same symptoms appeared on the following Wednesday and Thursday. I saw her on Saturday, the day she died. She was apparently better and quite composed in the middle of the day. She complained of an attack she had had at night. She spoke of pain and spasms in her back and neck, and of shocks. I and another medical man were sent for hastily on Saturday night. We were met by an announcement that the lady was dead. On the Monday I accompanied another medical gentleman (Nunneley) to the post-mortem examination. We found no disease in any part of the body which would account for death. There was no emaciation, wound, or sore. There was a peculiar expression of anxiety in the countenance. The hands were bent and the fingers curved. The feet were strongly arched. We carefully examined the stomach and its contents for poison. We applied several tests—nitric acid, followed by protochloride of tin,[41] sulphuric acid, followed by bichromate of potash in a liquid and also in a solid state. They are the best tests to detect strychnia. In each case we found appearances characteristic of strychnia. We administered the strychnia taken from the stomach to animals by inoculation—to two mice, two rabbits, and a guinea-pig, having first separated it by chemical analysis. We observed in each of the animals more or less of the effects produced by strychnia, namely—general uneasiness, difficult breathing, convulsions of a tetanic kind, muscular rigidity, arching backwards of the head and neck, violent stretching out of the legs. These symptoms appeared in some of the animals in four or five minutes, in others in less than an hour. The guinea-pig suffered but slightly at first, and was left, and was dead next day. The symptoms were strongly marked in the rabbits. After death there was an interval of flaccidity, after which rigidity commenced, more than if it had been occasioned by the rigor mortis. I afterwards made numerous experiments on animals with exactly similar results, the poison being administered in a fluid form.”