[199]. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. no. xvii.
[200]. Ibid. no. xxvi.
[201]. Ibid. no. lxxi, for April, 1822.
[202]. Mr. Marshall, in his account of the symptoms of Mr. Robert Turner, who was poisoned by Eliza Fenning, states, “On examination I discovered a very remarkable irregularity of surface, occasioned by the spasmodic contractions of the muscles of the abdomen, and even of the viscera; this unevenness extended from the epigastric region to the pubes, and to the right and left hypochondrium.”
[203]. Nothing can be more strikingly illustrative of the characteristic appearances which distinguish the effects of violence during life, from those which result from putrefaction as described at page [181].
[204]. The author refers the reader to the first volume of his Pharmacologia, page 124, note. In addition to what he has there observed it may be stated, that many fallacies have arisen in pharmacology, from deducing conclusions respecting the effects of remedies upon inferior animals. One example will suffice.—Several substances have gained the reputation of Styptics, from the effects which have followed their application to the wounded and bleeding vessels in the extremities of the horse and ass; whereas the fact is that the blood-vessels of these animals possess a power of contraction which does not exist in those of man, and to which the cessation of the hemorrhage, fallaciously attributed to the styptic, is to be wholly attributed.
[205]. See Appendix, page 272.
[206]. Toxocologie Générale considérée, sous les Rapports de la Physiologie, de la Pathologie, et de la Medicine légale. Paris, 1815. This work has been faithfully translated into English by John Walker, in two volumes. London, 1817.
[207]. De Sed. et Caus. Morb. per Anat. indag. Epist. 59, 18.
[208]. See the interesting trial of Michael Whiting, for administering poison to George and Joseph Langman, of Downham, in the Isle of Ely, at the Assizes holden at Ely on Wednesday, March 4th, 1822, before Edward Christian, Esq. Chief Justice of the Isle. The prisoner was convicted and executed.