A. About a spoonful, about half an ounce. At Southam, the beginning of this week, I gave in presence of Mr. Snow, to another aged horse, about a pint of laurel water, distilled by Mr. Snow. Upon his receiving into his stomach the first horn full, which was a small one, no bigger than we used in the former experiment, he dropped to the ground.
Court. What was the quantity that horn held?
A. I suppose three or four ounces. It was impossible to give the animal the whole of it, full half was spilt. I conceived it to be very strong, and desired Mr. Snow would give her no more at that time, in order to try the strength of it. The horse dropped; he endeavoured to raise himself up, but could rise no farther than by setting himself upon his buttocks like a dog. I perceived he had entirely lost the use of his hinder parts. We then gave him another horn full, which in its turn knocked him down very soon, and at intervals we gave him several horns full to the amount of above a pint in the whole, and at the end of twenty-eight minutes he expired, violently convulsed, groaning, his tongue lolling out of his mouth; and indeed the first horse’s tongue had a very extraordinary appearance, for it darted backward and forward in the manner of a dart, but this horse lolled his tongue out like a dog when running. In both the horses the artery in the neck beat much, even after the animal had ceased to breathe, except we call the motion of the lower jaw, a kind of gasping, breathing. I saw all the bodies opened, and in all of them there was a violent distention of the veinous system, of the whole veins in the body, the stomach, bowels, lungs, and so on. The veins were distended and full of blood, the lungs appeared red and suffused. I said before that I did not use the term inflammation in any other way than to convey the vulgar idea the appearance of red colour given to any part by blood. The lungs suffused with blood looking very red, and in the first horse it was of the colour of a deep pink; very different I conceive from the natural colour.
Q. You have smelled to the bottle which has the laurel water in it, do you know any smell in medicine that corresponds in smell with that mixture?
A. I do not know any medicine that smells like it.
Q. Does the smell described by Lady Boughton, something like bitter almonds, convey to you an idea of that mixture?
A. It does, and I have given the laurel water to many people to smell to, and they always described the smell to be something like bitter almonds. I do not exactly know how they expressed themselves, but they meant to say that.
Q. In your judgment is the quantity that one of these bottles contains of laurel water sufficient to take away life from any human creature?
A. In my opinion it is.
Q. I have now got your opinion upon the subject, independent of any appearances you observed upon the body of Sir Theodosius Boughton. Now are you from these appearances confirmed, or otherwise, in the opinion you have given?