He turned toward Cub Sterling questioningly. So did every other man in the room. Cub’s “No” was verbal as well as muscular.
“You see,” the leonine head rolled heavily, “one and one-half to two grains administered hypodermically would be fatal ... in a very short time ... before a patient would have the agony symptoms penetrate to the drug deadened nerve centers. Before she could rouse herself the paralysis of the peripheral endings of the motor nerves had set in; also the deadening of the sensory nerves had begun. The dominant action, however, is upon the motor system. Death ensued from paralysis of respiration.”
He stopped to draw breath and no man interrupted. Toxicology was only a branch of the science upon which this man was an authority.
Dr. Heddis continued: “All organs appeared normal. The stomach content, the organs rich in blood ... liver, spleen, kidneys, lungs ... appeared healthy. But they ... all ... responded positively to the solubility, crystallization and Melzer’s tests.”
Prissy could stand the tension no longer. He screamed, “Of what plant is coniine the active principal?”
“Hemlock!”
“The fatal hemlock!” Dr. Harrison’s voice was heavy as he quoted:
“‘Then Socrates lay down upon his back and the person who had administered the poison went up to him and examined for a little time his feet and legs and then squeezing his foot strongly, asked whether he felt him.’”
Dr. Heddis, who never had any trouble understanding Harrison, also knew his Plato. He nodded and continued:
“‘Socrates replied that he did not. He then did the same to his legs, and proceeding upwards in this way, showed us that he was cold and stiff, and he afterwards approached him and said to us that when the effect of the poison reached the heart Socrates would depart....’”