The Period after Death when
Arsenic may be Detected
Arsenic is an indestructible poison, and may be found in the body after many years. In one case it was detected after the lapse of fourteen years. Arsenic has the power, to a certain extent, of arresting putrefactive changes; the stomach may, therefore, be found well preserved, and with the signs of inflammatory action present after the lapse of many months, and after putrefaction has far advanced in other parts of the body. When a person is suspected of having been poisoned with arsenic, and nothing but the skeleton is left for investigation, the arsenic should be looked for specially in the bones of the pelvis and the neighbouring vertebræ (Watt‘s Dictionary of Chemistry, Sup.).
In reference to the preservative action of arsenic upon the tissues of those poisoned by it, the appearances of the bodies of the victims of Flannagan and Higgins, recorded by Whitford (B. M. J., 1884, vol. i. p. 504), are interesting. Arsenical poisoning having been established in one of three victims, the bodies of two others, Mary Higgins, aged ten years, and John Flannagan, aged twenty-four years, were exhumed and examined. The abdominal viscera of Mary Higgins yielded one grain of arsenious acid, and although the body had been interred for about thirteen and a half months, it was well preserved. A remarkable state of preservation obtained in the body of John Flannagan, who had been interred for thirty-seven and a half months; the face and body generally could be easily identified. Three and a half grains of arsenious acid were found in the abdominal viscera. In these cases a peculiar appearance was found in the stomach and intestines, consisting of a golden-yellow pigment or coating of the mucous membrane of the parts. It was thought by some observers to be composed of arsenic sulphide, but Campbell-Brown, and Davies of Liverpool, as a result of their analysis of it, found that it did not contain any appreciable amount of arsenic, but consisted mainly of bile pigment.
In trials for arsenical poisoning, where an exhumation has been made, the question may arise whether the arsenic found in the body has been carried into it from the earth surrounding the coffin.
In reply, the following points must be kept in mind:
1. Arsenic may occur in certain calcareous and ochrey soils.
2. In these soils no arsenical compound soluble in water has been found.
3. The arsenic of these soils is dissolved out by hydrochloric acid, proving their previous insolubility.
4. The arsenic is, therefore, probably in the form of an arsenite or arseniate of iron, lime, &c.
5. Careful experiments have rendered it evident that even “under the most favourable circumstances the dead human body does not acquire an impregnation of arsenic from contact with arsenical earth” (Taylor).