In commenting on this description it is first to be remarked, that the blood, as in the preceding case, is generally altered in nature. Ittner, who made some good experiments on the subject, found it in animals black, viscid, and oily in consistence.[[1918]] Emmert found it fluid and of a cochineal colour. In a case related by Mertzdorff of an apothecary’s apprentice, who was found dead in bed after swallowing three drachms and a half of diluted acid,[[1919]] in the case recorded in Horn’s Archiv, and in that related by Dr. Gierl, it was fluid. It was also perfectly fluid every where in the bodies of the seven epileptic patients poisoned at Paris. Yet this state is not invariable. Coullon, though his results tally in general with those of Ittner and Emmert, has given some experiments in which the blood coagulated after flowing from the body;[[1920]] and in the case of an apothecary related in Rust’s Journal it was found coagulated in the heart.[[1921]]
In the next place, Magendie and other physiologists have observed that, as in Hufeland’s case, the blood and cavities of the body in animals exhale a hydrocyanic odour, even though the quantity taken was small. The blood did so likewise in the heart of the apothecary just mentioned as well as throughout the whole body in the case described in Horn’s Journal. The odour, however, is not always present. For example, there was none in the case of another German apothecary, who poisoned himself with an ounce, as recorded in a later volume of Rust’s Journal;[[1922]] neither was there any odour in the blood in Mertzdorff’s case, although it was strong in the stomach; nor in the blood nor any other part of the body in the Parisian epileptics. It also appears from an experiment by Schubarth,[[1923]] and from a case by Leuret where life was prolonged above fifteen minutes,[[1924]]—that the odour may be distinct in the blood, brain, or chest, when hardly any is to be perceived in the stomach. Schubarth has inquired with some care into the circumstances under which the hydrocyanic odour may, or may not, be expected. He states, as the result of his researches, that if the dose is sufficient to cause death within ten minutes, the peculiar odour will always be remarked in the blood of the heart, lungs, and great vessels, provided the body have not been exposed to rain or to a current of air, and the examination be made within a moderate interval,—for example, twenty-one hours for so small an animal as a dog; but that, if the dose is so small that life is prolonged for fifteen, twenty-seven, or thirty-two minutes, then even immediately after death it may be impossible to remark any of the peculiar odour, evidently because, as already mentioned, the acid is rapidly discharged by the lungs; and that even when the dose is large enough to cause death in four minutes, the smell may not be perceived if the carcase has been left in a spacious apartment for two days, or exposed to a shower for a few hours only. These facts explain satisfactorily why no odour could be perceived in the bodies of the Parisian epileptics; for they lived from half an hour to forty-five minutes. The poison may exist in the stomach, though not appreciable by the sense of smell. In Chevallier’s case mentioned above, the contents of the stomach had not any odour of hydrocyanic acid; which, however, was evident to the sense of smell, and plainly indicated by various tests, in the fluid obtained by distilling the contents.
The presence of this odour in the blood may be accounted strong evidence of poisoning with hydrocyanic acid, if it is unequivocal to the sense of several individuals. An exhalation of the same kind is occasionally formed by natural processes in the excrement. Itard once remarked in a case of inflammation of the intestines, and again in a case of inflamed liver, a strong smell of bitter almonds in the fæces, although no medicine containing hydrocyanic acid had been given.[[1925]] Mr. Taylor mentions that he once observed a sort of hydrocyanic odour in the brain of a person who died of natural disease.[[1926]] These facts will render the inspector cautious, but can scarcely throw a doubt over evidence derived from an unequivocal hydrocyanic odour in the blood.
Few successful attempts have yet been made to detect the acid in the blood by chemical analysis. The odour may be present, although chemical analysis fails in eliciting any indication. This follows from the observations of Dr. Lonsdale,[[1927]] as well as of various authors quoted by him in his paper. The cyanide of potassium has been detected by Mayer not merely in the blood, but likewise in the serous secretions and sundry soft solids.[[1928]]
In most instances,—for example, in the Parisian epileptics, the state of the brain, as to turgescence of vessels, has corresponded with the description given by Hufeland. Venous turgescence and emptiness of the arterial system are commonly remarked throughout the whole body. Thus in the epileptic patients, the heart and great arteries were empty; the great veins gorged; the spleen gorged, soft, and pultaceous; the veins of the liver gorged; and the kidneys of a deep violet colour, much softened, and their veins gorged with black blood.
It is impossible that hydrocyanic acid could cause gangrene of the stomach, which is said to have been witnessed in Hufeland’s case. But there are often signs of irritation in that organ. The villous coat has been found red in animals; it was shrivelled, and its vessels were turgid with black blood in the instance of the apothecary mentioned in the fourteenth volume of Rust’s Journal; in Mertzdorff’s case it was red and checkered with bloody streaks; and in the case related by Dr. Gierl, where four ounces were swallowed, it was dark-red, as it were tanned or steeped in spirits, and easily separated from the subjacent contents. The contents of the stomach have in every instance had a strong hydrocyanic odour, except in the cases of the Parisian epileptics, and in those related by Leuret and by Chevallier. According to the experiments of Lassaigne and Schubarth, formerly noticed, it is not to be looked for when the body has been kept a few days, more especially if the individual lived some time. Dr. Lonsdale generally found it eight or nine days after death in animals, which had been either buried during that time, or kept in an apartment at the temperature of 50° F.[[1929]] In a case which occurred not long ago in London the poison was found in the stomach five days after death. A coroner’s inquest had terminated in a verdict of natural death. But suspicions having arisen, that the man had poisoned himself in anticipation of a charge of forgery, another inquiry was made; when the odour of hydrocyanic acid was evolved from the contents of the stomach, and the distilled water obtained from them yielded decisive chemical evidence of its being present.[[1930]] It is important to observe, in reference to the evidence of hydrocyanic acid in the stomach, that here, as in the instance of the blood, the odour may be strong, and yet the poison may not be discoverable by analysis. This fact rests on the united testimony of Coullon, Vauquelin, Leuret, Turner, and Dr. Lonsdale; the last of whom mentions that he could not detect it chemically after the fourth day in the bodies of some animals, in which it was perceptible by its odour even four or five days later.[[1931]] It is possible, however, that these failures to detect the poison by analysis may have sometimes arisen from imperfections in the method of analysis employed; for it was detected by the process formerly mentioned in the stomach of the apothecary last alluded to, in Chevallier’s case, though not perceptible to the smell, and frequently by Lassaigne in animals.
Mertzdorff remarked both in his case of poisoning with hydrocyanic acid, and likewise in a parallel instance of poisoning with the essential oil of bitter almonds,[[1932]] a singular appearance in the bile, the colour of which was altered to deep blue.
Coullon and Emmert say they have observed, that the bodies of animals resist putrefaction. The latter in particular mentions, that he had left them several days in a warm room without perceiving any sign of decay. This certainly would not à priori be expected, considering the state of the blood. And it is not universal; for in one instance, the case of Mertzdorff, putrefaction commenced within thirty hours after death. In the Parisian epileptics, the bodies passed through the usual stage of rigidity.
It appears that even long after death the eye, as in Hufeland’s case, has a peculiar glistening and staring expression, so as to render it difficult to believe that the individual is really dead; and this appearance has been considered by Dr. Paris so remarkable, as even alone to supply “decisive evidence of poisoning by hydrocyanic acid.”[[1933]] But the accuracy of this opinion may be questioned. The appearance is indeed very general in cases of poisoning with preparations containing hydrocyanic acid. Besides occurring in the case of Hufeland, and in that which gave occasion to Dr. Paris’s statement, it was witnessed by Mertzdorff, and in the instance described in Horn’s Journal. But it is not a constant appearance; for it was not observed in the seven Parisian epileptics. Neither is it peculiar; for death from carbonic acid has the same effect; I have remarked it six hours after death in a woman who died of cholera; and it has been observed in cases of death during the epileptic paroxysm.