Is it always so?—That is according to my knowledge.
Re-examined by the Attorney-General—I have met with three cases in a human subject in which it has appeared that the heart was found empty after death, where the death had taken place from strychnia. I think the emptiness of the heart is owing to spasmodic affection, the effect upon the heart in the last moment of life. I know of no reason why that should be more likely to be the case in the human subject than in a small animal like a rabbit. The only thing I would observe is, that I think the heart is generally more affected by the paroxysm, so that the blood accumulates.
Suppose the paroxysms short and violent, and cause death in a few minutes?—That is the kind of case in which I should expect to find it empty. The rigidity after death in the cases where I found it always affected the same muscles, the muscles of the limbs, specially the muscles of the back. In the case of poisoning by strychnia, where the rigidity was relaxed in death, it returns while the body is warm.
Would the rigidity of the extremities as long as two months after death, the clenching of the hands, and the twisting of the feet, afford you any indication of whether the person died of tetanus?—I have never known such a case. That would indicate, in my opinion, great violence of the spasm with which the party died.
With regard to the duration of time in which the effects of the poison would begin to act, to show itself, would it be uniform, do you think, in all persons to whom the same quantity of poison might be given?—It would vary according to the constitution and the strength, according to the power of absorption.
G. O. Rees
Dr. George Owen Rees, examined by Mr. James—I am a Fellow of the College of Physicians, and Lecturer on Materia Medica at Guy’s Hospital. I believe strychnia is absorbed always before it produces the symptoms. If enough strychnia is given to destroy life, that might be done without our being able to discover it after death. I agree with Professor Taylor that it is the excess that is found. Where vitality is destroyed by the effects of the poison, and an excess remains, I would expect with care to discover that excess. The symptoms in the cases of death from strychnia that have been given are analogous, in my opinion, to those of Mr. Cook, and to those produced by strychnia in the experiments I have seen made on animals.
R. Christison
Professor Robert Christison, examined by the Attorney-General—I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Professor of Materia Medica to the University of Edinburgh. I published in 1845 a treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence. Among other poisons, I have turned my attention to strychnia. It acts upon the human frame by absorption into the blood, and then by acting on the nervous system. I have seen a case of strychnia poisoning, but not a fatal one, in a human subject. I have frequently seen experiments tried upon animals—frogs, rabbits, cats, dogs, and one wild boar. In most of my experiments I have given very small doses, a sixth part of a grain, but sometimes as much as a grain. The first symptom that I have observed has been a slight tremor and unwillingness to move, then frequently the animal jerks its head back slightly, and very soon after that all the symptoms of tetanus come on, which have been so often described in the evidence of previous witnesses. There is occasionally an intermission of the spasms for a short while. Where the poison has been introduced into the stomach, between five or six minutes and twenty-five minutes have elapsed from the commencement of the symptoms to the death of the animal. From the giving of the poison to the first symptoms coming on, the appearance of tremor, I have seen as long as twelve minutes elapse, and from the first commencement of the symptoms to their termination in death from five or six minutes to twenty or twenty-five minutes. The symptoms have always been very much the same. Where we can trace it very correctly, I think the jaws and the back of the neck are affected first, then the trunk and the extremities in such rapidity that it is very difficult to follow them in succession. I have sometimes observed differences in individuals of the same species; the intermission sometimes is wanting; some lie in one long continuous spasm, with scarcely any intermission, but that is uncommon. I have generally found that the animal is in a state of flaccidity about the period of the termination of life. I have always observed an interval before the rigidity that takes place after death. There is a cessation of the symptoms immediately before death; the rigidity is gone, the body is flaccid. The rigidity is renewed very soon after death. I have frequently opened the bodies of the animals that have thus been killed. I never could find that the poison had produced any apparent effect upon the stomach or intestines. I have never found any apparent effect on the spinal cord or brain which I could trace satisfactorily to the poison. I have always found that the heart of the animal after death contained blood. Others have found it devoid of blood, but I have not. In the one case of the human subject which I saw the symptoms were the fixing of the jaw, spasmodic retraction of the head, slight grinning expression of the mouth, and a slight stiffness of the arms and legs. There was no convulsion of the muscles of the trunk, nor any convulsive movement of the arms and legs in that case. I have collected all the cases that have occurred up to the time of the publication of my book as far as I am aware. The poison appears to require a longer time in producing its effect in the larger animals than the small. In the case of the wild boar, the poison was injected into the chest. The animal died in ten minutes, from the third of a grain. I think there are cases where strychnia, given to the human subject in the shape of nux vomica, has not operated for about an hour. Strychnia itself is generally given in the solid form, sometimes in the fluid form. When given in the fluid form the symptoms are not so long in appearing as when given in the solid form. When given in the shape of a pill the time it takes to act depends very much upon the material used for making the pill. To make the appearance of the symptoms as late as possible the poison might be mixed up with resinous materials, which are all difficult of digestion. Such materials would be within the knowledge and reach of a medical man, and some are often used for making ordinary pills. Absorption would not begin until the pill came to be broken up or digested; the less soluble the pill the longer would be the period required.
Now, independently of that, does the state of knowledge upon this subject enable you to predicate with anything like certainty or accuracy the period that would be required in the human subject before such poison would begin to operate after it has been taken into the stomach; does the state of science enable you to form an opinion as to the precise time, or near the precise time, that it would require for this poison to operate?—I do not think we can fix from our present knowledge the precise time for the poison beginning to operate. When we give poison to an animal for the purpose of watching the effect of the poison, we give it in a manner in which it would act most rapidly, whether in the fluid or the solid form. We take care that the animal is fasting, and have every circumstance favourable for the action of poison. We mix it up with materials that are readily soluble in the stomach. I have seen a good many cases of tetanus arising from wounds, but very few from natural diseases.