W. Herepath
Mr. William Herepath, examined by Mr. Grove—I am Professor of Chemistry and Toxicologist at the Bristol Medical School. I have been occupied in chemistry forty years and in toxicology probably thirty. I have experimented on the poison of strychnia. I have examined the contents of the stomach of a patient who died from strychnia. I discovered the strychnia in the contents of the stomach three days after death. I have experimented upon eight, nine, or ten animals. In the case of a cat, to which I gave one grain of strychnia in solid form, I could not get the animal to take it voluntarily, and I left it in meat at night. I found the animal dead next morning. The body was dreadfully contorted—extremely rigid, the fore limbs extended, the head turned round to the side, the eyes protruding and staring, the iris expanded so as to be almost invisible. I found in the urine which had been ejected strychnia, and also in the stomach. I gave the same quantity of strychnia to another cat. It remained very quiet for fifteen or sixteen minutes, with but few symptoms until thirty-five minutes. It merely seemed a little restless with its eyes, the breathing a little quickened, and at thirty-five minutes it had a terrible spasm, the four extremities and the head being drawn together. I watched it for three hours more. After this it had a second spasm. A frothing saliva was dripping from its mouth, and it forcibly ejected its urine. It had another spasm a few minutes after, when I thought the animal would die. It soon recovered itself, and then remained quiet, with the exception of a trembling all over. The slightest breath of air would affect it. It continued in this state for some time longer. During this three hours and a half, or nearly so, the animal was in a peculiar state. Touching it appeared to electrify it all through, even blowing upon it produced the same effect. Touching the basket, the slightest thing that could affect the animal, produced a sort of electric jump. I left it then, thinking it would recover, but in the morning I found it dead, in the same indurated and contracted condition in which the former animal was found. About thirty-six hours afterwards, by chemical examination, I found strychnia in the urine, the stomach, and upper intestines, in the liver, and in the blood of the heart. In my search for strychnia I took extraordinary means to get rid of the organic matter.
In all cases which you have seen where strychnia has been taken has the examination been successful?—Not only strychnia, but nux vomica, has been extracted. In one case the animal had been buried two months. I have detected strychnia in cases where it has been mixed purposely with putrid remains.
Are you of opinion, as a chemist, that where strychnia has been taken in a sufficient dose to poison, it can be detected, and ought to be detected?—Yes, up to the time the body is decomposed completely. Even where there is putrefaction—where the body has become a dry powder. I am of opinion that strychnia ought to have been detected if it had existed in the jar containing the stomach, even in the state it then was.
Cross-examined by the Attorney-General—Until lately my experiments for the purpose of finding strychnia have been principally in the stomach. In two cases I found it in the tissues of the animals. One was the second cat, the other a dog to which I gave the large dose of one grain. Judging from reports in newspapers, I have said in conversation that strychnia had been given, and that “If it was there, Professor Taylor ought to have found it.”
W. Herepath
Re-examined by Mr. Grove—What is the smallest quantity you have detected in the tissues of the stomach?—I am satisfied that you could discover the fifty-thousandth part of a grain that is unmixed with organic matter. I dissolved the tenth part of a grain in a gallon of water, that is 1 in 70,000. I can take the tenth part of a drop of the water and demonstrate the presence of strychnia.
What is the smallest portion of strychnia when mixed with organic matter you can detect?—I took about an eighth part of the liver of a dog, and from that I had enough to make four distinct experiments with the four tests.
So that you experimented on a thirty-second part of the liver?—Yes.
J. E. D. Rogers