In its progress to its final destination, the destruction of life, does it pass from the blood, or is it left by the blood in the solid tissues of the body before it produces that effect?—I cannot tell.
If it has passed from the stomach by absorption in the blood, the whole dose, into the circulation, do you say you would still expect to find any of it?—Decidedly so, because I believe it exists as strychnia in the blood.
Do you say you would still expect to find any of it in the stomach?—In order to be absorbed it must be dissolved, and in that portion of the fluid which surrounds the coats of the stomach I should expect to find it.
Suppose the whole to be absorbed?—Then I should not detect it.
Suppose the whole of it has been eliminated from the blood and passed from the system?—Certainly not.
Lord Campbell—You would expect to find it elsewhere, not in the stomach?—Yes. I would expect to find it in the blood and in the tissues.
F. Wrightson
Cross-examination resumed—My question only supposes the minimum of the dose that will destroy life to have been given; and, supposing that to have been absorbed into the circulation, and there deposited in the tissues, or part of it eliminated by the action of the kidneys, would you know where to search for it?—I should search for it both in the blood and in the tissues, and in the ejecta of the kidneys; and from my experiments I should expect to find it in each of them, in case the urine was not ejected during the time of poisoning.
Re-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee—If a man had been killed by strychnia, administered an hour and a half before he died, the poison would certainly be detected in the stomach in the first instance.
Supposing it to have been administered in the shape of pills, would it by that time have been all absorbed and circulated in the system so as to get out of the stomach?—I cannot tell. If it were so I would find it in the blood, the liver, and the spleen.