Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning;: by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons used — John Shaqi
Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning;: by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons usedBrowne, G. Lathom (George Lathom)
Science
Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning;: by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons used
Browne, G. Lathom (George Lathom)
Medical jurisprudence -- Great Britain; Poisons; Trials (Murder) -- Great Britain; Trials (Poisoning) -- Great Britain
_Question._—“I will ask you one question more, ‘Do you agree with Dr.
Taylor that the odour of prussic acid, which is said to be peculiar,
may be found when all tests fail?”
_Answer._—“_I do not believe it._ As far as my experience goes, it
would lead me to the contrary conclusion.”
_Question._—“But if I understand you rightly, you do not smell
prussic acid, but feel its effects in another way?”
_Answer._—“Sometimes it has produced a spasmodic constriction about
the throat, without my smelling it. At other times I have distinctly
smelt it. It depends very much, I think, on the state of the nasal
organ at the time.”
_To Serjeant Byles._—“The same peculiar action at the back of the
throat is, I think, felt by others on putting prussic acid to the
nose. I communicated the nature of my evidence to the solicitor of the
prisoner about a month ago.”
_Baron Parke._—“Have you or have you not a doubt upon your mind from
the result of your experiments as to the existence of prussic acid in
the stomach?”
_Witness._—“None whatever! I have no doubt that prussic acid may
exist without being smelt.”
_Baron Parke._—“If there was an absence of smell, would you suppose
that the prussic acid was present in the shape of a salt, and that,
therefore, you did not smell it?”
_Witness._—“Absence of smell may arise from dilution, or from its
being covered by the smell of other substances.”
_Baron Parke._—“Do you, in this particular case, ascribe the absence
of smell to the circumstance of the prussic acid being in the form of
a salt?”
_Witness._—“_No, because it could not exist in the stomach as a
cyanide of potassium, which is a salt, or as a cyanide of soda, when
another and more powerful acid was present; as, for instance, muriatic
acid, which in this case was found in considerable quantity, it being
an acid generated by the process of digestion._”
_Baron Parke._—“Do you not believe that there was also acetic acid
present. Is not that a strong acid?”
_Witness._—“I have no doubt there was also acetic acid present, and
it would have a greater affinity for soda or potash than prussic acid.
I think prussic acid cannot be formed by putrefaction in the stomach.”
_Mr. Joseph Cooper_, a son of the last witness, and his assistant for
four years, deposed to having smelt the ordinary prussic acid at the
time in the process, mentioned by his father.
_Mr. Norblad_, surgeon and apothecary at Slough for 10 years, said:
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