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
“On January 2 I went to Mrs. Hart’s house and saw her body; have heard
the evidence of Mr. Champneys, and should say that death was caused by
prussic or oxalic acid; do not know of any other poisons that would
produce death so rapidly; was present at Mr. Cooper’s experiments;
have heard and perfectly agree with his evidence; oxalic acid must
have been detected if present; I am quite of opinion that prussic acid
was present in the stomach, and have no doubt about it; have heard
the evidence of the witness Howard, the symptoms she describes (of
supposed former attempt) are precisely those of prussic acid. That
acid acts uniformly upon all animal subjects, and destroys life in
the same way in all cases. Have tried experiments on dogs, and have
seen cats and dogs poisoned by that acid. On the 18th February I made
an experiment on two dogs. Five hours after feeding them I gave one
of them half an ounce and the other one drachm of Scheele’s acid,
administered it at 7 p.m., and exactly in ten seconds after receiving
the smaller dose the dog fell as if dead, and the other in half the
time; _I opened their bodies eighteen hours after and could not
discover any odour_; I smelt the mouth of the dog and could not detect
it then, nor at any other time; I opened the stomach of the dog, which
smelt intensely of sour beer, the acid having been administered in
beer. I attributed the absence of smell to the admixture of Guinness’s
stout; I should have expected on opening Mrs. Hart’s body to have
discovered the cause of death.”
_By the Court._—“I examined the brain; it was perfectly healthy;
death did not arise from apoplexy.”
_By Serjeant Byles._—“Less than a grain of pure prussic acid would be
sufficient to produce death.”
_Cross-examined_ by _Mr. Kelly_:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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