After a trial lasting twelve days, the judge (Lord Campbell) summed up the
evidence, and dwelt in strong terms upon the scientific witnesses for the
defence (see _ante_, p. 19). With reference to the fact that no strychnine
had been detected in the body, he remarked that "there was no rule of law
according to which the poison must be found in the body of the deceased,
and all they knew respecting the poison not being found in the body was
that in that part of the body that was analysed by the witnesses no
strychnia had been found."
Since physiological tests are, in many cases, much more sensitive than
chemical tests, they have often been used for the identification of traces
of poison isolated from a body. Thus a small quantity of a particular
alkaloid will produce certain characteristic physiological results when
injected into the circulatory system of a small animal, and should
precisely the same results be obtained by the injection of the unknown
substance, the obvious inference to be drawn is that the two substances
are identical.
At the same time it has been shown on more than one occasion that it is
not justifiable to draw a comparison between the quantitative action of a
particular poison upon an animal and upon man.
As an instance of the danger of relying too exclusively upon the results
of experiments upon an animal, the interesting case of Freeman, who was
tried at Leicester in 1829, may be mentioned. A young woman, the servant
of a chemist in the town, was found dead in bed. She had evidently died
from the effects of prussic acid, and from the fact that the one ounce
bottle from which the poison had been taken still contained three and a
half drachms, it was inferred that she had taken four and a half drachms.
Owing to the facts that the arms of the dead woman were crossed upon her
breast, and that the clothes had been pulled up neatly over them, while
the bottle containing the remainder of the poison had been re-corked and
was lying by her side, it was thought that it was not a case of suicide,
but that the poison must have been given to her.
Suspicion fell upon a young man named Freeman, who was an assistant of the
chemist, and he was charged with having murdered the woman.
The point urged by the prosecution was that the action of prussic acid was
so rapid, that it was impossible for the woman to have had the time to
take the amount which had apparently been taken, and subsequently to have
arranged the bed-clothes and corked the bottle.
Expert evidence upon this question was given by five doctors, four of whom
gave as their opinion that these things could not have been done by the
woman herself. In support of their view, one of them stated that the same
quantity of prussic acid had killed a dog in three seconds.
Fortunately for the prisoner he was able to produce conclusive evidence of
his innocence, and the jury, therefore, very rightly refused to accept the
medical opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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