Treatise on Poisons: In relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physicChristison, Robert, Sir
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Treatise on Poisons: In relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic
Christison, Robert, Sir
Medical jurisprudence; Toxicology
Another remarkable instance of this kind has been recorded by Morgagni.
A clergyman, while travelling in company with another gentleman and two
ladies, was setting out one afternoon to resume his journey after dining
at an inn, when he was suddenly taken ill with violent pain in the
stomach and bowels, and soon after with vomiting and purging. One of the
ladies was similarly affected, but in a less degree; and likewise the
other gentleman, though in a degree still less: but the other lady did
not suffer at all. Morgagni found, that this lady was the only one of
the party who had not tasted a dish of soup at the commencement of
dinner. But he was puzzled on finding that the gentleman who suffered
least had taken the largest share of the soup, while the clergyman had
taken less than either of the two that were seized along with him. He
then remembered, however, that in the district where the accident
happened, it was the custom to use scraped cheese with the soup in
question; and on inquiry he was informed that they had each added to the
soup a quantity of cheese proportioned to the severity of their illness.
Here, therefore, Morgagni was led to suspect the presence of poison; and
accordingly, after the whole party had fortunately recovered, the
innkeeper acknowledged, that in the hurry of preparation, he had served
up to his guests cheese seasoned with arsenic to poison rats.[132] This
interesting anecdote shows, that the truth in such cases is not always
to be discovered without minute inquiry and considerable adroitness. In
the case of poisoning with arsenic in wine formerly alluded to,—where
all the individuals at table, to the amount of six, were severely
affected during dinner,—the soup was the article suspected, because all
had partaken of it; and, accordingly, the soup and vomited matter were
sent to me for analysis. On detecting a trace of arsenic in the vomited
matter, but none in the soup, I suggested that some other article might
have been used in common by the party, and mentioned the wine as a
probable article of the kind. It turned out that all had drunk a single
glass of champagne from a particular bottle; and in the wine remaining
in this bottle arsenic was found in the proportion of half a grain per
ounce.[133]
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