Cook, John Parsons, -1855; Palmer, William, 1824-1856 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London
I have sometimes observed differences in individuals
of the same species; the intermission sometimes is wanting; some lie in
one long continuous spasm, with scarcely any intermission, but that is
uncommon. I have generally found that the animal is in a state of
flaccidity about the period of the termination of life. I have always
observed an interval before the rigidity that takes place after death.
There is a cessation of the symptoms immediately before death; the
rigidity is gone, the body is flaccid. The rigidity is renewed very soon
after death. I have frequently opened the bodies of the animals that
have thus been killed. I never could find that the poison had produced
any apparent effect upon the stomach or intestines. I have never found
any apparent effect on the spinal cord or brain which I could trace
satisfactorily to the poison. I have always found that the heart of the
animal after death contained blood. Others have found it devoid of
blood, but I have not. In the one case of the human subject which I saw
the symptoms were the fixing of the jaw, spasmodic retraction of the
head, slight grinning expression of the mouth, and a slight stiffness of
the arms and legs. There was no convulsion of the muscles of the trunk,
nor any convulsive movement of the arms and legs in that case. I have
collected all the cases that have occurred up to the time of the
publication of my book as far as I am aware. The poison appears to
require a longer time in producing its effect in the larger animals than
the small. In the case of the wild boar, the poison was injected into
the chest. The animal died in ten minutes, from the third of a grain. I
think there are cases where strychnia, given to the human subject in the
shape of nux vomica, has not operated for about an hour. Strychnia
itself is generally given in the solid form, sometimes in the fluid
form. When given in the fluid form the symptoms are not so long in
appearing as when given in the solid form. When given in the shape of a
pill the time it takes to act depends very much upon the material used
for making the pill. To make the appearance of the symptoms as late as
possible the poison might be mixed up with resinous materials, which are
all difficult of digestion. Such materials would be within the knowledge
and reach of a medical man, and some are often used for making ordinary
pills. Absorption would not begin until the pill came to be broken up or
digested; the less soluble the pill the longer would be the period
required.
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