DEFENDANT MRUGOWSKY: This was not an experiment in the actual sense of the word. It was the legal execution of five thieves, and some special facts were to be ascertained during this execution. The details were as follows: One day the chemist of the Reich Criminal Police Office, Dr. Wittmann, came to me. He asked me to attend an execution as the official doctor. As the reason for this request he added that in the General Government in Poland a high official had been injured when he was attacked with a revolver; that the bullet had inflicted only a harmless flesh wound, but nevertheless the person had died after a few hours with symptoms of poisoning. The person who had attacked him had been arrested, and the rest of the ammunition was a hollow ball which contained a crystallized poison. The Chemical Institute of the Reich Criminal Police Office tested this and found that it was aconitine. The ammunition was of Russian origin. There is no aconitine in Germany; it is imported. The question was whether this was the first case of the beginning of poison warfare against Germany. We had been expecting such a method of warfare for some time. For that reason there was not only criminal interest in clearing up this case but a general interest of the greatest importance. This ammunition was to be tested on five thieves who were to be executed anyhow, and it was to be seen whether this crystallized poison contained another poison which had not been found in the chemical tests. The remainder of the original Russian ammunition was to be used, and also German ammunition which had been made in imitation of the Russian. At the same time—and this was the main purpose of the experiment—it was to be discovered how much time would elapse between the injury and the appearance of the symptoms of poisoning, in order, if necessary, to be able to use an antidote. This question was of such great importance because an antidote to aconitine is hardly known, and if this had actually been the beginning of poison warfare, then efforts would have to be made immediately to find an antidote. Therefore, the head of the Reich Criminal Police Office asked me, and the Chief of the Criminal Technical Office also asked me, to participate in the execution myself, although that was not actually my work; but Dr. Wittmann said he did not know of any toxicologist except one in Berlin; they had all been drafted, and as a bacteriologist I had a certain amount of experience in symptoms of poisoning connected with bacteria and, therefore, he asked me to take over this job. I was rather unwilling to do so. I pointed out to Dr. Wittmann that the regular police in Vienna had a pharmacologist who was very experienced and I suggested that he should be called upon; but this was not done because of the poor communications resulting from the air warfare. Since, on the other hand, this question was doubtless of great significance and should not be postponed, I finally declared