Strychnine

“ I have detected strychnine in the stomach nearly two months after death, when decomposition has proceeded to a considerable extent.
Re-examined by the Attorney-General: From half a grain to a grain has been administered to cats, rabbits, and dogs. From one to two grains is quite sufficient to kill a dog.
How does the strychnine act? Is it taken up by the absorbents and carried into the system?—I think it acts upon the nerves, but a part may be taken into the blood and act through the blood. We generally examined the stomach of the animals when the poison had been administered internally. ”

“ Dr. Stevenson stated in his evidence, he first made an analysis of a portion of the body of Mrs. Holmes on January 19, and extracted 1·31 grain of strychnine, but no other poison. Subsequently he examined the two packets discovered under the bed, and found one contained 333⁄4 grains of powdered strychnine, and the other, which presented the appearance of having had the powder shaken out, a few minute crystals of strychnine. In each case it was the pure alkaloid. ”

“ In strychnine poisoning trismus or lockjaw is generally secondary to spasm of the other muscles, while in tetanus it is usually the first symptom, no relaxation taking place between the spasms.
The treatment of strychnine poisoning is to immediately evacuate the stomach with a stomach-pump or emetic, chloroform being administered to allay the spasms. If the patient can swallow, draughts of water containing tannic acid may be given. Nitrite of amyl inhalations are useful in the early stages when the respiratory muscles are freely movable. ”

“ Antidote for Strychnine Poisoning.—Tannic acid or vegetables containing it should be freely administered, for the tannate of strychnine which is formed is very insoluble; an emetic or the stomach pump must be used promptly. The tetanic spasms are best controlled [114] by chloral hydrate or very large doses of potassium bromide (2 dr. to 1⁄2 oz. for man) or 4 to 8 ounces for the horse as antidote for strychnine poisoning. Inhalations of ether are also recommended. Chloral hydrate may be used per rectum or intravenously. Inhalations of amyl nitrate are also of value. ”

“ Inglethorp was the identical strychnine prescribed by Dr. Wilkins. To make that clear to you, I will read you an extract from a book on dispensing which I found in the Dispensary of the Red Cross Hospital at Tadminster:
“‘The following prescription has become famous in text books:
This solution deposits in a few hours the greater part of the strychnine salt as an insoluble bromide in transparent crystals. A lady in England lost her life by taking a similar mixture: the precipitated strychnine collected at the bottom, and in taking the last dose she swallowed nearly all of it! ”

“ Inglethorp had met her death as the result of strychnine poisoning. Judging from the quantity recovered, she must have taken not less than three-quarters of a grain of strychnine, but probably one grain or slightly over.
"Is it possible, that she could have swallowed the poison by accident?" asked the Coroner.
"I should consider it very unlikely. Strychnine is not used for domestic purposes, as some poisons are, and there are restrictions placed on its sale." ”

“ It is not likely that a person in that state could bear to have his neck rubbed. When a case of strychnia does not end fatally, the first paroxysm is succeeded by others, gradually shaded off, the paroxysms becoming less violent every time, and I agree with Dr. Christison that they would subside in 12 or 16 hours. I have no hesitation in saying that strychnine is of all poisons, either mineral or vegetable, the most easy of detection. I have detected it in the stomach of animals in numerous instances, also in the blood and in the tissues. ”

“ Possibly, but strychnine is a fairly rapid drug in its action. The symptoms appear from one to two hours after it has been swallowed. It is retarded under certain conditions, none of which, however, appear to have been present in this case. I presume Mrs. Inglethorp took the coffee after dinner about eight o'clock, whereas the symptoms did not manifest themselves until the early hours of the morning, which, on the face of it, points to the drug having been taken much later in the evening. ”

“ If under the influence of these large doses the symptoms abate, or if the latter are comparatively mild from the first, smaller doses of strychnine should be injected, say from 1/15th to 1/10th of a grain, but under all circumstances the rule that, distinct strychnia symptoms must be produced before the injections are discontinued, should never be departed from. ”

“ If he died of the poison of strychnine—if he died within a few hours, or within a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes of the administration of a strong dose—if the post-mortem examination took place within six days of the death, there is not the least reason to suppose that between the time of the injection of the poison and the paroxysms of death, there was any dilution of it, or any ejection of it by vomiting. Never, therefore, unless chemical analysis is altogether a failure in the detection of strychnine, were circumstances more favourable for its discovery. ”

“ Strychnine, strik′nin, n. a poisonous alkaloid occurring in crystals, intensely bitter, colourless and inodorous, obtained from the seeds of nux vomica—also Strych′nia.—adj. Strych′nic.—ns. Strych′ninism, the condition produced by a poisonous dose of strychnine; Strych′nism, the morbid state of the spinal cord produced by strychnine. [Gr. strychnos, a kind of nightshade.]
Stryde, strīd, n. (Spens.) stride.
Stub, stub, n. the stump left after a tree is cut down: anything short and thick, a stump or truncated end of anything, a worn horse-shoe nail, esp. ”

“ But, assuming all they say to be true, as to the case of detecting strychnine, is it certain that it can be found in all cases? Dr. Taylor says no; and it would be a most mischievous and dangerous proposition to assert that it is necessarily so, for it enables many a guilty man to escape, who, by administering the smallest quantity necessary to destroy life, might prevent its detection in the stomach. ”

“ In the celebrated Palmer case, to which reference has already been made, Palmer, who was a doctor, made use of strychnine, and, although he was convicted upon the medical and other evidence, Taylor, the official analyst, was unable to detect the poison in the remains. On these grounds and the evidence of other chemists who asserted that they could detect the slightest trace of strychnine, and that had that poison been given it must have passed into the system, the defence was set up that no strychnine had been given, and that the prisoner was entitled to an acquittal. ”

“ I heard the evidence of Mrs. Smyth’s death, and I was surprised at her having got out of bed when the servant answered the bell. It is not consistent with the cases I have seen. That fact does not shake my opinion. I have no doubt that Mrs. Smyth died from strychnine. Cook’s sitting up in the bed and asking Jones to ring the bell is inconsistent with what I have observed in strychnine cases.{102}
If a man’s breath is hurried, is it not natural for him to sit up?—It is. I have seen cases of recovery of human subjects after taking strychnine. There is a great uniformity in its effects ”

“ Considering the newness of the strychnine treatment it would be folly to expect that the conditions necessary to insure success should have been observed in every case, and that every practitioner should at once have made himself familiar with it and the theory on which it is founded. ”

“ After a time I crawled home, took some food and a strong dose of strychnine, and went to sleep in my clothes on my unmade bed. Strychnine is a grand tonic, Kemp, to take the flabbiness out of a man."
"It's the devil," said Kemp. "It's the palaeolithic in a bottle."
"I awoke vastly invigorated and rather irritable. You know?"
"I know the stuff." ”

“ We do not find strychnine, prussic acid, or any trace of opium. From the contents having been drained away, it is now impossible to say whether any strychnine had or had not been given just before death; but it is quite possible for tartar emetic to destroy life if given in repeated doses; and, so far as we can at present form an opinion, in the absence of any natural cause of death, the deceased may have died from the effects of antimony in this or some other form. ”

“ Cavendish?”
“My mother, at the time of her death, and for some time before it, was taking a tonic containing strychnine.”
“Ah!” said the Coroner.
The jury looked up, interested.
“I believe,” continued Lawrence, “that there have been cases where the cumulative effect of a drug, administered for some time, has ended by causing death. Also, is it not possible that she may have taken an overdose of her medicine by accident?”
“This is the first we have heard of the deceased taking strychnine at the time of her death. We are much obliged to you, Mr. Cavendish.” ”

“ You have heard the descriptions given by the witnesses of the symptoms and appearances which accompanied Cook’s attacks?—I have.
Were those symptoms and appearances the same as those you have observed in the animals to which you administered strychnine?—They were. Death has taken place in the animals more rapidly when the poison has been administered in a fluid than in a solid form. They have died at various periods after the administration of the poison. The experiments I have performed lately have been entirely in reference to solid strychnine. ”

“ Taylor vindicate his opinion? He does not appear to have ever seen one solitary case of strychnine in the human subject, yet, with the full knowledge that the consequences of his assertion might be disastrous to the prisoner at the bar, he has the audacity to assert that the pills, which for anything he knows to the contrary were the same that Dr. Bamford prepared, contained strychnine, and that Cook was poisoned by it. I have quoted the sentiment, “a little learning is a dangerous thing,” and assuredly to no science is that maxim so applicable as to the medical. ”

“ As long as coma is present with other symptoms denoting the snake-poison to be in active operation, such convulsions rather call for the antidote, than contra indicate its use, for the strychnine never produces them until it has completely conquered the snake-poison, and even then they are always preceded by local spasms and never set in suddenly. Timid medical men, when administering the antidote and anxiously watching for the dreaded strychnine effects, are too apt to see them in the slightest irregular muscular action. ”

“ But the strychnine is injected and mark the change. It courses quickly to every one of the sleepers, for whom it also has an affinity, but the direct opposite to that of the deadly venom that has overpowered them. It touches them as if with the wand of a magician and orders them to awake and do their work. ”

“ Tobacco, coffee, alcohol, hashish, prussic acid, strychnine, are weak dilutions: the surest poison is time. ”

“ They show that, in 426 cases of snake-bite, out of 113 treated by strychnine 15 proved fatal, the ratio of mortality being 13·2 per cent., while the 313 cases not treated by strychnine only resulted in 13 deaths, or a mortality of 4·1 per cent. 262
In the case of animals intoxicated by venom, injections of strychnine, morphia, nicotine, or curare in small doses always prove ineffective; they even considerably assist the progress of the intoxication and hasten death. The use of these drugs in the case of human beings should therefore be absolutely forbidden. ”

“ In the rare cases in which convulsions are a prominent symptom, it may be doubtful whether opium or strychnine has been taken, but the convulsions hitherto noticed in opium poisoning seem to me to have been rather of an epileptiform character, and very different from the effects of strychnine. No rules can be laid down for cases which do not [304] run a normal course; in medicine such are being constantly met with, and require all the care and acumen of the trained observer. ”

“ Yet Miss Pendarth's voice seemed to imply that there was some doubt.
She went on: "It was suggested at the inquest that the chemist who made up a certain heart tonic Colonel Crofton had been in the habit of taking for some time, had put in a far larger dose of strychnine than was right."
Janet Tosswill repeated in a startled tone: "Strychnine! You don't mean to say the poor man committed suicide with that horrible poison?" ”

“ It was supposed, in the first instance, Palmer had administered tartar emetic to his victim, but that for the fatal dose strychnine was used. It was proved Palmer had purchased strychnine84 under suspicious circumstances on the morning of the day on which Cook died, and could not account for the purchase of it, or state what he had done with it. The symptoms appeared at a time which would correspond to the interval that precedes the action of strychnine, being developed over the entire body and limbs in a few minutes, suddenly and with violence. ”

“ Now if I convince you upon unimpeachable evidence that the death{130} of Cook had bean caused by strychnine, and that that strychnine could only have been administered by the prisoner, then the question of motive must become a mere secondary consideration. It is often difficult to dive into the breast of man, and to ascertain with any certainty the reasons which directed him to any particular course of action ”