Mr. WILLIAM HEREPATH, examined by Mr. GROVE--I am Professor of Chemistry and Toxicologist at the Bristol Medical School. I have been occupied in chemistry forty years and in toxicology probably thirty. I have experimented on the poison of strychnia. I have examined the contents of the stomach of a patient who died from strychnia. I discovered the strychnia in the contents of the stomach three days after death. I have experimented upon eight, nine, or ten animals. In the case of a cat, to which I gave one grain of strychnia in solid form, I could not get the animal to take it voluntarily, and I left it in meat at night. I found the animal dead next morning. The body was dreadfully contorted--extremely rigid, the fore limbs extended, the head turned round to the side, the eyes protruding and staring, the iris expanded so as to be almost invisible. I found in the urine which had been ejected strychnia, and also in the stomach. I gave the same quantity of strychnia to another cat. It remained very quiet for fifteen or sixteen minutes, with but few symptoms until thirty-five minutes. It merely seemed a little restless with its eyes, the breathing a little quickened, and at thirty-five minutes it had a terrible spasm, the four extremities and the head being drawn together. I watched it for three hours more. After this it had a second spasm. A frothing saliva was dripping from its mouth, and it forcibly ejected its urine. It had another spasm a few minutes after, when I thought the animal would die. It soon recovered itself, and then remained quiet, with the exception of a trembling all over. The slightest breath of air would affect it. It continued in this state for some time longer. During this three hours and a half, or nearly so, the animal was in a peculiar state. Touching it appeared to electrify it all through, even blowing upon it produced the same effect. Touching the basket, the slightest thing that could affect the animal, produced a sort of electric jump. I left it then, thinking it would recover, but in the morning I found it dead, in the same indurated and contracted condition in which the former animal was found. About thirty-six hours afterwards, by chemical examination, I found strychnia in the urine, the stomach, and upper intestines, in the liver, and in the blood of the heart. In my search for strychnia I took extraordinary means to get rid of the organic matter.
Fishing Report
Trial of William Palmer — Part 131
2026-11-14 06:43:07 · Cedar Herald Index
Tags
WorldBusinessTechnologyScienceHealthCultureTravelSportsPoliticsEnvironmentEducationOpinion