On the detection of strychnia as a poison : and the influence of morphia in disguising the usual colour-test / by John J. Reese.

  • Reese, John J. (John James), 1818-1892.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the detection of strychnia as a poison : and the influence of morphia in disguising the usual colour-test / by John J. Reese. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    phia, and I was requested to undertake the examination, which I com- menced just eight weeks after the death of the subject. I found the stomach but comparatively little changed in appearance, considering the length of time elapsed since death. Its lining membrane was healthy, with the exception of a few dark congested spots. There was neither ulceration, softening, nor erosion of the membrane. The same is true also of the fragment of intestine examined. The contents of the stomach and bowel consisted of about four or five ounces of a thick, brown- ish, homogeneous fluid. The chemical examination was conducted with scrupulous care. I made three separate analyses—one of the contents of the stomach, one of the contents of the intestine, and a third of the tissues themselves; and each one of these was repeated a second time, so as to avoid all possible error. Yet I entirely failed to detect any evidence of the presence of strychnia, either by the bitter taste of the final extract, or by the very delicate colour- test employed. Now, inasmuch as all the moral circumstances connected with this case (as elicited in the subsequent trial), as well as the symptoms attending the woman's death, clearly pointed to poisoning by strychnia, I felt desirous of ascertaining if there was any adequate cause which might satisfactorily explain the failure to detect the poison. In the first place, as is very well known, it is, as a general rule, more difficult to detect the presence of an organic poison in the stomach than of a mineral poison. For example, arsenic, antimony, or mercury may almost always be discovered with ab- solute certainty, even long after.death, provided the individual had not survived long enough after taking the poison to allow of its total elimi- nation from the system—a period averaging about two weeks. This is not the case, however, with an organic poison, either vegetable or animal. The alkaloids, especially, are known to undergo very rapid absorption from the stomach, and elimination from the blood. In their passage through the system, it is quite reasonable to suppose, from their complex nature, that they follow the general law of chemical decomposition ; and that, unless searched for very soon after administration, the likelihood of detecting them would be extremely small. Now the case before us was just of such a character. The individual survived five or six hours after swallowing the alleged poison—an unusual length of time; again, a period of eight weeks elapsed after death before the chemical examination was undertaken. And we have the highest authorities for believing that organic poisons do undergo change in the body, after death. There was, however, one other circumstance connected with the case, which to my own mind was of especial interest and importance—namely, the fact that the woman had taken, just before death, by the advice of her medical attendant, a quarter of a grain of morphia with a little ipeca- cuanha; but that she did not vomit. Now, the value of this fact is just