On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred S. Taylor ; edited, with notes and additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On poisons, in relation to medical jurisprudence and medicine / by Alfred S. Taylor ; edited, with notes and additions, by R. Eglesfeld Griffith. 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.)

    49/723
    progress, and the symptoms of these might, for the same reason, be mistaken for those of poisoning. 2. In poisoning, the symptoms appear soon after a meal, or soon after some kind of food or medicine has been taken.—This is by far the most important character of poisoning in the living body. It has been already observed, that most poisons begin to operate within about an hour after they have been swal- lowed ; and although there are some few exceptions to this remark, yet they occur under circumstances easily to be appreciated by a practitioner. Thus, then, it follows, that, supposing the symptoms under which a person is labour- ing, to depend on poison, the substance has most probably been swallowed either in food or medicine, from half an hour to an hour previously. It must be ob- served, however, that cases of poisoning may occur without the poison being introduced by the mouth. Oil of vitriol has been thrown up the rectum in the form of enema, and caused death: the external application of arsenic, corrosive sublimate, and cantharides has destroyed life. In one case arsenic was intro- duced into the vagina of a female, and she died in five days under all the symp- toms of arsenical poisoning. (Schneider, Ann. der Ges. Staatsarzneikunde, i. 229.) Such cases are rare, but nevertheless the certainty that they have oc- curred where their occurrence could hardly have been anticipated, shows that in a suspicious case, a practitioner should not deny the fact of poisoning, merely because it is proved that the patient could not have taken the poison in the usual way—by deglutition. Let us suppose, however, the circumstances to have been such that these secret means of destruction could not have been resorted to, and that the poison is one of those most commonly selected by a murderer, such as arsenic, oxalic acid, or corrosive sublimate; then we may expect that this character of poison- ing will be made evident to us, and that something must have been swallowed by the patient shortly before these alarming symptoms appeared. By observa- tions attentively made, it may be in our power to connect the appearance of the symptoms with a particular article of food, and thus indirectly lead to the de- tection of the criminal. Supposing that many hours have passed since food or medicine was taken by the patient, without any effect ensuing,—it becomes very probable that the symptoms are due to some other cause, and not to poison. The time of the occurrence of the symptoms in relation to a particular meal, is then a fact Of especial importance in forming an opinion when poisoning is suspected, as the following cases will show. The Crown Prince of Sweden was considered by many to have been killed by poison. The prince, it appears, was reviewing some troops, when he was ob- served to fall suddenly from his horse, and he died half an hour afterwards. His physician, Dr. Rossi, was accused of having administered poison to him, and was obliged for his own security to quit the country. It is obvious, however, from an examination of the particulars of the case, that had this sudden attack been due to poison, it could only have been from one of the most active narcotics, given to him but a short time before he fell from his horse. But it was ascer- tained that the prince had taken neither solid nor liquid of any kind for at least four hours previously to his death. The allegation of poisoning was thus dis- proved, for no poison operating with symptoms like those under which the prince had died could have had its effects suspended for four hours. The cause of death was apoplexy. The following case, mentioned by Dr. Chrlstison, is also of some interest. A middle-aged man retired to bed one afternoon about two o'clock, much fatigued. In about a quarter of an hour, he was found by one of his workmen, gasping, rolling his eyes, and quite insensible; he died a few minutes afterwards. As he had lived unhappily with his wife, it was suspected that she had poisoned