The Express.
London, England, 1856-05-19 00:00:00

TRIAL OF WILLIAM PALMER.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

FIFTH DAY.
The proceedings were resumed this morning at ten
o'clock.

The jury were escorted to the env in the corody of the
officer. in whose charge they had been placed shortly before
the court was f irmally opened.
Lord Chief Justice Campbell and Mr. Justice Creseweil
took their seats upon the bench pre ci,ely at ten o'clock, and
immediately afterwards the prisoner was plated at the bar.
Ile exhibited a more depressed appearance than wee oh-
rentable on Saturday, and paid the deepest attention to
the evidence.

The Attorney-General, Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., Mr.
Webby, Mr. Bodkin, and Mr. Haddiestone were an attend•
once on behalf of the prosecution. Mr. Serjennt Shee, Mr.
Grove, Q.C., Mr. Gray, and Mr. Kamenley, the counsel for
the prisoner, were a'so in attendance.

Th. following additional testimony wu adduced:
. . _

Dr. Alfred S. Taylor was the first witness examined by
the Attorney.Gleneral.—He said: I am • fellow of the
College of Physicians, and have lectured upon medical
jurisprudence at Ouy's Hospital, and I am the author of a
treatise opus that 'eject. Among others, I have made
the poison called sttychnine the staj ct of my attention.
It is the produce c f cue •,mica. There is another poison
called pruscia derived from roux vamica. Pruscia is from
one sixth to one-twelfth weaker than steychnis. There is
a good deal of impure stryct Ma sold, which contains
a considerable (mantity of prunes, so that if you
are nct aware of the purity a the article you may
be mistaken in the strecgth. I h eve tried a variety
of experiment. upon animal life with strychnis, but I have
never witnessed its action on a hawse subject. I have
tried its effect, upon animals tea or twelve times. Rabbits
are the only animals I have tried it upon, and the tymptores
upon the whole have been very uniform. I generally ad-
ministered from one half-grain to two grams. I have
Toned a half-grain sufficient to &allw the lifer of a rabbit.
I have administered it in a solid end also in a liquid state.
Its operation is much quicker when administered in a fluid
state. In that condition it takes effect in a very few
minutes. When administered as a pill it takes ten or
eleven minutes before it begins to takes ffect. In my opinion
the poison is first absorbed ins the bl oil, then circulated
through the body, and (specially acts upon the spinal
cord. It is from this pert of the body that the servo pro-
ceed which affect voluntary motion. The circulation of
the blot through the whole human ay stem takes place
about oast in every four misuses. In an animal the c.r-
ciliation is quicker. The absorption, I think, would
also take place quicker in an animal; but this
would probably depend on the state of the stomach and
whether there was much food in it, or whether the vision
comes into imamate contact with the inner sure cc of the
stomach. The poison most first be absorbed before it acts
upcn the system. For five or six minutes after the poison
is administered the animal does not appear to cuff, r, but
moves about freely acd actively, and then suddenly fails on
ite side, and there is a trembler g of the whole of the mus-
cles of the body—a sort of quiveriug motion arising from
the poison producing violent and taut entity
contraction,. There se then a sudden paroxysm
or fit. The fore legs are stretched out and the
hind legs are stretched out; the head is drawn
back, and the tail, so as to give the form of a bow ; the
jaws are spasmodically closed ; the eyes are prominent.
Atter • short time there is a sight rceoi,coo of the
symptoms, and the animal ep,wars to lie quiet; but the
saghtest noise or touch predoces en r paroxy.m.
'There is sometimes a &cream, or sort of shriek, as if the
animal suffered severe pain ; and the heart b &!J v.i:Oently
after each fit; acd ef ow • 'emersion of these fits the animal
dies quietly. It would sop wr trot. this that there is some
remission of the pain just before death After death the
appearance. differ ; 30 some vises the mural is rigid
throughout, and the muscles so strongly contracted for a
week afterwards, that it is psa,ibte to hold the animal
horizontally by the hind legs without the body falling for-
ward. In one case the body scrit flu' cid immediately alter
death, but became rigid in about dee minutes. I pure opened
the bodies of several animals thou destroyed. I have never
discovered any traces of injury to the stomach or inteetinee.
In one or two cues I have found congestion of the vessels
of the membranes of the spinal cord and brain—more than
would be accoated for by the gravitation of the blood. In
oth, ra I have act mend the spinal cord in any way affected.
I ascribe the contrition to the succession of tits toe animal
has bad before death. In • tn. jot oy of mast • noes I have
failed to ciseovcr any abnormal coalition of the brain
and @phial cord. All that I have observed about
the heart in such caws is, that it has
been congested and the right side (specially.
I have not bad much experience of caw• of tetanus in the
human suhjest. 1 saw one la t Thursday week in St.
Thomas's Hospital. The patient recovered. I agree with
the other medical gentlemen who have been examined, that
the symptoms of Mr. Cook are sine IST to those in the ease
e. f strychnine poisoning, and to [howl I observed in all the
animals to whom I have administered that poison. As f 0 eke
period from the administration of the strychnine to the
c eath of the animal—one died in Mitt. oo minutes, and
another in seventeen. The eymptoms come on more rapidly
-hen the strychnine is administered in a fluid state.
All my recent sap riments bare been confined to
the administration of strychtine in a solid state.

Death oteerted is *OVID minutes boat the

meat of the symptomr, making thirteen minutes altogether,
in one ease; us another, the whole period was seventeen
minutes; in a third, in eighteen ininutte ; in the fourth,
the symptoms appeared in nine minutes, and the death in
twenty-two in the fifth the symptoms appeared in twelve
minutes, and the death in twen•y-three. I should say it
would require a longer time to act on the human subject if
• taken as a p•II, because it,would require the structure of
the pill to be broken up, in o.der .e brag the poison in
contact with the mucous membrane of the stomach. I
do not think it is possible is twee a cermet opinion
whether it would take a Linger time to destroy life by
strychnine in a human sulj-ct than in an animal ; because
the system of ahsorption is very different in an animal
t that to the human subject. There would also be a dif-
feretel between one human subject and another. A
great deal would also depend nixie the strength of the
• cow. I have tried eaperimerts to reproduc. the strychnige.
' The stomach is I laced in alcohol, with a mewl quantity of
sulphuric acid, to dissolve the a ryclinine, and we thus get
sulphate of strychnine. The Iquid is then Mimed, gently
evaporated, and an alkali added, such u mahout* of potaw,
and this precipitates the strychnine if it is t resent. There
are other tests that are applied to the stry-enine, or the
supposed stryetnine, wheo detected. fitrecheice has a
• very tecu,isr tat t,—• sir 'nifty bitter mete. It is insoluble
in water and soluble in acids and alcohol. Coloured
testa are applied to the Cry robin* of the
evaporation. A mixture of sulphuric acid, very strong, led
bi.chromme of potass produce a blue colour, which changes
to a violet, to a purple, and patting to a red. These colour-
ing tettiare, however,very Letluiouseacept where them:3Th-
! nine is separated and in a crystallited state, when we have
• recognised de, crystals by their form, and, above all, when
these et mule produce sesame symptoms of death
by being introduced into the skin of an animal
1 from a wound. re are other vegetable matters
that would produce tne same colours assn., choice under the
coliuriog tett,. A mixture of sugar end bile would produce
the purple tint exact:y the same as strychnine, and in some
cases it has b en supposed that there wee strychnine when in
point of fact the colour was di riv.el from these substaccse.
It also has a bitter taste, and smells, in that respect, also
be iniveken for strychnia. Vegetable poisons are always
I more difficult of detection than unmet sees. I have en-
deavoured to discover the existence of strychnia in the
bodies of tl.a animals I have neetio;ed in four distinct
cum, assisted by Dr. Kers, of Guy's 11, spituf I al plied
the fencers that I brat descraivd, and also the e t!our tests.
I discovered arpearancre if strychnia by the colour
teas in one cue, and in another there was s
tbhietteorthetrettire.,o bctiat.e.thtehere:le:_% test
ttitteenowtheLp,lyer. In
strychnine. In the case where strychnine was discovered
by the colour test the examination took place two days after
I death. In me of the owe where a pais of strychnine bad
heen administr red 'Ulf • grate only was found in the body.
I mini. r that the poison undergoes a gr. at change in the
blood wr.iie under the process -I abet rotion. In the instance
of the halt grain being found in the stomas`, I am of
opinion that Ibis was in 'scum of what was required
to destroy lire, and fa the case where the mini
mum dose ti destroy life was administered, the
whote would be absorbed and have its abaci, and none
would be discovered in the body. There ar, no processes
for detecting the existence of this p Amin is the tissues of
the body. Halt a grain i f stirs conies hes destroyed life.
Sat pesicg the whole vet this to be shio-bed by the blood.
and taking the quantity of 11 met at filibe., this world give
the fiftieth pelt of a prein et a ponied of blot. A physi-
I Man died from that foie. I believe that the substance
un,ergoes ago some p rebel clung. in the blood,
and th:s would ic cream the clifficu:ty of separating it from
the tissues. The crystals produced in the use of strychniae
' are of a very peculiar form. Trete are other substances
similar to them, s i that a chemist woe! I not rely entirely
non their form, but they are peculiar. After the
j post martins examination of the deceased, a portion of the
untentanf the stomach wasdelived to mein a t town stone*
by Mr. Boycott. It wu fastened down,covered with bladder,
end nil and sealed. Toe icr routine& etoinath and
notes:lees of John Parsons ent.k. I eapirimented upon the
contents of the jar to discover if they coat cried soy pinion.
IWe torght for various poirone—trorie elutes acid,
robes, strychnine, mretie, oil cl them., anemic,
mercury, and other =Metal poisons. We only found
email traces of antimony. The circumstances under
which the testa for the discovery of poison were made,
were the moat unfavourable that could be possible.
The stomach had b ten cut from end to end, all the contents
were retie, and the fires mucous outface on which any poems
if present would he tuned was lying in contact with the out-
' side of the intestines, and all thrown together. [here tow
al o feculent nutter on the surface of the mucous membrane.
This wee owing to the fault or the misfortune of the per-