The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-19 00:00:00

did not try any tests, because we had plenty of proof with
out them.

Cross-examined by Mr. Sergeant Shee : In ordinary cases
the body does not remain in the same condition after death
in which it was at the time of death. I don't know whether
if a man died with a clenched hand his hand would remain
in that state after death. In opening the body I commenced
at the thorax. I did not open the head until after the
trunk had been examined.
Charles Bloxham : I was apprentice to Mr. Jones in
. He is now dead. I remember mixing up a pro-
scription for Mrs. Smith. A mistake was ma'e, and
strychnia was used instead of selacine. It was not my rills •
take. It was the mistake of my master, who destroyed
himself afterwards.
Jane Witham (examined by Mr. James) : In March lost
I was in attendance upon a lacy, who afterwards died—
[Lord Campboll You need not mention the nsmej—l
remember her taking some medicine and afterwards bec
ing very ill. When she was first taken ill she complained of
her back. I observed her heal thro-rn back and her body
thrust out. I could not get to her back. I ob;erved that
her eyes were drawn aside and staring, and when I put my
hands upon her limbs they did not all relax their rigidity.
She first complained of being ill on the 25th Feb. She died
on the Ist of March. She had several attacks. The attacks
were on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday; and the
was a slight one on Friday, and she died on the Saturdi
twenty minutes before eleven. At times she was more com-
posed. She generally complained of a pricking in her head,
and twitching of the muscles of the hand, and she could
compare it to nothing else than a g slvanic shook. Dariig
one of the attacks I heard her ask her husband to rub her
legs and arms. She was dead when Dr. Morels carne.
Cross-examined by Mr. Sergeant Shee : She wi-'
legs to be tubbed before the paroxysm carer
was unon her, on the day she died, she Ca.,
touched. Her limbs were rigi fly extended.
intervals of the paroxysms on the Saturday,
brought the spasms on. On the day she died she t
swallow at all. She was sensible from a quarter
until after nine, but she did not speak. I e
whether she was conscious or not

Re-examined : The sympton were
as on the other days
Air. John

.cries, examined b

wtule i
ld not bear to h

meciicil attendant of the lady
1 attended her for functional aeragernz:nt.
beforo, she died I notice], as she was loin
convulsive twitching of the arms of a sli•hi
ia, and al

)y Mr. Welsby: I
uded to by the hst

referred them at th
eine i': consequenec
either on the Wed

m, to by
I noticei

Le sane

;sday or Thum

morning he died, when ;I-

composed state. :She c

in the night, and spoke of I-

mortem

in and

amination or the boa

Ince of

to account for death. There

expression of anxiety about the court

were strongly curved. I applied sc.
pose of discovering the presence of pois,
the presence of strychnia, and in each c
traces of the existence of that poison. I
lated some animals uith strychnine that
the contents of the stomach.
rabbits, and a guinea-pig, and I 01
more or less, the effects of poisonir
effects were general uneasiness, ditheuit
sions of a tetanic kind, muscular rigidly, arching backwarc
especially of the heal and neck, and death followed in f
of the animals--one in two minutes--a rabbit; anat tt,
dve minutes, and another in less than an hour. Tit( it
a guicea-pig, sufihred but slightly at first, but hg7ing e
left, it was found dea t the next day. The muscles of the
animals became placid at the moment of death, but almost
immediately afterwards became e.weedin,gly rigid. I after-
wards nude experiments upon other animals with strychnie,
in its pure state, and the symptoms and the results were
exactly the same.

a every i

ti2ea

Cross-examined : I noticed that when any of the animals
were touched, the effect was immediately to bring on the
spasm. It was, in fact, like a galvanic shock. At no
period of the illness of the lady I have referred to was she
in a state of insensibility, She was able to swallow during
the week. The lilings of the stomach was very much
congested. and there was a small quantity of bloody
serium in the pericardium. The muscles of the body
generally presented a peculiar appearance. They were,
dark and soft. There was also a notable quantity of
serum, slightly tinged with blood, in the membranes of
the spinal- cord, The membranes of the spinal marrow
were also congested to a considerable extent. I openea,
the head first, and a good deal of blood flowed ou , and
part of that m'ght come from the heart, and so h
perfectly emptied it. I ha' .e examined the hearts of
that have been poisoned with strychnine
times, and found the right side i;enerally full.
the cases where I administered the strychnia the symptoms
first appea-cal in about an hour, but generally they come
on much earlier. I detected strychnia by every test that 1
applied. In one of the cases where I knew it had been
administered to the animal, I was unable to discover its
presence afterwards in a satisf.ctory manner. In one ens,
I detected the presence of strychnia at a per:Gl of tv
months after death, and when decomposition had c
nienced.

great many
In some of

By the Attorney,G.eneral : I generally administered about
one or two grains, and I believe a portion of it may act
upon the nervcs, and another portion upon the blood. kt
was no doubt absorbed into the system. I examined the
stomachs of the anini9ls, an I I should expect to have. found
there the quantity that was ita excess beyond what was
abscrhed into the system. Sufficient poison might be
absorbed into the system to cause death, and what was in
excess would remain in the stomach, where it would of
course be inoperative after death. When an uncommon dose
sufficient to destroy life by absorption into the system was
administered, I should expect to fail sometimes to find any
trace of the poison in the stomach. I should expect to find
a very different state of things upon post rnortsm Ca
in a case where the patient died suddenly, ard
death was a long protracted on(
the &ceased lady was in a II
By the Lord Chief Justi(

The blo-o'

aid stare.
e : I believe it r

m may

n the body, and

I think it it r

wing bodies ar
Itryebnia con'

was form