Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-02-15
A POISONING CASE.
The State of Arkansas vs.. William
Scott, COlOred, Charged wtth the
Murder of his Wife,

After a weeks absence, DIR. Theodore
Hoerner returned yesterday from Helena.
Arkansas, where he went few days since to
attend the criminal court, of Phillips county,
as a witness in poisoning case before that
court, the defendant being one William
Scott, Of Lacopia, Arkansas, charged with the
murder Of his wife by poisoning. The testi-
mony of DR.. Hoerner, the result of careful
chemical analysis of the stomach
of the deceased woman, was that upon which
the case turned, and as We learn by q dispatch
from Helena, yesterday, the prisoner was con-
Victed, and therefore sentenced TO death The
following is the analy sis as furnished to
us at our request by the doctor:
On The first day of September, 1873, ESQUIRE
j. l.. Baldwin, of LacOnia, Arkansas, deIiy-
cred to the undersigned stone jar, with the
request to submit its contents 10 chemical
analysis, in order to ascertain whether II
contained any kind of poisonous substances
Upon the examination of the external an
pearance OF the StOne-iar, IL was found to he
well secured by large beef bladder, drawn
entirely over its orihce and its sides, that no
drops of liquid could have escaped, nor would
have anybody been able to tamper with the
interior without its being discovered easily hv
the condition of the bladder. After the same
had been removed, preliminary inspection
was made of the contents of the Jar. IL was
about half filed with an alcoholic liquid in
which there was immersed q stomach,
with piece of entran attached 10 it about
eighteen inches long. The stomach was
closely tied at each end as well as the end of
the entrail, but a cut an inch long, in the
lower part of the former had allowed the al
cohol 10 enter the cavity, which, after the
stomach had been cut open in its entire
length, and the liquid permitted to run
out, was found entirely empty of food or any
thing else. Nothing being discovered on the
Innings of the stomach which might have as
sisted in the discovery of the probable admin
istration of poison, it became necessary to
snomit the stomach itself to chemical treat
ment.
Two ounces of the empty stomach were cut
into small shreds and treated in the usual
manner, with chlOrate of potassa and HYDRO
chloric acid in order 70 destroy the organic
gnhSt9npPS and HhQrata
talic ores in case any should
be present. The resulting liquor was
treated with sulfuretted hydrogen which
should have preeipitated the stronger metallic
poisons. But on the publication of the first
crude precipitate no further ore was obtained,
and thus 1t was aScertained thai metallic
poisonS were not contained in the Innings OF
the stomach. II The inspection which had
caused the examination OF the Yiscera had
facts, it was thus proved that an organic
the deceased; Tor if this had been the
case II would have been absorbed by
the Innings of the stomach, and the
subsequent analysis would have reproduced
1t from the vtscera. The alcohol
used for their preservation conld have
washed only the contents from the stomach,
but not extracted any substance from its
substances, and thus prevents rather the es-
cape of any foreign article from 1t, and
1t is known that the treatment with alcohol
of the Viscera renders IL difficult to extract
from them successfully and fully the organic
poisons which they may contain. AS there
was not found any inorganic poison in the
substance of the stomach Itself, 1t could not
be well entertained that the alcoholic
liquid would contain any, and it was therefore
concluded to search forthwith for organic
poisonous substances. If an5 such were con-
tanned in the stomach itself, they were most
likely to be found in the liquor also, because
IL had swept out and absorbed all the con-
tents, and any poisonous su distances found in
the liquid would lead to its exist
ence IN the solid viscera, which thus
would be saved for further analysis, and per.
liquor was placed in q retort and the
alchohol carefully distilled off by means
Of waterbath at low temperature. No
prussic acid or phosphorus were OBJ
served before or during the progress
of distillation, nor any volatile allSa1oid dis
covered in the destilate; the remnant from
the distillation was acidulatsd and care
fully evaporated to dryness at low tenn
perature. This dry residue was treated
in the usual manner, with, chemically lure
agents for the removal of coIoring natter and
other foreign substances that the alkalOid, il
any be present, might at the end of the opera
tlon be obtained in q perfectly pure
state. When all the colorfng matter has
ammonia in slight excess, repeatedly shaken,
with amyI-alcohol, which, after being re-
moved by evaporation, left dry substance,
the alkaloid searched for. II was neutralized
with diluted sulphuric acid, and lett to spon-
taneouS evaporation, when crop of we'll de-
fined crystals was obtained of an intensely
bitter taste. BY the application Of the chemi-
cal test these crystals proved to be strychnia,
powerful poisonous substance.
The quantity of strychnta obtained from
conclusion that the deceased, whose Viscera
bad been analyzed, had come to his death
nom the administration OF strychnia.
Respectfully, THEO. H0ERNER.