The Sun. — 1856-05-19 (London, England)

THE RUGELEY POISONINGS.  [The following appeared in part of our impression of Saturday.] Mr. Taylor, a surgeon, living at Romsey attended Mrs. .Smith, and I remember seeing her dead. It was between eight and nine. Tee bady was on the floor. The hands were clenched; the feet were contracted and turned inward. Toe soles of the feet were hollowed up and the toes remarkably contracted, I should sup lose, from spasmodic action. The inner edge ,of each fo was turned up. The limbs were remarkably stiff. By Lord Campbell—The body was still warm. By Mr. Welsby—The eyelids were tightly adherent to the eyeballs. The druggist who made the mixture was Jones. I met him running up to the heuse. I made a post mortem examination three days after death. At that time the contraction of the feet continued, but it had gone off somewhat from the rest of the body. I did not find any trace of disease in the body. The heart was contracted and perfectly empty, and all the large arteries leading from the heart were also empty, and the blood was fluid. I subsequently analysed the medicine, and found in it a large quantity of strychnine, dissolved and undissolved. Tae mixture contained nine grains of strychnine, of which Mrs Smith had taken three, so six remained in the bottle. (Great sensation.) I took out the stomach and bowels, but did not examine the parts sufficieutly to say from the examination the cause of death. That was so very apparent that no cloe examination was made. Cross-examined by Sergeant Shee —A. corpse would stiffen is the position it died in. In this case there seemed to have been great difficulty in laying out the body. The feet had to be tied together. We first examined the trunk and then the head. Charles Brextiolrne was the apprentice to Jones, the chemist. Jones is since dead. Mr. Smith's prescription contained a salicine. Upon the shelf beside it was strychnine, and a mistake was made, and strychnine administered. I did not give it ; it was my master, who afterwards committed suicide. Jane Witham examined by Mr. Edwin James—ln March last I attended a lady who died. Lord Campbell—You need not state her name. Witness—She first complained of her back, and said, " Come to my back." I could not get to it. There was a twitching. Her eyes were staring and fixed. She first complained of this illness upon 25th February. '.he died the 3d of March. She had five attacks, one a slight one, upon the day of her death. She was first attacked at 8 and died about 11. She had been better and up on the afternoon of her death. She was attacked with twitching of the muscles. She requested that her arms and legs might be rubbed. Cross-examined—It was at the beginning of the at tack she asked to be rubbed. When she asked that her legs were rigid during the intervals. Touching her brought the spasms on. She could not swallow during rho spasms. After death her body was stiff. She was sensiole, but did not speak. The last attack was the most violent one. Geo. Morley, surgeon, attended the lady last alluded to. He was attending her for functional disarrangement. Upon the Monday before her death she appeared comfortable. There was a twitching of her arms which I thought was hysteria. She had another attack upon Thursday. Ups n the morning of her death she appeared better. She described an attack which she had and shortly before she spoke of spasms, and said she had a shock. I was sent for upon the day of her death, and was told that she was dead. I saw the body upon the following Monday. We made the post mortem exa mination of the body. We found nothing to account for death. The face bore the appearance of anxiety the hands were curved, the feet arched. We used all the usual tests, and in each case detected the presence of strychnine. We applied nitric and prolo chloride of tin, -ulphuric acid, and bi-chromate of potash, liquid and solid. After separation by the chemical analysis we gave the 'ntents of the stomach to two mice, two rabbits, and a Guinea pig. It produced difficulty of breathing, tetaeie ymptoms, rigidity, and an archin?,. The rabbits died one in two minutes, another in about five, the mice in a few minutes. The guinea pig recovered, hut was found dead the next day, and they all exhibited symptoms of having taken strychnine. I tried the same experiments with strychnine, arid produced the same results.