  1. “But there is a particular kind of manslaughter proper to be considered here, from which the benefit of the clergy is taken away by Ja. 1, c. 8.” “Where any person shall stab or thrust any person or persons that hath not then first striken the party which shall so stab or thrust, so as the person or persons so stabbed or thrust, shall thereof die within the space of six months then next following, although it cannot be proved that the same was done of malice forethought.” See 1 Hawk. P. C. This statute was passed in consequence of the numerous murders committed by the Scots, who with their dirks stabbed before an ordinary weapon could be drawn. For an extraordinary case on this statute, and much learning on the subject, see the trial of William Chetwynd for the murder of Thomas Rickets. 18 How St. Tri. p. 290. 2. Od. Lib. v. lin. 757. 3. Tractat. de Peste Lib. iv. Hist. 85. 4. In returning, the ship was cast away on the island of Zante, when this unfortunate philosopher perished from hunger. 5. Bruhier, John, a physician at Paris, in the middle of the seventeenth century; he was author of many works, but his principal celebrity rested on his warnings against burying persons, supposed to be dead, too early. “Dissertation sur l’Incertitude des signes de la Mort et l’abus des enterremens, et embaumemens precipites.” Paris, 1742. He was at the pains of collecting histories of persons who had revived after being supposed to be dead, some of whom had been buried. Bodies ought not to be interred, he says, until putrefaction has commenced. “Memoire sur la necessitÉ d’un Reglement general au sujet des enterremens.” 1745. No one should be buried until the fourth day from their dying. “Addition aux Memoires,” &c. in which he adds to the number of examples of persons who had been buried alive, or had revived after being interred. These works have passed through numerous editions, and have been translated into several other European languages. 6. Horrible as it may appear, it was a custom in Persia, at the time that Herodotus wrote, of burying alive; and this historian was informed that Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, when she was far advanced in age, commanded fourteen Persian children of illustrious birth to be interred alive, in honour of the Deity whom they supposed to exist under the earth.—Polyhymnia, c. xiv. 7. “A Dissertation on the Disorder of Death, or that state of the frame under the signs of Death, called Suspended Animation,” by the Rev. Walter Whiter, Rector of Hardingham. Norwich, 1819. 8vo. 8. Plin. Nat. Hist. Lib. vii, c. 52; see also Valer. Maxim. Lib. 1, c. 8. For extraordinary histories of persons roused from the tomb, see Diemerbroeck, Lib, ii; Joannes MathÆus, QuÆst. Med.; Hildanus Cent. 2. Obs. 95, 96; Phillip Salmuth Cent. 2, Obs. 86, 87, 95. Maximilian Misson relates in his voyages many curious cases of this kind. “Nouveau Voyage d’Italie.” But the works of Bruhier, before mentioned, contain the greatest collection of such anecdotes. 9. Thus in the Greek, the most philosophically constructed language with which we are acquainted, the alpha and omega, the first and last acts of life, are conveyed in the verb a? spiro compounded of those letters. In Latin we also find spiro and spiritus. 10. Lettres sur la certitude des signes de la mort. 11. Recherches Physiologiques sur la Vie et la Mort. 12. Phil. Trans. 1811. 13. Phil. Trans. 1667, vol. ii, p. 539. 14. Hunter on the Blood, p. 54. 15. Medical Reports, p. 75. 16. Zoonomia, vol. 1, p. 40. 17. An Essay on Respiration by J. Bostock, M. D. 18. A question has arisen, says Mr. Brodie, (Manuscript Notes) whether the whole of the brain is essential to the function of respiration, or whether the power of calling the respiratory muscles into action may not reside in some particular part of that organ? It has been stated by Le Gallois that if you expose the cavity of the cranium, and remove the upper part of the brain, the muscles of respiration continue to act as usual; if, however, the dissection be continued, as soon as that portion of the Medulla Oblongata is removed which corresponds to the Corpora Olivaria, their action is immediately suspended. The theory which such an experiment naturally establishes has received no inconsiderable support from the history of a foetus, published by Mr. Lawrence in the Medico Chirurgical Transactions: in this monster the Cerebrum and Cerebellum were entirely absent, but the Medulla Spinalis was continued for about an inch above the Foramen Magnum of the occiput, so as to form an imperfect Medulla Oblongata, and to give origin to several nerves. Death did not take place immediately after birth, as in other instances of cerebral deficiency, but the child breathed for four days after it had been expelled from the uterus. 19. Lower, as early as the year 1667, shewed that if the nerves which go to the diaphragm in a dog be divided, he breathes “like a broken-winded horse.” Phil. Trans. vol. ii, p. 544. 20. While this work was in progress we have read an account of a person who, being in a state of debility, died suddenly from the shock of a shower bath at Brighton. In this case Syncope was probably occasioned in the same manner as by a blow on the head. 21. Trance. Although this term is extremely familiar, it does not appear that any precise meaning is attached to it; the popular notion is that the body may for a time be abandoned by the soul, and remain for a certain period in a deep sleep, during which the exercise of the vital functions is so obscure, that the individual is reduced to a state of close simulation of death. 22. A great question has arisen upon this subject, whether rupture of the heart ever takes place in the sound state of that organ? And it has been answered by several pathologists in the affirmative. Fischer’s case from the Journal der Practischen Heilkunde, may be seen in the Medical Repository, Vol. 11, p. 427, and Vol. 12, p. 164. Harvey found in a male subject a rupture in the aortic ventricle, capable of admitting a finger, and remarked that the parietes of the cavity possessed their natural strength and thickness (Exercitat III. De Circulo Sanguinis, T. p. 1. 281.) Bohn also gives a case of a man who had died suddenly, when a fissure was discovered in the Ostium AortÆ. Portal has informed us, that in a rupture of the basis of the heart, which he examined, the structure of the organ was as firm and compact as in the natural state, and that in another case the parietes of the heart displayed their natural solidity. (Memoires de l’Academie des Sciences, a Paris, 1784, p. 51.) Soemering considers it as having been very correctly remarked by Portal, that the Aortic ventricle commonly bursts without any previous weakening of the substance of the heart. (See Soemering’s German Translation of Baillie’s Morbid Anatomy, with Additions.) Dr. Whytt has likewise seen the heart burst from protracted grief, and therefore does not regard the term, “BROKEN HEART,” in the light of a mere metaphor. On the contrary, Boerhaave has recorded two cases, and believes that the rupture was occasioned by the morbid accumulation of fat; Kreysig suspects that in most of these cases of ruptured heart an insidious inflammation had been established, and he considers that the quantity of adipose substance in which ruptured hearts are so commonly found enveloped, furnishes an evidence of this inflammatory state (Sopra i MalattÉe del cuore.) We are decidedly of opinion that such ruptures take place in consequence of a morbid state of the heart capable of diminishing the cohesive power of its fibres. See a Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest by R. T. H. Laennec, M. D. translated by J. Forbes, M. D. London, 1821. 23. Recueil Periodique de la SocietÉ de Medicine de Paris. T. LXI. p. 87 24. Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. 1, p. 157. Analogous cases to those related by Mr. Chevalier will be found in Bonetus Sepulchr. Anat. vol. 1, p. 383; and Morgagni Epist. 48, Art. 44; see also a communication by Dr. Ozanam in the Recueil Periodique de la SocietÉ de Medicine de Paris, tom. 61, p. 87. 25. A young animal may not so soon perish as an older one; and a strong and healthy individual may survive during a longer period than a creature that is in a state of debility. By filling the lungs with air a person may also be enabled to dispense with the act of respiration for a longer period; Mr. Kite made a very deep inspiration of 300 cubic inches, and was thus enabled to retain this quantity for 72 seconds, without a fresh inspiration; and divers in the pearl fisheries, inspire deeply before they descend. It has been, moreover, established by numerous experiments that the demand for oxygen in the lungs is materially influenced by the nature of the ingesta received into the stomach; Mr. Spalding, the celebrated diver, observed, that whenever he used a diet of animal food, or drank spirituous liquors, he consumed in a much shorter time the oxygen of the atmospheric air in his diving-bell; and therefore he had learned from experience to confine himself to a vegetable diet, and water, when following his avocation. And the priest, or conjurer (Pillal Karras, in the Malabar language) who attends the divers in the pearl fisheries of the east, enjoins, as a religious duty, an abstinence from all food, before he plunges into the ocean. Muscular exertions, as in the act of struggling, will without doubt contribute to the expenditure of oxygen, and increase the demand for it, and therefore in its absence such movement must accelerate death by suffocation; this physiological fact will be hereafter more fully elucidated. 26. We anticipate the objections that will be urged against the truth of this assertion. It will be asked how it can be reconciled with the accounts of persons who have recovered after an asphyxia of a much longer duration? It may be inquired how the statement can be reconciled with the ordinary histories of divers, who have become so expert in the art which they profess, as to be capable of remaining beneath the water for twenty minutes, or even for a longer period: we are bound to consider such statements as no better than extravagant fables; not more authentic, says Mr. Brodie (Manuscript Notes), but certainly less poetical and elegant, than those of the nymphs and mermaids, whose ordinary residence is in grottos beneath the waves of the sea; or than those Arabian fictions which have amused and astonished our youthful imaginations with the description of the Princes who govern the submarine nations, and pass their lives in palaces of crystal at the bottom of the ocean—but of this we shall speak more fully hereafter. 27. Although the term Asphyxia merely signifies the absence of the pulse, yet the name is erroneously applied to every apparent loss of vitality. 28. De Haen thought that death was produced in drowning by the water flowing into the lungs, and thus stopping the passage of the blood in the arteries. This belief gave origin to the very erroneous and mischievous practice, which still continues amongst the more ignorant, of suspending drowned persons by the heels, or of rolling them over barrels. 29. Mr. Coleman examined the lungs of a cat which had been drowned, by placing a ligature on the trachea, removing the lungs from the thorax, and then making an opening in the trachea under water, so as to collect the air which issued from the orifice; the whole quantity of air thus obtained, amounted only to half a drachm; yet the same lungs when inflated, required as much as two ounces of air, by measure, for their distention. Nor would the presence of water appear to be immediately fatal, when introduced into the lungs; Dr. Goodwyn poured two ounces of water into the lungs of a cat, through an opening made between the cartilages of the trachea; the animal had an immediate difficulty of breathing, and a feeble pulse, but lived several hours afterwards without much apparent inconvenience; it was at length strangled, and the water was found in the lungs. From which it would appear, that the admission of a certain portion of water, does not tend to hasten death. The author of this note was present at an experiment made by Mr. Brodie, in which he drowned a guinea pig, whose trachea had been previously perforated; so that in this case, no spasm of the glottis could arrest the ingress of the water into the pulmonary air cells; but this produced no modification of the usual symptoms; nor did it prevent the resuscitation of the animal, which was afterwards effected by the appropriate methods. 30. An animal also dies sooner by drowning, than by simple strangulation; Mr. Brodie considers that the abstraction of heat in the former case is quite sufficient to account for this difference. 31. FoderÈ, 90. 32. Walther, de Morbis Peritonai, et Apoplexia. 3 FoderÈ, p. 106. 33. See the Reports of the Edinburgh colleges, in the case of Sir James Standsfield, as printed in the Appendix, p. 225, also Extracts from Medical Evidence in the case of Spencer Cowper, Esq. for the murder of Sarah Stout, ibid. p. 230. 3 FoderÈ, p. 93. 100. 108. The case of Servin, ib. 125. of Paulet, ib. 126. 34. Medicine LÉgale, vol. iii. p. 85. 35. During such a state of the body there would be but a feeble call for oxygen; it is muscular action which so rapidly expends this important principle. 36. In an experiment with a drowned cat, Mr. Brodie found less than a drachm of water in the bronchial vessels. Other physiologists have ascertained the same fact by drowning animals in different coloured fluids. 37. See a very curious paper upon this subject by Mr. Robertson, in the Philosophical Transactions, 1757, vol. 1. p. 30; from which it appears that the author made ten experiments, in which, with the exception of one person, he found all the men specifically lighter than water, and hence he concludes that drowning might be avoided, if the person who falls into the water were not deprived of his presence of mind. 38. Franklin’s Art of Swimming. 39. Vide Valent. Pand. Med. Leg. 297. “De reperto sub aqua Cadavere,” and 299 “De Submersorum morte sine pota aquÆ.” 40. We say, “generally” because the comparative size of bone, on the one hand, or the quantity of fat on the other, will make a very considerable difference in the specific gravity of different parts of the human body. 41. See Southey’s Life of Nelson; and the New Monthly Magazine for January, 1821. 42. This was the opinion of Boerhaave and Morgagni. M. Portal also coincides with them, and observes that the examination of the bodies of executed criminals formerly carried to him at the Jardin des Plantes for his lectures, has confirmed him in this idea. 43. See 3 FoderÈ, 130. 44. See several cases cited by FoderÈ, T. 3. p. 134. 45. Memoires de l’Academie Royale, &c. 1704. 46. State Trials, vol. xii. 47. In consequence of plants, in the absence of the sun, giving off nitrogen and carbonic acid gases, the custom of sleeping with flowers in the bed chamber is deleterious, and may even, under certain circumstances prove fatal; a melancholy proof of this occurred in October, 1814, at Leighton-Buzzard, in Bedfordshire. “Mr. Sherbrook having frequently had his pinery robbed, the gardener determined to sit up and watch. He accordingly posted himself with a loaded fowling piece, in the green-house, where it is supposed he fell asleep, and in the morning was found dead upon the ground, with all the appearance of suffocation, evidently occasioned by the discharge of Mephitic gas from the plants during the night.” Observer of 16th, and Times of 17th October, 1814; see also Currie’s “Observations on Apparent Death,” &c. p. 181. 48. Rozier and Sir Humphrey Davy conclude from their experiments that carbonic acid kills by exciting a spasmodic action, in which the epiglottis is closed, and the entrance of this fluid into the lungs altogether prevented. Dr. Babington appears to entertain a different opinion, (see “a case of exposure to the vapour of burning charcoal,” Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. 1, p. 83,) and asks how we shall explain the fact, that the loss of irritability in the muscles of animals which have been destroyed by immersion in noxious airs, is comparatively greater than in such as are hanged or drowned, unless we suppose that the carbonic acid exerts a deleterious influence on the nervous and muscular systems? The farther consideration of this subject will be more properly entertained under the head of poisons. 49. Comparative anatomy would furnish us with a variety of beautiful arguments, if it were necessary, to support these views. The bird whose muscular exertion is so great during its flight, is provided with a more than ordinary extent of pulmonary apparatus; and amongst insects we find that many of the coleopterous species disclose avenues of air, in the act of flying, which, in their quiet state, are closed by the cases of their wings, thus procuring for themselves a larger supply of oxygen, at a period when from their exertions they most require it. Flat fish who, having no swimming bladder, remain at the bottom, and possess but little velocity, have gills that are quite concealed, while those who encounter a rude and boisterous stream, as trout, perch, or salmon, have them widely expanded. For further observations upon this subject, the author begs to refer to his paper in the 10th vol. of the Linnean Transactions, entitled “On the Physiology of the Egg,” by J. A. Paris, M. D. &c. 50. This was the peine fort & dure of our ancient law, which was inflicted on prisoners who stood mute out of malice, or who feigned themselves mad, or challenged peremptorily more than the number of Jurors allowed by law, thus refusing their legal trial. “The manner of inflicting this punishment may be best found from the Books of Entries and other law books, all of which generally agree, that the prisoner shall be remanded to the place from whence he came, and put into some low dark room, and there laid on his back without any manner of covering, except for the privy parts, and that as many weights be laid upon him as he can bear and more, and that he shall have no manner of sustenance but the worst bread and water, and that he shall not eat the same day in which he drinks, nor drink the same day on which he eats, and that he shall so continue till he die.” Some authorities say till he answers. See 2 Hawk. P. C. 330. c. 30. § 16. 4 Bl. Com. p. 319. Jac. Law Dict. tit. Mute. The memory of this barbarous punishment remains “as a monument of the savage rapacity with which the lordly tyrants of feudal antiquity hunted after escheats and forfeitures,” for when the criminal died mute, the lord in some cases lost his escheat; (see 4 Bl. Com. 323). But its execution is no longer permitted by our laws. By Stat. 12 Geo. 3. c. 20, sentence may be passed on those who stand mute as if they had been found or pleaded guilty. 51. This, however, can but rarely occur; and it seems to have been wisely ordained by Nature, that the stomach should lose the power of rejecting its contents, whenever the brain loses its sensibility. See Paris’s Pharmacologia, edit. 5, vol. 1, p. 150. 52. Manuscript Notes. 53. Dr. Badenoch has very satisfactorily shewn that the Coup de Soleil kills by producing apoplexy. 54. This does not hold universally, for Beccaria mentions the case of a man whose body became exceedingly stiff, very shortly after having been struck dead by lightning;—and in one of Mr. Brodie’s experiments, the muscles of a Guinea pig killed by electricity became stiff. 55. Manuscript Notes. 56. Mayer directed his attention very particularly to the appearances which were thus produced, and had drawings made of them. It would appear that they most commonly passed in the direction of the spine. In the First Volume of the Philosophical Transactions, there is an account of the dissection of a man killed by lightning, but it contains nothing remarkable. 57. See also an account of a thunder-storm, by Mr. Brydone, in the 77th vol. of Phil. Trans. 58. Morgagni de Sedibus et Causis Morb. Epist. 68. No. 6 and 7. 59. Hippocrat. Aphor. 13. Sect. 2. 60. Osservaz: intorno agli Anim. viventi, etc. No. 3 et 4. 61. This event occurred during the period of the author’s studies at Cambridge; and he can therefore offer his testimony to the truth of the statement; he visited the woman soon after her disinterment. 62. See Vol. i. p. 369. 63. Starving to death was a punishment inflicted by the people of Aragon, some years ago; and it is reported by Tavernier, that the chief ladies in the kingdom of Tonquin, are at this day starved to death for adultery. The severity of the Roman law on an unchaste Vestal has often exercised the pencil of the artist. An account of its execution on Rhea, marked as it always was by circumstances of peculiar horror and solemnity, is to be found in Plutarch’s Life of Numa; the offender, conducted by a mute procession across the Forum to the place of her interment near the Colline gate, was made to descend a ladder into the sepulchre, and left there with a lamp, a loaf of bread, and a cruse of water, the opening being immediately closed with earth and stones. 64. Corsican Gazette, and London Med. & Phys. Jour. March, 1822. 65. The siege of Jerusalem by the Romans will at once occur to the reader; and of which Josephus has left us so tragic a history: amongst other atrocities, an unhappy woman, reduced to the last extremity by pinching hunger, sacrifices the feelings of a mother to the voracious calls of appetite, butchers her child, and feeds upon the body! 66. See “Naufrage de la FrÉgate la MÉduse, faisant partie de l’Expedition du SÉnÉgal en 1816,” par F. B. Savigny, ex Chirurgien de la Marine, et Alexandre CorrÉard, IngÉnieur-Geographe. Paris, 1817.—A very interesting account of this narrative may be found in the Quarterly Review, for October, 1817. 67. That which we call duration is in fact a feeling of succession, and is computed by the number of ideas that pass through the mind; whenever an event occurs which powerfully excites the attention of an observer, he watches the most minute change, whence he believes that the time which elapses before the whole event is completed, appears to be unusually prolonged. When the infidel sultan of Egypt refused to believe that Mahomet could have ascended into the seven heavens, and have held some thousand conferences with the Almighty in the space of a few minutes, the learned mussulman, who was consulted on the occasion, endeavoured to turn his Majesty to a more strict faith, by demonstrating to him that a short period of time became converted into a long one, when a great multitude of important events were crouded into it. 68. In a tract entitled “Observations on Animal Life and Apparent Death, by John Franks, surgeon, 8vo. London, 1790,” the author says that “when the late Mr. Justamond (Surgeon to the Middlesex hospital) lived on the terrace, Palace yard, Westminster, a boy who had been drowned in the Thames was brought to him; he made an opening into the wind-pipe, in order to inflate the lungs; but the discharge of blood which ensued was such as gave him no chance of succeeding in the recovery; for he could not prevent the blood from pouring down into the lungs.” Although, says Dr. Currie, nothing is said in this case about the pulse, yet from the blood flowing so copiously, there is reason to believe that the heart had begun to act; and therefore to conclude, that life was in fact destroyed by this operation, which might have been saved without it. See “Observations on Apparent Death from Drowning, Hanging, Suffocation by noxious vapours, &c.” by James Currie, M.D. London, 1815. 69. The first body galvanised in this country was that of the malefactor George Foster, who was executed in January 1803, before Newgate, for the murder of his wife and infant daughter, by drowning them in the Paddington Canal; the experiment was conducted under the direction of Aldini, the nephew of Galvani. 70. Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. 1, p. 26. 71. Elements of Juridical or Forensic Medicine. 72. Newgate Calendar. 73. See Maclaurin’s Crim. Ca. p. 71. where this circumstance is alluded to. 74. By the Scottish law, in part founded on that of the Romans, a person against whom the judgment of the Court has been executed, can suffer no more in future, but is thenceforward totally exculpated; and it is likewise held, that the marriage is dissolved by the execution of the convicted party. Margaret Dickson then, having been convicted and executed, as above mentioned, the king’s advocate could prosecute her no farther, but he filed a bill in the high court of Judiciary against the sheriff, for omitting to fulfil the law. The husband of this revived convict, however, married her publicly a few days after her resuscitation; and she strenuously denied the crime for which she had suffered. 75. The Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench is the principal Coroner in the kingdom, and may, if he pleases, exercise the jurisdiction of a coroner in any part of the Realm. 4 Rep. 57. 76. Except in case of persons dying in jail, the Coroner must not hold unnecessary inquests on the bodies of those who have died in the ordinary course of nature. “And the Court of King’s Bench, on two several occasions within my own memory, blamed the Coroners of Norfolk and Anglesea, for holding repeated and unnecessary inquests, for the sake of enhancing their fees, on bodies and parts of bodies which were cast up by the sea shore, without the smallest probability or suspicion of the deaths happening in any other manner than by the unfortunate perils of the sea.” 1 East. P.C. 382. See ib. the case of Rex v. Harrison, for extorting money for not holding an inquest. 77. For this purpose the Coroner issues a precept to the constable of such townships to return a competent number of jurors, viz. not less than twelve. 2 Hale, P.C. 59. 62. 1 East. P.C. 380. 78. But this power should be used with discretion. On a late occasion, the Judge severely reprobated the conduct of a magistrate, who had committed a poor lad to await the assizes, in company of notorious thieves and other desperate characters, because he had been the innocent witness of a felony, and was too poor to find recognizance. 79. Thus in the case of Sir Edmondsbury Godfrey, much blood might have been spared, and much political controversy avoided, if it had been possible to determine whether the murder had taken place in the field where the body was found, or at Somerset House, as charged by witnesses who afterwards confessed their perjury. 80. “It is true that the statute does in terms only require the coroner to put in writing the effect of the evidence. But this must not be taken to give him a latitude, such as hath been but too often taken by persons of this description to the great perversion of truth and justice, of putting down, not the words of the witnesses, but his own conception of their tendency. It is doubtless the meaning of the act, that the examination of the witnesses should be taken down with the greatest possible accuracy as to all material points of the inquiry: otherwise one great benefit of the act, which is to enable the Court to compare the examination with the evidence, must be defeated. The effect mentioned therein, means the true and genuine sense of the evidence, as delivered in detail, not indeed in letters, syllables, or even words; though these should not be needlessly departed from; but the fair and obvious meaning of the words spoken, and not the final result of the evidence. Complaints have in my own memory been made by judges on the circuits of the culpable neglect of coroners in this respect, and threats of exemplary punishment holden out to them, to prevent a repetition of the same abuse in future.” 1 East. P.C. 384. 81. It must be on the actual view of the body, the coroner and his party seeing it together. 2 Hale 60. 1 East. 380. King v. Ferrand. 2 Barn. & Ald. 260. It was evidently the original intention of the Legislature, that the coroner should view the body on the spot where it was found; that he and his jury might judge as well by inspection of the body, as by an examination of surrounding objects, whether the deceased had died by violence. And Sir William Blackstone says, “He must also sit at the very place where the death happened,” 1 Com. 348. and this should certainly be done in all possible cases, for the state of surrounding objects most frequently will testify more strongly than any other evidence. Modern fastidiousness has introduced the custom of removing the body to some public-house, even where the death had happened in an ordinary dwelling; this if not illegal, is at least improper. 82. See also the proceedings on the Oldham inquest, and the subsequent judgment in the Court of King’s Bench. A.D. 1818, 1819. The King against Ferrand, 2 Barn & Ald. 260. 83. This was publicly disputed on a late occasion; it is well to question all extra-judicial dicta, which may be delivered during the heat of political controversy. 85. In Scorey’s case, Leach C. L. 50. the coroner refused to take the evidence of a man who had accompanied the accused in search of deer-stealers, and only admitted the man who was with the deceased. The coroner, on the testimony of this man, told the jury, that the crime was murder, but they refused to find any other verdict than Accidental death; which verdict the coroner recorded, and then by his warrant sent Scorey to the county goal for murder. Scorey being now brought up by Habeas Corpus—The Court, on full affidavit of the fact, admitted him to bail, and granted a rule against the coroner to shew cause why an information should not be filed against him. 86. There are many cases in which there is no substance which can be made the subject of deodand; as in death by poison or by explosions in mines, either from inflammable gas, or the powder used in blasting. The first of these cases calls for immediate remedy; as the instances of fatal substitution of poison for medicine occur continually, notwithstanding the repeated warnings published on the subject. Nor are accidents in mines less worthy of attention; ordinary precaution might have prevented many which have lately taken place. The Safety lamp of Sir H. Davy is so firmly established in reputation, that no doubts can be entertained of its efficacy; some late inventions also have secured the miner from the numerous disasters to which he is liable in the dangerous operation of blasting. When the conductors of mines neglect these ordinary and well-known precautions, they become morally responsible for any mischief which may consequently occur; we have only to lament that they are not legally answerable for their criminal neglect. 87. With respect to a second inquest, the law is thus laid down (3 Barn. & Ald. 266.) So also he (the coroner) may dig up the body, if the first Inquisition be quashed. Str. 533. But it must be by order of the Court of King’s Bench, on motion, Str. 167. And the judges will exercise their discretion, according to the time and circumstances, whether he shall or shall not do it. Salk. 377. Str. 22. 533. 2 Mod. 16. 88. It is not for us in this place to argue the question whether excessive severity of punishment does or does not defeat its punishment; as more injury is done by inducing that illegal mercy which is here complained of, than benefit is derived by terror of the unexecuted sentence of the law: the subject is in abler hands; we shall, therefore, content ourselves with suggesting, that coroners should be far more strict in their examination of the bodies of persons supposed to be felo de se; nay, that anatomical inspection of the great cavities should be absolutely required in all cases. We will not maintain with a French author on Medical Jurisprudence, that the signs of insanity can often be discovered on dissection; though we can imagine some cases, as where there has been an excessive determination of blood to the brain, in which this inspection may be satisfactory; (See vol. 1, p. 327). Fourcroy and Durande have also found, on dissecting persons who had committed suicide, hardness of the liver, and gall stones; and FoderÉ observes that, in failure of other evidence, such appearances deserve to carry some weight. But benefit would still result from the practice; first from the general horror in which dissection is held, for if the dread of an ignominious burial, however remote the chance of its infliction, can be supposed to discourage this offence, under the existing law, the certainty of personal mutilation would operate in the proposed alteration. It is related, that when suicide had become so frequent among the Roman ladies, as to threaten ill effects to the commonwealth, the Senate decreed that the bodies of all who died by their own hands should be exposed naked in the public ways. The effect of the decree was an immediate cessation of the crime; possibly the same result might be produced by the dread of dissection. 89. Al sessions al Newgate post natalem dom. 1604, 2 Jac. Le case fuit que en home et se feme ayant longe temps vive incontinent ensemble, le homme ayant consume son substance et cressant en necessity, dit al feme que il fuit weary de son vie, et qu’il voiloit luy m occider, a que la feme dit que donques el voiloit auci moryer ove luy: per que le home praya la feme que el voiluit vaar et acheter ratisbane, et ils voilont ceo beber ensemble, le quel el fist, et el ceo mist en le drink, et ils bibe ceo, mes la feme apres prist sallet oyle, per que el vomit et fuit recover, mes le home morust: et le question fuit si ceo fuit murther en la feme. Montague recorder cause l’especial matter d’estre trove: quÆre le resolucion. F. Moore, 754. 90. Vide ante, tit. Coroner’s Inquest. 91. Decency and public policy require that burials should not be delayed, and it may not be amiss here to observe that the old notion of arresting a body for debt, is now utterly exploded, as contrary not only to the civil and canon law, (see Wood’s Civ. Law, 148; 2 Domat 628: Lindw. 278,) but to reason and the law of the land. Vide ante, Vol. 1. p. 100. 92. It is said that to act upon the mind by terror, continual griefs or vexations, though with the intent to kill, is not murder, unless there be some personal violence, 1 East. P. C., p. 225: but query this, the proof of the crime may be difficult, but its perpetration is far from impossible. To act on the mind of a pregnant woman by extreme terrors, and so produce abortion and death of malice prepense, would certainly be murder in its most atrocious form; it might require some ingenuity in framing the indictment; but our law is fertile in fictions on less worthy occasions, and ought not to allow its just vengeance to be avoided. In cases of murder by starvation there may be no actual violence, yet the law reaches this offence; sometimes indeed imprisonment forms a part of the crime, but this may not always be the case; for if the deceased were confined to his bed by disease, so that he could not seek his own food, and those who were bound to supply him maliciously neglected their duty, it would be murder by omission without any personal violence committed. See Self’s case, 1 East. P. C. 226: 1 Leach, C.C. 163, and authorities there. So in an indictment for starving a servant, Lawrence, J. intimated, that he thought the indictment insufficient, in not alleging that Elizabeth Williams was a girl of tender years, and under the dominion and controul of the defendant. Rex v. Eliz. Ridley, 2 Camp. R. 650. See also Regina v. Gould. Salk. 381. 93. “Such also was the case of the parish officers who shifted a child from parish to parish, till it died for want of care and sustinence.” 1 East. P. C. 226, and authorities there. Unfortunately this species of crime is not of very rare occurrence; numerous instances might be cited where the death of a pauper has been caused by the barbarous custom of removing the poor, without the slightest regard to their age, disease, or infirmity. 94. As we are not aware of the existence of any poisonous filth so noxious as to destroy by its mere stench, we shall not enlarge on this head; we have indeed heard of an attempt to kill by the smoke of burning Euphorbium, but without believing in its power. Vide ante tit. Nuisance, et post, Aerial poisons. 95. In this case it is not necessary that there should be any signs or even suspicion of violence; the bare fact that they died in gaol is enough. 96. One half of the jury should be of the prisoners, 1 East P. C. 383, for they are most likely to know if any unnecessary hardship had been inflicted on the deceased. 97. The learned Reporter does not appear to have adverted to the distinction between epidemic and contagious distempers. See vol. 1, p. 105. 98. It is to be feared that grand juries will discontinue their salutary custom of visiting the prisons, in consequence of a recent decision that they have no right to demand admission. As the propriety of their inspection is generally granted, we may venture to hint a wish that some enactment may pass on this subject, and that the temporary political objection, arising out of the seclusion of state prisoners, may not be permitted to operate as a general and permanent obstacle. It is to the zeal of individuals in tracing abuses, rather than to legislative enactment for their prevention, that we look for the still necessary improvements of our prison discipline; for no government, however vigilant, can guard against the secret misconduct of its obscurer agents; all it can do, is to encourage enquiry, whenever the first hint of delinquency or even of suspicion is communicated. The subject is now under legislative consideration, and we may therefore hope that a due system may be adopted, one which shall equally steer clear of the wasteful expenditure of the Millbank Penitentiary, and the enormities imputed to Ilchester: that prisons may be made places of confinement, coercion, and punishment; but not of torture, contagion, and despair. The improvement in morals, order, and cleanliness introduced into some prisons by the exertions of a benevolent individual (Mrs. Fry) deserves our notice; her attention indeed has been mainly directed to the mental and religious instruction of female prisoners, but this mental improvement is not without its effect on their bodily health; order, temperance, and cleanliness, will always produce a physical as well as moral improvement on the minds and persons of the lower orders. 99. A similar calamity occurred in Dublin in 1776, when the sheriff, several counsellors, and others, fell victims to this disease. Gents. Mag. The death of the late Judge Osborne also is attributed to an ill-ventilated court. 100. The law does not appear to have made any sufficient provision for the (not improbable) contingency of a highly infectious disorder breaking out in any prison, yet it is evidently unjust that a prisoner for a debt of one shilling! or any other sum, should be exposed to the hazard of his life by remaining in contact with the infected, (see Buxton’s Inquiry.) Formerly the writ of Habeas Corpus was granted on such occasions, but abuses having arisen it was ultimately referred to the judges to consider the legality of this application of the writ, who decided against it; adding, however, that in case of great infection some house in some good town might be assigned for the warden of the Fleet, and the like for the marshal of the King’s Bench, where they might keep their prisoners sub arcta et salva custodia. Hutt. 129. But query, how far this course would be applicable to other prisons? 101. The learned Jacob Bryant lost his life from mortification in his leg, originating in the slight circumstance of a rasure against a chair, in the act of reaching a book from a shelf. 102. See “An account of a case of recovery, after an extraordinary accident, by which the shaft of a chaise had been forced through the thorax.” by William Maiden; London, 1812. 103. Memoires de l’Acad. Royale. 1705. 104. Med. Polit. P. 1. C. 1. 105. Hebenstreit observes that if a man is wounded by two different persons, one of whom stabs in the side, the other in the belly, it becomes necessary after death to ascertain of which wound the deceased died, in order that the actual murderer may be punished. By the law of England this question can never arise. 106. The bites of venomous animals will be considered under the head of Poisons. 107. This trial is the more remarkable as forming one of the numerous persecutions to which the prisoner claimant of the Annesley Peerage was subjected by the rancour of his opponent; for the other proceedings see State Trials. 108. Poisoning, in war, is even considered by the law of nations as more odious than assassination, of this Grotius (lib. iii. c. 4.) has enlarged. It was a maxim of the Roman senate, that war was to be carried on by arms, and not by poison (Aul. Gell. Nat. Altico. lib. iii. c. 8.). Even Tiberius rejected the proposal made by the Prince of the Catti, that if poison was sent to him, he would destroy Arminius; he received for answer, that the Roman people chastised their enemies by open force, without having recourse to wicked practices and secret machinations (Val. Max. 1. iv. c. 5.) 109. See also 4 Co. R. case of Vaux, who was executed for poisoning with Cantharides. “Persuadebat eundem Nichol’ recipere et bibere quemdam potum mixtum cum quodam veneno vocat cantharides, affirmans et verificans eidem Nichol’ quod prÆd’ potus sic mixtus cum prÆd’ veneno vocat’ canth’ non fuit intoxicatus (Anglice poisoned) sed quod per reception’ inde prÆd’ Nich’ exit’ de corpore dictÆ MargaretÆ tunc uxoris suÆ procuraret et haberet.” It is to be hoped that the age of Philtres and love powders is passed. 110. At Warwick Assizes, 18 Eliz. John Saunders and Alexander Archer were indicted for the wilful murder of Eleanor Saunders, an infant of 3 years of age, daughter of the first prisoner. Saunders wishing to get rid of his wife consulted Archer, by whose advice he gave her (being ill) a roasted apple, with which he had mixed arsenic and roseacre. She ate a small part of it, and in his presence gave the remainder to the infant, for which Saunders reprehended her, saying apples were not good for such children, but he permitted the child to swallow the poison, lest he should be suspected. He was condemned and executed, but a point was reserved as to the guilt of his accomplice Archer, for which, see Plowden’s Rep. 474. 111. The study of poisoning appears to have been of considerable antiquity. Ulysses sought poison for his weapons from Ilus, “fa?a??? a?d??f????” Od. 1. 1. v. 261; but the conscientious pharmacopolist refused to furnish his dangerous preparations to the wily chief. 112. Taciti Annal: Lib: iv. c. 8. 113. Hist: Plant. Lib: ix. c. 16, p. 189. 114. Lib: viii, c. 18. 115. For the ingenious mode in which this poison was administered, see Tacitus. The prince having called for a cup of wine, it was purposely presented too hot; he desired cold water to be added to it, and the opportunity was then taken to infuse the poison. By this stratagem the taster (“calida gelidÆque minister.” Juv. Sat. v. v. 63.) escaped its effects, in which he must otherwise have participated with Britannicus. 116. The reader will find a very interesting account of this diabolical woman in Labat’s Travels through Italy, and also in Beckman’s History of Inventions. 117. Hoffman Medicin. Rational. 118. This story, if we mistake not, suggested to the successful author of Kenilworth, the tragic death of his Alchymist. 119. The belief in the possibility of poisoning by the vestments is very ancient, as is shewn by the fabled death of Hercules. ----“Capit inscius heros: Induiturque humeris LernÆÆ virus EchidnÆ. ----------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- Incaluit vis illa mali; resolutaque flammis; Herculeos abiit late diffusa per artus.” Ovid. Metam. Lib. ix. v. 157. 120. QuÆst. Med. Leg. 121. Sir Edward Coke in the trial of Sir John Hollis. 122. Bacon’s works, vol. ii. p. 614. 123. “ep?fe?e? ??d?ata s?at??, eta ????t?t?? ep?tetae???. d?sp??e?? ?a? d?s?d?a ?d?de?a? t? st?a, ?a? ????? a?t??? epeta?, e???te de ?a? spe?at?? ap??a??et?? e????s??.” 124. 1. ??f?? ? af??????; 2. f???t????. 125. Instit. Mater. Medic. p. 176. 126. Manuale di Tossicologia, p. 79. 245. 127. See also Istituzioni di Med. For. di G. Tortosa, vol. 2. p. 67, and authorities there cited. 128. This fact may be illustrated by ancient as well as modern records; from the poisoned tunic of the Centaur Nessus, to the treacherous powders of the diabolical Mary Bateman. 129. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. lx. c. 16. Strabo mentions the action of the Lauro-cerasus, as a poison, and observes that it occasions a death like that of Epilepsy. 130. All these substances were found in the casket of Saint Croix. 131. Gerarde, in his Herbal, considers the Cymbalaria to be the Pennywort of which he describes two varieties, viz. the Wall-pennywort, and the Water-pennywort; and he blames the “ignorant apothecaries,” for using the latter instead of the former, as extremely dangerous and destructive to life. Modern botanists consider it as an Antirrhinum,—A. Cymbalaria. Lin. i. e. Ivy-leaved Toad-flax. We are not aware of any part of this genus being poisonous. The A. Linaria, common Toad-flax, appears to be the only one to which any medicinal virtues have been ascribed. LinnÆus, however, says (Flor. Suec.) that this plant is used as a poison to flies. 132. Man. de Toxicol. 133. Hist. General de Venen. mineral. 134. Boerhaave gives us the following definition. “Venenum dico omne illud quod ingestum vel applicatum corpori, talem in corpore humano mutationem excitat, quÆ per ipsam eam mutationem non superatur. Medicamentum prÆterea in eo differt, quod ipsa, quam facit mutatio, in sanitatem tendat, venenum vero corpus mutat, ut ex sano Ægrum fiat, aut cadaver.” (PrÆlect. Acad. T. vi, p. 283.) Hoffmann has furnished us with a definition less exceptionable than the foregoing, but still inferior to that of Gmelin. “Alit natura res, quÆ exigua mole et summa partium tenuitate, brevi tempore, concentum atque ordinem motuum vitalium pervertunt, vel plane destruunt; et hÆ vocari solent Venena.” (M.R.S.T. II. p. 88.) 135. We have adopted this term, as one that has been in previous use, although we are by no means satisfied that a more expressive word might not be found. 136. This case is detailed in his ‘Pharmacologia,’ under the article Cupri Sulphas. 137. See an interesting paper by Dr. Marcet, in the 12th volume of the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, entitled, “Account of a man who lived ten years after having swallowed a number of clasp knives.” 138. In the reign of Louis xiv, Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, is said to have been poisoned by diamond-dust mixed with powdered sugar. The same substance is enumerated among other extraordinary poisons, as having been administered in the case of Sir Thomas Overbury. 139. Old women in the country recommend the same remedy for the destruction of worms; probably the medicine and the poison may be equally effective. 140. Saggi Scientif. e letter dell’ Accademia di Padova. T. III. p. 11, p. 1. 141. Chylologia. 142. De Venenis. 143. Comment. super Homicid. p. 177. 144. Ratio Medendi. Part VI, p. 60. 145. Hist. General de Venenis Mineral. 146. Med. Leg. Tom. II. p. 170. 147. Tom. II. p. 346. 148. Man. de Toxicol. 149. Fragmenta Chirurg. et Med. p. 66. 150. Pharmacologia, Edit. v. vol. I. p. 324. 151. See Medical Facts and Observations, Vol. v. 152. See M. Pouqueville’s “Voyage de MorÉe,” also Mr. Thornton’s Travels; and Notes to Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. 153. M. R. S. T. iv. Part iii, p. 278. 154. For the purpose of propitiating the favour of heaven, the alchymist stamped the figure of the cross upon the vessel, in which he expected to obtain the long sought prize that was to convert the baser metals into gold, whence the term Crucible derived its origin. And when the experiments of chemistry began to be considered as the true tests of philosophical truth, the expression of “Experimentum crucis” was adopted to signify the highest degree of proof of which a subject is susceptible. 155. Sydenham considered the occurrence of cholera, as a disease in England, to be confined to the month of August, at which time, says he, it appears as certainly as swallows in the early spring, or cuckows at the approach of summer; but he himself observed it to appear sometimes towards the end of summer, when the season was unusually warm; and that the violence of the disease was in proportion to the degree of heat. Note. Mrs. Downing died in November, and Miss Burns, whose case is so frequently alluded to in this work, in March. 156. Youths and adults are more generally affected than children and old persons. 157. Sydenham describing the violent symptoms of cholera concludes by observing, “and such like symptoms as frighten the by-standers, and kill the patient in 24 hours.” Syd. Sect. iv, c. 2. It must be remembered that Sydenham is here describing an extreme case. The unfortunate Mrs. Downing (see Appendix, p. 277) died in fourteen hours! 158. See the case of Mr. Robert Turner, poisoned by Eliz. Fenning, as related by Mr. Marshall. 159. See Baillie’s Morbid Anatomy. 160. Opera Omnia Ch. iv, p. 34. 161. De Causis et Signis. Lib. 1, c. 7. 162. De Abdit. rerum Causis. Lib. ii, c. 15. 163. De Sedibus, &c. Epist. 59, n. 16. 164. Anthropolog: Forens. p. 523. 165. De Signis Veneni dati Diagnosticis, n. 8. 166. M. R. S. T. iv, p. 3, c. 8. 167. Med. Forens. p. 169. 168. Cours de Med. Leg. p. 248. 169. Nouveau Ellem. de Therapeutiq. T. 1, p. 408. 170. Med. Leg. T. 2, p. 225 171. Med. Leg. T. ii, p. 260. 172. Œuvres de Medecine, T. 1, p. 69. 173. De Cholica Pictonum, p. 37. 174. See also Sloane MSS. Brit. Mus. 330: 9135. “Venenum potest generari in corpore.” 175. Observations on Apparent Death from Drowning, &c. by James Currie, M.D. p. 156. 176. We are informed by Tortosa (Istituzioni di Med. For. vol. ii, p. 62) that a work has been published by a celebrated physician of Verona, Rotario, in which the author attempts to establish a diagnosis by which these symptoms may be distinguished. (Opere Med. p. 116.) We have not been so fortunate as to obtain a sight of this work. 177. Those who are desirous of becoming farther acquainted with the history of this opinion may consult the “Recherches et Considerations Medicales, sur l’acide Hydro-cyanique, son radical, ses composÉs, et ses antidotes,” par J. Coullon, D. M. 1 vol. 8vo. 1819. Dr. Granville has also in his Treatise on Hydrocyanic acid (edit. 2d 1820) alluded to this opinion, and to the different authors who have supported it, p. 24. The reader will also find a case by Fourcroy, (Annales de Chimie, tom. 1, p. 66) of a woman, of about thirty years of age, who in consequence of protracted grief, laboured under a nervous and melancholic affection; she became extremely emaciated, and her livid paleness, and universal langour seemed to indicate a depressed state of vitality, and a decomposition of the animal fluids; after a few days she was seized with faintings and convulsions, which were followed by the discharge of drops of blood from the edge of the eye-lids, the nostrils, and the ears. The linen with which the blood was wiped was marked with spots of a beautiful blue. Fourcroy examined this matter, and concluded that the blood contained Prussiate of iron. 178. Anthropolog. Forens. p. 526. 179. Edinburgh Medical Essays. 180. Phil. Trans. A. D. 1772, “On the Digestion of the Stomach after Death,” by John Hunter, F. R. S. and Surgeon to St. George’s Hospital. 181. This phenomenon is frequently exhibited, in a very satisfactory manner, by inferior animals who die suddenly. Mr. Hunter noticed it particularly in fish. 182. We allude to a highly interesting paper, to which we shall have frequent occasion to refer in the progress of the present inquiry, entitled “Observations on the Digestion of the Stomach after Death,” by Allan Burns, Lecturer on Anatomy and Surgery in Glasgow. Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journ. for April, 1810. 183. Hunter’s Observations on Digestion, p. 185. 184. Adams’s Observations on Morbid Poisons, edit. 2, p. 30, where he says “but for this purpose, Mr. Hunter saw that the animal must be in health immediately before death, otherwise neither the quantity nor quality of the secretion would be equal to the purpose; he was confirmed in this by the instances in which he saw the stomach digested; both were men who had died from a violent death; both had been previously in sufficient health to eat a hearty meal. The fair inference from these was, that when men die of disease, the appetite usually ceases, and probably the secretion of the gastric juice also.” 185. Burns, loco citato. 186. “It will generally be found that, where the coats of the stomach are softened by the gastric juice, the vessels are unable to resist the force of the syringe in injecting the body. In such subjects, therefore, we find the cavity of the stomach filled with wax, and we likewise see masses of it collected between the coats of the viscus.” 187. Mark this circumstance, for we shall have occasion to revert to it, when we come to consider the part of the stomach which undergoes solution from the action of the gastric juice. 188. A case of extensive solution of the Stomach by the Gastric fluids, after Death. By John Haviland, M. D. Regius Professor of Physic in the University of Cambridge. Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, vol. 1, part ii, p. 287. 189. He had taken, at intervals, a small quantity of port wine and water. 190. Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, vol. iv. 191. 1. “The trial of Charles Angus, Esq. for the murder of Margaret Burns, taken in short hand by William Jones, jun. 8vo.” Liverpool, pp. 1808, 288. Also 2. “A vindication of the opinions delivered in evidence by the medical witnesses for the crown, on a late trial at Lancaster for murder, 8vo.” 1803. 3. “Remarks on a late publication, entitled “A Vindication of the Opinions delivered in Evidence by the Medical witnesses for the Crown, on a late trial at Lancaster.” By James Carson, M.D.” 4. “An Exposure of some of the false statements contained in Dr. Carson’s pamphlet, entitled “Remarks, &c.” in a letter to that gentleman, by James Dawson, Surgeon.” The suspicion against the prisoner, Charles Angus, was, that he had endeavoured to procure a premature delivery, or abortion, by means of an instrument resembling a long trochar, and that he had administered, or been privy to the administration of certain drugs, which had occasioned such effects upon the stomach of the deceased, as in the end produced her death. The prisoner was a retired merchant, with two or three children, with whom the deceased had lived as housekeeper and governess. It appeared in evidence that improper familiarities had been noticed between them, and that Miss Burns had, for some time, appeared out of health, and that her abdomen was much increased in size at the period when she was attacked with the symptoms which preceded her death, and which, as we learn from the witnesses on the trial, presented the following history. The deceased was seen by the servants of the family at about six o’clock, on Wednesday morning, the 23d of March, 1808, at which time she was in her usual state of health; but replied to one of them, who remarked her having risen earlier than usual, that she could not sleep. She was next seen by the servants at a quarter before nine, sitting at breakfast with Mr. Angus, but apparently very ill; after breakfast she was lying on a sofa complaining of a pain in her bowels, but she was not then sick. On moving about afterwards, she held by the chair, as if from pain, and about an hour and a half after breakfast, she ordered some water gruel, of which she drank nearly three quarts in the course of the day, being very On Thursday morning, at six o’clock, she was lying, as she had been left the night before, on the sofa, with pillows under her head; she complained that she was very thirsty; said she was tired of gruel, and had some water posset, and a little warm beer. She also complained that she was badly hurt to make water; but was relieved by sitting on a sliced onion, with some boiling water poured over it. Her vomiting was now of a blacker colour, and she continued sick and vomiting all day, till towards evening, when the sickness went off, and she appeared better, and could stir more about. On Friday morning, at four o’clock, the house-maid went into the room, and thought her much worse, as she breathed quicker than before. She was seen again at six in much the same state, and lying in the same posture on the sofa; she asked for some warm beer, which settled on her stomach, and she also took about a pint of gruel; she said that the pain had left her. Her vomiting had ceased, but was succeeded by a “lax,” which continued all the morning. A little before ten, the house-maid was sent out for some Madeira, Miss Burns having expressed a wish for some. Between the hours of ten and eleven, the kitchen maid was in the room, and received orders about dinner; and Miss Burns said she would have some barley water. On the return of the house-maid, about eleven, she went straight into the parlour, where Miss Burns was found lying dead in the corner, by the door, with her face against the wall, “cowered of a lump,” her elbows upon her knees, and one foot “crudled” under her; Mr. Angus, who had nursed her throughout, sitting in an arm chair, apparently so fast asleep that he was not roused without difficulty. During the whole course of her illness, she did not go to bed, but remained in the parlour, generally lying on a sofa. She refused to have medical assistance; but Mr. Angus said that he had given her seven drops of laudanum on one night, and ten on another, and that on the morning of her death he had given her some castor oil, in spirit, but that it came up immediately. REPORT OF THE DISSECTION. On Sunday the 27th of March, 1808, at noon, Dr. Rutter was desired by the Coroner of Liverpool to take with him an experienced surgeon to the house of Mr. Charles Angus, and there to examine the body of a young lady who had died suddenly. The examination was made at two o’clock the same day, by Mr. Hay, a surgeon in Liverpool, with his apprentice, in company with Dr. Rutter and Dr. Gerard; and the following report on the subject was presented to the coroner in writing. “On our arrival at the house, we were introduced into a parlour, where we found Mr. Angus, with some other persons to us unknown; and we delivered to him the note from the coroner as the authority under which we acted. Upon perusing it, he expressed perfect willingness that the examination should be made. We were then introduced into the room up stairs, were the body of the deceased was laid. After having removed the body, a small stain of blood was observed on the sheet of the bed on which it had laid; and the pillow was stained with a fluid which had issued from the head. The body being laid on a table, a large quantity of a thin yellowish fluid poured out from the nostrils, and was collected in vessels. No marks of external violence were discovered on the body; nor was there any appearance of commencing putrefaction. The nails of the fingers were of a bluish colour; and the veins on the external surface of the abdomen or belly appeared to be much enlarged. At this period we were joined by Mr. Christian, surgeon. On opening the abdomen, a considerable quantity of fluid was found to have been effused into that cavity, similar in colour and smell to that which issued from the nostrils, but more turbid. Marks of inflammation were found on the external or peritoneal coat of different portions of the small intestines; but the large intestines were free from it. The external coat of a part of the smaller curvature of the stomach was also inflamed; and a similar appearance of inflammation was observed on a small portion of the anterior edge of the liver, directly over the smaller curvature of the stomach. On raising up the stomach, an opening through its coats was found in the anterior and inferior part of its great curvature; and from this opening a considerable quantity of a thick fluid of a dark olive colour issued; of which fluid some ounces were collected and preserved. The natural structure of the coats of the stomach for a considerable space around this opening was destroyed; and they were so soft, pulpy, and tender, that they “On examining the womb, it was found to be very considerably enlarged, and, on its inner surface, the part to which the Placenta, or after-birth, had adhered, was very plainly discernible. This part was nearly circular, and occupied a space of about four inches in diameter. The mouth of the womb was greatly dilated. In a word, the appearances of the womb were such as might have been expected a few hours after the birth of a child nearly full grown. “The fluid taken out of the stomach and intestines, and cavity of the Abdomen, as well as that collected from the nostrils, was taken away: and, afterwards, in the course of the same day, examined, and subjected to various trials, with a view to discover the presence of such mineral substances as were likely to produce appearances or effects similar to those which were found in the stomach of the deceased. In this examination, we thought it right to request the assistance of Dr. Bostock. The contents of the stomach were, as has already been mentioned, of a dirty olive colour, thick, and of an acid smell. A considerable number of large globules of a dark coloured, dense, oily fluid, floated upon them; but no particular smell that we could discover. We could not discover, in the contents of the stomach, by the smell, the presence of any known vegetable substance, capable of producing deleterious effects when introduced into it. The fluid contained in the stomach deposited no sediment; nor was any but a mucous sediment found in the water with which the inner surface of the stomach was washed. Upon subjecting the contents of the stomach, in the state in which we found them, to such tests as are deemed sufficient to detect the presence of any active preparation of Mercury or Arsenic, we could not detect either of these substances. The contents of the stomach were then filtered, and subjected to the same trials, but with the same result. These trials were made at Dr. Bostock’s, in the presence of Dr. Gerard and Dr. Rutter.” The substance of this report was afterwards delivered, in evidence, on the trial; and the following additional circumstances stated. “The preternatural opening in the stomach was larger than a crown piece; but Mr. Hay thinks he may have increased it in drawing down the stomach, as it was nearly in the centre of the disorganized portion, where the coats were thin, soft, and semi-transparent. The stomach was nearly full of the fluid described, but not distended. The intestines also contained a great deal of a similar fluid; and the internal villous coat of the duodenum was slightly inflamed, while its external coat was also more inflamed than that of the other intestines.” In consequence of the suspicious circumstances attending the death of Miss Burns, Charles Angus was indicted for her murder; but, after a trial which occupied the court from eight o’clock on Friday morning, until three on Saturday, the 2d of September, 1808, the prisoner was acquitted. The medical defence, conducted by Dr. Carson, and which savoured more of the ingenuity of the forensic pleader, than the justice of the honest inquirer after truth, rested upon the following grounds, viz. 1. The appearances of the stomach upon dissection are to be reconciled upon the supposition of the dissolution of its coats having taken place, after death, in consequence of the action of the gastric fluid. 2. The symptoms which preceded death were not such as accompany corrosive poisoning. 3. No poisonous substance was detected in the body. 4. The appearance of the uterus does not justify the conclusion that a delivery had recently taken place; such a dilated state of the organ, had it lately parted with a placenta, must have occasioned death by hemorrhage, or it must have been found gorged with coagulated blood. 5. The appearances may be reconciled by supposing that an expulsion of hydatids had taken place. We must not omit to state, that in consequence of the intense interest excited by this trial, the ovaria were subsequently examined, when a corpus luteum was discovered. We cannot conclude this account without expressing a regret that several important sources of information should have been neglected. The omitting to inspect the appendages of the uterus, to examine the oesophagus, the chest, and the head, and to analyse the membranes of the stomach, are instances of inattention, for which it is not easy to find an excuse. May they furnish a salutary lesson for future anatomists. 192. Med. Leg. vol. ii, p. 315. 193. This appearance is particularly mentioned by Juvenal as an effect of poison. “Per famam et populum nigros efferre maritos.”—Sat. i, v. 72. The reader will remember, that we have already stated our opinion, that the poisons of the ancients were of a vegetable origin. 194. Dissertatio Inauguralis de effectibus Arsenici in varios Organismos, nec non de Indicus quibusdam Veneficii ab Arsenicoillati. Quam prÆside C. F. Kielmayer publicÉ defendet, Jan. 1808, Auctor Georg: Fred: JÄeger, Stuttgardianus. A very full analysis of this Essay was published by Dr. Siegwart in Gehlen’s Chemical and Physical Journal; and which afterwards found its way into the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, no. xxv, Jan. 1811. 195. Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, no. XX. 196. Epist. lix, 3. 197. Patrick Ogilvy and Catharine Nairne were indicted for incest, and the murder, by Arsenic, of Thomas Ogilvy, brother of the said Patrick, and husband of the said Nairne. This celebrated Scotch trial commenced at Edinburgh, on Monday the 12th of August at seven in the morning, and the court continued setting until about two on Tuesday morning, when the Jury being inclosed, it adjourned until Wednesday at four o’clock in the afternoon. They were both found guilty. After several respites Ogilvy was executed. Nairne escaped from prison, and was never afterwards heard of. 198. Camp: Elys: 199. Edinb. Med. and Surg. Journ. no. xvii. 200. Ibid. no. xxvi. 201. Ibid. no. lxxi, for April, 1822. 202. Mr. Marshall, in his account of the symptoms of Mr. Robert Turner, who was poisoned by Eliza Fenning, states, “On examination I discovered a very remarkable irregularity of surface, occasioned by the spasmodic contractions of the muscles of the abdomen, and even of the viscera; this unevenness extended from the epigastric region to the pubes, and to the right and left hypochondrium.” 203. Nothing can be more strikingly illustrative of the characteristic appearances which distinguish the effects of violence during life, from those which result from putrefaction as described at page 181. 204. The author refers the reader to the first volume of his Pharmacologia, page 124, note. In addition to what he has there observed it may be stated, that many fallacies have arisen in pharmacology, from deducing conclusions respecting the effects of remedies upon inferior animals. One example will suffice.—Several substances have gained the reputation of Styptics, from the effects which have followed their application to the wounded and bleeding vessels in the extremities of the horse and ass; whereas the fact is that the blood-vessels of these animals possess a power of contraction which does not exist in those of man, and to which the cessation of the hemorrhage, fallaciously attributed to the styptic, is to be wholly attributed. 205. See Appendix, page 272. 206. Toxocologie GÉnÉrale considÉrÉe, sous les Rapports de la Physiologie, de la Pathologie, et de la Medicine lÉgale. Paris, 1815. This work has been faithfully translated into English by John Walker, in two volumes. London, 1817. 207. De Sed. et Caus. Morb. per Anat. indag. Epist. 59, 18. 208. See the interesting trial of Michael Whiting, for administering poison to George and Joseph Langman, of Downham, in the Isle of Ely, at the Assizes holden at Ely on Wednesday, March 4th, 1822, before Edward Christian, Esq. Chief Justice of the Isle. The prisoner was convicted and executed. 209. M. R. S. T. iv, P. iii, p. 278. 210. “Nous adoptons la division suivante, en six classes, de tous les poisons connus, et de toutes les maniÈres possibles par lesquelles les substances vÉnÉneuses peuvent nuire au corps humain: Poisons Septiques—Poisons Stupefians, ou Narcotiques—Poisons Narcotico-Acres—Poisons Acres, ou Rubefians—Poisons Corrosifs, ou Escarotiques—Poisons Astringens.” 211. Belloc surmises that where acrid poisons have been administered, narcotics may have been taken to relieve pain; and thus that a sort of combination of the symptoms of both classes may be produced. 212. Pharmacologia. Edit. 5th, vol. i, page 225, c. Antidotes. 213. Journal de Physiologie Experimentale, (1er numero Janvier 1821.) 214. The adoption of this term led to a very extraordinary error in medicine—the application of Arsenic in the form of vapour, together with the fumes of frankincense, myrrh, and other gums, in a paroxysm of Asthma! This frightful practice arose from confounding the gum Juniper, or Vernix of the Arabians, which by their medical writers was prescribed in fumigations, under the name of Sandarach, for the Sa?da?a?? of the Greeks. 215. Orfila. Toxicolog. General. 216. Pharmacologia, edit. v, vol. 2, art. Arsenici Oxydum. 217. A very large quantity is annually prepared from the sublimate which collects in the chimneys and flues of the smelting works and burning houses in Cornwall. We have examined samples prepared according to the improved process of Dr. Edwards, and found them to be perfectly free from foreign admixture: a fact of much greater importance than the reader may at first imagine. Those who require farther information upon this subject may consult a paper in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, by J. H. Vivian, Esq. entitled “Observations on the processes for making the different preparations of Arsenic, which are practised in Saxony.” 218. Bergman ii, 286. We are, however, upon the authority of Mr. Richard Phillips, inclined to consider this statement of its specific gravity incorrect. He found that when transparent it did not exceed 3·715, and, when opaque, 3·260. 219. Vol. ii, p. 86. 220. The chemist may satisfy himself of this fact by heating some arsenious acid on a piece of platina foil, and then alternately raising and depressing it into the blue flame of the spirit, when corresponding changes in odour will take place in the fumes. 222. See Mr. Marshall’s Remarks, &c. 223. See the case reported by Dr. Yelloly, in the 5th volume of the Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal. 224. Epist. 168. 225. De Pest. Hist. 99. Annot. 226. De Peste Lond. p. 239. 227. Recueil Periodique de la SocietÉ de Med. de Paris, tom. vi. p. 22. 228. Nouveaux Elemens de Med. operat. par J. P. Roux. 229. Nouvelles Experiences sur les Contre-Poisons de l’Arsenic. Par Casimir Renault. A. Paris. A. 9, pp. 119. 230. A belief in this mode of poisoning appears to be of very ancient origin. Calpurnius Bestia was said by Pliny (Hist. Nat. Lib. 27. Cap. 2.) to have been particularly skilled in such a process, and to have murdered many of his wives when asleep, by bathing the parts of generation with the juice of Aconite; and Dr. Gordon Smith, in his work on Forensic Medicine, relates, on the authority of Schenckius, the tragical death of Ladislas, or Lancelot, surnamed the Victorious and the Liberal, who succeeded to the contested throne of Naples in 1386, and died at the age of thirty-eight in great pain, in consequence of having been poisoned by the daughter of a physician, of whom he was passionately fond, per concubitum. Sir Thomas Brown, in his Vulgar Errors, alludes to an ancient story of an “Indian king that sent unto Alexander a fair woman, fed with Aconites, and other poisons, with the intent that she either by converse or copulation might destroy him.” 232. Philosophical Transactions. 1811. 233. M. Orfila observes that there are many cases of poisoning by arsenious acid introduced into the stomach, in which we are unable to discover the slightest appearance of erosion or inflammation in the alimentary canal; such cases are recorded by Chaussier, Etmuller, Marc, Sallin, and Renault. 234. We well remember performing some experiments at Cambridge, many years ago, upon mildew, which as far as they went corroborate this assertion of Jaegar, for its propagation was not prevented by arsenic. See also “The effects of Arsenical fumes,” vol. I, p. 332. 235. See Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journ. for January 1, 1811. 236. Elements of Juridical Medicine, p. 76. 237. Prestwich on Poisons. 238. Pharmacologia, Edit. 5. vol. ii. p. 89. 239. Medical Transactions, vol. vi, p. 414. 240. See Appendix, page 277. 241. This substance may be said to consist of Charcoal, in a state of extremely minute division, and the sub-carbonate of Potass. It is prepared by deflagrating, in a crucible, two parts of Super-tartrate of Potass with one part of Nitrate of Potass. 242. In order to close the end of the tube, where a blow-pipe is not to be procured, (which, says Dr. Bostock, we may suppose upon these occasions will often be the case) the end is to be placed in a common fire until it is completely softened, and a pair of small tongs being at the same time made red hot, the tube is to be withdrawn from the fire, and the heated end pinched by the tongs, and at the same time bent up at an acute angle, so as to be brought parallel to the body of the tube. The tube is then to be heated a second time, and being again firmly pinched by the hot tongs, the end will be found to be completely impervious. 243. Dr. Bostock states that the best proportions for this coating are, one part of common pipe clay, to three parts of fine sand; which are to be well kneeded together, and reduced to such a state of tenacity, that the lute will readily adhere to the tube, and its different parts unite without forming a visible seam. “Observations on the different methods recommended for detecting minute portions of Arsenic, by J. Bostock, M.D.” Read before the Liverpool Medical Society, and published in the Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journ. April, 1809. 244. See the paper above quoted. 245. Black’s Lectures, v. ii, p. 430. 246. FoderÉ recommends this process, TraitÉ de Med. Leg. t. iv, p. 153; and Dr. Jaeger, in his Thesis, before quoted, observes that he has been enabled to recognise the tenth of a grain of arsenious acid, although mixed with sugar, by its odour, when thrown upon burning coals! We must be allowed to question this fact; Dr. Jaeger, no doubt, believed that he recognised the alliaceous odour, but it must have been the sole effect of the imagination. Dr. Bostock states that such a test is not to be depended upon; for, unless the arsenic be in considerable quantity, the odour is not sufficiently perceptible; and if it be mixed with either an animal or a vegetable substance, the smoke and smell arising from these bodies, when heated, will altogether prevent our recognising the peculiar odour of the arsenic. When a quantity of arsenic is mixed with an equal weight of flour, and placed upon iron at a low red heat, so as not to cause the flour to inflame, the suffocating smoke that arises from the latter can be alone perceived; nor is it possible to discover that any thing has been mixed with it. Edinb. Med. Journ. l. c. This last objection of Dr. Bostock is true in fact, although it admits of a different explanation, for at a low temperature the arsenious acid will be volatilized without decomposition; in which case no alliaceous odour can be developed. 247. The paper was read before the Liverpool Medical Society. 248. London Dispensatory. Edit. 3, p. 176. 249. See a letter from Mr. Hume on the subject, to the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. July, 1810. 250. On the detection of very minute quantities of Arsenic and Mercury. By James Smithson, Esq. F.R.S. Annals of Philosophy, August, 1822. 251. If any trifling opacity occur in a simple solution of arsenic, when assayed by the nitrate of silver, it may be considered as the effects of some casual impurity; this may be farther demonstrated by bringing over the surface of the arsenical liquid, a piece of blotting paper, or a stopper moistened with a solution of ammonia, when there will instantly form a copious yellow precipitate of arsenite of silver. If this experiment be performed by spreading the mixed solutions of arsenious acid and nitrate of silver over a surface of glass, laid upon white paper, the result will be most striking and beautiful, for on slowly bringing the ammoniacal test over it, the yellow cloud will gradually diffuse itself over the surface. 252. Pharmacologia. Edit. 5, vol. ii, p. 96. 253. London Medical and Physical Journal, January, 1818. 254. The following is the formula for its preparation. Dissolve ten grains of lunar caustic, in ten times its weight of distilled water; to this add, guttatim, liquid ammonia, until a precipitate is formed; continue cautiously to add the ammonia, repeatedly agitating the mixture until the precipitate is nearly redissolved. The object of allowing a small portion to remain undissolved is, to guard against an excess of ammonia. Wherever the test is used, the liquid to which it is added ought to be quite cold. 255. This is very important, for an excess of ammonia redissolves the yellow precipitate, and therefore defeats the object of the test. The fixed alkalies, in excess, have not such a property. 256. The great impression made upon the public mind in Cornwall by the above trial, produced a disposition to regard every sudden death with more than usual jealousy. In consequence, therefore, of a report having arisen that a young woman had died after an illness of forty-eight hours, and been hastily buried at Madron, near Penzance, the magistrates of that district issued their warrant for the disinterment of the body, and requested the author’s attendance at the examination. The dissection was accordingly conducted in the church, when it appeared that the immediate cause of death had been an inflammation of the intestines; the stomach was found to contain a considerable portion of liquid, which was carefully collected and examined; no solid matter could be A few drops of a solution of sub-carbonate of potass were added to the liquid, in one of the glasses, when its colour, which was originally of a light hazel, was instantly deepened into a reddish yellow; the sulphate of copper was then applied, when a precipitate fell down, which every one present simultaneously pronounced to be of a “vivid grass green” hue; but, on pouring off the supernatant liquid, and transferring the precipitate upon a sheet of white paper, it assumed the blue colour which is so characteristic of the carbonate of copper. The explanation of the phenomenon, and the fallacy to which it gave rise, became obvious; the yellow colour imparted to the liquid by the alkali, was the effect of the latter body upon the vegetable extractive matter of the infusion. The other portions were then strictly examined, but no indications of arsenic or any other metallic poison were discovered. 257. This explanation applies equally to the objection lately advanced by Dr. Porter, of the University of South Carolina, who, in his observations on the tests of arsenic, remarks, that an appearance similar to “Scheele’s Green,” is produced by the carbonate of potass, when added to a solution of the sulphate of copper in coffee, but without arsenic, more striking than if even a weak solution of arsenic were used. Silliman’s Journal, iii. 865. Fodere reports a case, in which an erroneous conclusion respecting the presence of arsenic was drawn, evidently owing to the same source of fallacy. The Society of Medicine at Marseilles, in consequence of a girl having been poisoned by a quack medicine, appointed a scientific person to examine the composition of the Nostrum; this person, strongly prepossessed with the opinion that it contained arsenic, applied the copper test above described, and having obtained by means of it, a green precipitate, reported, without any further inquiry, that the medicine in question was an arsenical solution. FoderÉ, however, suspected the correctness of the conclusion, in consequence of the residue not yielding by combustion, any alliaceous odour; a new analysis was therefore made, which proved the nostrum to be nothing more than a very strong alcoholic tincture of colocynth. MÉdecine LÉgale, tom. iv. p. 137. 258. It is hardly necessary to observe that neither the carbonate of ammonia or of potass, or sulphuric or muriatic acid, produce any effect whatever in a pure solution of white arsenic. 259. Corrosive sublimate, however, produces both these effects, from causes which we have fully explained under the consideration of that poison. 260. Toxicologie GÉnÉrale, supra citat. 261. See LeÇons de MÉdecine LÉgale, a Paris, 1821. “Experiences chimiques propres À decouvrir les poisons minÉraux qui ont ÉtÉ mÊlÉs avec du thÉ, du cafÉ, du vin, ete.” Trente-unieme LeÇon. p. 415. 262. Chirurg. Med. p. 185. 263. The arsenite of potass, which has been long known under the name of the “arsenical salt of Macquer” has been used in medicine, and the Dublin Pharmacopoeia contains a process for the preparation of “arsenias kali.” 264. Nouvelles Experiences, &c., op. sup. cit. 265. Opera Omnia de Venenis, 1761. 266. ?d?a?????? of the Greeks from its fluidity and colour. Quicksilver. Quick, in the old Saxon tongue signified living: an epithet derived from its mobility. 267. Cavendish. 268. Hassenfratz Ann. de Chim. xxviii, 12. 269. Hence it was called by the alchymists the Dragon. 270. Mead on Poisons, edit. 4, p. 196. 271. Second edition, p. 89. 272. For the report of the above satisfactory case we are indebted to Dr. Gordon Smith, who has related it in his work on Forensic Medicine, p. 114. 273. Edit. 5, vol. 1, p. 260. 274. “Further experiments and observations on the action of Poisons on the animal system.” Phil. Trans. 1812. 275. For a history of the different quack medicines which contain mercury, see Pharmacologia, vol. ii, p. 239. 276. Opera Medica. Epist. i, p. 200. 277. Contre-poisons de l’Arsenic, du sublimÉ corrosif, &c. 278. Proposed by M. Duval, “Dissertation sur la Toxicologie.” 279. M. Chausarel. “Observations sur diverses substances VÉnÉneuses,” p. 47. 280. We find in an ancient epigram of Ausonius, that a woman gave to her husband some metallic mercury, with the design of increasing the energy of a certain poison, which she administered to him. But instead of producing this effect, the mercury, on the contrary, entirely re-established the health of the person poisoned. The celebrated Goethe upon asking the Professor Doebereiner of Jena, his opinion upon the above case, received in reply, that the poison must have been corrosive sublimate, since, of all the known poisons, it was the only one whose power was weakened by mercury. This story induced Orfila to ascertain the truth by experiment, and he has shewn THAT METALLIC MERCURY IS NOT AN ANTIDOTE TO CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. 281. Mr. Hart. “What did you do with the flour and pork? C. Carter. I made it into four dumplings, two with pork, and two without, and tied the two largest, with pork in them, up in bags. ---- With what did you mix the flour? ---- With milk. ---- When you were making these dumplings, did you observe any thing? ---- They made different to any thing which I had ever made before. ---- Explain that difference? ---- They broke and crumbled all into little bits. I had to knock them in a stant like when we make butter. They would not hold together. ---- Had you more or less difficulty than usual? ---- More trouble than I ever had before.” Extract from the trial. 282. We have been informed that, by this simple and beautiful test, Mr. Archdeacon Wollaston identified the presence of corrosive sublimate in the dumplings by which Michael Whiting attempted to poison his brothers-in-law, at Ely, as stated in the preceding page, as well as at 197. Although in the report of the trial in our possession, the professor does not appear to have furnished the court with any account of the process by which he discovered the poison. 283. Trial of Mary Bateman for the wilful murder of Rebecca Perigo, at the York Assizes, 1809. As we have on several occasions alluded to this trial, it may perhaps be satisfactory to give a short sketch of the case in this place. This diabolical woman, under the pretext of possessing the art of witchcraft, committed numerous frauds, and worked with so much success upon the credulity of her victims, as to obtain considerable sums of money, and reduce them to the extremes of poverty; while, in order to conceal the frauds, she consigned whole families to the grave by her poisons. Her detection was brought about by the robbery of a family of the name of Perigo, from whom she obtained the sum of seventy pounds, besides cloathes and furniture, under the pretence of engaging a Miss Blythe to relieve Perigo’s wife from the effects of an “evil wish,” under which she was supposed to labour; when the appointed time arrived for the restoration of the property, and the promised cure of the wife, Mary Bateman sent a powder (Arsenic) which she directed them to add to their pudding, and advised them, should they be ill after eating it, to take a spoonful of prepared honey with which she supplied them. The wife ate the pudding, and soon afterwards died; the husband, however, very narrowly escaped: for this murder she was tried and convicted; and thus was a system of robbery and murder, scarcely equalled in the annals of crime, happily exposed and ended. 284. In the Philosophical Magazine for December, 1821, a communication is to be found from a Mr. Murray, which would have been too ridiculous to require notice, had it not involved a question connected with the habitudes of corrosive sublimate and iron, which might possibly occasion error. After stating that certain metallic solutions may be decomposed through the agency of magnetism, he says, a solution of corrosive sublimate may be thus made to yield metallic mercury, by introducing into it a bar of magnetised iron! He had not the wit to inquire whether unmagnetised iron might not prove equally powerful as a decomposing agent. 285. Orfila, l. c. 286. Orfila, l. c. 287. Edinburgh Med. & Surg. Journal, v. 288. Ann. de Chimie et Phys. iv. 334. 289. Tartarized Antimony, administered as an emetic, may decompose the salt in the stomach. 290. Consultation Medico-legale sur une Accusation de l’empoisonnement par le Muriate de Mercure sur-oxydÉ. p. 146. 291. L. C. 292. The above passage is quoted from Waller’s translation of Orfila’s Treatise on Poisons, vol. i, p. 73. 293. Comment: Med. in Processus Criminales. 294. Principles of Forensic Medicine, p. 113. 295. Accum on culinary poisons, or “Death in the Pot.” As this is the last occasion which we shall have to mention the above work, we may observe by the way, that this ad captandum title is not original with Mr. Accum, for there is a dissertation by Mauchart, entitled “Mors in Olla.” 296. Many of the preparations lately presented by Dr. Baillie to the College of Physicians have become black, in consequence of the vermilion, with which they are injected, having been adulterated with red lead. 297. Upon this subject, the reader may consult the Historical Introduction to the Pharmacologia, page 87. 298. Annal. de Chem. xxxii. 255. 299. We have upon this, as well as on similar occasions, preferred adopting the name by which the substance is known in common parlance, to that which might more strictly accord with our scientific views of its composition. 300. Pharmacologia, Edit. v. vol. 2. p. 65. 301. F. Hoffmanni Op. om. T. 1. par. ii. c. v. p. 219. 302. This subject is treated very copiously in the first volume of the Pharmacologia, page 152. To this work the author must refer the reader, for the limits of the present volume will not allow more than a mere enunciation of the fact. 303. Elements of Juridical Medicine, edit. 2, p. 96. 304. “Further experiments and observations on the Action of Poisons on the Animal system, by B. C. Brodie, Esq. F. R. S. Communicated to the Society for the improvement of Animal Chemistry, and by them to the Royal Society.” Phil. Trans. for 1812, vol. 102, p. 205. 305. To those who are curious upon this subject, we recommend the perusal of an interesting essay, entitled “Observations on the Tin trade of the Ancients in Cornwall, and on the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus,” by Sir Christopher Hawkins, Bart. F.R.S. &c. 306. See page 144 of this volume; and article Cupri Sulphas in Pharmacologia, vol. 2, p. 167, note. 307. We have long considered that the process of salting meat is something more than the mere saturation of the animal fibre with muriate of soda; some unknown combinations and decompositions take place, which future experiment will probably discover. 308. Water may thus be preserved in copper cisterns, without contracting any metallic impregnation, even should the surface of the cistern be coated with the oxide and carbonate of copper. 309. Dr. Johnson, in his Essay on Poison, relates the history of three men being poisoned, after excruciating sufferings, in consequence of eating food cooked in an unclean copper vessel, on board the Cyclops frigate; and, besides these, thirty-three men became ill from the same cause. 310. See the Ladies Library, vol. ii, p. 203; Modern Cookery, or the English Housewife, edit, 2, p. 94; and the English Housekeeper, p. 352, 354. 311. This practice is of ancient origin, thus Pliny “Stannum, illinitum Æneis vasis, saporem gratiorem facit, et compescit Æruginis virus.” Lib. xxxiv, cap. 17. 312. Orfila, l. c. 313. Recherches Chimiques sur l’Etain par Bayen et Charlard, 1781. 314. Annales de Chimie. 315. See Thomson’s System of Chemistry. 316. Plinii Lib. xxxiv. cap. 2, 10. 317. We extract the notice of this case from Dr. Gordon Smith’s work, not having a copy of Metzger’s Principles of Judiciary Medicine at hand. 318. Orfila, l. c. 319. Pharmacologia, vol. ii. art. Argenti Nitras. 320. Boerhaave relates the instance of a student in pharmacy having swallowed some lunar caustic, in consequence of which the most serious symptoms resulted, such as excruciating pains, gangrene, and sphacelus of the primÆ viÆ. Metzger also mentions a case, where a piece of lunar caustic was accidentally dropped into the throat of a person while applying it to an ulcer, but that the patient was saved by drinking copious draughts of milk. 321. In the neutralization of acid poisons in the stomach, it is a great object to avoid carbonated alkalies and earths, on account of the large volume of carbonic acid, thus given off, proving highly distressing. 322. Pharmacologia, vol. ii, art. Acid Nitric. 323. TraitÉ de l’Empoisonment par l’Acide Nitrique; par A. E. Tartra, MÉdecin. À Paris 1802. 324. Some experiments and researches on the saline contents of sea-water, undertaken with a view to correct and improve its chemical analysis. By A. Marcet, M.D. F.R.S. in the Phil. Trans. for the year 1822. part 2. 325. It is known in commerce by this name, since it is prepared on a large scale, by distilling sugar with nitric acid. It derives the term oxalic acid, from the plant which so abundantly contains it, viz. oxalis acetosella, or wood sorrel. 326. Essential Salt of Lemons. “The preparation sold under this name, for the purpose of removing iron moulds from linen, consists of cream of tartar, and super-oxalate of potass, or salt of sorrel, in equal proportions.” Pharmacologia. 327. The parents of this child suppose that the violence of the screaming ruptured the vesicles by which the breathing was impeded, and thus proved an unexpected means of cure. 328. See “An account of the case of a man who died of the effects of the fire at Eddystone Light-house,” by Mr. Edward Spry, Surgeon, at Plymouth. Phil. Trans. vol. xlix, part 2, p. 477, A. D. 1756. 329. There are some exceptions to this law; for instance, the tincture of litmus, and litmus paper, are always rendered more intensely blue, by the addition of alkalies. There are also other bodies, besides alkalies, which change the yellow colour of turmeric to a brown. Upon this subject see an interesting paper in the 26th number of the Journal of Science and the Arts, p. 315, by Mr. Faraday, entitled “On the changing of vegetable colours as an alkaline property, and on some bodies possessing it.” By this communication we are informed that even the strong acids redden turmeric paper, and that a very weak nitric acid gives it a tint exactly like that produced by an alkali. Different metallic salts are characterised by similar effects. 330. A new alkali has been lately discovered in a mineral called Petalite, by M. Arfwedson, a young Sweedish chemist, but as the extreme rarity of the substance will prevent its ever becoming an object of forensic interest, we shall pass it over without further notice. Some new alkaline principles have also been developed by the French and German chemists, in the analysis of certain vegetables, but as these bodies have a physiological action, which is wholly independent of their alkalinity, they will be more properly noticed under the history of the vegetables which contain them. 331. Should the solution contain a small portion of lime, as may occasionly happen, the cloud will be very slight, and cannot give origin to any important fallacy. 332. Orfila, vol. i, p. 404. 333. Essay on Poisons, page 143. 334. Orfila, Lib. Cit. 335. Brodie, Phil. trans. 1812. 336. This is an important characteristic, since all the metallic poisons yield an abundant precipitate, either black, yellow, or red, on the addition of one or other of the alkaline hydro-sulphurets. 337. “Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum,” tom. 2, p. 220. The London College in their present pharmacopoeia refer this insect to the genus Lytta, an error which will be corrected in the future edition. 338. System of Chemistry, edit. 5, vol. iv. p. 436. See also Ann. de Chim. lxxvi. p. 308. 340. Homberg, Mem. Par, 1692. 341. Ann. de Chim. xxvii, 87. 342. The earliest account we have of this substance having been used in medicine is to be found in the seventh volume of Haller’s collection of Theses, relating to the history and cure of diseases. The original dissertation is entitled “De Phosphori loco Medicamenti adsumpti virtute medica, aliquot casibus singularibus confirmata,” Auctore J. Gabi, Mentz. 343. Memoirs of the Society of Emulation at Paris. 344. See Nicholson’s Journal iii, 85. 345. For July, 1813. 346. Numb. xxxi, 22. 347. System of Chemistry, 4th edit. 1, 274-277. 348. De Architectura, lib. viii, c. 7. 349. Researches into the Properties of Spring water, with Medical cautions against the use of Lead, by W. Lambe, M.D. &c. 350. A case is recorded, wherein a legal controversy took place, in order to settle the disputes between the proprietors of an estate and a plumber, originating from a similar cause—the plumber being accused of having furnished a faulty reservoir; whereas the case was proved to be owing to the chemical action of the water on the lead. Dr. Lambe states an instance where the proprietor of a well, ordered his plumber to make the lead of a pump of double the thickness of the metal usually employed for pumps, to save the charge of repairs; because he had observed that the water was so hard, as he called it, that it corroded the lead very soon. 351. Van Swieten ad Boerhaave Aphorism. 1060 Comment. 352. Libro supra citato, p. 24. 353. Duncan’s Med. Comment. Dec. 2, 1794. 354. See the papers by Sir George Baker, in the first volume of the Medical Transactions of the College of Physicians, viz. “An Inquiry concerning the Cause of the Endemial Colic of Devonshire,” p. 175. “An Examination of several means by which the Poison of Lead may be supposed frequently to gain admittance into the human body, unobserved, and unsuspected,” p. 257. “An attempt towards an historical account of that species of Spasmodic Colic, distinguished by the name of the Colic of Poitou,” p. 139. 355. See a work by Dr. William Musgrave, which contains the earliest account of the Devonshire colic, entitled “Dissertatio de Arthritide symptomatica,” 1703; and also Dr. Huxham’s work on the “Morbus Colicus Damnoniorum.” 356. Annales de Chimie, vol. 1, p. 76. 357. See Fourcroy, Memoire sur la nature du Vin lithargyrÉ, in the “Histoire de l’Academie Royale,” for 1817. 358. Sir George Baker considered that the dry belly ache, which is common to the drinkers of new rum, in the West Indies, ought to be wholly referred to its contamination with lead. 359. The art of glazing earthenware with lead is of modern invention; that part of the old earthenware, preserved in the British museum, which is supposed to have been of Roman manufacture, is not glazed. The vessels, which are called Etruscan, and which are supposed to be of greater antiquity than the Roman, have indeed a paint or polish on their surfaces; but that does not appear to resemble our modern saturnine vitrification. 360. The workmen who are employed at the glazing tub are subject to colics and paralysis. 361. The frequency with which the inhabitants of Madrid, and of a great part of New Castille in Spain, were harrassed with colic, as recorded by M. Thierry, received a satisfactory explanation from the fact of glazed earthenware having been universally used in that country for culinary vessels. Sir G. Baker in a paper entitled “Further Observations on the Poisons of Lead,” Med. Trans. vol. 2, p. 419, mentions the practice of drinking cyder out of glazed earthen vessels as dangerous. Dr. Watson, junior, saw several instances of the Devonshire colic, during the time of harvest, apparently from this cause. And a similar instance fell under the notice of Dr. Charleston, where six persons became, at one time, paralytic, by drinking cyder, brought to them while at harvest work, in a new earthen pitcher, the inside of which was glazed. That the glazing was dissolved by the liquor appeared not only by the effects which it produced, but from its having given, as these persons informed Dr. Charleston, that astringent sweetish taste to the liquor, by which the solutions of this metal are so peculiarly distinguished. 362. As it is very desirable to exclude the use of lead altogether, the Society for the promotion of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, has offered a premium for a substitute for this metallic glaze. For an account of several new glazes, as substitutes for lead, see Parkes’s Chemical Essays, vol. iii, p. 193-576. 363. Darwin’s Zoonomia, vol. 3, cl. 1, 2, 4, 8. 364. Chemical Essays, vol. v, p. 193. 365. Philosophical Magazine, 1819, no. 257, p. 229. 366. The use of the arsenic is to render the lead more brittle, and to dispose it to run into spherical drops. 367. Francis Citois, the historian of this celebrated epidemic, published his “Diatriba de novo et populari apud Pictones, dolore colico bilioso,” A.D. 1617. In which he states that the “dolor colicus Pictonicus” was a new epidemic in the province of Poitou, about the year 1572; and after having prevailed in that province about 60 or 70 years, it became milder, less untractable, and by degrees was translated to other parts of France. The supposition, however, says Sir George Baker, that the colic of Poitou was a new disease, about the time when Citois lived, is not true; the disease was even mentioned by our countryman John of Gaddesden, who appears to have written his Rosa Anglica early in the fourteenth century. If we consult authors posterior to Citois, we find this species of colic mentioned in almost every practical book. We have an account in Sennertus of its having prevailed epidemically, all over Silesia, in the year 1621. Baglivi even affirms that “nihil facilius colicÆ supervenit, quam paralysis.” None of these authors, however, appear to have entertained the slightest suspicion of the true source of the malady. 368. Ephemerides GermanicÆ, Ann. 4.—Observ. 60 by Cockelius.—Obs. 92 by Brunnerus.—Obs. 100 by Wicarius. 369. Chemical Essays, vol. 3, page 369, edit. 3. 370. Exam. Chy. de Differ. Subs. par M. Sage, p. 157. 371. Medical Transactions of the College of Physicians, vol. ii, p. 86. 372. The art of making wines, from fruits, flowers, and herbs; all the native growth of Great Britain, by William Graham, late of Ware in Hertfordshire. 373. See “Some experiments made upon Rum, in order to ascertain the cause of the colic, frequent among the Soldiers in the island of Jamaica, in the years 1781, and 1782”; by John Hunter, M.D. In the Medical Transactions, vol. 3, p. 227. 374. Annales de Chimie, tom. lvii, p. 84. Memoire de M. Proust. 375. Cerusse was in great request among the Roman ladies as a cosmetic. 376. The manufacture of this colour was long kept secret; but its consumption has lately been greatly lessened by the introduction of the artificial Chromate of Lead, which is a yellow of much greater brilliancy than the muriate of that metal. 377. See Repository of Arts, vol. viii, no. 47, p. 262. 378. Med. Trans. vol. 2, p. 445. 379. See a paper in the Medical Transactions, vol. 2, p. 68, “Of the Colica Pictonum,” by R. Warren, M.D. &c. 380. Paulus Ægineta is the first writer who has described a species of Colic terminating in Paralysis. (Lib. iii, c. 18, 43.) 381. Poitou, this late province in France was divided at the revolution into the three departments of VendÉe, Vienne, and the Two Sevres. 382. Pictones—CÆs. People of France, whose chief city is Pictavium, now called Poictiers. 383. Percival’s Essays, vol. 1, p. 458. 385. Upon the subject of slow poisons we have already expressed the latitude of our belief, see page 143. 386. Medical Transactions, vol. 2, p. 420. 387. Transactions of Medical Society of London. 388. Med. Legale, iv, § 921. 389. “De Lithargyrio quoque mihi narravit, matronam quandam nobilem pulverem ejus in rubore faciei, postquam hic ipsi tanquam singulare et certissimum arcanum deprÆdicatus fuisset, in petia ligatum, axillis bis vel ter die aspersisse cum prÆsentaneo effectu; verum exinde subsecuta fuisse dyspnÆam, lipothymiam, dolores vagos in abdomine, vomituritionem, et nauseam.” 390. See his “Researches into the Properties of Spring water.” 8vo. London. Johnson. 1803. 391. Observations on the Water with which Tunbridge is supplied for domestic purposes. 392. The following is the method of preparing the test. Expose equal parts of sulphur and powdered oyster shells to a white heat for fifteen minutes; and, when cold, add an equal quantity of cream of tartar; these are to be put into a strong bottle with common water to boil for an hour; and the solution is afterwards to be decanted into ounce phials, adding twenty drops of muriatic acid to each. 393. Lambe, op. sup. cit. page 175. 394. On the ultimate Analysis of Vegetable and Animal Substances, by Andrew Ure, M.D.F.R.S. Phil. Trans. for 1822, part. 2. 395. Essay on Chemical Analysis, by J. G. Children, Esq. 396. Where a compound is merely separated it is called an Educt; but where it arises from a new combination of the elements it is distinguished by the term Product. 397. Recherches Physico-Chimiques. 398. On the ultimate Analysis of Vegetable and Animal Substances, by Andrew Ure, M.D.F.R.S. Phil. Trans, for 1822, part 2. 399. The author has already in the fifth edition of his Pharmacologia, entered so fully into the philosophy of medicinal combination, that he can scarcely feel regret at the limits of the present work not allowing him to dwell upon the subject. 400. The Cambogia Gutta Lin. (Polyandria Monogynia) and several species of Hypericum; Chelidonium, &c. also yield a similar juice. 401. The Dutch appear to have first introduced it into Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century. 402. ???e???? ?e???? of Dioscorides. 403. Histoire des Plantes VÉnÉneuses de la Suisse. 404. The same alkali has been discovered in the seeds of the Veratrum Sabadilla, and in the root of the Colchicum Autumnale. 405. It was first cultivated by Gerarde in 1596. 406. See London Medical Repository, vol. xii, no. 67. 407. Pharmacologia, vol. ii, art. Extract. Elaterii, p. 204. 408. Fragmenta Chirurg. et Med. p. 66. 409. Obs. Lib. iv, c. xxvi, p. 208. 410. The juice of every species of spurge is so acrid, that it corrodes and ulcerates the body wherever it is applied. Warts or corns, annointed with the juice presently disappear; hence this tribe of plants has derived the popular name of wart weed. 411. One of the supposed proofs of the guilt of Charles Angus in the case of Margaret Burns, as stated at page 177, rested upon the fact, that on searching the prisoner’s bed room, three bottles were found in the wardrobe, viz. one marked “poison water;” a second “Jacob’s water;” and a third “Savine oil.” 412. The roman poets constantly use it in the plural number, which evidently shews that it was meant to denote other kinds of poisons, or poisons in general; thus Juvenal in the first satire, v. 156. “Qui dedit ergo tribus patruis Aconita, vehetur Pensilibus plumis,——” So again Ovid in the first book of Metamorph, v. 47. “Lurida terribiles miscent Aconita novercÆ.” 413. Theophrastus tells us that a poison may be prepared from aconite so as to occasion death within any definite period; see page 183 in the present volume. 414. See an account of this process of preparing extracts in vacuo, in Medico-Chirurg. Trans. vol. x, p. 240; and for a history of their superior powers, the author begs to refer the reader to an account of the articles in his Pharmacologia. 415. Pharmacologia, vol. 1, p. 136. 416. Med. Observ. and Inquiries, vol. v. p. 317. 417. It may be obtained from opium by the following process, invented by Robiquet. Three hundred parts of pure opium are to be macerated during five days, in one thousand parts of common water; to the filtered solution, fifteen parts of perfectly pure magnesia (carefully avoiding the carbonate) are to be added; boil this mixture (A) for ten minutes, and separate the sediment (B) by a filter, washing it with cold water until the water passes off clear; after which, treat it alternately with hot and cold alcohol (12, 22. BÉ) as long as the menstruum takes up any colouring matter; the residue is then to be treated with boiling alcohol (22, 32, BÉ) on cooling, the solution will deposit the Morphia in crystals. Rationale of the process. A soluble meconiate of magnesia is, in the first place, formed; (A) while the sediment (B) consists of morphia, in the state of mixture, with the excess of magnesia; the boiling alcohol, with which this residuum is treated, exerts no action upon the magnesia, but dissolves the morphia, and, on cooling, surrenders it in a crystalline state. 418. Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. tom. v. 419. “Confessions of an English opium-eater.” London, 1822. 420. History of Aleppo. 421. Orfila states that animals, on which the section of the par vagum of both sides has been performed, die at the end of two or three hours; after having experienced intoxication, somnolency, and convulsions. Bulletin de la Soc. Philomatique, Mai 1808, t. 1, p. 143. 422. Toriosa (Istituzioni di Med. For.) has remarked that opium may act mortally without losing much of its weight in the stomach. We are very sceptical upon this point. 423. The reader is requested to refer to our chapter “On the Physiological causes and phenomena of sudden death,” p. 22. 424. See “Cases illustrating the decided efficacy of cold affusion in the treatment of poisoning by opium, by S. Wray.” London Medical and Physical Journal, for September 1822. “A case of poisoning by opium, in which the cold affusion was successfully employed; with observations on the medical management of similar occurrences, by J. Copland, M. D.” Ibid. “On the most efficacious means of remedying the effects of opium, when taken in poisonous doses, by J. H. Sprague.” Ibid. 425. Avis au peuple, tom. ii, § 535, p. 280, 7th edit. 426. “On the common syringe, with a flexible tube, as applicable to the removal of opium, and other poisons, from the stomach, by F. Bush.” London Med. and Phys. Journ. for September, 1822. “New means of extracting opium, &c. from the stomach, by E. Jukes, Esq.” Ibid. for November, 1822. 427. See Pharmacologia, vol. 1, p. 234. 428. Reports on Water, 1, 80. 429. A very high degree of vascularity is often found in the stomach and alimentary canal of those who have been suddenly deprived of life. The reader may consult Dr. Yelloly’s paper in the Medico-chirurgical Transactions, vol. iv, respecting the appearances found in the stomachs of several executed criminals. A case of poisoning by opium is given in the foreign department of the London Medical Repository, for November 1820; in which two drachms of solid opium had been swallowed, and on dissection a general congestion of blood was found in the internal organs. 430. The stomach in this case was observed to be red, but the colour was traced to the tincture of cardamoms, which the deceased had taken. 431. Philosophical Transactions, vol. xl, p. 446. 432. It was discovered by Scheele, but Gay-Lussac first succeeded in depriving it of a very great quantity of the water with which it was combined, when prepared according to the process of its discoverer. See Annales de Chimie, tom. lxxvii, p. 123. 433. By the decomposition of muriatic acid, and the cyanuret of mercury. 434. Dr. Majendie has informed us that, in consequence of some carelessness, he breathed a portion of the vapour, while preparing the acid for the purpose of experiment; and that he suffered very violent pains in the chest, accompanied by feelings of oppression, which endured for several hours. 435. “En conservant cet acide dans des vases bien fermÉs, mÊme sans quil ait le contact de l’air, il se decompose quelquefois en moins d’une heure.” Gay-Lussac. 436. See “An Historical and Practical Treatise on the Internal use of hydro-cyanic (Prussic) acid, by A. B. Granville, M.D.” Second edit. London, 1820. 437. See, however, an account of “A new substance found accompanying Welsh Culm, by J. A. Paris, M.D.” in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. 438. The poisonous properties of this plant are alluded to by Strabo, who says that the Lauro-cerasus produces a mode of death, similar to that of epilepsy. 439. The merits of this case are to be found very fully discussed in a pamphlet, entitled “Considerations on the criminal proceedings of this country; on the danger of convictions on circumstantial evidence, and on the case of Mr. Donellan.” By a barrister of the Inner Temple, London, 1781. 440. “Experiments and Observations on the different modes in which Death is produced by certain vegetable poisons.” Phil. Trans. vol. 101, for the year 1811. 441. To those who may wish to gain further information upon this subject, we beg to recommend the perusal of Dr. Granville’s work above quoted. 442. Treatise on Prussic acid, sup. citat. p. 96. 443. Journal General de MÉdecine, 1. xxiv, p 224. 444. Annals of Philosophy, vol. i, p. 2, new series. 445. From this person the plant received its generic name, Nicotiana; the specific appellation being taken from Tabac, the name of an instrument used by the natives of America in smoking the herb. 446. In 1624 Pope Urban the VIII, published a decree of excommunication against all who took snuff in the church. Ten years after this, smoking tobacco was forbidden in Russia, under the pain of having the nose cut off. In 1653 the Council of the Canton of Appenzel cited smokers before them, whom they punished; and they ordered all inn-keepers to inform against such as were found smoking in their houses. The police regulations of Berne, made in 1661, were divided according to the ten commandments, in which the prohibition of smoking stood immediately beneath the command against adultery. This prohibition was renewed in 1675, and the tribunal instituted to put it into execution—viz. “Chambre au Tabac,” continued to the middle of the eighteenth century. Pope Innocent the XII, in 1590 excommunicated all those who were found taking snuff, or using tobacco, in any manner, in the church of St. Peter at Rome; even so late as 1719 the Senate of Strasburgh prohibited the cultivation of tobacco, from an apprehension that it would diminish the growth of corn. Amurath the IV published an edict which made the smoking tobacco a capital offence; this was founded on an opinion that it rendered the people infertile. 447. Pharmacologia, vol. 1, 228, and vol. 2, art. Tabaci Folia. 448. Vol. ii, p. 404. 449. We are, however, by no means disposed to assign greater weight to this expression that it can fairly sustain; it may perhaps refer to the operation of dropping the poison into the ear, and not to the poison itself—thus Juvenal, “stillavit in aurem.” 450. Ephemerides des Curieux de la Nature, Dec. ii, An. i, p. 46. 451. Orfila, Toxicol. 452. Pharmacologia, vol. 1, p. 228. 453. Pliny informs us that the word cicuta amongst the ancients, was not indicative of any particular species of plant, but of vegetable poisons in general. We have already made the same remark with respect to Aconite. 454. ???e??? of Dioscorides. 455. In the London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 14, p. 425, we shall find a case wherein the hemlock was eaten through mistake for common parsley. Similar accidents are also recorded in Miller’s Dictionary. 456. It is figured in the Hortus Malabaricus under the name of Canirum. 457. Annales de Chimie, t. 8 to 10. 458. Ibid. t. x, 153. 459. Journal de Physiologie Experimentale, 1er numeroJanvier 1821, in a paper entitled “Memoire sur le MÉchanisme de l’Absorption.” 460. We avail ourselves of this report, as given by Orfila in his System of Toxicology. 461. Bulletin de la SociÉtÉ de Med. Nov. 1807. 462. Analyse Chimique de la Coque du Levant. Paris, 1812. 463. We have already stated that this sauce has been occasionally rendered poisonous by the presence of copper, p. 290. 464. Haller, Helvet. hist. 466. Krascheminckow, Histoire Naturel du Kamtschatka, p. 209. 467. Systematic arrangement of British Plants, vol. iv, p. 181. 468. LeÇons, faisant partie du Cours de Medecine Legale de M. Orfila. Paris, 1821. 469. This fact is particularized, as some persons have supposed the symptoms which have arisen from the ingestion of these fungi, may have been the effect of copper derived from the cooking utensils. 470. Let it be remembered that this term is to be received conventionally; we merely intend it to express certain phenomena, without any reference to their cause. 471. Mr. Brande. Phil. Trans. 1811 and 1813. 472. “I apprehend that the peculiar flavour of cogniac depends upon the presence of an Æthereal spirit, formed by the action of tartaric, or perhaps acetic acid upon alcohol. It is on this account that nitric Æther, when added to malt spirits gives them the flavour of brandy.” Pharmacologia, vol. 2, p. 396. 473. Pharmacologia, vol. 2, p. 397. 474. See our chapter on “the Physiological causes and Phenomena of Sudden Death,” page 16. In the course of the present work we have frequently recommended the artificial inflation of the lungs, in cases where life is liable to be extinguished by suffocation, (page 78); but we have not yet hinted at the possibility of employing such a resource with success in cases of narcotic poisoning, wherein the death may be physiologically considered as analogous to that occasioned by suffocation. Mr. Brodie was the first philosopher who ventured to propose such an expedient, and in an experiment carefully performed on an animal under such circumstances its life was preserved. The success of the process will depend upon our being able to keep up an artificial breathing, until the effects of the narcotic have passed away, and the energy of the brain is restored. As during this interval the generation of animal heat appears to be in a great measure suspended, it will be necessary to maintain a sufficient temperature by art. 475. We have just received from Mr. Alcock a history of the particular circumstances of the interesting case alluded to at page 58 of the present volume, and we shall give insertion to it in our chapter on Anatomical Dissection. 476. Treatise on Nervous Diseases, vol. 1, p. 221. 477. Case of a woman bitten by a viper, Med. and Phy. Journ. vol. ii, p. 481. 478. Celsus Medicin. lib. 5, c. 27. 479. Lucan Pharsal, c. 9. 480. See our remarks on the effects produced by the accidental ingestion of boiling water, page 317, and which will apply to the circumstances of the present case. 481. Med. Legale, t. iv, 835. 482. Vol. 1, p. 519. 483. See volume 1 of the present work, p. 95. 484. See Orfila, vol. 2. 485. See Dr. Stone on the Diseases of the Stomach, p. 80. We also beg to direct the attention of the medical reader to a paper entitled “On the effects of certain articles of food, especially oysters, on women after child-birth, by John Clarke, M. D.” Med. Trans. vol. v, p. 109. 486. For October, 1808, vol. iv, p. 393. 487. For June, 1815, vol. 3, p. 445. 488. Dr. Burrows has given us a list of them in the paper above alluded to; the most poisonous of which is the yellow-bill’d sprat, (Clupea Thryssa.) Indeed, says this author, it has rarely occurred that immediate death has ensued between the tropics from the virus of any other fish. M. Orfila observes that the action of this fish is so rapid, that it has been often seen at St. Eustatia that persons have expired while still eating it. 489. Med. Rep. vol. 3, p. 445. 490. Gazette de SantÉ, Ire Mars, 1812, p. 51.—Ibid. 21 Mars, 1813.—Ibid. 1, Octob. 1812. 491. Tom. iv, p. 85. 492. Behren’s Dissert. de Affect. a comest Mytil. 493. Voyage of Discovery, vol. 2, p. 286, 287. 494. The Principles of Forensic Medicine, page 191. 495. See Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, for Jan. 1811, p. 41.—Bateman on Cutaneous Diseases, art. Prurigo. 496. Observ. on the Diseases of the Army in Jamaica, vol. ii, p. 182. 497. Giornale di Fisica, &c. Secondo Bimestre, 1817. 498. There is no trade more immediately destructive of health than dry grinding steel; the workmen are usually attacked by what is called the grinder’s asthma at twenty-five or thirty years of age, and few of them live to forty. The Society of Arts have long offered a reward for the invention of some mode of securing the workmen from this dreadful calamity, and in 1822 awarded their gold medal to Mr. J. H. Abraham, of Sheffield, for his Magnetic Guard for Needle-pointers, (see Transactions for 1822.) The contrivance is likely to answer its intended purpose, provided the obstinacy and prejudice of the workmen can be overcome by the perseverance of the master manufacturers, who are morally bound to adopt every probable means of securing the health of those employed under them, even though their servants should themselves neglect it. 499. Diemerbroeck, lib. ii, p. 443. 500. The oxide of mercury is not volatile. 501. Where mercury is sublimed, it will usually assume the appearance of a black powder, in consequence of the extreme state of division it has undergone. This appearance has no doubt deceived the superficial observer, and given origin to many erroneous statements. 502. “A small portion of mercury was put through a funnel into a clean dry bottle, capable of holding about six ounces, and formed a stratum at the bottom not one-eighth of an inch in thickness; particular care was taken that none of the mercury should adhere to the upper part of the inside of the bottle. A small piece of leaf-gold was then attached to the under part of the stopper of the bottle, so that when the stopper was put into its place, the leaf-gold was enclosed in the bottle. It was then set aside in a safe place, which happened to be both dark and cool, and left for between six weeks and two months. At the end of that time it was examined, and the leaf-gold was found whitened by a quantity of mercury, though every part of the bottle and mercury remained, apparently, just as before. This experiment has been repeated several times, and always with success. The utmost care was taken that mercury should not get to the gold, except by passing through the atmosphere of the bottle. I think therefore it proves that at common temperatures, and even when the air is present, mercury is always surrounded by an atmosphere of the same substance.”—On the vapour of mercury at common temperatures, by M. Faraday, Chemical Assistant at the Royal Institution. Journal of Science and the Arts, vol. 10, p. 354. 503. Mr. Plowman has since stated, in conversation, that he has seen five or six mice, in one day, come into the ward-room, leap up a considerable height, and fall down dead on the deck. He also stated that the food for the use of the canary bird was kept in well closed bottles, so that it was impossible for it to have contracted any metallic impregnation. 504. The gases given off by burning coal, will vary very much according to the activity of the combustion, and the degree of moisture present; so that we may expect to receive sulphuretted hydrogen, sulphurous acid, carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, and carburetted hydrogen. 505. Researches Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning nitrous oxide, &c. London, 1800. 506. Recherches de Physiologie et de chimie, p. 144, an. 1811. 507. See the case in Valentini, P. M. L. p. 538, of a woman wilfully killed by continual and excessive doses of sulphuric acid, administered to her under pretence of medicine. 508. See the trial of Jane Butterfield for the murder of Wm. Scawen, Esq. published from the short hand writer’s notes, London 1775. Miss Butterfield was acquitted, the case is therefore put supposititiously. 509. Such was the case of the ignorant man who went out at night with the intention of shooting a ghost, which was supposed to haunt the village of Hammersmith; he actually shot a bricklayer’s labourer who was returning from his work; this was held to be murder, and the prisoner was convicted; he was not indeed a fit subject for execution, and was therefore pardoned; but this should not be extended into a doctrine, that gross ignorance, producing death, is always a pardonable offence. Transcriber’s Note This book uses inconsistent spelling and hyphenation, which were retained in the ebook version. Ditto marks and dashes used to represent repeated text have been replaced with the text that they represent. Some corrections have been made to the text, including correcting the errata noted in Volume 1 of this work, normalizing punctuation. Diacritics were left off Greek words since they were used inconsistently and when they were used they were often incorrect. Further corrections are noted below: p. 6: proved the means of resucitating -> proved the means of resuscitating Anchor position for Footnote 8 assumed p. 14: whereas the cadeverous stiffness -> whereas the cadaverous stiffness p. 24: in cases of supended animation -> in cases of suspended animation p. 30: in such cases it become a question -> in such cases it becomes a question Footnote 21: Tranee. Although this term -> Trance. Although this term p. 28: killed at the seige of Osen -> killed at the siege of Osen p. 37: there is asecond period of danger -> there is a second period of danger p. 41: until a sufficient quanity of air -> until a sufficient quantity of air p. 46: 3. BY MANUAL STRAGULATION. -> 3. BY MANUAL STRANGULATION p. 58: no doubt but that persous -> no doubt but that persons p. 75: cases were life is suddenly arrested -> cases where life is suddenly arrested p. 85: are founded n error -> are founded in error p. 87: animal will be enable to perform -> animal will be enabled to perform Anchor position for Footnote 72 assumed p. 110: it is scarely necessary; -> it is scarcely necessary; p. 116: 1. Absolutely mortal. 2. Dangerous. 8. Accidentally mortal. -> Absolutely mortal. 2. Dangerous. 3. Accidentally mortal. p. 120: footnote marker removed for which no footnote was printed: destroy the patient, by hemorrhage. Anchor position for Footnote 152 assumed p. 154: our idea of it importance -> our idea of its importance p. 162: with numerous alledged difficulties -> with numerous alleged difficulties Footnote 187: the stomach which undergeos solution -> the stomach which undergoes solution p. 171: satisfactorily corrobrate the truth -> satisfactorily corroborate the truth p. 174: the red and inflammed appearance -> the red and inflamed appearance Footnote 191: being very thirsy, and in considerable pain -> being very thirsty, and in considerable pain Footnote 191: wlth yellow pieces in it -> with yellow pieces in it Footnote 191: that they torn with the slightest -> that they tore with the slightest p. 191: was of an unusally red colour -> was of an unusually red colour p. 193: which are undoubtedly worthy consideration -> which are undoubtedly worthy of consideration p. 195: from which he his led to conclude -> from which he is led to conclude p. 200: some few and unimportannt exceptions -> some few and unimportant exceptions p. 200: Cl. V, Narotico-Acrid poisons -> Cl. V, Narcotico-Acrid poisons p. 210: The greek work ??se????? -> The greek word ??se????? sa?da?a?? -> sa?da?a?? a??e????? -> a??e????? Footnote 214: Sa?da?a?? -> Sa?da?a?? p. 211: will assume a tretrahedral form -> will assume a tetrahedral form p. 217: the head has also been observd -> the head has also been observed Footnote 230: at the age of thirth-eight -> at the age of thirty-eight p. 227: confined to the stomach and ntestines -> confined to the stomach and intestines Footnote 245: Black’c Lectures, v. ii, p. 430. -> Black’s Lectures, v. ii, p. 430. p. 240: application in the Philosophial Magazine -> application in the Philosophical Magazine p. 248: no solid matter could be dicovered in it -> no solid matter could be discovered in it p. 253: difficulties and embarassments, occasioned by -> difficulties and embarrassments, occasioned by p. 273: containing sublimate, accidently or by design -> containing sublimate, accidentally or by design Footnote 296: having been adulterated with red red -> having been adulterated with red lead p. 297: but their are quite insoluble -> but they are quite insoluble Footnote 359: supposed to have been of Roman manafacture -> supposed to have been of Roman manufacture p. 373: thereby destroying the energ of the nervous system -> thereby destroying the energy of the nervous system Footnote 426: New means of extractiug opium -> New means of extracting opium p. 395 with dilalation of the pupils -> with dilation of the pupils Footnote 431: Philosophical Taansactions, vol. xl, p. 446 -> Philosophical Transactions, vol. xl, p. 446 p. 400: footnote marker after FoderÉ removed since there was no corresponding footnote p. 403: taking six dops of the water -> taking six drops of the water p. 406: but not succesfully recommended -> but not successfully recommended p. 414: most of those symytoms which we have described -> most of those symptoms which we have described p. 430: he answed yes, or no -> he answered yes, or no p. 430: longer intermission than that preceeding -> longer intermission than that preceding Footnote 469: which have arisen form the ingestion -> which have arisen from the ingestion Footnote 474: in cases were life is liable to be -> in cases where life is liable to be Anchor position of Footnote 482 assumed p. 449: or idosyncrasy of constitution -> or idiosyncrasy of constitution End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 2 (of 3), by John Ayrton Paris and John Samuel Martin Fonblanque *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE, VOLUME 2 *** ***** This file should be named 63830-h.htm or 63830-h.zip ***** This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: /6/3/8/3/63830/ Produced by Sonya Schermann and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed. 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