A manual of legal medicine : for the use of practitioners and students of medicine and law / by Justin Herold.

Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A manual of legal medicine : for the use of practitioners and students of medicine and law / by Justin Herold. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and great depression of the action of the heart and debility, within twenty- four hours. Thirteen days after her demise her body was disinterred, the actions of the defendant having been of such a nature as to create suspicion and associate him with the crime. Chemical research having failed to dis- cover any poison, the medical examiners, Tardieu and Roussin, resorted to the physiologic or frog test, employing some of the extract obtained from the stomach and bowels of the woman, and also one procured from the scrapings of the floor on which the dead person had vomited. These tests responded to all the known chemical reactions. Besides the evidence furnished by the tests, an unusually large amount of digitalin was found in the possession of the accused, forming strong circumstantial evidence of his guilt. The prisoner was executed. ( Vide Reese, '' Medical Jurispru- dence, p. 457-) Nicotine-Poisoning.— The Count Bocarrne Case.—Reese describes this celebrated case as follows. Count Bocarm6 was executed in Belgium, 1851, for poisoning his brother-in-law, Gustave Fougnies, with nicotine. '' An unknown quantity was forcibly put into the mouth of the victim, the countess assisting her husband as an accomplice in the murder. Death was believed to have taken place within five minutes. The poison was detected by M. Stas in the tongue, throat, stomach, liver, and spleen of the deceased, and also from stains on the floor near where the act was committed. From the excellent report of the examination of M. Stas we may note the following particulars. The appearance of the tongue indicated the action of some highly acrid agent; it was swollen, blackened, softened, and friable; the epithelium was easily detached. This was also the condition of the mucous lining of the mouth and pharynx ; it was reddened as if cauterized, and easily separated. The lining membrane of the stomach was intensely in- jected, exhibiting large patches, which were livid and black. The vessels were filled with a black coagulum, resembling blood that had been treated with sulphuric acid. The duodenum was also highly injected. There were no ulcerations or perforations of the stomach or bowels. The lungs were engorged with black blood, and exhibited the usual character of asphyxia. The heart was normal, its cavities containing black liquid blood. No odor was observed in the body. ( Medical Jurisprudence.) The Holmes-Pitezel Case.—The crime for which Herman W. Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, was executed at Philadelphia, Pa., May 7, 1896, was the murder on Sunday, September 3, 1894, of Benjamin F. Pitezel, a con- federate, at Philadelphia. The history of the crime, briefly, is as follows. Eugene Smith, a house-carpenter, while passing along Callowhill Street, between Thirteenth and Broad, was attracted by a sign in the house num- bered 1316. The sign consisted of a sheet of muslin stretched across the bulk window, on which was printed, in black and red letters, ' Patents bought and sold. B. F. Perry.' Now, it happened that Smith himself was an in- ventor. He had recendy obtained what he claimed to be a valuable patent. He determined to step in and consult Mr. Perry. Walking into the store,