Principles of forensic medicine / by William A. Guy and David Ferrier.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of forensic medicine / by William A. Guy and David Ferrier. 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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    comparing the time which such acts occupy with ascertained inter- ^te ofr''TT H^^^' <^-M^«rinrentB H animals peiiormed by some of the medical witnesses examined in this case, though useful as Illustrations, are quite inconclusive. The follpwing facts may be cited in illustration:-An apothecary's assistant in Germany took four ounces of the acid of the Bavarian rharmacopoeia, and was found dead in bed, with an empty two- ounce phial on each side of the bed, the bed-covering pulled up as high as the breast, the right arm extended beneath it, and the left arm bent at the elbow. In a suicidal case reported by Mr. Newb am the bed-clothes were smoothly drawn up to the shoulders: and on a chair close to the back of the bed was a phial with the cork in it. A case oi the same kind was communicated to Dr. Taylor by a pupil. A man found dead on the seat of a water-closet, had the bottle from whjch the poison was taken corked in his pocket In the case of the double suicide reported by Dr. Letheby, the bodies were found m positions which implied a succession of slight volun- tary movements. These facts prove the possibility of slight voluntary efltorts bemg made after a large dose of prussic acid; and they justify, as far as this question is concerned, the verdict of acquittal pronounced in favour of Freeman. But the voluntary acts that may be done after fatal or highly dangerous doses of this poison go much beyond those inferred from the position of the bodies in these instances. In the suicidal case presently to be more minutely described, as one of recovery after six hours of imminent danger, the lad took a large dose of the poison in bed; but he got out of bed, walked round the foot of it to a chest of drawers distant two or three yards, placed the stopper firmly in the phial, and returned to the side of the bed, from which he fell senseless. In another class of cases the suicide, besides other movements implying volition, has been able to cry for help, and even to converse. An apothecary's apprentice, sent from the shop to the cellar, had only been a few minutes away when he was heard to cry, in great alarm, Hartshorn ! hartshorn ! On rushing downstairs, his companions found him lying on the lower step, grasping the rail; and he had scarcely time to mutter, Prussic acid ! when he died, not more than five minutes after leaving the shop. He'had taken a drachm of the Bavarian acid, had tried to get at the ammonia, but had not strength to uncover the bottle. In two cases reported by Mr. Nunneley, the patients not only moved about, but spoke and answered questions, after taking, the one a fatal, the other a large dose of the poison. The subject of the first case answered a question some minutes after he had taken the poison, and the man who recovered retained the use of speech till the jaws gradually closed. A hypochondriacal gentleman, having locked himself in his room, took seven drachms of prussic acid of the estimated strength of