HYOSCIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 243, 13 October 1910, Page 8

HYOSCIN.

IT POISONED CKIPPBN'S WIFE.

THE DRUG THAT BAFFLES CHEMICAL TESTS. The verdict that the cause of Mrs. Cripperrs death was due to iyoscin poisoning gains additional interest from the fact that there j ! i- up to now no recorded case | J ■of this drug "being used for felonious pur- | f j-A-e-. It belongs to the class of narcotic j ■ poisons, as opposed to the irritant poi- j* ton?. Of the former, opium and morphia iU pp'. v , °i course, the best known ex- ' emplei; of the latter, arsenic has been that which has been most commonly em- ; ployed. Jfyo.-cin is what is called an alkaloid— ■that is to say, it, is the active principle ■' of a -well-known vegetable drug called 3ivo.scyamus, which is commonly known as ; livnbane. Both henbane and its alkaloid iiyoscin are much used in medicine, but the alkaloid hyoscin on account of its very poisonous properties, is one which has for several years past been falling into ! rie=iH j tude. The ordinary dose of henbane j itself is about five grains; that "of its alkaloid is about one-two-hundredth of j a gr.;;n. so that the amount which was I purchased at Messrs. Lewis and Burrows —namely, five grains—would be sufficient | to kill a very large -number of people. ACOXITE. It "STill be remetr/bered thai the murderer Br. Lamson killed his boy brother- ' in-iaw by using a. drug—namely, aconite —for which there was no chemical test, and the difficulty of bringing the murder j ■home to him "was consequently very much . more difficult than if he had employed ■ arsenic or any ooher hitnerto accepted i means of feloniously disposing of a super- ! fluous member of the community. In the j case of Dr. Lamson, a method was resorted to whict had hitherto been unknown in criminal investigation—namely, that of trying the effect of the drug j ■which was su«pect<xl to have been the I cause of death upon the lower animals, and seeing in bow far the symptoms so j produced tallied with those which had ! been observed in the victim of the crime. In the case of hyoscin, the same difficulties would confront the criminal investigator. There is no known chemical test by which its presence could certainly be demonstrated, and the only means open to the authorities would, be that of isolating it from the stomach of the deceased person and of injecting it into one of the lower animals. A DANGEROUS REMEDY. The symptoms produced by hyoscin are well known to medical men, not because it is used ior criminal purposes, but because even in very minute doses it gives rise to symptoms which are apt to ■be very alarming. So mnch is this the case that maov doctors who were formerly in the habit of using it have now discarded it on account of the dangers which it; presents. It is a very subtle drug to which a large number of people seem to present an" intolerance; so that- -the amount quoted as a safe dose is very often followed by alarming manifestations. Medicinally it is usually given by subcutaneous injection, because by that means the dose can be more certainly regulated, and it is by this method of giving it that its effects are more rap-idly produced than when given by the mouth, and its results can be more carefully watched. Hyoscin as an agent offers no superiority to aconite; indeed, aconite, from the ■Doint of view of the poisoner, offers some superiority. The. two, however, have this in common, that they indicate a higher scientific plane on the part of the poiEoner than arsenic, antimony, and eas Iydetected drugs of that type.