THE TIMARU POISONING CASE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7996, 29 January 1887, Page 2

THE TIMARU POISONING CASE.

(UNITBD PEI 33 ASSOCIATION.) Dukkdik, January 28, Dr Hogg, in the course of his examination, was asked what is antimony? Witness—lt is a metal. To Mr, Haggitt—But beside being a metal, what is it ? Witness—An irritant poison. Mr Haggitt—Obi ah ! ala irritant poison. It is not harmless ? Witness— No; X am not aware that metallic antimony itself is poison, Tartar emetic is the salt of antimony. Antimony in combination .with cream of tartar and tartar emetic is a poison in quantities of from two grains upwards Mr Haggitt—ls tartar emetic more likely to be fatally poisonous in small doses, frequently repeated, or in a larger doze? Witness—More fatal in small doses frequently repeated. Small,doses would be absorbed into the system, while a large dose ,would give rise to vomiting, and perhaps a greater portion of it, or nearly all, would bs thrown off. I would say depressents were not good under the Circumstances. Tartar emetic administered in small doses Is a depressant. _ Tartar emetic so administered to a person in Cain’s condition would be injurious, and if administere 1 long enough would prove fatal. If administered in large quantities to a person in Cain’s condition it would have a very depressing effect, and if continued would be fatal. The symptoms described would indicate irritation, probably by poisoning. Tbe presence of antimony in a person so suffering wonld indicate antimony, and might be the oause of those symptoms.

Dr Hogg was strongly pressed by Mr Chapman on the point, but unswervingly adhered to his statement that, apart from any condition of the system which might ha called an idiosyncrasy, if antimony was ad. ministered to a person in Cain's state, he unhesitatingly affirmed that antimony would accelerate death. His opinion waa that a single dose in a case of that sort would accelerate death. He would not be responsible for consequences, and should be sorry to give a dose of two-grains, or in smaller quantity, if repeated at four hourly periods.

After loach Dr Hogg’s cross-examination was continued. He said in some eases thirst might be a feature of Bright's disease. He had discussed the features of the case with Dra Drew, Bachelor, and Ogston. Supposing ha found in the patient indications of chronio disease of the kidneys, and fonud albumen in the water and dropsy also, he weald not naturally attribute them to the existence of chronic Bright’s disease, or of Bright’s disease. These things might he dae to heart disease, giving rise to congestion of the kidneys. Opium might prodace vomiting. Re-examined: There were a number of forms of Bright’s disease, and the symptoms varied in every form; There might be vomiting, and retention of urine caused vomiting. In congestion of the kidneys resulting from impaired action of the heart, one would ‘not expect to find nrinic poisoning. Daring Cain’s life he saw'nothing to lead him to conclude that he had Bright’s disease. ‘ After death he could not tell. The kidneys were in a position to prevent him forming an opinion! He had attended Captain Cain be tweet). May and July, 1885, and he was suffering from disease of the heart, as he (witness) discovered from examination. As to opmm producing vomiting, that would depend on the quantity and the patient's susceptibility. . Hr 'Villiam Browa deposed; I have been in medical practice for 16 or 17 years. I am a bachelor of medicine. I know the substance called tartar emetic. ) he effect of that poison admiaisterec 1 - in such quantities as to cause sickness aod vomiting upon a person suffering from kidney disease and dropsy would be very dangerous, unless tha kidney disease was of a certain nature, when the effect would be risky—hazardous The kind I refer to is acute disease. Suppose

in addition to the kidney disease and dropsy there waft something the matter with the heart, such doses would be extremely daogsrous if the patient were an old inau Buffering from general debility. It would probably kill him. If the patient were suffering from senile gangrene, vomiting and diarrhoea, the effect would be to jcill him. The doses might not immediately kill him if he vomited them up, bat the prostration resulting therefrom might produce a fatal result. Re-examined : I have not made the subject of antimony a special study, except within the past two or three days. I am a partner with Dr Ogstoa, with whom I have consulted. Dr Ogston deposed: I am a doctor of medicine from.; tho Aberdeen UniversityI" ain "Lecturer 'of Jurisprudence at the Otago University. I have made the subject of poisons a special study at Prague, where X passed the examinations necessary to quality me as an analyst In Germany, I was the expert employed by the Crown in all medical-legal cases in Aberdeen for several years. On tho 27th September la :t I made a post-mortem examination of the body of Captain Cain. ' The body was first of all identified, and X afterward onened it. to. such an extent as would prove useful. The body was better preserved than I thought it would be. I did not open the head, as I knew from experience nothing could be made of its content:. I found the lungs dark and moderately spongy. In the pleural cavity I found a moderate quantity of rod fluid, and on opening the heart bag I found no finid. The heart was large and heavy, but the walla seemed of the natural thickness. The lower cavity was somewhat enlarged. The valves contained bony plaits, or knots, not unnsnal in old people. The main artery of the body was simply converted into a rigid, bony tube. That is very unusual, and indicated that the man had a wonderfully strong constitution for him to have livid so long as he did. The aortic valves .were diseased. The swollen state of tliohear t, in connection with the bony aoreta, indicated disease of the heart. The disease must have existed for years.’ There was a good quantity of blood, or bloody fluid, in the lungs, and they were healthy enough. The bronchial tubes seem" i healthy. The liver, spleen, and kidneys were looked at, but the change which bad taken place in them prevented it' being seen’ whether they were diseased or not. They did not look much diseased, if at all. The stomach was taken eat with a part of the beginning of the small bowel, and opened and looked at* A piece from the centre of the small bowel was looked at, and also part of tho large bowel. * They all contained a coating of greyish slime, more or less, but none of the usual contents. They were empty. The urine bladder was found to contain about four buncos of urine. The cavity of the belly and glands of the bowels were quite healthy. , There was a stone ia the gall, bladder,' a : very common thing. There was no clotted-blood in the heart. This was a little ; consistent with -other appearanc which indicated a natural slow death. It was a little suspicious, of course. I understood that the main reason of tho post mortem .was to find poison, and not the trhb cause : b! death: I took away for analysis some: of the bloody fluid, and alto those structures which contained most blood —the liver and spleen, the intestinal bag, tho urinary bladder, urine and kidneys. The analysis waff made on the evening of the 28tb, The substances were contained in the four bottles produced, which were kept sealed until tho analysis was made, resulting in tha finding of antimony in tha contents of each bottle. Subsequent confirmatory tests were made, all resulting the same. ■ A quantity of earth from tho Timaru cemetery was analysed, and no antimony found in it. Antimony is a preservative, so that its presence in the body would account for its good condition. From the post mortem appeaiancea and the discovery of antimony, I form tha opinion that the cause of death wa< exhaustion. - Antimony would cause exhaustion.''! have, hearil the state of health of Captain Cain described. The e6eot_ of tartar emetio administered to him from time to time in sufficient doses to cause vomiting would increase every bad symptom. The effect of antimony is dopreesent. A largo dote nets as an irritant and would cause rejection. The effect of antimony upon the hnman body is depressing, but in a very large dose it acts as an irritant. In small doses it acts partly as an irritant, partly as a depresseut, and occasions a largo flow of bile, tho result of which would be diarrhoea and bilious vomiting. I believe antimony is quickly absorbed into tho body. Every valuable poison is quickly absorbed. All, the poison-not re: jeoted is not abcorbed—probably a good desl "of if would be thrown down as an insoluble sulphide into the stomach and bowels. If tha patient lives that may-be absorbed, as there •re many acids in the bowels which" may or may not dissolve it. - The moat prominent symptom of autimbnial poisoning is sickness, coming on very shortly after the poisouia taken. Then you have purging, great exhaustion, and periods of apparent recovery in the morning. If the poison is not given during ,tbe night, thirst, as.in the ca.e of all irritant poisons, is a prominent symptom, and also gripping of the throat, Mr Haggitt: Taking it as a foot that Captain Cain, during the lost portion of his life, say the; last fortnight, suffered from nausea,-a vomiting, diarrhwa,: depression, andloss of strength;.-the weakness gradually in.: takiogin con junction with that the’ post mortem appearance you observed, and the fact that on analysis antimony was found in the body, .what, conclusion would yon arrive at? Witness: That antimony hod a great deal to. do with his death. His Honor: You * say, doctor, that you found'antimony in the intestines, and in the urine asiwell as in tho blood? Witness: 'Yes.! 'His Honor: After the antimony goes intothe mouth, what is the ordinary course of things.- i Into the stomach first, X suppose ? Witness ; Yes. First into the stomach, then it* is absorbed into the blood, and acts as a poison J there. His Honor . ; Part of it would ’ remain -‘insoluble - in - the bowels, part would be - absorbed iu the blood, and that absorbed part would be eliminated by the urine. It must be nbsorbed"beforeit could reach the urine?— Witness: Yes, His Honor: All these ) natural processes would come to su end at death?—Witness,; Yes. His Honor: From the fact of antimony being found in the urine could you form any inference as to how long - before' death the antimony must have been. administered!—Witneess: No, not without referring to some books on physiology. It: could be found by giving certain substances and waiting till they' come out in the urine. His Honor : Could you’ fix a period within which it wonld happen! Witness :: Yes, it must be within: eight or’ ten" hours { soluble bodies entering into'tha body would come oat into’ the urine within eight or tea hoars at the outside. His Honor: Might it not havebeen” administered before that! Witness: It moat have been, because a good deal was Ijing in thb -bowels, and all that we found -ia the lower bowel might have been ad'ministered days before, and what was in the stomach a few hours before d ath. His: Honor: Can you draw any inference from what you found as to the time at whioh it was administered—tho size ot the doses in which it was administered ; and farther, can draw shy inference as to whether what you fonndlu the body was all that was administered ? Witness : We did not find all that was administered, for we knew very well that diarrhoea would carry off a great portion of it, as we found oa a former analysis, as antimony being effective upon the liver,; making a flow of bile, would act as any other purgative, and it might go into the stomachand oat of the bowels within six or seven hours. His Honor: Then if you’find anti.; monyin a man’s body, and before he dies he suffered from diarrhoea, there ia a probability that the antimony found in the body was not all the antimony administered to him! Witness: It wonld not lie all the antimony.: Probably if antimony w ’ found in a man’s body, and shortly , beforejhis death he had ' been suffering from diarrhoea, then I should’ presume the antimony had earned the diarrhoea, and that the d*arrboea would it* self have o .rtied-offa good deal-of it. His Honor: Where antimony has been administered for a period, are there any appearances of - the intestines that woo d indicate that it had been so admin' itsred?— Yea, if tha dosa was a sufficiently graded one : to be retained for a little time,- and yet large enough to act with its full virulence: upon the stomach, there would be ' infl jnmiUon.: IJatlf there were smaller dores repeat* 1 yon' wAbld hayedess signs of irritation instead of inflammation. -His Honor: Did yon observe, ahv signs on thoLowels,. or were they too far "’’'deooinpoi.rd ?—Witnoffi : They - were, decomposed pretty much. As soon as de-j composition sets'id, all redness would disappear; but they bad a coating oldirty grey film. . His Honor: What does that ' mem? —Witness It means that some inflammation occurred, perhaps chronic, perhaps lasting for some (time, and in that film we found antimony.'’''Then’ we’had :a-negative indication. Vye had no signs of any inflammatory ’disease, because that wonld cause Cither ulceration in the bowels themselves or enlargement of the mesenteric glands. His Honor: Perhaps yoq' will be good enough, before to-morrow, if yon can, to look up the subject I Vas referring to,'and ascertain, if possible, hqw Jong antimony'might have : been administered. Witness : Yes, His Honor: Can you draw any inference as. to ■tUedoses'in which it had been administered! .1, ask .that question, because I see that, v in cases of - poisoning by. .arsenic, doctors Vprofesa -to be-able'to do 80 ? Witness : f hero pro to many modes: of rejection that

any inEcreace as to quantities is vitiated. Tho poison we found lying in tfa ® mucus of tho bowola was insoluble ana aaabiorbed, anil waa not the stall thad actually poisoned him. UU H nori/iartar ometio w a pouon, and antimony is a metal, is it not ? What was found in the body was metal antimony, I suppose? Witness : No ; wo found some form of antimony, but not the metal antimonv, in the bowels. Probably it was sulphide of antimony. Elis Honor : Can you say whether the antimony was administered in tho form of tartar emetic? Witness: No; that la impossible. His Honor; It must have been administered in & soluble form ? Witness : Yes. To Mr Haggitt: Oar tests bring it back, to tho metal antimony. I assisted Dr BUck in performin'; Lome analyses previously in connection with another o;se with which the prisoner was concerned. On September 12 1 analysed certain things brought from Dr Mclntyre’s laboratory by Dr Black, whioh were sealed by myself. X sealed and labelled everything X took over, so as to identify it again. The analyses all showed . ntimony distinctly. Another analysis on •e 19th gave similar results The ice-water tested on August 191 H in Dr Mclntyre s house at Timaru <• ast have been saturated with antimony. Colchicum was found ia some brandy we teste a. We tested some cigarettes in Christchurch, but found no antimony in them. Antimony ia not used in making cigarettes, unices you want to kill somebody. Antimony used in cigarettes could not possibly be of any use m asthma. Have used antimony in medical practice, bnt it is very little tned, Wo have safer and better means now to sreure the same object . I analysed a trousers pocket and found antimony in it. I bad a phial said to have been taken from the prisoners troui-ers pocket to test. In that phial we found a soluble antimony. t . Mr Haggitt said he might ask Dr Ogston a few more questions in the morning, Ihe Gonrt adjourned at 5 o’look.