Chapter XI: Aconite: Aconitia or Aconitine (4)

[212] In the boy’s box, on the ground floor, five pills mixed
with capsules were found. Twenty white powders, which were
numbered 1 to 20, were got from a box in the dining-room,
marked “J. Littlefield,” six of which—1 to. 6—were large.
The tin box with the two pills was handed to the police
inspector by Mr. Bedbrook, and a decanter of sherry from the
sitting-room, and the remainder of the sugar from the matron.
The evidence of _Inspector Fuller_, and other policemen, proved
that after being transferred from various hands, these things
were handed to the analyst, the Judge remarking on the want of
care in transmitting such important pieces of evidence, most
unnecessarily, through so many hands.

[213] The assistant at _Messrs. Bell & Co.’s_ stated the price
of atropia to a medical man as 4_d._ per grain—hence the
remark of Mr. Montagu Williams on the entry of “8_d._” “C.” in
the cash book of that day. The assistants at Messrs. Allen’s
altered their minds, on consultation together, within three
hours after they had told the police that it was atropia they
had sold to the prisoner.

[214] The fact of this poison having been sold by Allen &
Hanbury’s assistant to the prisoner, on the faith of finding
his name in the _Medical Directory_, was severely commented
on by the Judge. No doubt by 31 Vict. cap. 121, sec. 17,
Schedule A. Amendment Act, 32 & 33 Vict. cap. 117, sec. 3, it
is not required, in the case of a medical man, that the name
of the purchaser, the name and quantity of poison sold, and
the purpose for which it is to be used, should be entered, and
the signature of the purchaser is not required. The following
questions and answers call for publication:—

_The Judge._—“Suppose I applied and gave a name out of the
Medical Directory, and asked for two grains of aconitia, would
you sell it me?”

_Answer._—“If I were satisfied at the time you were a medical
man I should let you have it.”

_The Judge._—“Then anybody of respectable appearance and well
dressed might apply? and is there anything by which you can
satisfy yourself that the applicant is not an impostor and
telling you that which is not true?”

_Answer._—“The only thing would be the style of writing—whether
it was in the style characteristic of medical men.”

_The Judge._—“That hardly seems satisfactory.”

_Mr. Poland._—“The Act does not require registration in the
case of sale to a medical man.”

_The Judge._—“It strikes me that anyone could go, if he had
sufficient knowledge to write in the technical style of medical
men, and get poison without difficulty; and though the matter
is not before us in this case, it may be that the law requires
amendment in this particular.”

The jury also appended to their verdict a presentment urging
greater restrictions on the sale of poisons, with which the
Judge thoroughly agreed, and undertook to forward it to the
Home Secretary. During the present Session of Parliament
the Government have announced that a “New Poisons Act” is
preparing, and that it will deal with patent medicines. It is
imperatively required.

[215] Entries in the Register of the New York Bloomingdale
Asylum.

[216] Affidavit of Dr. G. H. Boyland, of Baltimore, U.S.,
a fellow student, and Dr. John Swinborne, of Albany, N.Y.,
Surgeon-in-Chief of the American Ambulance.

[217] Affidavits of Dr. Charles H. Von Klein, of Hamilton,
County Butler, U.S., Surgeon in the Russian army, and Dr. F.
P. Carey, of Auburn, N.Y., fellow surgeons with Lamson at
Bucharest.

[218] Statutory declarations of about thirty persons—friends,
servants, and such as occasionally came in contact with him
during his residence at Bournemouth.

[219] Ernest Juch, of 1, New Broad Street, journalist, and
formerly a medical practitioner, who met Lamson in New York,
August, 1881, and saw him daily for two months.

[220] Mrs. McElroy, when, with Lamson’s consent, taking
charge of his medicines, found among other things an unmarked
box of “sugar pills,” which Lamson said were either morphia
or quinine, he did not know which. On this evidence the
following remark is made on the accused’s behalf:—“After he
(Lamson) left, and when John was taken ill, several pills were
discovered on the table, which were not noticed while Lamson
was there. It is believed that as John was suffering from
indigestion (he had dined at one, and portions of his dinner
were vomited undigested at nine) he determined to take a pill,
and try with it one of the capsules just given him. John’s
symptoms of poisoning did not begin till about three-quarters
of an hour (_really twenty-five minutes_, see p. 520) after
Lamson left, and he lived for about four hours after, whereas
if he had taken the poison in the capsule, while Lamson was
there, it is almost certain that the symptoms would have set in
much earlier, especially considering the enormous quantity of
poison said to have been taken. He then, unhappily, selected
one containing aconitia. From the foregoing evidence of the
way in which Lamson used and prescribed aconitia, taken with
what Mrs. McElroy says of his ignorance as to what his own
medicaments contained, it might well be that he ignorantly or
insanely mixed these pills, and sent them to Percy John without
any murderous intent.”

[221] A sample of “English aconitine,” recently obtained
from Morson’s, was amorphous, slightly coloured, and gave
a red-brown colour, with all acids, even acetic; yet its
physiological action was perfect.

[222] In “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan” (Isabella L. Bird, 1880),
it is stated that the Ainos, an interesting race inhabiting a
part of that country, poison their arrow-heads with a paste
prepared from the root of a species of aconite, Aconitum
Japonicum.

[223] A servant girl was recently poisoned in New York by
repeatedly rubbing tincture of aconite on the gums to relieve
pain. She died in three days. (British Medical Journal, Aug.
26, 1882.)

[224] Woodman and Tidy, p. 393, wrongly give this as “one ounce
of the tincture.”

[225] The case of Reg. _v._ McConkey, already referred to
(_ante_, p. 515), furnishes us with an instance of aconite root
being administered with criminal intent, and with fatal result.

In Aug., 1882, four boys and a girl suffered severely from
chewing dried aconite root, which they had found in the street.
The symptoms, tingling and numbness, abdominal pain, nausea,
vomiting, giddiness, muscular weakness, pains in the legs,
and coldness of the feet, set in very rapidly, the greatest
delay being a quarter of an hour. There was no dyspnœa, and
the pupils in all were _widely dilated_. The treatment adopted
was the administration of emetics (sulphate of zinc and vin.
ipecac.), coffee and brandy, and castor oil. Recovery in two to
seven days. Quantity taken, “a very small piece.” (Brit. Med.
Journal, 1882, p. 1039.)

[226] An illustration of the dangerous character of these
preparations, and of the serious results which may ensue from
the mistake of a person ignorant of medicine, is afforded
by the following case, reported in the _Medical Times and
Gazette_, of January 22, 1853. An inquest was held on January
15th, 1853, to inquire into the death of Emma Forty, an
inmate of the Roman Catholic Convent of the Good Shepherd at
Arnosvale, near Bristol. The deceased suffered from tapeworm,
for which the medical attendant of the convent had prescribed
a decoction of pomegranate bark and quinine. According to the
general custom at the convent, the medicine was prepared by
Miss Ryder, the sister-attendant, who unfortunately took a
wrong bottle from the dispensary, and gave, instead of the
decoction, _a drachm of Fleming’s Tincture of Aconite_. This
mixture was given to the deceased on the Monday preceding the
inquest (Jan. 10th); and death occurred in about five hours
after the draught had been swallowed. After some remarks by
the Coroner as to the imminent danger of unskilled persons
being allowed to dispense drugs, the jury returned a verdict
that death was occasioned by the administration of aconite
by Miss Ryder, and expressed the opinion that much blame was
attributable to the authorities of the convent for allowing
persons, without the necessary knowledge, to dispense
medicines: they hoped that in future such a practice would be
discontinued.

[227] A report of the inquest is to be found in the
Pharmaceutical Journal, 1872, p. 618. The deceased was the
Hon. Gowran Charles Vernon, Recorder of Lincoln, and second
son of Lord Lyvedon. According to the evidence of a brother of
Mr. Vernon, the latter had for some time past complained of
pains in his head, and had been in the habit of using neuraline
with the object of relieving these pains. On returning to his
residence, after a walk with his wife, the deceased was seized
with a fit, and shortly afterwards died. The doctors considered
that he was suffering from neuralgia and epileptic fits.
Mr. G. Harley, M.D., M.R.C.S., stated that he had analysed
neuraline, and found it to be an extract of aconite, mixed
with rose-water; it also contained chloroform. The Coroner
(Dr. Lankester) said there was no doubt that the deceased had
expired from natural causes, and that he had been seized with a
fit of convulsions, from the effects of which he died.