_SIR R. CHRISTISON, SWAINE TAYLOR, AND POISON DETECTION._
Although the detection of crimes of poisoning is but one of the
departments of service which the medical profession is able to render
to the law, yet it is one which has very largely attracted public
attention, owing to the many awful aspects of death by poisoning,
and the helplessness which mankind has always felt in regard to
these crimes. Latterly the skill displayed in the detection of the
existence of poisons after the death of the victims has set at
rest many of the doubts as to the certainty of judgment in regard
to poisoning, and the discovery of antidotes to many poisons has
supplied a means of remedy in numerous cases before it is too late.
It is obvious that these results could only begin to be realised when
chemistry had made considerable progress; and consequently it was not
till 1813 that a young doctor, the celebrated Orfila, published in
Paris the first part of a treatise on Poisons, which was subsequently
merged in his “Legal Medicine,” 1821-3. The names most conspicuous in
founding this new department of investigation in Great Britain are
those which stand at the head of this chapter.
* * * * *
ROBERT CHRISTISON, one of the twin sons of Alexander Christison,
many years Professor of Humanity in Edinburgh University, was born
at Edinburgh in July 18, 1797. After a complete education, in arts
at the University, he finally chose the medical profession, and was
for two years and a half resident assistant in the Royal Infirmary.
Taking his M.D. degree in 1819, he spent the next eighteen months at
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and in Paris, where he worked
in the laboratory of Robiquet at practical chemistry, and studied
toxicology with Orfila himself.
When Dr. Christison was about to leave Paris, Dr. Gregory’s death
led to a vacancy in the Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at Edinburgh,
and Christison was proposed to fill it while still absent. It is
significant of the state of knowledge that not one of the candidates
besides Christison had any practical knowledge of chemistry. The
influence of Lord Melville, however, who had been his father’s
resident pupil when young Christison was born, was the determining
cause of his success in the election.
At first students were very few, not half-a-dozen attending the
earliest course. Christison devoted himself with characteristic
energy to make his chair a real influence in the university. And here
we may remark briefly on the extraordinary vigour of constitution
which the new professor possessed, and retained almost till death. He
could walk, run, or row better and with more endurance than any man
of his time in Edinburgh, and that is saying a great deal. He made
his new chair his primary object. Being an extremely neat and clean
worker in the laboratory, his investigations soon became noted, and
it was found, when he was called in to give evidence on matters of
medical jurisprudence, especially in poisoning cases, that his mind
was equally clear and accurate, and that he could give reasons for
his beliefs which rendered his statements unimpeachable. From the
famous trial of Burke and Hare in 1829 down to 1866 Dr. Christison
appeared as a scientific witness in almost every case of medico-legal
importance in Scotland, and in many in England.
“As a witness,” says the _Scotsman_ (Jan. 28, 1882), “he was
remarkable for a lucid precision of statement, which left no shadow
of doubt in the mind of court, counsel, or jury as to his views.
Another noteworthy characteristic was the candour and impartiality he
invariably displayed, and which, backed as it was by the confidence
that came of mature deliberation, rendered him almost impregnable to
cross-examination. This was notably illustrated in the celebrated
Palmer trial. Some of the medical witnesses for the Crown had got so
severely handled by the prisoner’s counsel that the case seemed in
danger of breaking down, but Christison had not been long in the box
when the lawyers found they had at last met one who was a match for
the subtlest of them: and so complete was the failure of all their
efforts to discredit his evidence, that the case, by the time he
finished, had assumed the gravest possible complexion.”
As a persevering experimentalist, Christison was daring even to
rashness in making trials on himself. He thus tested the taste of
arsenious acid, which was held by Orfila and most others to be rough
and acrid, and which he proved to be rather sweet. He ate an ounce
of the root of _Œnanthe crocata_, which had stood most poisonous in
England and on the Continent; but the Scotch specimen at any rate did
not poison Dr. Christison. A most striking risk was run in the case
of the Calabar bean. He took a dose before going to bed, and found
its effects resembled those of opium. Not satisfied, he took a larger
dose next morning on rising, with the result of almost paralysing
him. But he fortunately had a good emetic close at hand, a bowl of
shaving water, and administering a large quantity, he was partially
relieved. But much prostration remained, and medical assistance had
to be summoned.
Christison’s principal services to the literature of his subject
consisted in his work on Poisons, which was first published in 1829,
and went through several successive editions, and in numerous memoirs
and papers contributed to medical and scientific journals, some of
which detailed improved chemical processes and tests for poisons,
as those on “The Detection of Minute Quantities of Arsenic in Mixed
Fluids,” “On the Taste of Arsenic, and on its Property of Preserving
the Bodies of Persons who have been Poisoned with it,” and on the
poisonous properties of numerous vegetable alkaloids.
In 1832 Christison, having raised his class to no fewer than ninety
students, resigned his chair on appointment to that of Materia
Medica, intending to become, in addition to a clinical teacher of
medicine, an original investigator on the therapeutical action of
remedies. But before he had got fully afloat in this, practice, for
which he had not specially laid himself out, flowed in upon him, and
prevented the realisation of his desire. He accumulated a fine museum
of materia medica, and his lectures were very popular. But it cannot
be said that he left his mark on medicine or therapeutics to the same
extent that he did on toxicology.
Christison was eminently a lover of his university, and exceedingly
conscious of its great merits. In numerous matters he was very
conservative, and strongly resisted some modern views of pneumonia
and fevers. He wielded great influence for many years in the
administration of university matters. In 1838 and in 1846 he was
President of the Edinburgh College of Physicians. From 1868 to 1873
he was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. From 1857 to 1873
he occupied a seat at the General Medical Council. After having been
for many years Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen in Scotland, Dr.
Christison received a baronetcy in 1871, on the recommendation of Mr.
Gladstone. In the same year his bust by Brodie was presented to the
university, by general subscription among the medical profession.
In 1872 Sir Robert Christison completed his fiftieth year of active
service as professor in the university, the only case of the kind
that had ever occurred; and a large and enthusiastic assembly
entertained him at dinner. Further honours still awaited him; he was
in 1875 elected President of the British Medical Association at its
Edinburgh meeting; and in 1876 he was selected for the Presidency
of the British Association, a distinction which however he declined
on the ground of his advanced age. He soon afterwards retired from
active duty; but lived in considerable vigour till about Christmas
1881. He died on January 23, 1882, in his eighty-fifth year.
“As regards his personal characteristics,” says the _Scotsman_, “Sir
Robert was perhaps liable to be somewhat misunderstood by those who
did not know him. Dogmatic and positive in his opinions, he was
inclined to lay down the law in a way that might not always be quite
agreeable.... On the other hand, friends who had the good fortune to
know him intimately found in his nature a fund of geniality such as
the casual observer could never have dreamt of. Warmth of heart and
simple unaffected kindness would seem to have been distinguishing
qualities of his private and social demeanour.” He was a strong
Churchman and Tory. He married in 1827 a Miss Brown, who died in
1849, leaving three sons.
* * * * *
Some years younger than Christison, ALFRED SWAINE TAYLOR was
contemporary through life with him, and occupied for many years a
quite exceptional position in the English mind in connection with the
detection of cases of poisoning. He was born at Northfleet in 1806,
and educated at Hounslow. At the early age of sixteen he became the
pupil of a surgeon near Maidstone, and in October 1823 entered as a
student at Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals, then forming a united
medical school. Later on he was exclusively connected with Guy’s as
pupil and lecturer until his retirement in 1878.
From the year 1826 Taylor gave much attention to medical
jurisprudence, although his diligence was such as to win for
him a prize for anatomy at Guy’s. Chemistry proved a congenial
subject to him under the instruction of Allen and Aikin, and he
was further stimulated in the same direction by frequent visits to
Paris and all the principal Continental medical schools. At Paris
he heard among others Orfila and Gay-Lussac. Geology, mineralogy,
and physiology likewise engaged his attention, and so was formed a
mind singularly broad in its views of natural phenomena, and well
calculated to expound their laws. Taylor passed his examinations
at the Apothecaries’ Hall in 1828 and at the College of Surgeons in
1830, and entered upon practice, continuing, however, to study in the
chemical laboratory of Guy’s Hospital.
In 1831, when the Apothecaries’ Society first required candidates for
their diploma to attend lectures on Medical Jurisprudence, Mr. Taylor
was appointed to lecture on the subject at Guy’s Hospital, a post
which he continued to hold for forty-seven years. In the next year he
succeeded Mr. Barry as co-lecturer on chemistry with Mr. Aikin, whose
colleague he continued till 1851, after which he was sole lecturer
on chemistry till 1870, when he resigned this lectureship. In these
important functions Dr. Taylor acquitted himself admirably. He was
exceedingly clear in his statements, exact and successful in his
experiments, while yet very undemonstrative in manner.
In 1832 the new lecturer commenced his long series of memoirs bearing
on poisoning, by publishing an account of the Grotto del Cane, near
Naples, with remarks on suffocation by carbonic acid. This appeared
in the _London Medical and Physical Journal_. In subsequent years
he contributed important papers to Guy’s Hospital Reports, on the
action of water on lead, on poisoning by strychnia, on the tests
for arsenic and antimony, &c., and was soon a recognised authority
on medico-legal questions. He contributed to the _London Medical
and Physical Journal_ valuable memoirs on poisoning, child-murder,
&c. In 1836 he published the first volume of a work on medical
jurisprudence which was not completed at that time. In 1842 he
brought out his well-known “Manual of Medical Jurisprudence,” which
reached its tenth large English edition in 1879, in the author’s
lifetime, in addition to numerous American editions. The Swiney Prize
of 100 guineas, together with a valuable silver vase for a work on
Jurisprudence, were also awarded to him.
In 1848, when he became a member of the College of Physicians, Dr.
Taylor published a work on Poisons which was at once accepted as
standard, and has gone through several editions. In 1865 his large
work entitled “The Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence”
appeared, including much matter for which there was not space in his
manuals. This work attained its third edition in 1883, having been
edited by Dr. Thomas Stevenson, his distinguished successor at Guy’s
Hospital.
But this represents only a portion of the literary labours of Dr.
Taylor. From 1844 to 1851 he was the editor of the _London Medical
Gazette_, afterwards incorporated with the _Medical Times_. He
largely co-operated in editing various editions of Pereira’s Materia
Medica. He brought out in conjunction with Professor Brande a Manual
of Chemistry in 1863, and in 1876 edited Dr. Neil Arnott’s celebrated
work on Physics. He was elected in 1853 Fellow of the College of
Physicians, having had previously conferred upon him the honorary
M.D. of St. Andrews University. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in 1845. He married in 1834 a Miss Cancellor.
It was as a medical witness in important legal cases that Dr. Swaine
Taylor was most widely known. If a case of unusual character was
before the courts, it came to be expected that he should be called
as a witness, and for many years he was retained by the Treasury as
their medical adviser on such cases. It is impossible here to refer
to the numerous important cases of this character in which Dr. Taylor
figured. A writer in the _Medical Times_ for June 12 and 19, 1880
(pp. 642, 671), enters into this question from full knowledge, and
describes him thus: “Personally Taylor was of a tall and imposing
figure, gracious to friends and bitter to foes, and, as the lawyers
found, a superb witness, not to be shaken by any light word of
doctrine.... There was a thoroughness about Taylor’s work which was
always satisfactory.”
In regard to the celebrated Palmer trial, Dr. Taylor was severely
cross-examined, and was contradicted in important points by experts
called for the defence. In fact, it is possible that the case would
have gone in favour of the prisoner but for the strong confirmation
of the view of the prosecution given by Dr. Christison, to which we
have already referred. Dr. Taylor expressed his strong views on this
question in an extended pamphlet “On Poisoning by Strychnia,” most of
which appeared in Guy’s Hospital Reports for 1856. He died on May 27,
1880.