Much attention has been lately paid to the treatment of this variety of
poisoning; and the object of those who have studied it has naturally
been the discovery of an antidote.
An antidote to hydrocyanic acid must either be a substance which renders
it immediately insoluble, or one which exerts upon the body an action
contrary to that excited by the poison, that is, a powerful stimulant
action on the nervous system. Hence all such remedies as oil, milk,
soap, coffee, treacle, turpentine, at one time thought serviceable, are
quite inert.[1934]
Antidotes have hitherto been chiefly sought for among the powerful,
diffusible stimulants. And it is plain, that even although a chemical
antidote were known, a stimulant antidote is indispensable also, because
the mischief done, before the poison can be rendered inert, is generally
sufficient to cause death, unless counteracted by treatment.
Of the diffusible stimulants, _ammonia_ is considered by many the most
energetic antidote. The first who made careful experiments with it was
Mr. John Murray of London; and he was so convinced of its efficacy, that
he expressed himself ready to swallow a dose of the acid large enough to
prove fatal, provided a skilful person were beside him to administer the
antidote.[1935] The favourable results obtained by Murray were
afterwards confirmed by M. Dupuy.[1936] Afterwards, however, the
efficacy of ammonia was called in question. Orfila stated in the third
edition of his Toxicology that he had several times satisfied himself of
the complete inutility of this as well as many other antidotes.[1937]
And Dr. Herbst of Göttingen made some careful experiments, from which he
concludes that ammonia, though useful when the dose of poison is not
large enough to kill, and even capable of making an animal that has
taken a fatal dose jump up and run about for a little, yet will never
save its life.[1938] But farther experiments by Orfila have led him to
modify his former statement, and to admit, that, although liquid ammonia
is of no use when introduced into the stomach, yet if the vapour from it
is inhaled, life may sometimes be preserved, provided the dose of the
poison be not large enough to act with great rapidity. He remarked, that
when from eight to fourteen drops of the medicinal acid were given to
dogs of various sizes, they died in the course of fifteen minutes if
left without assistance, but were sometimes saved by being made to
inhale ammoniacal water, and recovered completely in little more than an
hour.[1939] As this is very nearly the conclusion to which Mr. Murray
was led by his experiments performed in 1822, it is rather
extraordinary, that his name, as the undoubted discoverer of the remedy,
has never been mentioned by the Parisian Professor. Buchner, it is right
to add, had found this remedy useful in the same year in which Mr.
Murray’s experiments were made.[1940] A gentleman who took an over-dose
of two drachms of hydrocyanic acid while using it medicinally, and who
seems to have been in great danger, owed his recovery to the assiduous
use of carbonate of ammonia held to the nostrils, and spirit of ammonia
internally. Relief was obtained immediately.[1941] Orfila suggests an
important caution,—not to use a strong ammoniacal liquor, otherwise the
mouth, air-passages, and even the alimentary canal may be attacked with
inflammation,—as indeed happened to the French physician whose case was
formerly mentioned. The strong _aqua ammoniæ_ should be diluted with
several parts of water.
Another remedy of the same kind with ammonia as to action is _chlorine_.
This substance was first proposed as a remedy in 1822 by Riauz, a
chemist of Ulm, who found that, when a pigeon, poisoned with hydrocyanic
acid, was on the point of expiring, it immediately began to revive, on
being made to breathe chlorine, and in fifteen minutes was able to fly
away.[1942] Buchner repeated Riauz’s experiments and arrived at the same
results. More lately M. Simeon, apothecary to the hospital of St. Louis
at Paris, apparently without being acquainted with the observations of
the German chemists, was likewise led to suppose, that this gas might
prove a useful antidote;[1943] and MM. Cottereau and Vallette have
formed the same conclusion.[1944] Orfila in his paper already quoted
expresses his conviction, that this remedy is the most powerful antidote
of all hitherto proposed. His experiments have convinced him, that
animals, which have taken a dose of poison sufficient to kill them in
fifteen or eighteen minutes, will be saved by inspiring water
impregnated with a fourth part of its volume of chlorine, even although
the application of the remedy be delayed till the poison has operated
for four or five minutes. In some of his experiments he waited till the
convulsive stage of the poisoning was passed, and the stage of
flaccidity and insensibility had supervened; yet the animals were
obviously out of danger ten minutes after the chlorine was first
applied, and recovered entirely in three-quarters of an hour.[1945]
The last remedy of this nature which deserves notice is the _cold
affusion_. This was first recommended by Dr. Herbst of Göttingen, who,
on account of the success he witnessed from it in animals, considers it
the best remedy yet proposed. When the dose of the poison was
insufficient to prove fatal in ordinary circumstances, two affusions he
found commonly sufficient to dispel every unpleasant symptom. When the
dose was larger, it was necessary to repeat the effusion more
frequently. Its efficacy was always most certain when resorted to before
the convulsive stage of the poisoning was over; yet even in the stage of
insensibility and paralysis it was sometimes employed with success. In
the latter instance the first sign of amendment was renewal of the
spasms of the muscles. Many experiments are related by the author in
support of these statements. But the most decisive is the following. Two
poodles of the same size being selected, hydrocyanic acid was given to
one of them in repeated small doses till it died. The whole quantity
administered being seven grains of Ittner’s acid, this dose was given at
once to the other dog. Immediately it fell down in convulsions, violent
opisthotonos ensued, and in half a minute the convulsive stage was
followed by flaccidity, imperceptible respiration, and failing pulse.
The cold affusion was immediately resorted to, but at first without any
amendment. After the second affusion, however, the opisthotonos
returned, and was accompanied by cries; and on the remedy being repeated
every fifteen minutes, the breathing gradually became easier and easier,
the spasms abated, and in a few hours the animal was quite well.[1946]
Professor Orfila repeated Dr. Herbst’s experiments, with analogous
results; but he considers the cold affusion inferior to
chlorine.[1947]—It is probably advantageous to apply the cold water
rather in the form of cold douche to the head and spine than to the body
at large. Dr. Robinson of Sunderland found that rabbits, which had taken
doses adequate to occasion death, might be saved by pouring on the
hindhead and along the spine cold water impregnated with common salt and
nitre.[1948] A case, which seems to have been cured in this way, has
been published by Mr. Banks of Lowth. A young woman took by mistake a
solution containing very nearly a grain of real acid, and immediately
became insensible and convulsed. Ordinary stimulants were of no use. But
in fifteen minutes, when the convulsions had ceased, and she lay in a
state of complete coma and general paralysis, the cold douche on the
head first renewed the convulsions, then strengthened the pulse and
restored some appearance of consciousness, and finally roused her, so
that in a few hours she was quite well.[1949]
It is probable, that _bleeding from the jugular vein_ deserves more
attention as a remedy than it has yet received. The right side of the
heart is almost invariably found much gorged with blood in animals
examined at the moment of death; and the contractions of the heart, in
such circumstances imperfect or arrested altogether, have often been
observed by experimentalists to be instantly restored on promptly
removing the state of turgescence. Accordingly Dr. Cormack found that a
dog, at the point of death after receiving a fatal dose of the acid, was
speedily roused and eventually saved by bleeding from the jugular
vein.[1950] And in a careful inquiry by Dr. Lonsdale, it was ascertained
that the turgescence of the heart might be effectually diminished in
this way, and that recovery might frequently be accomplished when the
poison was otherwise amply sufficient to have occasioned speedy
death.[1951] In a case treated by Magendie, that of a young lady
poisoned by too large a medicinal dose, the chief remedies were ammonia
and blood-letting from the jugular vein; and she recovered.[1952]
Few observations have hitherto been made on the chemical antidotes for
hydrocyanic acid, or those substances which render it innoxious by
converting it into an insoluble compound. It is plain that several
probable antidotes of this kind exist. But toxicologists have been
apparently deterred from trying them by the fearful rapidity with which
the poison acts, and the consequent improbability that in practice any
such antidote can be administered in time. It has lately been shown,
however, by Messrs. T. and H. Smith of this city, that the effects of a
fatal dose may be warded off by the timely administration of the
reagents necessary for converting the acid into Prussian blue. They
found that if a solution of carbonate of potash followed by a solution
of the mixed sulphates of iron be given to animals very soon after the
administration of a dose of thirty drops of the Edinburgh medicinal
acid, containing three per cent. of real acid, recovery in general takes
place, and sometimes little inconvenience seems to be sustained. The
solutions they used were one of 144 grains of carbonate of potash in two
ounces of water, and another composed of a drachm and a half of sulphate
of protoxide of iron, together with two drachms of the same salt
converted into sulphate of sesquioxide by means of sulphuric and nitric
acids in the usual way. About 52 minims of each of these solutions will
remove the whole acid contained in 100 grains of the Edinburgh medicinal
acid; but for certainty, three or four times as much should be
used,—which may be done with perfect safety.[1953]
On the whole, then, it appears that the proper treatment of a case of
poisoning with hydrocyanic acid consists in the cold affusion applied to
the head and spine, the inhalation of diluted ammonia or chlorine,
venesection at the jugular vein, and the administration of carbonate of
potash and the mixed sulphates of iron, if aid has been obtained in good
time.
It is right to remember, however, that on account of the dreadful
rapidity of this variety of poisoning, it will rarely be in the
physician’s power to resort to any treatment soon enough for
success;—and farther, that his chance of success must generally be
feeble even though the case be taken in time, because when hydrocyanic
acid is swallowed by man, the dose is commonly so large as not to be
counteracted by any remedies.
_On the Vegetable Substances which contain Hydrocyanic Acid._
Hydrocyanic acid exists in several plants; which are consequently
poisonous. I have considered it advisable to describe their effects
separately from those of the pure acid.
The plants which have been thoroughly examined and found to yield it
belong chiefly to the division _Drupaceæ_, of Decandolle’s Natural
Family the _Rosaceæ_. These are the bitter almond, cherry-laurel,
bird-cherry, and peach. The leaves and seeds of the nectarine and
apricot, and the seeds of the plum and cherry, have the same taste with
these four, and therefore will certainly be found to contain the acid
also. The same inference may be drawn from the taste of some pomaceous
seeds; and accordingly I have obtained a hydrocyanated oil from the
seeds of the New York pippin, and those of the white-beam-tree, the
_Pyrus aria_. The poison procured from these sources exists in two
forms,—as a distilled water, and as an essential oil. Further, the acid
has been discovered to constitute the active poison of the juice of the
_Janipha manihot_, or bitter cassava [see p. 457].
The distilled waters yield hydrocyanic acid, as is shown by the blue
precipitate they give with potass and the mixed sulphates of iron. They
have a powerful, peculiar, grateful odour, which is usually likened to
that of pure hydrocyanic acid. But the smell really bears very little
resemblance to that of hydrocyanic acid, and is not owing to its
presence: the odour remains equally strong after the acid is thrown down
by the test now mentioned. The active part of the distilled water may be
separated in the form of a volatile oil. This is colourless at first,
afterwards yellowish or reddish, acrid, bitter, heavier than water, and
very volatile. The essential oil of the bitter almond has been carefully
examined by various chemists. Vogel, by subjecting it twice to
distillation from caustic potass, procured hydrocyanate of potass in the
residue; and a volatile oil was distilled over, which no longer
contained hydrocyanic acid, but nevertheless had the odour of the
original oil.[1954] This purified oil he considered equally poisonous
with that which contains hydrocyanic acid, a single drop of it having
killed a sparrow; and his opinion was confirmed by the experiments of
Professor Orfila. But according to some careful experiments by
Stange,[1955] which have been amply confirmed by Dr. Göppert of
Breslau,[1956] and also by MM. Robiquet and Boutron-Charlard,[1957]—if
the purified oil retains active poisonous properties, this must be owing
to the acid not having been entirely removed. Göppert in particular
remarked that twenty-five drops of the purified bitter-almond oil,
cherry-laurel oil, or bird-cherry oil had very little effect on rabbits,
not more indeed than the same quantity of the common essential oils. The
purified oil, according to all these chemists, possesses the odour of
the original oil, as Vogel first stated.
_Of the Bitter Almond._
The bitter almond was once extensively used in medicine, and is still
much employed by confectioners for flavouring puddings, sweetmeats, and
liqueurs. It is the kernel of the fruit of the _Amygdalus communis_.
This species has two varieties, the _dulcis_ and the _amara_; which
differ from one another in the fruit only. The fruit of the former
yields the sweet, and of the latter the bitter almond. The bitter almond
is the smaller of the two. The two plants, according to Murray, are
convertible into each other,—the sweet variety becoming bitter by
neglect,—the bitter becoming sweet by cultivation, or certain modes of
management not well known,—and the seed of either variety producing
plants of both.[1958] These statements as to the mutual convertibility
of the two varieties require confirmation.
The bitter almond depends for its activity on the essential oil, which
is common to all the vegetable poisons belonging to the present tribe.
According to the researches of Robiquet and Boutron-Charlard, followed
up by Liebig, the oil does not, like common essential oils, exist ready
formed in the almond, but is only produced when the almond-pulp comes in
contact with water. It cannot be separated by any process whatever from
the almond without the co-operation of water,—neither, for example, by
pressing out the fixed oil, nor by the action of ether, nor by the
action of absolute alcohol. After the almond is exhausted by ether, the
remaining pulp gives the essential oil as soon as it is moistened; but
if it is also exhausted by alcohol, the essential oil is entirely lost.
The reason is that alcohol dissolves out a peculiar crystalline
principle, named amygdalin, which, with the co-operation of water, forms
the essential oil by reacting on a variety of the albuminous principle
in the almond, called emulsion or synoptase.
In some respects, therefore, the essential oil of almonds is quite
peculiar in its nature, and quite different from the common essential or
volatile oils.—The presence of hydrocyanic acid in it is easily proved
by dissolving it with agitation in water, and treating the solution with
caustic potass, followed by the mixed sulphates of iron and sulphuric
acid.—The quantity of essential oil which may be procured from the
bitter almond amounts, according to Krüger of Rostock, to four drachms
from five pounds or a ninety-sixth part.[1959] The quantity of
hydrocyanic acid in the oil varies considerably: Schrader got from an
old sample 8·5 per cent., from a new sample 10·75;[1960] but Göppert got
from another specimen so much as 14·33 per cent.[1961]
_Effects on Animals._—The bitter almond is a powerful poison, which acts
in the same way as hydrocyanic acid, but likewise excites at times
vomiting and other signs of irritation. The first good experiments on it
are those related in Wepfer’s treatise on the Cicuta; but its properties
seem to have been known even to Dioscorides. The symptoms it induces in
animals are trembling, weakness, palsy, convulsions, often of the
tetanic kind, and finally coma. But frequently it occasions vomiting
before these symptoms begin, and the animal in that way may
escape.[1962] According to Orfila, twenty almonds will kill a dog in six
hours by the stomach if the gullet be tied; and six will kill it in four
days when applied to a wound.[1963]
The essential oil is not much inferior in activity to the pure
hydrocyanic acid. A single drop of it applied by Sir B. Brodie on the
tongue of a cat caused violent convulsions and death in five
minutes.[1964] But more generally a larger dose, or about seven drops,
has been found necessary to kill a middle-sized dog. Five drops,
according to Göppert, will kill a rabbit in six minutes. When entirely
freed of hydrocyanic acid, it becomes, as already mentioned, not more
poisonous than common volatile oils.
_Symptoms in Man._—The effects of the almond and of the oil upon man are
equally striking with those of hydrocyanic acid.
In small doses the bitter almond produces disorder of the digestive
organs, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes diarrhœa. These symptoms are
occasionally brought on by the small quantities used for flavouring
sweetmeats, if the confectioner has not been careful in compounding
them. Virey says that accidents occasionally happen to children at Paris
from their eating freely of macaroons, which are sometimes too strongly
flavoured with the bitter almond.[1965] In this country accidents from
the same cause may be with justice apprehended, as confectioners now
generally use, not the bitter almond, but its essential oil, which is
distilled for the purpose in London, and sold in the druggists shops
under the name of peach-nut oil. Göppert suggests that this oil ought to
be freed of its hydrocyanic acid by repeated distillation with caustic
potassa, because the flavour is not in the least injured by the process,
while its activity as a poison is greatly lessened.
In peculiar constitutions the minutest quantity, even a single almond,
will cause a state resembling intoxication, succeeded by an eruption
like nettle-rash. The late Dr. Gregory was subject to be affected in
this way. Other vegetable bitters had the same effect on him, but none
so remarkably as bitter almonds. They caused first sickness, generally
tremors, then vomiting, next a hot fit with an eruption of urticaria,
particularly on the upper part of the body. At the same time the face,
and head swelled very much, and there was generally a feeling like
intoxication. The symptoms lasted only for a few hours. The rash did not
alternately appear and disappear as in common nettle-rash.[1966] A lady
of my acquaintance is liable to be attacked with urticaria even from
eating the sweet almond.
The quantity of bitter almonds which may be eaten with impunity is
unknown; but Wibmer mentions an experimentalist who took half an ounce
without any other effect besides headache and sickness.[1967] Two cases
of death in the human subject from eating them have been quoted by
Coullon from the Journal de Médecine of Montpellier. One is a doubtful
case, but the other is unequivocal. A bath-woman gave her child the
“expressed juice” of a handful of bitter almonds to cure worms. The
child, who was four years old, was immediately attacked with colic,
swelling of the belly, giddiness, locked jaw, frothing at the mouth,
general convulsions, and insensibility, and died in two hours.[1968]
Murray, however, asserts in his Apparatus Medicaminum that the expressed
juice is sweet and not poisonous.[1969] But this apparent contradiction
is easily explained by referring to the chemical relations of the
almond,—the oil expressed without water being free from essential oil,
while the milky fluid expressed from the pulp beat up with water is
strongly impregnated with it.—Another case was published not long ago by
Mr. Kennedy of London; but the symptoms were imperfectly ascertained.
The person, a stout labourer, appeared to have eaten a great quantity of
bitter almonds, which were subsequently found in the stomach. He was
seen to drop down while standing near a wall; soon after which the
surgeon who was sent for found him quite insensible, with the pulse
imperceptible, and the breath exhaling the odour of bitter almonds; and
death took place in no long time.[1970]
Coullon has noticed many other instances where alarming symptoms were
produced by this poison, but were dissipated by the supervention of
spontaneous vomiting.
The effects of small doses of the oil have been tried by Sir B. Brodie
on himself; and a fatal case of poisoning with it has been recorded by
Mertzdorff. In the course of his experiments Sir B. Brodie once happened
to touch his tongue with the end of a glass rod which happened to be
dipped in the oil; and he says he had scarcely done so before he felt an
uneasy, indescribable feeling in the pit of the stomach, great
feebleness of his limbs, and loss of power to direct the muscles, so
that he could hardly keep himself from falling. These sensations were
quite momentary.[1971]
Mertzdorff’s case is interesting, not only as being accurately related,
but likewise on account of the exact resemblance of the symptoms to
those observed in the celebrated case of Sir Theodosius Boughton, which
will presently be mentioned. A hypochondriacal gentleman, 48 years old,
swallowed two drachms of the essential oil. A few minutes afterwards,
his servant, whom he sent for, found him lying in bed, with his features
spasmodically contracted, his eyes fixed, staring, and turned upwards,
and his chest heaving convulsively and hurriedly. A physician, who
entered the room twenty minutes after the draught had been taken, found
him quite insensible, the pupils immoveable, the breathing stertorous
and slow, the pulse feeble and only 30 in a minute, and the breath
strongly impregnated with the odour of bitter almonds, death ensued ten
minutes afterwards.[1972] A fatal case occurred lately in London, where
the individual, intending to compound a nostrum for worms with beech-nut
oil, got by mistake from the druggist peach-nut oil, which is nothing
else than the oil of bitter almond.—A singular case of recovery from a
very large dose of this poison has been lately published by M. Chevasse.
A shopkeeper, who swallowed half an ounce by mistake for spirit of
nitric ether, had an attack of spontaneous vomiting, which was forthwith
encouraged by sulphate of zinc. He nevertheless became pale and
convulsed; the pulse disappeared; and delirious muttering ensued, with
_risus sardonicus_, sparkling of the eyes, and panting respiration.
Recovery, however, took place under the use of brandy and ammonia.[1973]
The morbid appearances are the same as in poisoning with the pure acid.
In Mertzdorff’s case the whole blood and body emitted a smell of
almonds; putrefaction had begun, though the inspection was made
twenty-nine hours after death; the blood throughout was fluid, and
flowed from the nostrils and mouth; the veins were every where turgid;
the cerebral vessels gorged; the stomach and intestines very red.—In the
case from the Medical and Physical Journal of poisoning with the almond
itself, the vessels of the brain were much gorged, and the eyes
glistening and staring as if the person had been alive.
_Of the Cherry-Laurel._
The cherry-laurel, or _Cerasus lauro-cerasus_, was at one time much used
for flavouring liqueurs and sweetmeats. But it is now less employed than
formerly, as fatal accidents have happened from its having been used in
too large quantity. The custom, however, has not been altogether
abandoned; for there is an account in an English newspaper in 1823 of
two persons killed by ratifia’d brandy, which had been flavoured with
this plant; and Dr. Paris has mentioned an instance of several children
at an English boarding-school having been dangerously affected by a
custard flavoured with the leaves.[1974] Almost every part of the plant
is poisonous, especially the leaves and kernels; but the pulp of the
cherry is not. The flower has a totally different odour from the leaves.
The healthy vigorous shoots in the early part of summer, and the inner
bark, both then and in autumn, smell strongly of the bitter almond when
broken across. The kernels of the seeds have a strong taste of bitter
almonds.—The plant yields a distilled water and an essential oil, which
Robiquet found to have all the chemical properties of the oil of bitter
almond.[1975]—A very peculiar source of danger in using the leaves of
this plant, for imparting a ratafia flavour to sweetmeats and liqueurs,
is that the proportion of oil varies excessively according to the age of
the leaf. It abounds most in the young undeveloped leaves, and
diminishes gradually afterwards. Hence, the leaves being evergreen and
outliving more than two summers, the young leaves in May or June
contain, as I have found, nearly ten times as much oil as the old ones
at the same moment.
Cherry-laurel oil, according to Schrader, contains 7·66 per cent. of
hydrocyanic acid;[1976] but according to Göppert, a specimen supposed to
be genuine gave only 2·75 per cent.[1977] It is probably therefore a
weaker poison than the oil of bitter almond. The latest experiments made
with this oil are those of some Florentine physicians, performed at the
laboratory of the Marquess Rodolphi, and described by Professor
Taddei.[1978] Sixteen drops put on the tongue of rabbits killed them in
nine, fifteen, or twenty minutes; and ten or twelve drops injected in
oil into the anus killed them in four minutes. The symptoms were slow
breathing, palsy of the hind-legs, then general convulsions; and death
was preceded by complete coma. A very extraordinary appearance was found
in the dead body,—blood extravasated abundantly in the trachea and
lungs.
The cherry-laurel water, prepared by distillation from the leaves of
this plant, was long the most important of the poisons which contain the
hydrocyanic acid, as it was the most common before the introduction of
the acid itself into medical practice. Water dissolves by agitation 3·25
grains of oil per ounce; which may be considered the proportion in a
saturated distilled water. The water contains, according to Schubarth,
only 0·25 per cent. of hydrocyanic acid;[1979] according to
Schrader[1980] only half as much; and by long keeping even that small
proportion will gradually disappear, as I have ascertained by
experiment. Hence its strength must vary greatly,—a fact which will
explain the very different effects of the same dose in different
instances.
From experiments on animals by a great number of observers, it appears
that, whether it is introduced into the stomach, or into the anus, or
into the cellular tissue, or directly into a vein, it occasions
giddiness, palsy, insensibility, convulsions, coma, and speedy
death;—that the tetanic state brought on by the pure acid, is not always
so distinctly caused by cherry-laurel water;—and that tetanus is most
frequently induced by medium doses.
The attention of physicians was first called to this poison by an
account, published by Dr. Madden in the Philosophical Transactions for
1737, of several accidents which occurred at Dublin in consequence of
strong ratifia’d brandy having been prepared with it. Foderé has also
given an account of two cases, caused by servants having stolen and
drunk a bottle of it, which they mistook for a cordial.[1981] Being
afraid of detection, they swallowed it quickly, and in a few minutes
expired in convulsions. Murray has noticed several others in his
Apparatus Medicaminum.[1982] In most of these cases the individuals
suddenly lost their speech, fell down insensible, and died in a few
minutes. Convulsions do not appear to have been frequent. Coullon has
also related an instance where a child seems to have been killed by the
leaves applied to a large sore on the neck.[1983]
The dose required to occasion these effects, and more especially to
prove fatal, has not been determined with care. It must vary with the
age of the sample used. It will vary also according as the water has
been filtered or not; for what is not filtered often presents
undissolved oil suspended in it or floating on its surface. One ounce
has proved fatal;[1984] and half an ounce has caused only temporary
giddiness, loss of power over the limbs, stupor, and sense of pressure
in the stomach.[1985]
The appearances found in the dead body have varied. In general the blood
has been fluid. The smell of bitter almond has commonly been distinct in
the stomach.
The cherry-laurel water has attracted much attention in this country, in
consequence of being the poison used by Captain Donnellan for the murder
of Sir Theodosius Boughton. The trial of Donnellan, the most important
trial for poisoning which ever took place in Britain, has given rise to
some discrepance of opinion both among barristers and medical men, as to
the sufficiency of the evidence by which the prisoner was
condemned.[1986] For my part, taking into account the general, as well
as medical circumstances of the case, I do not entertain a doubt of his
guilt.
Leaving the general evidence out of view, however, as foreign to the
objects of the medical jurist’s regard, it must be admitted that the
medical evidence, taken by itself, was defective. It may be summed up
shortly in the following terms:—Sir Theodosius was a young man of the
age of twenty, and in perfect health, except that he had a slight
venereal complaint of old standing, for which he occasionally took a
laxative draught. On the morning of his death, his mother, Lady
Boughton, remarked, while giving him his draught, that it had a strong
smell of bitter almonds. Two minutes after he took it, she observed a
rattling or gurgling in his stomach; in ten minutes more he seemed
inclined to doze; and five minutes afterwards she found him quite
insensible, with the eyes fixed upwards, the teeth locked, froth running
out of his mouth, and a great heaving at his stomach and gurgling in his
throat. He died within half an hour after swallowing the draught. The
body was examined ten days after death, and the inspectors found great
congestion of the veins every where, gorging of the lungs, and redness
of the stomach. But the examination was unskilfully conducted. For the
head was not opened; the fæces were allowed to rush from the intestines
into the stomach; and, as a great quantity of fluid blood was found in
each cavity of the chest, the subclavian veins must have been divided
during the separation of the clavicles. Very little reliance, therefore,
can be placed in the evidence from the inspection of the body.[1987]
On comparing these particulars with what has been said above regarding
the effects of hydrocyanic acid and this whole genus of poisons, it will
be seen that every circumstance coincides precisely with the supposition
of poisoning with the cherry-laurel water. The symptoms were exactly the
same as in Mertzdoff’s case of poisoning with the essential oil of
almonds (p. 604). When to this are added, the smell of the draught,
which Lady Boughton could hardly mistake, the rarity of apoplexy in so
young and healthy a person as Sir Theodosius, and the improbability of
either that or any other disease of the head proving fatal so
quickly,—the conclusion at which, in my opinion, every sound medical
jurist must arrive is, that poisoning in the way supposed was very
probable. But I cannot go along with those who think that it was
certain; nor is it possible to see on what grounds such an opinion can
be founded, when the general or moral circumstances are excluded.
The medical evidence in Donnellan’s case has been much canvassed, and
especially that of Mr. John Hunter. It would be foreign to the plan
hitherto pursued in this work to analyze and review what was said by him
and his brethren. But I must frankly observe, that Mr. Hunter’s evidence
does him very little credit, and that his high professional eminence is
the reverse of a reason for palliating his errors, or treating them with
the lenity which they have experienced from his numerous critics.
_Of the Peach, Cluster-Cherry, Mountain-Ash, &c._
Little need be said of the other plants formerly mentioned among those
which yield hydrocyanic acid, and act on the system in consequence of
containing that substance.
The _Amygdalus persica_ or peach is the most active of them. Most parts
of the plant exhale the odour of the bitter-almond, but particularly the
flowers and kernels. According to the chemical researches of M.
Gauthier, the fresh young shoots of the peach collected in July contain,
weight for weight, even more essential oil than the bitter almond, or
cherry-laurel leaves; for 250 grains yielded nearly five grains of it or
two per cent.; and he found the oil may be easily procured by distilling
the shoots without addition till the product begins to pass over
clear.[1988] The kernels of the peach, when distilled with water, yield
nearly one grain of hydrocyanic acid per ounce.[1989]
Coullon has collected two instances of poisoning with the peach-blossom.
One is the case of an elderly gentleman, who swallowed a sallad of the
flower to purge himself. Soon afterwards he was seized with giddiness,
violent purging, convulsions, and stupor; and he died in three days.
Here the poison must have proved fatal by inducing true apoplexy in a
predisposed habit; at least poisoning with hydrocyanic acid never lasts
nearly so long. The other, a child eighteen months old, after taking a
decoction of the flowers to destroy worms, perished with frightful
convulsions, efforts to vomit, and bloody diarrhœa.[1990] The
peach-blossom would therefore appear to be rather a narcotico-acrid,
than a narcotic.—Peach-leaves are represented to have produced even
purely irritant effects. A man, who took a decoction of a handful boiled
in a quart of water down to a third,—when of course no hydrocyanic acid
could remain,—was attacked with tightness in the chest, a sense of
suffocation, violent colic, pain in the stomach and frequent desire to
vomit, followed by a hard pulse, restlessness, and flushing of the face.
But he recovered slowly under the use of fomentations and opiates.[1991]
The bark of the _Prunus padus_, or cluster-cherry, a native of this
country, owes its poisonous qualities to the same substance as the
preceding plants. Heumann found that the distilled water obtained from
two ounces of bark in March contains two grains of acid, two ounces of
developed leaves half a grain, and two ounces of the seed a trifle
less.[1992] Its distilled water has the odour of bitter almonds,
contains the same essential oil with that of the bitter almond, and
yields more hydrocyanic acid than the cherry-laurel water.[1993] The
oil, according to Schrader, contains 9·25[1994] per cent. of hydrocyanic
acid, according to Göppert only 5·5 per cent.[1995] Bremer, who has
examined this plant with great care, found that both the distilled water
and the essential oil kill mice when put into the mouth, eye, nose, ear,
anus, or a wound; and that half an ounce of the water killed a dog in
twelve minutes.[1996] The fruit is also poisonous. It has a nauseous
taste, but communicates a pleasant flavour to spirituous liquors. The
kernels yield by expression a transparent, fixed oil, concrete at 41°
F., which contains a small quantity of the essential oil; and the cake
which is left yields so much of the latter, that, as we are informed by
M. Chancel of Briançon, a handful has proved fatal to cows in a short
time.[1997] In these kernels, as in the bitter almond, the essential oil
does not exist ready formed, but is developed only in consequence of the
contact of water; and hence, if the fixed oil by expression contains a
little of it, as Chancel says, this must arise from the kernels having
been moist when squeezed.
The _Sorbus aucuparia_, mountain-ash, or Rowan-tree as it is called in
Scotland, has been lately added to the list of plants which abound in
the same poisonous principle. M. Grassmann of St Petersburgh has found
that many parts of this tree, such as the flowers and the bark of the
trunk and branches, contain more or less of the peculiar essential oil;
and that the root in particular contains so much in the month of May as
to smell strongly of it when broken across, and to yield a distilled
water which holds fully as much hydrocyanic acid as that procured from
an equal weight of cherry-laurel leaves.[1998]
Several other plants of the same natural order possess similar though
weaker properties, such as the _Prunus avium_, or black-cherry, or
mazzard, the _Prunus insititia_, or bullace, the _Prunus spinosa_, or
sloe, the _Amygdalus nana_, or dwarf-almond, and even the leaves and
kernels of the common cherry, the _Cerasus communis_. Twelve ounces of
cherry kernels distilled with water, yield, according to Geiseler, seven
grains of hydrocyanic acid.[1999] I have no doubt, from my experiments,
that the seeds of _Pyrus malus_, the apple, _Pyrus aria_, the
white-beam, and also, if the taste may be taken for a criterion, the
whole seeds of the _Pomaceæ_, yield by distillation with water a large
quantity of hydrocyanic acid.