THE CASE OF DR. LAMSON
THE only case on record in which the active principle of aconite has
been used for the purpose of criminal poisoning is that of Dr. Lamson,
who suffered the extreme penalty of the law for administering the drug
to Percy Malcolm John, and thereby causing his death. The story is
remarkable for the cold-blooded way in which the murder was carried
out. George Henry Lamson, a surgeon, in impecunious circumstances,
had a reversionary interest through his wife in a sum of £1,500,
which would come to him on the death of his brother-in-law, Percy
Malcolm John. The latter, a sickly youth of eighteen years of age,
was paralysed in his lower limbs from old-standing spinal disease.
On November 27, 1881, Lamson purchased two grains of aconitine, and
shortly afterwards went down to the school where the lad had been
placed as a boarder, and had an interview with him in the presence of
the headmaster, professing at the same time a kindly interest in the
lad and his health. During the interview he produced some gelatine
capsules, one of which he filled with a white powder, presumed to be
sugar, and directly after seeing his brother-in-law swallow it, he
took his departure. Within a quarter of an hour John became unwell,
saying he felt the same as when Lamson had given him a quinine pill on
a former occasion. Violent vomiting soon set in, and he became unable
to swallow. This was rapidly followed by delirium, and in three hours
and three-quarters death ensued. Suspicion fell on Lamson, and he was
arrested shortly afterwards, and charged with the murder of John.
According to evidence at the trial, it is probable that Lamson had made
several previous attempts on the lad's life, with aconitine, in the
form of pills and powders, which he had given him under the pretence
of prescribing for his ailments. The money to which he was entitled
on the death of John doubtless supplied the motive for the crime. The
proof of the purchase of aconitine by the prisoner, and the evidence
of the post-mortem examination, pointed to the cause of death, and
the presence of aconitine was amply proved by the clinical and other
tests patiently and carefully applied by the analyst. The difficulty
of proving the presence of a rare vegetable alkaloid in the body
after death was, no doubt, duly considered by Lamson when he fixed on
aconitine as the medium for his evil design; but science proved the
master of the criminal, and the evidence of the instrument by which the
crime was committed was indisputably proved.