decomposed by the process of digestion. But in one or other of these ways it may certainly disappear, and that in a very few hours only. Several instances to this effect have been already mentioned (pp. 57, 537). These remarks are important, because the fact is generally believed to be the reverse. Dr. Paris, in his work on Medical Jurisprudence, has tended to propagate the misconception, by asserting that in all fatal cases opium may be detected in the stomach;[1] and in the last edition of his Toxicology, Orfila has over-rated the facility and frequency with which an analysis may be conducted successfully. [See p. 538.]
At the same time there is no doubt that the poison may sometimes be found in the stomach. In Knape and Hecker's Register there is the case of a girl who died about eight hours after taking half an ounce of laudanum; and the reporters found that an extract prepared from the contents of the stomach caused deep sleep in frogs, chickens, and dogs, and threw some of them into a comatose state, which proved fatal.[2] Wildberg has related a very interesting case of a young lady of Berlin, who had been seduced, and finding herself pregnant, swallowed about half an ounce of laudanum in the evening, and died during the night. In this instance the contents of the stomach had a narcotic odour, and their extract when given to a young dog caused excessive sleep, reeling, palsy of the legs, convulsions, and death.[3]
M. Petit has related another case fatal in about ten hours, where the contents of the stomach had the smell of opium; and their alcoholic extract had a bitter taste, and killed guinea-pigs, with symptoms of narcotism.[4] In a case related by Mayer in Rust's Magazin, which also proved fatal after an interval of ten hours, the poison, which in this instance was the saffron-tincture, was distinctly detected in the stomach by a strong odour of opium and saffron.[5] In a case where the patient lived between thirteen and fourteen hours, that of the individual for whose murder Stewart and his wife were executed at Edinburgh, Dr. Ure succeeded in detecting meconic acid in the contents of the stomach, which had been removed by the pump about three hours after the opium was swallowed.[6] In another case published by Mr. Skae of this city, where death was caused by half an ounce in thirteen hours, without any attempt having been made to evacuate the stomach, the contents of that organ, treated according to the process at p. 534, yielded evident indications of morphia, and obscure evidence of meconic acid.[7] Lastly, it may be added that in Dr. Traill's case of poisoning with ten grains of muriate of morphia, when the contents of the stomach were decomposed by magnesia, a solution was obtained from the precipitate by rectified spirit, which, when concentrated, had the strong bitter taste of morphia, and became yellow with nitric acid; and yet the individual survived no less than twelve hours.
- ↑ Medical Jurisprudence, ii. 394.
- ↑ Kritische Jahrbücher, ii. 100.
- ↑ Praktisches Handbüch für Physiker, iii. 331.
- ↑ Corvisart's Journal de Médecine, xxxiv. 263.
- ↑ Magazin für die gesammte Heilkunde, iii. 24.
- ↑ Oral evidence at the Trial, also London Journal of Science, N. S. vi. 56.
- ↑ Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, liv. 151.
