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Aconite or Monkshood
Antimony
Arsenic
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Carbon Monoxide
Chloroform
Cyanide
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Digitalis
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Gas
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Hyoscine
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Morphine
Mercury
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Nicotine
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Oxalic Acid
Poison or Toxin
Phosphorus
Picrotoxin
Physostigma
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Strychnine
Succinylcholine Chloride
Seconal
Sulfonal, Trional
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Thallium
Tansy Oil
Tartar Emetic
Tobacco
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Veratrum Viride
Zinc Salts
Herbaceous Eurasian plant Aconitum napellus of the buttercup
family Ranunculaceae, with hooded blue-mauve flowers.
It produces aconitine, a powerful alkaloid with narcotic and analgesic properties. There are about 100 species of the genus Aconitum throughout the northern temperate regions, all of which contain poison.
Summer aconite A. uncinatum is a common North American flower.
Winter aconite Eranthus hyemalis belongs to another genus of the
buttercup
family; it has yellow buttercuplike flowers with six petals and a
ruff of leaves below.
Another case in which Antimony was used was by Dr William Palmer to dispatch a friend in order to steal his money. Palmer was an addicted gambler who was not very good at winning. In fact he had been losing one thing or another for most of his life.
To satisfy his ever growing need for money be murdered his mother-in-law, so that her fortune would pass on to his wife. This bought him a little time but he soon fell back into debt. Having realised an effective way of obtaining money he methodically murdered members of his family including his wife who had been insured for £13,000, four of his legitimate children, several of his illegitimate offspring, his brother, an uncle and several of his more persistent creditors.
In November 1855 he visited Shrewsbury Races with his friend John Parsons Cook, another gambler, but one who had much more success than Palmer. At the race meeting, Palmer as usual lost all his bets while Cook won a considerable amount of money. After the meeting they all went to the Talbot Arms Hotel, Rugeley, to celebrate Cook’s success. At the party Cook became ill and Palmer offered to collect the man’s winnings. Once he had got his hands on the money Palmer used it to pay off his own debts.
Cook was treated by Palmer during his illness and, on 21 November, he died. John Cook’s step-father was not willing to accept that a healthy man could become ill and die so suddenly that he demanded a post-mortem. An examination showed that the man had been poisoned with antimony and Palmer was immediately arrested.
There was a considerable amount of bad feeling towards Palmer and so it was decided that in order to get a fair trial the case should be heard out of county. In May 1856 Palmer was tried at the Old Bailey. He was duly found guilty and was hanged outside Stafford Gaol on 14 June 1856 by George Smith in front of a large crowd. He was suspected of being responsible for fourteen murders.
Arsenic is poisonous in doses significantly larger than 65 mg (1
grain), and the poisoning can arise from a single large dose or from
repeated
small doses, as, for example, inhalation of arsenical gases or dust. On
the other hand, some persons, notably the so-called arsenic eaters of
the
mountains of southern Austria, have found that arsenic has a tonic
effect
and have built up a tolerance for it, so that they can ingest each day
an amount that would normally be a fatal dose. This tolerance, however,
does not protect them against the same amount of arsenic administered
hypodermically.
As it is a cumulative poison, its presence in food and drugs is very
dangerous.
The syptoms of arsenic poisoning are vomiting, diarrhoea, tingling and
possibly numbness in the limbs, and collapse. Its name
derives
from the Latin arsenicum.
It has been a very popular poison with murderers such as Florence Maybrick who was convicted of murdering her husband James. He had been ill for some time but on the 28 April 1889 he became much worse and a doctor was called. After making some slight improvement he took a turn for the worse and died on 11 May. An examination showed traces of arsenic in his body and Florence was arrested and charged with murder.
Her pleas of innocence were completely ignored and she was tried for
his murder and sentenced to death. This sentence was however
commuted
to life imprisonment and of this she served 15 years. On her
release
in 1904 she returned to America eventually dying in 1941 aged 76.
It is a poisonous constituent of car exhaust fumes, forming a stable compound with haemoglobin in the blood, thus preventing the haemoglobin from transporting oxygen to the body tissues.
It is a method that has been used on many occasions to commit suicide. The usual method is to run a hosepipe from the car exhaust pipe into the car while the engine is running.
Chloroform, name given to trichloromethane, CHCl3, because of its
supposed relation to formic acid. A colorless liquid, half again as
dense
as water and of about the same viscosity, chloroform has a heavy,
etherlike
odor and a burning sweetness of taste, being about 40 times as sweet as
cane sugar. It is almost insoluble in water, but it is freely miscible
with organic solvents and is an important solvent for gums, resins,
fats,
elements such as sulfur and iodine, and a wide variety of organic
compounds.
Chloroform may be prepared by the chlorination of ethyl alcohol or of methane, or by the action of iron and acid on carbon tetrachloride; the latter is the principal industrial method in current use.
Chloroform was first prepared in 1831 and was first used as an
anesthetic
in 1847 in one of the earliest experiments on surgical anesthesia. In
the
presence of light, however, it tends to decompose, yielding the highly
poisonous compound phosgene. Even when pure, it causes fatal cardiac
paralysis
in about one out of 3000 cases, and so is seldom used for anesthesia.
Cyanide has been used by many murderers to dispatch their
victims.
One such case was John Donellan who used this form of poison to
murder
his wifes brother. As was the custom in the 1700's the male would
always inherit the estate, but of course if he died then the estate
would
go to Donellan's wife.
Theodosius was required to take medicine each morning, a 'purging draught for Sir Theodosius Boughton' as the label put it. After he had forgotten to take the medicine one morning he was persuaded by Donellan to leave the bottle on a shelf outside his room so that he would see it when he came out each morning.
On Monday 26th February 1781 Sir Theodosius retired shortly after 9pm and requested his mother to call him the next morning and give him his medicine. At about seven the next morning she went to his room and gave him his medicine. They both remarked on the strong, nauseous smell of the medicine, like bitter almonds, this was a characteristic of Cyanide. Within two minutes Sir Theodosius 'struggled very much. He made a prodigious rattling in his stomach, and guggling.' This lasted about ten minutes before he appeared to sleep. As he seemed to be calmer his mother left him alone for five minutes. When she returned she found him with eyes fixed upwards, teeth clenched and foam running from his mouth. She sent a servant to fetch Donellan.
When he arrived he was informed of the situation and that it was unlikely that Sir Theodosius would live. He took both the medicine bottles that had been standing on the shelf and washed them out. When she told him that he should not have touched anything he replied that he was merely doing it so that he could taste them. He ordered one of the servants to remove the bottles and the basin in which they been washed. Lady Boughton countermanded the order but, when her back was turned, Donellan again told the servant to dispose of the bottles, which she did.
Dr Rattray, of Coventry, carried out a post-mortem and concluded that death was consistent with poisoning. Donellan was arrested and lodged in Warwick Gaol. At his trial Lady Boughton identified the smell of the medicine as being consistent with that of a distillation of laurel-leaves, now called cyanide. Donellan's defence consisted of a flat denial of anything to do with the death but jury did not believe him and found him guilty.
At 7am the following day, 2nd April 1781, John Donellan was hanged in Warwick and his body was used for dissection.
If caught in time the treatment would be a Gastric lavage with
tannin
or Epson salts in the water; recumbency, warmth to chest and abdomen;
stimulants,
ammonia, strychnine, brandy; artificial respiration, oxygen.
Scopolamine or Hyoscine, which occurs in the roots of herbs belonging
to the family Solanaceae (see NIGHTSHADE), particularly of the genus
Hyoscyamus.
A viscous liquid, it dissolves fairly readily in water. The monohydrate
of the alkaloid forms crystals of melting point 59° C (138° F).
Scopolamine is optically active and levorotary—that is, it rotates the
plane of polarized light to the left. Scopolamine is used medically to
dilate the eye; to depress the central nervous system, which effect
makes
it valuable as a sedative and preanesthetic; to prevent motion
sickness;
and to prevent muscle spasm, as in duodenal ulcers.
Used in many murders but perhaps none more famous than that of Dr Crippen when he murdered his wife Cora. On 17 January 1910, Crippen had ordered five grains of hyoscine, a narcotic poison, from a New Oxford Street chemist. The poison was collected by Crippen on the 19, who signed the register. Shortly after Mrs Crippen disappeared. When her friends asked after her they were told that she had had to return to America because of a relative’s illness and that she would have to resign from the Guild.
As time passed, Belle’s friends thought it was strange that they failed hear from her. On 20 February, Crippen and Ethel turned up at a dinner and ball that had been organised by the Guild and, on 12 March, Ethel moved into Hilldrop Crescent. Calling themselves Mr and Mrs Crippen, they went to France for five days, leaving on 16 March and staying over Easter. The day they departed, Mrs Martinetti, a music hall friend of Cora’s, received a telegram sent from Victoria Station that said ‘Belle died yesterday at six o’clock... Shall be away a week. Peter.’ Crippen was known to his acquaintances as ‘Peter’. Crippen told people that his wife had died in America and had been cremated.
All went well until 28 June when Mr and Mrs Nash, more friends of Belle, questioned Crippen about his wife’s death. They had recently returned from a music hall tour of the States and were dissatisfied with Crippen’s explanation. Mr Nash got in touch with a friend of his at Scotland Yard. Chief Inspector Walter Dew was asked to investigate.
Dew visited Crippen who told him that he had made up the stories about his wife’s demise to cover up the fact that she had left him for another man and he didn’t want to face the scandal involved.
Dew left satisfied with the explanation but, after the following weekend, decided to pay Crippen another visit. He was astounded to learn that Crippen had instructed his partner to wind up their business and that he was going to be absent for some time. Dew also learned that Crippen had had the office boy purchase some clothing suitable for a boy.
Dew returned to Hilldrop Crescent and during an exhaustive search of
the building discovered some loose bricks in the cellar floor. On
prising
up the bricks they discovered a heap of human flesh and hair, but
no bones. Medical examination of the remains gave the information that
the corpse was that of a stout female, who bleached her hair and who
had
had an abdominal operation. Traces of hyoscine, in sufficient
quantities
to indicate a lethal dose, were found in various organs.
An arrest warrant was issued for Crippen and le Neve on 16 July. On
20 July the ‘SS Montrose’ sailed from Antwerp bound for Quebec. The
ship’s
commander, Captain Kendall, noticed two of his passengers, Mr Robinson
and his ‘son’, John, and had his suspicions aroused by their unusually
affectionate behaviour. Two days later he radioed to the ship’s owners
voicing his suspicions. It was the first time that wireless was used in
a murder hunt. As the ship steamed into Quebec, a pilot boat came
alongside.
On board was Dew, dressed as a pilot. He had sailed on board the ‘SS
Laurentic’,
a faster ship, and reached Canada before them. Dew arrested them both
and
they were returned to London.
The trial of Dr Crippen opened on Tuesday, 18 October 1910. Crippen’s defence was that there was no proof that the remains in the cellar were those of a woman, never mind those of his wife. After a trial lasting four days the jury were out for only 27 minutes before returning with a guilty verdict and he was sentenced to death. The trial of Ethel le Neve began on 25 October and lasted one day. She was acquitted. Crippen was hanged in Pentonville Prison on 23 November 1910 by John Ellis.
Devereux was arrested and charged. Devereux’s defence was that his wife had been depressed and killed herself after first killing the twins. He had found the bodies and panicked, buying the trunk to conceal them. It was a weak story made all the less believable by the fact that before her death he had applied for a job describing himself as a widower. He was hanged at Pentonville prison on the 15 August 1905.
Another time Morphine was used was by a doctor named Buchanan. Having divorced his first wife Buchanan married Anna Sutherland who was a brothel proprietress. He soon found that his patients and colleagues did not take kindly to this and threatened to transfer. Seeking the easy way out he set about getting rid of his wife. She became ill and died of a Cerebral Haemorhage.
The doctor was quick to collect his rather large inheritance of $50,000. Suspicion was already aroused and this was heightened when only one month later he remarried his first wife. An exhumation was ordered and the body examined. It was discovered that quantities of morphine were present and Buchanan was arrested and charged with her murder He was found guilty and sentenced to die for first degree murder. He was electrocuted at Sing Sing prison on 2 July 1895.
Another doctor who used the same method 80 years later was Dr Baksh who tried to kill him wife. At 1 am on the freezing cold morning of 5 January 1985 an attractive, dark-complexioned woman was found lying in undergrowth at Keston Ponds, near Bromley in Kent. She was fully dressed wearing a blouse and skirt but did not have on a topcoat. Her attacker had cut her throat and then left her to die. The wound had bled considerably and although very serious she was still alive.
She was taken to a nearby house and an ambulance was called. She was deeply unconscious but still alive. She was taken to Bromley Hospital and put straight into intensive care.
A policeman was constantly by her bedside and as Madhu started to slowly recover she tried to mumble a few words to the waiting detectives. Although she made little sense one word they were able to recognise was 'morphine'. Tests were immediately carried out on pre-transfusion blood samples from the woman and a massive amounts of morphine were detected. Before this discovey it had been thought possible that her injuries were the result of an attack but they now started suspecting murder and the detectives started doing some background investigation and soon discovered that John Baksh held insurance policies worth £215,000 on his wife's life. Further checking revealed what had happened and the police started to build up a picture of events.
It looked as if Baksh had driven his wife's car and abandoned it in Bromley. He then administered a narcotic drug to to his wife, probably in a drink, to make her drowsy and had then injected her with morphine in the back of the thigh. He then took her body to Keston, placed it in the undergrowth and in cold blood slashed her throat.
Dectectives also discovered that Baksh's first wife, Ruby, had been found dead in her bed while they were on holiday in Spain in 1983. The cause of death had been certified as a heart attack, though no post-mortem had been conducted. The body was exhumed and organs removed back to England for testing. Tests proved that the woman had received a large dose of morphine. She had been insured for £90,000.
Baksh was charged with the murder of his first wife and the attempted murder of his second and appeared at the Old Bailey in December 1986. The jury were unanimous in finding him guilty and he received life and 14 years' imprisonment, respectively. Madhu obtained a divorce on the grounds of his 'unreasonable behaviour' which under the circumstances seemed reasonable.
Nicotine alkaloid is efficiently absorbed by the gut, lung, and skin. The sulfate salt is absorbed by lung and gut, but is poorly absorbed across the skin. Extensive biotransformation occurs in the liver resulting in a residence half-life of two hours or less. Both the liver and kidney participate in the formation and excretion of multiple end-products, which are excreted within a few hours. Toxic action is complex, involving both stimulation and blockade of autonomic ganglia and skeletal muscle neuromuscular junctions, as well as direct effects on the central nervous system. Paralysis and vascular collapse are prominent features of acute poisoning, but death is usually due to respiratory paralysis, which may ensue promptly after the first symptoms of poisoning. Nicotine is not a inhibitor of cholinesterase enzyme.
Early symptoms of poisoning are salivation, nausea, vomiting, and
diarrhea.
Burning sensation in the mouth and throat and abdominal pain are
reported.
If dosage has been high, vascular collapse, dyspnea then respiratory
failure,
cyanosis, and unconsciousness may ensue promptly. Agitation, sweating,
headache, pupillary constriction, dizziness, incoordination, confusion,
weakness, tremor, and convulsions occur early in less fulminant
poisoning.
Initial hypertension is probably due mainly to generalized
vasoconstriction.
Subsequent shock is caused by vasodilatation, often associated with
vagotonic
asystole or severe cardiac arrhythmias. Respiratory failure is caused
mainly
by paralysis of the muscles of respiration. Urine content of the
metabolite
cotinine can be used to confirm absorption of nicotine.
Symptoms: Severe pain in throat and stomach extending to shoulders
and lower back; vomiting of blood-tinged matter; gastroenteric
inflammation;
cyanosis, clammy skin; dilated pupils: very feeble pulse.
Treatment: Emetics or lavage with lime water, chalk, or magnesia in the water (no bicarbonate of soda); long draughts of alkaline water (without sodium salts); stimulants if indicated--black coffee or caffeine, strychnine, ammonia; heat to surface of body.
Symptoms: Salivation, vomiting, sweating, slow pulse, contracted
pupils, muscular twitchings passing on to epileptiform convulsions
followed
by unconsciousness.
Treatment: Evacuation of stomach; chloral or other sedatives.
Treatment: Sulfate of copper emetic or lavage with Epsom salts in
the
water; repeat lavage with Epsom salts solution every hour; give
repeated
small doses of sulfate of copper and large doses of bicarbonate of
soda.
Oxygen inhalation, external heat, camphor, old oil of turpentine,
permanganate
of potassium.
Treatment: Lavage or emetics; atropine followed by artificial
respiration
and oxygen; the nitrites.
Any chemical substance that, when introduced into or applied to the body, is capable of injuring health or destroying life. The liver removes some poisons from the blood.
The majority of poisons may be divided into: corrosives, for example sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids, caustic soda, and mercuric chloride, which burn and destroy the parts with which they come into contact;
Irritants, such as arsenic, copper sulphate, zinc chloride, silver nitrate, and green vitriol (iron sulphate), which have an irritating effect on the stomach and bowels;
Narcotics for example, opium and prussic acid, potassium cyanide, chloroform, and carbon monoxide, which affect the brainstem and spinal cord, inducing a stupor; and narcotico-irritants, which cause intense irritations and finally act as narcotics, for example, carbolic acid, foxglove, henbane, deadly nightshade (belladonna), tobacco, and many other substances of plant origin.
In noncorrosive poisoning every effort is made to remove the poison from the system as soon as possible, usually by vomiting induced by an emetic .
For some corrosive and irritant poisons there are chemical antidotes, but for recently developed poisons in a new category (for example, the weedkiller paraquat ) that produce proliferative changes in the system, there is no antidote.
In most countries the sale of poison to individuals is carefully controlled by law and, in general, only qualified and registered pharmacists and medical practitioners may dispense them.
Treatment: Empty stomach by emetics or lavage with tannin, charcoal, or permanganate of potassium in the water; recumbent position, chloroform or ether inhalation with artificial respiration; bromides, chloral, or morphine.
Symptoms: Vomiting, abdominal pain, muscular weakness, tremors;
reddish discoloration of the urine.
Treatment: Emetics or stomach tube, Epsom salts, ammonia, caffeine or black coffee, atropine, strychnine, external heat.
Symptoms: Burning in mouth and throat, numbness of extremities,
giddiness; dilated pupils, bright red cheeks; sometimes vomiting,
clonic
spasms followed by coma.
Treatment: Emetics or gastric lavage; stimulants, coffee, strychnine; cathartics, external warmth with cold to the head.
Symptoms: In from 15-30 minutes, nausea and vomiting; later tinged
with bile or blood; epigastric pain, purging; pulse first rapid then
failing;
cramps in the extremities, vertigo, syncope.
Treatment: Wash out the stomach, then give tannin, strong coffee,
white
of egg, milk and other demulcents; opiates to relieve pain.
Symptoms: Nausea and vomiting, restlessness, muscular cramps and
twitchings, palpitation and rapid pulse, dizziness, contracted pupils.
Treatment: Emetics or lavage of stomach, tannin, recumbency, heat to
surface of the body, cold to the head; stimulants, caffeine; morphine
and
atropine hypodermically, strychnine, ammonia
Symptoms: Vomiting, burning pain in mouth, esophagus, and stomach;
headache, vertigo, pulse very slow but irritable, muscular weakness,
shallow
and difficult respiration.
Treatment: Emetics or gastric lavage rarely needed; recumbency, heat
to the surface; opium, stimulants-ether, caffeine, strychnine; calcium
chloride; artificial respiration.
Symptoms: Styptic and metallic taste in the mouth, vomiting, sometimes
passage of blood-stained stools, abdominal cramps, thready pulse,
collapse.
Treatment: Lavage of stomach with tannin, sodium bicarbonate, or
chalk
in the water; white of egg, milk, soap, mucilage; recumbency, external
heat; strychnine and atropine hypodermically, strychnine, caffeine or
strong
hot coffee.
For more information contact:
Gregg Manning