ALLEGED POISONING BY ATROPINE. 
127 
370. Besides tlie knowledge of the properties?—I would say that the examination 
should be more practical than theoretical. These substances should go before them, 
and the knowledge of them should not be tested by what they could get up by reading, 
but by actual observation. 
(To be continued.) 
ALLEGED POISONING BY ATEOPINE. 
Mr. Charles Gordon Sprague was committed for trial by the magistrates of Ash¬ 
burton on the charge of administering poison to his wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, 
and servant. The whole party were taken ill after eating a rabbit pie. The symptoms, 
according to Mr. Gervis and other surgeons of Ashburton, were those of poisoning by 
belladonna or atropine; they were a rash resembling urticaria, dilated pupils, vomiting, 
incoherency of speech, and inability to walk. Atropine was proved to be in the posses¬ 
sion of the*accused, and Mr. Herapath, sen., of Bristol, deposed from experiments he had 
made “ that he was convinced that atropine had been introduced into the interior of the 
pie.” Bail for £1000, and two sureties of £500 each %vere accepted,—Mr. Chalker, the 
father-in-law, himself one of the persons alleged to have been poisoned, offering himself 
as bail for the full amount. 
The trial took place at Exeter, before Mr. Justice Keating, August 1st, when the 
evidence adduced failed to criminate the prisoner; and, although it was stated that 
atropine was detected, dilatation of the pupil having been produced by the application 
of a solution of a portion of the pie, yet it was proved that the prisoner was away before 
the time when the pie was made, and there was no evidence that he was seen near the 
place. His lordship, therefore, directed the jury accordingly, who returned a verdict of 
u Not Guilty.” 
The following is the process adopted by Mr. Herapath in his analysis:— 
“ The leg of the rabbit was introduced into dilute hydrochloric acid, and allowed to 
soak therein, in order that any narcotic poison in the rabbit might be dissolved out. The 
tests used were applied also to a solution of atropine, prepared by himself, with similar 
results. He applied to have the symptoms stated, in order that he might know what 
class of poisons to test for. The tests he applied gave indications of one of three poisons, 
■—atropine, daturia, and aconitina.” Mr. Herapath stated that he believed that atropine 
had never been eliminated from an animal substance before. It had never been commu¬ 
nicated before to the scientific world, but that now he should be put on his trial quite as 
much as the prisoner. 
In reference to the above case, Dr. Ogle, of Clarges Street, in a letter to the ‘ Times,’ 
August 4th, observes:—“ The trial of Mr. Sprague for attempted murder has ended in a 
verdict of ‘ Not Guilty.’ The world will infer that there has either been a failure of 
justice, or that, if he be innocent, there is some unknown poisoner at large. Either sup¬ 
position is an unpleasant one. Is there no escape from the dilemma ? Is it quite cer¬ 
tain that any crime at all has been committed? I think not. 
“ That the Chalker family were poisoned by belladonna is beyond all doubt. That 
this poison was contained in the rabbit is also a moral certainty. But is it necessary to 
suppose that it was put there by any human being ? Both prosecution and defence 
seem to have taken this for granted. Neither seem to have known that though bella¬ 
donna is a virulent poison to most animals, yet that rabbits eat it, and other poisonous 
plants of the same family, with perfect impunity. 
11 It is now some forty years since this fact was demonstrated experimentally by 
M. Bunge, of Berlin. A rabbit was fed for no less than eight days exclusively on the 
leaves of belladonna, hyoscyamus, and datura—all poisonous plants of the Order Sola- 
nacece , and at the end of the time the animal was as healthy as at the beginning. There 
was not even the slightest dilatation of the pupil, Avhich in other animals results from a 
very small quantity of this plant. 
“ Had that rabbit been made into a pie, those who ate of it would doubtless have 
shown symptoms of poisoning; for M. Bunge found that the poisonous principles had 
not escaped without absorption, but had been taken up into the animal’s body. _ 
“Now the belladonna grows in just such places as rabbits love to haunt—in shady 
