128 
ALLEGED POISONING BY ATROPINE. 
nooks and deserted ruins. It may be found in blossom there in the month of July— 
the very month, that is, in which this disaster took place. What more likely than that 
the rabbit which furnished that unhappy dinner had fed abundantly on this plant, and 
that its flesh was impregnated with the poisonous principle ? I, for one, would rather 
hold this view than believe that so hideous a crime as that of wholesale poisoning had 
been committed.” 
In reply to the above, Dr. M‘Gill, one of the medical witnesses for the prosecution, 
writes “ Dr. Ogle says he has no doubt ‘ that the Chalker family were poisoned by 
belladonna, and that the poison was contained in the rabbit.’ There is certainly no 
doubt of the poison being in the pie. Atropia was found by Professor Herapath not in 
the rabbit but on the surface of the rabbit’s leg, and also in a little of the scrapings from 
the pie-dish. Supposing the hypothesis advanced by Dr. Ogle to be correct, viz. that 
the rabbit in question had been partaking of the belladonna plant to excess, and so 
poisoned its consumers, the analysis ought to have brought to light the presence of malic 
acid, with wdiich atropia exists in combination with the plant, and also pseudotoxin, 
phytolacca, gum, wax, chlorophvlle, salts, etc. None, of these, however, were found, the 
only substances discovered in the pie not belonging to sound or healthy flesh being com¬ 
mon salt and atropia. 
“ It also seems very strange that of the thousands of belladonna-eating rabbits annu¬ 
ally sold and consumed in England, this solitary rabbit should be the only one ever 
having produced such symptoms. Cases of poisoning after partaking of animal food are 
by no means rare, and a case is mentioned in the ‘ Lancet ’ of September 13, 1862, in 
which ten persons were dangerously ill after partaking of a rabbit pie, but on none of 
these occasions were there the symptoms of poisoning by atropia. 
“ Goats use hemlock as an article of food, but in no instance ever published has their 
flesh when eaten by man produced the symptoms of poisoning by conia, and many ani¬ 
mals used as food by man consume substances of which man could not partake with 
impunity.” 
The following is Dr. Ogle’s rejoinder:— 
“ G r - M‘Gill brings forward four arguments to refute the hypothesis by which I have 
attempted to explain the poisoning case at Ashburton. His arguments are these :— 
‘*1. The poison was found, not in the rabbit, but on its surface, and also in the 
scrapings of the pie-dish. 
u 2. None of the other substances besides atropine which exist in belladonna—viz. 
malic acid, pseudotoxin, phytolacca, gum, salts, chlorophylle—were discovered in the 
analysis. 
.“3. Persons are sometimes made ill by rabbit-pie when there has been no poison 
mixed with it. 
“ The flesh of animals which have eaten poisonous herbs—as that of a goat after 
eating hemlock—is not known to be poisonous. 
‘‘Allow me to say a few words on each of these arguments separately, premising that 
I have no fuller account of the evidence than that given in your columns. 
. “ 1* There is no evidence that the substance of the rabbit’s leg did not contain atro¬ 
pine. The fluid obtained by soaking the leg in water was found to contain this poison, 
and it was inferred that it was derived from the surface ; but no attempt was made to 
analyse the deeper portion of the flesh. Even had such been made, and no poison 
found, this negative evidence would have been insufficient to establish its absence, for 
Dr. Herapath states in his evidence that such is the difficulty of detecting this substance 
when mixed with organic matter that it had hitherto baffled all chemical analysis. That 
some of the poison should escape into the dish with the meat juices during the process 
of cooking is not surprising. 
‘ 2. The substances mentioned by Dr. M‘Gill exist in belladonna, and some of them, 
at any rate, in other, and, in fact, in almost all plants. In order for the argument to be 
of any weight, Dr. M‘Gill must show that these substances are capable of absorption 
uncharged from the stomach or intestines ; that when absorbed they are capable of de¬ 
tection, and, chief of all, that in this individual case they were searched for. The last 
of these points is enough for my purpose. No search was made for them, so that it is 
not astonishing that they were not found. 
“ 3. I am unable to see the force of the third argument. It would have some weight 
were it intended to show that neither belladonna nor its alkaloid, atropine, was concerned 
