STRYCHNINE. 
333 
§ 39 8 -1 
an hour after Neill Cream left them they were found to be dying, and 
died within six hours. From Marsh 7 grains, from Shrivell nearly 2 
grains of strychnine were separated ; the probability is that each pill 
contained at least 3 grains of strychnine. The criminal met Louie 
Harvey on the Embankment, and gave her “ some pills ” to take ; she 
pretended to do so, but threw them away. Hence it seems probable that 
Neill Cream took advantage of the weakness that a large number of the 
population have for taking pills, and mostly poisoned his victims in this 
manner. Clover’s case was not diagnosed during life, but strychnine was 
found six or seven months after burial in the body. It may be men¬ 
tioned incidentally that the accused himself furnished the clue which 
led to his arrest, by writing letters charging certain members of the 
medical profession with poisoning these poor young prostitutes with 
strychnine. 
One of the most famous strychnine-poisoning cases was that of 
William Palmer. Baron Brampton, is his reminiscences, speaks of this 
case as follows :—“ William Palmer was a surgeon practising at Kugeley 
in Staffordshire. He was a great racing man, and owned one or two 
racers. A young gentleman of considerable fortune had taken to the 
turf and owned horses. Palmer and he became intimate as companions 
—in short, they were at Shrewsbury races, where Palmer lost and Cook 
won. The latter had considerable sums of money to receive on bets, 
and Palmer, desirous of getting hold of it, poisoned the poor man with 
strychnine, 1 took possession of his betting-book and papers, received all 
money due, and then had him hastily buried. Ultimately suspicion fell 
on Palmer, he was tried for the murder and hanged. There was little 
doubt he had murdered several others for the sake of the money for 
which he had insured their lives, notably his wife and mother, whose 
name he had forged to several bills. ... I may also add that at that 
time there was no known test for the discovery of strychnine in the 
body, and Palmer was convicted entirely upon the symptoms preceding 
death, and especially the peculiar arching of the body after.” 
§ 398. Fatal Dose. —In a research which may, from its painstaking 
accuracy, be called classical, F. A. Falck has thrown much light upon 
the minimum lethal dose of strychnine for various animals. It would 
seem that, in relation to its size, the frog is by no means so sensitive to 
strychnine as was believed, and that animals such as cats and rabbits 
take a smaller dose in proportion to their body weight. The method 
used by Falck was to inject subcutaneously a solution of known strength 
of strychnine nitrate, and, beginning at first with a known lethal dose, a 
second experiment was then made with a smaller dose, and if that 
proved fatal, with a still smaller, and so on, until such a quantity was 
1 Dr Taylor analysed the stomach and other organs,—he found antimony, but 
was not successful in tracing strychnine. 
