602 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 772 . 
under the given circumstances, no fluid of any kind could have reached the stomach 
through the nose or mouth after death—thus anticipating what the defence after¬ 
wards claimed, that the undertaker was responsible for the arsenic discovered in the 
remains. 
In order to gather further light upon the possibility of cadaveric imbibition of 
embalming fluid through the unbroken skin, test was made for zinc in the heart and 
stomach, and distinct traces of the metal were found in each instance. That at 
least a portion of the arsenic found in the body was due to post-mortem causes was 
thus distinctly proven. A weighed portion (62 grms.) of the stomach and contents was 
then most carefully analysed quantitatively for both zinc and arsenic, with the fol¬ 
lowing results : arsenic, 0 0648 grm., and zinc, 0-0079 grm. Bearing in mind the 
relative quantities of the two metals in the embalming fluid, it will be seen that the 
arsenic found in the 62 grms. of the stomach was nearly twelve times larger than it 
should have been to have balanced the zinc which was also present. This fact, 
together with the discovery of crystals of white arsenic in the stomach, constituted 
the case for the prosecution, so far as the chemical evidence was concerned. 
The defence made an unsuccessful effort to show that the crystals of the trioxide 
originated from the spontaneous evaporation of the embalming fluid. The prosecu¬ 
tion met this point by proving that such fluid had been abundantly experimented 
upon by exposure to a very low temperature during an interval of several months, 
and also by spontaneous evaporation, with a view of testing that very question, and 
that the results had in every case been negative. Special importance was given these 
experiments, because of the well-known separation of octahedral crystals during the 
spontaneous evaporation of a hydrochloric acid solution of the white oxide, it having 
also appeared that, in the manufacture of the embalming fluid, the arsenic was used 
as white arsenic. 
A very strong point was finally raised for the defence by the inability of the 
expert on the side of the prosecution to state positively whether or not an embalm¬ 
ing fluid of the above composition would diffuse as a whole through dead tissue, or 
its several parts would be imbibed at different rates of speed, the zinc portion becom¬ 
ing arrested by albuminoid material and being therefore outstripped by the arsenic, 
or vice versa. The prisoner was ultimately acquitted. 
In a case which occurred in the Western States of America, there 
was good reason for believing that arsenic had been introduced into the 
corpse of a man after his decease. With regard to the imbibition of 
arsenic thus introduced, Orfila 1 says :—“ I have often introduced into 
the stomach (as well as the rectum) of the corpses of men and dogs 
2 to 3 grms. of arsenious acid, dissolved in from 400 to 500 grms. of 
water, and have examined the different viscera at the end of eight, ten, 
or twenty days. Constantly I have recognised the effects of cadaveric 
imbibition. Sections of the liver or other organs which touch the 
digestive canal, carefully cut and analysed, furnished arsenic, which 
could not be obtained sensibly (or at all) from sections which had 
not been in contact with this canal. If the corpse remained long on 
the back after arsenious acid had been introduced into the stomach, I 
could obtain this metal from the left half of the diaphragm and from 
the inferior lobe of the left lung, whilst I did not obtain it from other 
portions of the diaphragm nor from the right lung.” Dr Eeece has 
also made some experiments on the imbibition of arsenic after death. 
He injected solutions of arsenious acid into the stomach of various 
1 Op. cit., i. 309. 
