Note 256 — MINERAL POISONS.

The great impression made upon the public mind in Cornwall by the above trial, produced a disposition to regard every sudden death with more than usual jealousy. In consequence, therefore, of a report having arisen that a young woman had died after an illness of forty-eight hours, and been hastily buried at Madron, near Penzance, the magistrates of that district issued their warrant for the disinterment of the body, and requested the author’s attendance at the examination. The dissection was accordingly conducted in the church, when it appeared that the immediate cause of death had been an inflammation of the intestines; the stomach was found to contain a considerable portion of liquid, which was carefully collected and examined; no solid matter could be discovered in it, nor were any particles found to be adhering to the coats of the stomach. The fluid appeared to consist principally of the remains of a quantity of pennyroyal tea, which had been the last thing administered to the deceased. This was divided into several distinct portions, and placed in separate wine glasses, and submitted, in the presence of the High Sheriff, and some other gentlemen whose curiosity had been excited by the late trial of Donnall, to a series of experiments, amongst which the following may be particularized, as bearing upon the present question, and as affording an important elucidation of it.

A few drops of a solution of sub-carbonate of potass were added to the liquid, in one of the glasses, when its colour, which was originally of a light hazel, was instantly deepened into a reddish yellow; the sulphate of copper was then applied, when a precipitate fell down, which every one present simultaneously pronounced to be of a “vivid grass green” hue; but, on pouring off the supernatant liquid, and transferring the precipitate upon a sheet of white paper, it assumed the blue colour which is so characteristic of the carbonate of copper. The explanation of the phenomenon, and the fallacy to which it gave rise, became obvious; the yellow colour imparted to the liquid by the alkali, was the effect of the latter body upon the vegetable extractive matter of the infusion. The other portions were then strictly examined, but no indications of arsenic or any other metallic poison were discovered.