198
Enclosure 3.
Report of the Government Analyst.
ANALYTICAL DEPARTMENT,
GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL,
HONGKONG, 10th January, 1885.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward a report of the analytical work conducted in the temporary laboratory of this Hospital from November 1st 1883, the day on which I took charge, to November
1st 1884.
2. For the sake of convenience I have arranged the report under the several headings, Toxicolo- gical, Water, General, Remarks.
TOXICOLOGICAL.
3. There have been only four cases of death from suspected poisoning in which chemical analyses were deemed necessary by Her Majesty's Coroner.
4. In two instances a most careful search failed to reveal the presence of any poison either mineral or alkaloidal: in the third opium was detected; and in the fourth case a poison was brought to light which, so far as its chemical characteristics are concerned, is, I believe, entirely new in the experience of toxicologists.
5. The post-mortem examination in this case pointed to a neurotic poison as the cause of death and as one of the persons who was said to have been under its influence had complained of "dimness of sight," Dr. WHARRY suggested that the mydriatic largely used by the natives here and in India, viz. Datura Alba' might have been the agent employed.
6. A direct search was therefore made for this poison and its absence having been established, an extended enquiry was instituted, which resulted in the detection of the poisonous alkaloid of "Gelsemium Elegans," of the natural order Loganiaceae, in the stomach contents of the male adult and female child and also in the food, of which they were said to have partaken.
7. It is impossible for me in the present report to give full details of this investigation, but the following observations will be perhaps of service to others in China who are engaged in forensic determinations.
8. In the course of an analysis of the contents of the stomach of the male adult, an alkaloid was extracted which gave a peculiar purplish-red colour: very much like that displayed by Gelsemia, when tested with oxidizing agents. The same re-action was also observed on applying similar re-agents to the alkaloid separated from the stomach contents of the female child, and in a still more marked manner on that derived from the tea infusion seized by the Police when the case was reported. 9. At this stage of the enquiry I could find no record of a poison having the above character being used by the Chinese, and I was not aware that anything closely allied to Gelsemia---the alkaloid of "Gelsemium Nitidum," Michaux, syn. "Gelsemium Sempervirens," Aiton, could be obtained in any form from the native herbalists.
:
10. An examination of two reputed poisons was therefore at once undertaken from one of which, white Jasmin root, mentioned in your annual report for 1882 as being used in conjunction with the flowers and leaves of Datura Alba,' I failed to separate anything alkaloidal; but from the second, (one spoken of as being very deadly), an alkaloid was extracted which exhibited exactly the same colouration with similar re-agents as the substance isolated from the stomach contents, &c.
11. By the kindness of Dr. WHARRY I was enabled to obtain experimental evidence as to the physiological action of the drug, for a hypodermic solution of the alkaloid prepared from the root and the tea infusion caused the same poisonous symptoms when injected into some small guinea-pigs. This and the identity of the chemical reactions between the alkaloid isolated from the food and stomach contents and that from the Chinese root, left no doubt but that a decoction of the drug known by the name of Fooh-moon-keung had been either prepared with, or mixed in the tea of which the three members of the family drank on the night of the supposed murder.
12. It was only at the last moment, when the case was dismissed by the Magistrate, that I was able with the generous assistance of Mr. FORD, the Director of the Botanical Gardens, to state with certainty, from what plant this poisonous alkaloid was derived.
13. There are only three known species of the genus Gelsemium (Jussieu), one in North America, G. Sempervirens, yielding the well known eclectic remedy; another in Sumatra; and one in China, G. Elegans, Benth., now under notice. The last named grows very sparingly in Hongkong, but more abundantly on the neighbouring mainland of China.* A six hours' journey specially undertaken in December last to find specimens in flower on Chinese territory, having as guide a collector of drugs for the shops in Hongkong, only revealed however one small plant.
* Flora Hongkongensis Bentham 1861 p. 229.