The adult for
whom the morphine had been prescribed recovered immediately
under the beneficent influence of the calomel, but the baby
for whom the calomel had been ordered died from the effects of
the first morphine pill administered. All this had occurred
in 1897--five years before. The remainder of the pills had
disappeared.
Upon the trial (no inconsistent contention having been entered
in the police court) the prisoner's counsel introduced six
separate defences, to wit: That the prescription had been
properly filled with calomel and that the child had died from
natural causes, the following being suggested.
1. Acute gastritis.
2. Acute nephritis.
3. Cerebro-spinal meningitis.
4. Fulminating meningitis.
5. That the child had died of apomorphine, a totally distinct
poison.
6. That it had received and taken calomel, but that, having
eaten a small piece of pickle shortly before, the conjunction
of the vegetable acid with the calomel had formed, in the
child's stomach, a precipitate of corrosive sublimate, from
which it had died.
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