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Doctor Reichert has published a study of twelve hundred such starches from all sorts of plants. In this case, it not only proves to be aconitin but the starch granules themselves can be recognized. They came from this piece of arrow poison." Every eye was fixed on him now. "Besides," he rapped out, "in the soft soil beneath the window of Professor Northrop's room, I found footprints.
"I think," replied Kennedy, speaking slowly and deliberately, "that it is very much like the Northrop case. You haven't taken that up yet?" "Only superficially. What do you make of it?" asked the coroner. "I had an idea that it might be aconitin poisoning," he said. Leslie glanced at him keenly for a moment. "Then you'll never prove anything in the laboratory," he said.
Furthermore, in laminitis there is an elevation of the temperature, an almost invariable indication for aconitin.
In this connection, Campbell says: The early and vigorous administration of aconitin in laminitis to its full physiological effect, is more logical.
Owing to its exceeding toxic nature, the smallness of the dose required to produce death, and the lack of tests for recognition, aconitin possesses rather more interest in legal medicine than most other poisons. It is one of the few substances which, in the present state of toxicology, might be criminally administered and leave no positive evidence of the crime.
It is true that we thought at first of putting poison on our arrows intended for lions, and we did coat some broad-heads with mucilage and powdered strychnine, but we never used them. My physiologic experiments with curare, the South American arrow poison, aconitin, the Japanese Ainu poison, and buffogen, the Central American poison, had convinced me that strychnine was more deadly.
"What do you think it is?" I asked, unable to restrain myself. "Aconite," he answered slowly, "of which the active principle is the deadly poisonous alkaloid, aconitin."
"If that is the case," broke in Doctor Leslie, "it is hopeless to connect anyone directly in that way with these murders. There is no test for aconitin." I thought Sato's face was more composed and impassive than ever. Doctor Bernardo, however, was plainly excited. "What no test NONE?" asked Kennedy, leaning forward eagerly.
As in the case of most of the poisonous alkaloids, aconitin does not produce any decidedly characteristic post-mortem appearances. There is no way to distinguish it from other alkaloids, in fact, no reliable chemical test. The physiological effects before death are all that can be relied on.
The dose of the active principle, aconitin nitrate, is about one six-hundredth of a grain. There are no color tests, no reactions, as in the case of the other organic poisons." I wondered what he was driving at. Was there, indeed, no test? Had the murderer used the safest of poisons one that left no clue? I looked covertly at Sato's face. It was impassive.