Yes, I am. And just there lies the
trouble. They are so very conflicting as to be almost worse than
useless, as far as I can see. We found near the unfortunate woman
a small pill-box with three capsules still in it. It was labelled
'One before retiring' and bore the name of a certain druggist and
the initials 'Dr. C. W. H.' Now, I am convinced that the initials
are merely a blind and do not give any clue. The druggist says
that a maid from the Vandam house brought in the prescription,
which of course he filled. It is a harmless enough
prescription--contains, among other things, four and a half
grains of quinine and one-sixth of a grain of morphine. Six
capsules were prepared altogether.
"Now, of course my first thought was that she might have taken
several capsules at once and that it was a case of accidental
morphine poisoning, or it might even be suicide. But it cannot be
either, to my mind, for only three of the six capsules are gone.
No doubt, also, you are acquainted with the fact that the one
invariable symptom of morphine poisoning is the contraction of
the pupils of the eyes to a pin-point--often so that they are
unrecognisable. Moreover, the pupils are symmetrically
contracted, and this symptom is the one invariably present in
coma from morphine poisoning and distinguishes it from all other
forms of death.
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