It was testified at the
trial that conine, the active principle of hemlock, is intensely
poisonous. No chemical antidote is known. A fifth of a grain has
serious results; a drop is fatal. An injection of a most minute
quantity of real conine will kill a mouse, for instance, almost
instantly. But the conine which I have isolated in the body is
inert!"
It came like a bombshell to the prosecution, so bewildering was
the discovery.
"Inert?" cried Kilgore and Hollins almost together. "It can't be.
You are making sport of the best chemical experts that money could
obtain. Inert? Read the evidence--read the books."
"On the contrary," resumed Craig, ignoring the interruption, "all
the reactions obtained by the experts have been duplicated by me.
But, in addition, I tried this one test which they did not try. I
repeat: the conine isolated in the body is inert."
We were too perplexed to question him.
"Alkaloids," he continued quietly, "as you know, have names that
end in 'in' or 'ine'--morphine, strychnine, and so on.
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