Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 50 Article 4 Issue 4 November-December Winter 1959 In Scopolamine Veritas Gilbert Geis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Gilbert Geis, In Scopolamine Veritas, 50 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 347 (1959-1960) This Criminal Law is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. IN SCOPOLAMINE VERITAS The Early History of Drug- Induced Statements GILBERT GEIS The author is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Los Angeles State College. He has con- tributed two leading articles to this Journal: "Jeremy Bentham" (in our Pioneer Series) Vol. 46, No. 2, pages 159 if, and "Cameras in the Courtroom," Vol. 47, No. 5, pages 546 ff.-EDITOR. Every man has reminiscences which he would time, Scopoli ranged over the mountains, making a not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He painstaking collection and catalogue, published in has other matters which he would not reveal even 1760 as FLORA CARNIOLICA, of more than 1500 to his friends, but only to himself, and that is botanical specimens. It was four years later that secret; but there are other things which a man is Jacquin, in a massive effort to bring taxonomical afraid even to tell himself.-Fyodor Dostoevsky. order to botany, honored Scopoli by giving the name Scopola carniolica5 to the physician's major Possibly no part of Europe has as fascinating a discovery, a 1-foot high, purple-flowered shrub which grew in calcareous soil in damp, stony, and topography as Carniola. The onetime Austrian 6 duchy, perpetually deeply involved in the labyrin- billy districts. thic political intrigue of central Europe,' is bounti- Pharmacologists began intensive investigations fully endowed with caves, subterranean waterways, of the properties of this and kindred plants toward and some of the most colorful grottoes in the the end of the nineteenth century, and eventually world.2 Legend has it that Jason and the Argonauts a German professor at the University of Marburg, passed through Carniola on the way from Colches, Ernst A. Schmidt (1845-1921), isolated the 7 and during the centuries the area has borne succes- principle constituent of the plant's dried rhizome, 3 s sive onslaughts from foreign invaders. a drug which he named scopolamine (C17H_.N0 4). It was to the Carniola area, with its rich quick- demician, thief or otherwise, and publicly rebuked his silver mines, that the Austrian government in accusers "in a manner which was supposed to have about caused Scopoli's death" in 1788. GEN. BIOG. Dicv. at 1750 dispatched Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, 270. a physician with a catholicity of avocational inter- 6JACQUIN, 1 OBSERVATIONS 20 (1764). Three years ests that was to provide the background for his later, Linnaeus changed the name to Hyoscyamus scopolia (VON LmNt, MANTISSA 46 k1767), but Jacquin's major contributions to science. Scopoli had been designation prevailed. See also, HoLMEs, The Natural born in the Tyrol in 1723, and had received his History of Scopola Carniolica, Jacq., 49 PHARm. J. & medical degree at Innsbruk before his appoint- TRANS. 468 (1889); MAiscH, Additional Notes on 4 Scopola, 42 A. J. PHARm. 107 (1890). ment to the Idria mines in Carniola. In his spare 6 Scopoui, FLORA CARNiOLiCA 288 (1st ed. 1760). 7RUSBY, Scopola, in REFERENCE HANDBOOK OF THE I Cf., AMBLER, BACKGROUND TO DANGER (1937) for MEDICAL SCIENCES 677 (Stedman ed. 4th ed. 1923) a fine description of the area, and a stirring tale of some notes of its intrigue. ...the rhizome of which the drug almost wholly con- 25 ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA 121 (5th ed. 1878). sists is usually from 2-4 inches in length, as thick as the 3 BAKER, AusTIA: HER PEOPLE AND THEIR HOME- fingers, sympodial in development, shortly and sharply LANDS 130 (1913). flexious, and marked on the upper surface with rather 4 The major biographical data is from 5 BIOGRAPHIE closely set large shallowy cup-shaped stem scars. The UNIvERsErE~ 483 (1838). See also, GENERAL Bio- outer surface is gray brown.... Its fracture is accom- GRAPHICAL DICTIONARY (Chambers ed. 1816); Newton, panied by the emission of the same puff of dust that Preface, in ScoPou's ORNITHOLOGICAL PAPERS (1882); accompanies that of belladonna root. 31 ENCICLOPEDIA ITAILAiIA 208 (1936-1940); 20 8 Sc I'mT, Ueber Scopolamin (Hyoscin), 230 ARCHrv ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA 134 (1958). Scopoli was DER PHARM CE 207 (1892); SCHMIDT, Ueber das Scopo- finally appointed to a professorship of chemistry and lamin, 232 ibid. 409 (1894). See also, SHOEMAKER, botany at the University of Pavia, and became em- Practical Value of Some Old Remedies-Scopolamine broiled in an attempt to have a renowned colleague re- Hydrobromide, 82 N. Y. Med. J. 749 (1905); KREXMERS & moved for robbery of the public museum. The Emperor, UNDANY, HISTORY OF PHARMACY: A GuIDE AND A reports allege, was loathe to dismiss the famous aca- SuRvEY 472 (2nd ed. 1951); McCLEAN & IvrRNEy- GILBERT GElS [Vol. 50 It was a drug which occurred either colorless, or led to experimentation with the new drug as an in white crystals, or as a white granular powder. It anesthetic, and by 1900 Schneiderlin had suggested was oderless and slightly efflorescent in dry air.' its employment in surgical operations.r7 Further chemical investigation quickly estab- Two years later, other German doctors began lished the identical nature of scopolamine and experiments with scopolamine in obstetrical hyoscine, a drug which had been extracted from deliveries, soon developing a program of "twilight the plant kyoscyarnus niger about a decade earlier." sleep" (diimrnerschlaf)that was to excite worldwide It was this latter plant, known as henbane, which attention and produce heated debates on its figured in numerous stories about poisoning from merits. "It was about the only subject not smoth- remote times," being mentioned as early as 681 by ered by the European war," one writer noted in Milan.' 2 Benedictus Crispus, the Archbishop of 19 15 ,8 while another, with some whimsy, recalled The dancing frenzy and the witches' madness of that "the first accounts of its Use ... were almost the Middle Ages was supposed to be traceable in enough to make a man break down and weep because part to the use of Black Henbane; the inhalation he would not have a baby."' 9 Advocates claimed of fumes of hyoscyamus was alleged to have that the new drug, combined with morphine as a provided the stimulation for the processions of birth anesthetic and analgesic, "abolished the the flagellants, and, before these, the Scythians primal sentence of the Scripture: 'In sorrow thou were reported to burn the seeds of Black Henbane shall bring forth children."', 0 Opponents pointed to in order to put themselves into a state of manic lethal dangers, both to the mother and to the intoxication.1 More classically, in HAmLET there expected child, inherent in use of the drug,2' while appears the murdered king, telling his son that he careful scientists, attempting to evaluate the bar- had been poisoned "with juice of cursed henbana rage of data published about the new procedure, in a vial", a "leperous distillment" which "holds generally decided that the evidence itself was 4 22 such an enmity with blood of man." contradictory and inconclusive. - The depressant effect of scopolamine was soon 7 well known. Use of the drug was found to cause 1 SCHNEIDERLIN, Ein nene Narkose, 54 AERZTLICHE drowsiness, euphoria, amnesia, fatigue, and dream- MITTEILUNGEN AUS UND FUR BADEN 101 (May 31, 15 1900); SCHNMIDERLL-, Die Skopolamine (Hyoszin) less sleep, through depression of the psychic and Mforphium Narkose, 50 M'NCHENER MEDIZINISCHE motor centers of the brain, resulting in a hypnotic WocHENscHRIFT 374 (1903). See also, VAN LEEUNVEN & GY6RGI, On Scopolamine-Morphine Narcosis, 18 3. condition which passed into narcosis if the dosage PHARM. &. EXP'L. THERAPEUTICS 449 (1921). 6 was large enough.' These characteristics inevitably "1LEUPP & HENDRICK, Twilight Sleep in America, 44 MCCLURE'S MAGAZrNE 25 (April 1915). 19 RAPER, MAN AGAINST PAIN: THE EPIC OF ANES- COOK, 2 TEXTBOOK OF THEORETICAL BOTANY 1899 THESIA 225 (1945). One company, advertising scopola- (1956). mine pills, became completely rapturous: 9 DISPENSATORY OF THE UNITED STATES Or AMERICA Women are canceling their engagements With their 221 (OsoL & FARRAR, JR. ed. 25th ed. 1955). old physicians to secure the attendance of those who '0 HENRY, THE PLANr ALKALOIDS 84 (1949); PETrY, employ the Hyoscin-Morphin-Cactin tablet. Men write NARCOTIC DRUG DISEASES AND ALLIED AILMENTS 168 to us that they are extinguishing the fear of child-birth, (1913). putting a stop to family quarrels, and one man goes so 11FLtiCKIGER & HANBURY, PHARMACOGRAPHIA: A far as to predict an increase in the birthrate of the HISTORY OF THE PRINCIPAL DRUGS OF VEGETABLE American women as a result. ORIGIN MET WITH IN GREAT BRITAIN AND BRITISH Quoted (with disapproval) in 49 J.A.M.A. 2103 INDIA 416 (1874); Scopolamine: History, Pharnacologi- (1907). cal Actions, and Clinical LUse, 9 ROCHE REV. 229 0 TRACY &LEUPP, PainlessChildbirth, 43 MCCLURE'S (1945). MAGAZINE 2 _ 37 (June 1914). 1 DE RENZI, I COLLECTIO SALERNITANA 74, 8 21 HATCHER, Scopolanin-Morphin in Narcosis and in (1852). Childbirth, 54 J.A.M.A. 446 (1910). The disadvantages 11SCHENK, BOOK OF POISONS 37 (Bullock tr. 1956). can be summed up as 1) needs constant supervision; 14 SHAKESPEARE, Handet, Prince of Dennark, in 2) asepsis difficult to maintain; 3) increases incidence of COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 870, 877 operative deliveries; 4) neonatal mortality higher- (Craig ed.