Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 50 Article 4 Issue 4 November-December

Winter 1959 In 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 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 ,' is bounti- Pharmacologists began intensive investigations fully endowed with caves, subterranean waterways, of the properties of this and kindred 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 '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 , 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 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 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. Oxford ed. 1943). operative and accumulative effect of drugs on child's 11 GOODMAN & GILMAN, PHARMACOLOGICAL BASIS respiratory system. GREENHILL, PRINCIPLES & PRAC- OF THERAPEUTICS 544 (2nd ed. 1955). TICE OF OBSTETRICS 257 (10th ed. 1951). See also, 2 16 GRUBER, Scopolamine (Hyoscine), in 12 CY- OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY 281 (Adair ed. 1940); CLOPEDIA OF MEDICINE, SURGERY, SPECIALTIES 631 SCHWARTZ & KREBS, Scopolamin-Morphin Seminar- (rev. ed. 1957). The most famous lethal use of scopola- cosis, 81 J.A.M.A. 1082, 1088 (1923). mine was that in the Crippen case (TRIAL OF HAWLEY 22 GRUBER, op. cit. supra note 16 at 635; HE:NDEE, HARVEY CRIPPEN (Young ed. 1920). A fictional illustra- Review of the Literature of Scopolanzin-Morphin Anes- tion is CHRISTIE, Philomel Cottage, in WITNESS FOR THE thesia, 11 Am. MED. 216 (Feb. 10, 1906). The drug is PROSECUTION 152 (1954). still in decent favor today, with an estimated usage in 19591 IN SCOPOLA.1MINE VERITAS

Twilight sleep had begun its flamboyant ob- blended together synergisticallv,:" were begun stetrical history at Freiburg when Richard von when the patient started definite labor contrac- Steinbuchel conducted research into its efficacy as tions. After the initial morphine-scopolamine shot, a general birth anesthetic.2 Steinbuchel was the patient was given repeated injections of attempting primarily to reduce pain rather than scopolamine in dosages determined by her particu- to induce a state of narcosis and therefore em- lar mental state rather than by any lapse of time. ployed a dosage considerably under that which If all went perfectly, the patient would have no recollection of anything that took place after the was eventually used in the "twilight sleep" 2- second or third injection. program. Steinbuchel's work was later taken up While scopolamine could blur and blunt memory and expanded by a corps of assistants, headed by for recent events to an "almost unbelievable J. Christian Gauss2' and Bernard Kr6nig.2 degree," 1 the difficult aspect of its use in twilight The particular parturient charm of twilight sleep lay in a determination of the moment when sleep was that it could produce, rather than merely the optimum dosage had been administered, a state of anesthesia, a state of complete amnesia, neither too much nor too little, so that no mnemo- a state in which the emergent mother lost all nic Irish pennants-"islands of memory" one recollection of the details of the birth process. To commentator labelled them-9-hung loose, nor, inveigh this attractive condition called for the conversely, not too much drug had been given use of some comparatively involved and intricate so that it might delay delivery or adversely affect procedures. The patient would be kept in a the unborn child. darkened, quiet room. Her eves were shaded and To calculate this moment with a precise nicety, her cars plugged with cotton, and all extraneous Gauss, after much experimentation, developed a disturbances were minimized. The mother-to-be series of so-called memory tests, "elusive as they 30 required constant supervision-one of the draw- were decisive." With watch in hand, the practi- backs of the procedure-because the drugs tioner in attendance at the birth methodically occasionally made her confused and very restless. requested the patient to recall and identify various items Injections of scopolamine and morphine, which and events, repeating the experiment at half hour intervals until it became apparent that 31 60 percent of births in the United States. EASTMAN, the drug had deadened powers of recollection. WILLIAMS' OBSTTRICS 424 (10th ed. 1958). See also, These tests were considered "the best and only KmSCHBAUM, Scopolamine in Obstetrics, 44 A. J. means of gauging the consciousness of the pa- OBST. & GxNEc. 664(1942). ' 3 - 2 VON STEINBUCHEL, SCHMERZVERMLNDERUNG UND tient, and their routine employment was the NARK OsE IN DER GEBURTSHELFE (1903); vON STEIN- key to the eventual use of scopolamine as a so- BUCHEL, Die Skopolamin-.Mlorphiunz-Halbnarkosein Der 26 Geburtshiilfe, 1 BEITRAEGE Z. GEBURTSHULFE UND KRANTZ & CARR, THE PHARMACOLOGICAL PRINCI- GYNAKOLOGIE FESTCHRIFT Z. RUDOLF CHROBAK 294 PLES OF MEDICAL PRACTICE 835 (4th ed. 1958). (1903); vON STEINB-cHIEL, Vorldufige M1illheilung Uber 2,ADAIR, op. cit. supra note 21 at 781; GODDARD, Hlow Die Anwendung Skopolanin-Morphium Injektionen in Science Solves Crime: "Truth Serum" or Scopolamine in der Geburishiilfe, 26 ZENTRALBLATT FUR GYNAKOLOGIE the Interrogation of Criminal Suspects, 10 HYGErA 337, 1304 (1902). The best summary is CLAYE, The Coming 339 (1932). The new development keynoted a social of Twilight Sleep, in EvOLuTION, OF OBSTETRIC ANAL- novel by Edith Wharton, in which a character, installed GESlA 25 (1939). See also, Moore, Contributions of in the "most perfect 'Twilight Sleep' establishment in Anesthesia to Psychiatry, 19 YALE J. BIOL. & MED. 195 the country.., drifted into motherhood as lightly and (1946); CASTIGLIONT, HISTORY OF MEDICINE 1063 unperceivingly as if the wax idol which suddenly ap- (1947); GARRISON, INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF peared in the cradle at her bedside had been brought MEDICINE 739 (4th ed. 1929); KEYS, HISTORY OF there in one of the big bunches of hot-house roses." SURGICAL ANESTHESIA 48 (1945); BECK & ROSENTHAL, WHARTON, TWILIGHT SLEEP 14 (1927). OBSTETRICAL PRACTICE 978 (6th ed. 1955). V MUEHLBERGER, Interrogation Under Drug In- 21GAUSS' major contributions are: Die Anwendung fluence: The So-Called 'Truth Serum' Technique, 42 J. Des Skopolamin-Morphium Ddimmerschalfes in Der CRim, L. 513, 517 (1951). Geburtshilfe, 2 MEDIZINISCHE KiINIK 136 (1906); 29ADAIR, op. cit. supra note 21 at 781. 30 Geburten im Kiinstlichen Dantinerschlaf,78 ARCHIV IFR LUEPP & HENRicK, op. cit. supra note 18 at 34. GYNAXOLOGiE 79 (1906); Bericht Uber Dis Erste 31GRUBER, Op. cit. supra note 16 at 635; CLAYE, op. Tausend Geburten im Skopolamin-Ddiimmerschlaf, 54 cit. supra note 23 at 33; SOLLmANN, A MANUAL OF MUJNCHENER MEDIZINISCHE WOCHENSCHRIFT 157 PHARMACOLOGY & ITS APPLICATION TO THERAPEUTICS (1907); Die Technik Des Skopolamin-Morphium in Der & TOXICOLOGY 397 (8th ed. 1957); HARRAR & MCPHER- Geburishiilfe, 31 ZENTRALBLATT FUR G.AKOLOGIE 33 sox, Scopolainine-NarcophinSeminarcosis in Labor, 69 (1907). A. J. OBSTET. 621 (1914). 25 KR6NIG, Scopolamine-MorphineN-arcosis in Labour, 52 KNIPE, The Freiburg Method of Dimmerschlaf or 2 BRIr, M. J. 805 (1908). Tweilight Sleep, 69 A. J. OBSTET. 884 (1914). GILBERT GEIS [Vol. 50

called "police drug'"n alleged to produce accuracy work, firm in the conviction that there was some- in responses to interrogation on criminal matters. thing very worthwhile in his method."36 House published some eleven articles on scopol- THE WORK OF DR. HOUSE amine from 1921 through 1929, with a noticeable increase in polemical zeal as time passed and what The central figure in this development was an had begun as something of a scientific statement American obstetrician who spent the better part turned into more of a dedicated crusade.H of his professional life in the stereotypically buc- In his initial contribution, House outlined his colic role of a small-town doctor. Dr. R(obert) personal experiences with the German ddmmcr- E(rnst) House stands unchallenged as the "father schlaf. He had, he wrote, traveled to New York to of truth serum," and in many ways he shows a observe "twilight sleep" at first hand when the considerable number of the traits often associated method came into controversy'. On his return to these later days with American male parents. He Texas, he employed the technique in some 500 was exaggerative in regard to his scientific prod- cases, with complete satisfaction.H House then uct, notoriously blind to its failings, grossly proceeded to present a pioneering explanation of indulgent of its wayward behavior, and stub- the potentialities of scopolamine as a police in- bornly proud of its minor achievements. He was vestigative weapon: also, unfortunately, not particularly intellectual, grammatical, or scientifically astute. On the other In my first cases I asked questions to see how much hand, House possessed superabundant quantities more medicine to be employed was required. I observed my patients always answered my queries correctly, so of sincerity, humanity, and integrity-rare enough I carried my investigations further with the results qualities in early police work. A religious man, he sufficient to Satisfy and prove to me that when any felt impelled by what he considered to be a higher person is completely under the influence of the drug... order of duty to carry on his work in the face of with care in questioning .... they will tell the truth severe criticism, and many times expressed a relating to any question that they are asked so far as deeply-felt belief in the ultimate vindication of they know.19 the drug that he championed for scientific and In this initial statement, House put forth the humane police work. humane considerations that were incessantly to House, a slightly built, partially bald man, 36 LARSON, LYING standing about five feet, seven inches,N was born AND ITS DETECTION: A STUDY OF DECEPTION & DECEPTION TESTS 204 (1932). See also, in Dallas in 1875, and spent two years as a student MAvHEwS, Narcoanalysis for Criminal Interrogation, at the University of Texas before receiving his in LEGAL MEDICINE 945, 948 (Gradwohl ed. 1954). 3 The articles by House medical degree that I have found are these: one year later-in 1899-at Tulane 1) The Physiological Effects of Scopolamine-the Re- University. Soon after, he returned to Farris, vised Method of 'Twilight Sleep', 30 MEDICAL IN- Texas, a small farming and brick manufacturing SURANCE & HEALTH CONSERVATION 391 (1921); 2) The Use of Scopolamin in Criminology, 18 TEXAS ST. J. community about one-half mile north of the MEDICINE 259 (1922), reprinted 2 A. J. POLICE SCIENCE Dallas county line, where he practiced medicine 328 (1931); 3) Scopolamin Anesthesia, 30 SOUTHWEST until his death from hemiplegia in 1930.35 Perhaps J. MEDICINE & SURGERY 7 (December 1922); 4) The Physician & the Criminal, 42 MEDICAL HERALD & the finest tribute to House after his death came ELEcTRoTHERAPIST 25 (1923); 5) Medico-Legal & Ob- from Dr. John A. Larson, inventor of the poly- stetrical Observations on Scopolamin Anesthesia, 37 A. J. SURGERY 111 (ANESTHESIA SuPP.) (1923); 6) The Drug graph, and House's most discriminating critic. Scopolamin, 76 NEw ORLEANs MEDICAL & SURGICAL ]. "When considering [House's] researches," Larson 431 (1924); 7) Scopolamin-a Humane Third Degree, 10 wrote, "too much credit cannot be given this POLICE J. 4 (Oct.-Nov. 1924); 8) Scopolanin-Apomor- phia in Criminology,4 CuRR. RESEARCHES IN ANES~n- energetic idealist who died in the midst of his SIA & ANALGESIA 162 (1925); 9) Why Truth Serum Shoauld Be Made Legal, 42 MEDICO-LEGAL J. 138 (1925); 3 The felicitous term is from an otherwise poor book, 10) Truth Serum Can Aid Society By Making the ROLIN, POLICE DRUGS (1956). Criminal Tell All He Knows, PROCEEDINGS OF THE 14These vital statistics were supplied by one of Dr. ELEVENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE INT'L. ASS'N. House's sons, both of whom are physicians in Dallas. FOR IDENTIFICATION 143 (Stephens ed. 1925); 11) Diag- Letter from Dr. Ford House, January 19, 1958. nosis & Treatment of Insanity by Detection of Delusion, 35 WEBB, I HANDBOOK OF TEXAS 594, 842 (1952); 25 TEXAS ST. J. MEDICINE 299 (1929). MEMORIAL & BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ELLIS *1HOUSE, Physiological Effects of Scopolamine, op. COUNTY 226 (1892); 16 WHO's WHO IN AMERICA, cit. supra note 37 at 391. 1930-31, p. 312; 26 TEXAs ST. J. MED. 395 (1930). 39Ibid. at 392. 1959] IN SCOPOLAMINE VERITAS underlie his championing of scopolamine. "If my "Under the influence of the drug, there is no assertion is correct," he wrote, "there is no justifi- imagination," House proclaimed. "They cannot able reason for any person to be convicted upon create a lie because they have no power to think circumstantial evidence, nor any excuse for the or reason." 4 brutal third degree methods, nor any excuse for Spurred on by this conclusion, House subse- the State to permit a suspect to turn State's quently carried out two experiments in the Dallas evidence." 40 county jail to test his findings in more realistic House's best-known statement on scopolamine surroundings. In both cases, he obtained informa- came in 1922, when, in a widely-quoted and re- tion which he declared had not been elicited by printed article, he presented in detail the chronol- prior interrogations. In both cases, also, the sub- ogy of his interest and experimentation with the jects made statements under the influence of the drug in police work, and argued, with somewhat drug which served to exonerate them. In one more enthusiasm than logic, that "if the use of instance, the suspect had already been sen- bloodhounds is legal, the use of scopolamine can tenced to a fifteen-year term, but, as a re- be made legal."'" sult of House's work, the prisoner's attorney The scent of forensic innovation had first pre- now successfully contended that the conviction sented itself to him, House related, during a was the result of mistaken identity.45 House twilight sleep delivery in late 1916. In the course apparently was not suspicious of the self-serving of his work, House asked the husband for the outcome of the pair of tests; rather he was de- location of the scales. The wife, presumably lighted that his method had proved so efficacious unconscious, answered clearly: "They are in the in aiding the course of what he conceived to be kitchen, on a nail behind the picture." 2 House true justice. was taken aback by this information and, his The daily newspapers had already begun a curiosity aroused, further explored this serendipi- campaign of editorial overstatement-both for tous pathway by the use of a rather lively process and against House's work-that was to continue of extrapolation which he described as follows: for the next ten years and introduce a constant note of plaintiveness into House's writing, though, The fact that this woman suffered no pain and did certainly in the later years, House's own rather not remember when her child was delivered, yet could flamboyant public exhibitions of scopolamine were answer correctly a question she bad overheard, appealed to me so strongly that I decided to ascertain if that in to compound grossly any editorial sins that might reality were another function of scopolamine. In a originally have been committed against him. confinement case you find the dosage by engaging the Support for House against the harrassment of patient in conversation to note the rmemory test. Hence, the newspapers came early from the Texas Medical my investigation was a simple matter. I observed that Society which printed an editorial accompanying without exception the patient always replied with the an article by House, noting first that the designa- truth. The uniqueness of the results 46 obtained from a tion "truth serum" was the "usual misfit news- large number of cases examined was sufficient to prove paper appellation, arising from the desire of the to me that I could make anyone tell the truth on any question." 4Id. 40 45Ibid. at 260. Id. House's venomous hatred for State's evidence 46This is the first printed use of the much, and cor- witnesses blistered through his writings. At one time rectly, maligned term "truth serum" that I have he noted: "The liar I have the most contempt for is been able to find. [Cf., "the drug used is not a serum, the man who turns State evidence. I wish every one of and it does not always lead to the truth." MACDONALD, them could be made to prove their contention under Truth Serumn, 46 J. CRImn.., C., & P. S.259 (1955)]. scopolamin anesthesia. Some of them I know are honest, House resisted use of the term for some time, but but in my work I have my first one to meet." The Drug eventually came to employ it routinely. The only clue Scopolaynin, op. cit. supra note 37 at 259. to its origin that he provides is the statement: "Sco- 41 The Use of Scopolamin in Criminology, op. cit. polamin has been erroneously, though on his part supra note 37 at 259. A somewhat garbled account of honestly, termed truth serum by W. W. Ferguson of House's work crossed the ocean where a British medical the Los Angeles Record." (lIedico-Legal & Obstetrical journal heard "mysterious reports of a 'truth serum' Obserations on Scopolantin Anesthesia, op. cit. supra which was apparently to take the place of the oath in note 37 at 113. I have checked the Record from the American4 legal practice ... " 100 LANCET 1082 (1922). beginning of 1922 through June 26, 1923 (when House 2 Ibid. at 261. made the above statement) without any success in 43Id. locating Ferguson's usage). GILBERT GElS [Vol. 50

reporter to please the careless-minded, sensation would soon learn the arrest of any one of them would ' 4 7 8)... lover, and then calling for a dispassionate mean the names of all of them; many would prefer consideration of House's claims. The Journal to confess than to take the medicine; 9) If this method it would clean every penitentiary pointed out with considerable calm and fairness could be standardized of their innocent, and furthermore there would be no that: more innocent persons sent there.5' The point to be considered in the whole question will House by this time was somewhat on the defen- probably be, if what is found leads to provable conclu- of the opposition that his statements sions, all good and well; if not, the situation is where it sive, aware was at the beginning of the experiment. Whatevei else were arousing: may be said, there certainly is room here for interesting 45 At first reading this all sounds as miraculous, abso- study and experimentation. lutely impossible and like the halhicination of a diseased A series of cross-country trips to present papers mind. If you will stop and reflect, with your knowledge will understand that all I have said as on scopolamine followed House's original an- of medicine, you being possible represents only one simple function of the nouncement. The most significant probably was an drug.Y appearance in San Francisco in June, 1923, where House disclosed that a few months previously he At the same time, House was backing down had been involved in what was likely the first slightly from his original claims of infallability, courtroom use of material derived from scopola- granting now that the drug would not be perfect 9 mine. In the case of State v.Head in Dallas, unless the physician himself were "100 percent House noted, he had secured information on the perfect" but still maintaining that "if scopolamine culpability of the State's leading witnesses which would prove reliable in only fifty percent of the enabled him to feed key questions to Head's cases it would be worth its weight in radium, and attorney and thus gain an acquittal for the de- then some. I admit ...that the testimony ob- fendant.50 tained would be worthless in a court room, but the House summarized in his San Francisco talk evidence secured by any type of third degree must ' ' some of his conclusions on scopolamine from "seven be corroborated." years of criminal research work": House's most frank and emotional statement on his work was made in New Orleans, where he had Any person arrested as a suspect can be made to 1) graduated from medical school, and where he acquit or convict himself; 2) There would be no further returned in late 1923 to address the medical necessity to grant immunity to a known criminal for the reason his evidence could be obtained and corrobo- 51Id. rated without his consent; 3) A perjurer ...could be 4 Ibid. at 115. made to tell the facts; 4) In times of war a spy could be m Id. The San Francisco visit illustrated the vari- made to divulge his information before being tried; 5) ation between House's comparatively mild statements say that only one person in ten who are tried and the conclusions of the daily press. After House Statistics conducted a demonstration at San Quentin, the San is convicted. The nine who escape... would show Francisco newspaper headlined: SAN QUENTIN Op- under the influence of the drug those who are guilty; 6) FICIALS STAND AGHAST AS EXPERT CONDUCTS DEMON- Statistics compiled give over one-half of the expense of sTRATioN, and quoted House as saying: "I have yet to as being spent for the find a human being who could evade the truth when it maintaining our government was asked him under the influence of scopolamine." control of crime. If Uncle Sam could prove this the- San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 1923, p. 1 and 38a. ory ...it would mean the savings of millions of dollars In a quick side trek to Los Angeles on his way home, in a year; 7) Its adoption as legal ...would do more House administered the drug to four suspects, all of one method to prevent robbery. Criminals whom confessed volubly to other crimes and sins, but than any steadfastly denied their guilt of the crimes with which 7 Truth Serum, 18 TEXAS ST. J. MD. 231, 232 they were being charged. Los ANGEIES REcoRD, June (1922). 30, 1923, p. 1. In this connection, note the comment: 48Id. "It is known that guilty suspects can condition them- 11The first use of drugs in American criminal in- selves to withhold truthful responses to questions about vestigation is generally considered to be that in a New the immediate case under investigation, although they York case in which a police officer admitted 'while freely admit other past crimes and indiscretions. under the influence of ether that he had faked insanity HouTs, FROM EVIDENCE TO PROOF 88 (1956). One when accused of murdering his wife. Wagner, Feigned witness to the Los Angeles demonstrations had his own Insanity: Malingering Revealed by the Use of Ether, 61 idea about the reason for the outcome. "The instinct of A. J.INSANITY 193 (1902). self-preservation," he decided. "is the strongest one in 5 Medico-Legal & Obstetrical Observations on Sco- life, being even stronger than the reproductive instinct." polamin Anesthesia, op. cit. supra note 37 at 114. SACRAMENO STAR, June 30, 1923, p. 8. 1959] IN SCOPOLAMINE 1'ERITAS society. He admitted that his earlier physiological Further refinements and diverse philosophical explanation of the action of scopolamine had been conclusions came from House as he continued quite incorrect, complained that his work with traversing the country'. In Windsor, Canada, he criminals was "tedious, slow, and so tiresome" paid tribute to law enforcement officers who, he but held to the belief that when scopolamine is said, he had previously regarded as a "bunch of employed "you observe a child-like frankness and licensed crooks" but had come to view now with a child-like honesty, where the replies are given "profound respect" since he had begun his work without guile, deceit, or fraud." House also with scopolamine.5 In a midwestern talk. House maintained that chronic liars had proven his disclosed that he had once participated in a easiest subjects, because of their own confusion, hanging. "The rope did not break," he recalled, and, armed with information he had discovered "and neither did the man's neck." House con- during his San Francisco trip, House now advo- nected this episode with his present work. "A cated the combined use of the lie detector and state should only ask for a man's life and not scopolamine. He also lashed out at those who reserve the privilege to strangle a man to death," opposed scopolamine on constitutional grounds, he said. "After this man was strangled to death, echoing the common police lament that "there is evidence was found proving that he was innocent. no provision in the Constitution for the protection Had this man taken scopolamine and his story or of the law violator."' evidence been investigated the error might have As was his practice, House conducted a number been prevented." '' of intriguing experiments on prisoners during his In New York, House was still insisting, but in New Orleans sojourn, experiments which stirred considerably shrewder language, that "there are the local press to enthusiastic outbursts of aston- no human minds capable of resisting the physio- ishment at the powers of this new "veracity logical effects of scopolamine any more than they fluid." Local reporters first submitted to scopola- could resist the effects of ether or nitrous acid" mine injections, finding them highly effective. Then and claiming that "the framers of the Bill of five prisoners in the parish jail were tested. Two of Rights believed the rights of society were para- them proved rather recalcitrant, but the New mount to the rights of the criminal."' : A year Orleans daily newspaper had its own handy local later, House was able to report that he had "saved explanation for this turn of events: 26 men from a conviction out of 86 criminal tests." 59 By now, he had considerably refined his All in all, the tests were astonishingly complete. feelings on the use of scopolamine and was calling Practically every question was afiswered. Jesse Green. for a licensing system so that no charlatan would the great six-foot fourteen-year old negro gave the most be permitted to take advantage of it. He noted trouble. Jesse is pure African. pure animal. Under the in first dose of scopalamine he became excited, and a this connection: second injection was required. His answers were the I would respect no physician's opinion who had not least coherent.... assisted in at least 100 tests. The best legal minds and Emile Bland, who insisted on taking the test, denied judicjal thought should co-operate with the medical stealing from the federal building, [Bland had profession to work out the details of safeguarding the previously confessed] but freely admitted stealing candy purity of statements elicited under its administration. and other items.... a curious individual. Some doubt The technic is ...a delicate piece of work requiring as to nationality. He insists he is white but is classified caution, and from three to six hours' time.6' as negro.n In his final article, House explored an avenue that was to represent, through the subsequently 4 The Drug Scopolamtine, op. cit. supra note 37 at 433-435. It was probably in connection with these ex- 56How the Truth Serumn Can Aid Sociely .... pp. cit. periments that Larson later made the comment: supra, note 37 at 144. See also, FRE:, Strange .e,o I had occasion to see one of [House's] experiments Crime Remedies, 109 POPULAR SCIENCE 14 (December during which a murderer definitely did lie throughout the 1926). whole test and have proof of this. It must be remem- r, The Physician and the Criminal, op. cit. supra, bered that one cannot compare psychologically subjects note 37 at 27. who are volunteers for experiments for purely e.xperi- Scopolanin-Apontorphia Amnesia in Criminology, mental purposes and actually guilty persons. (LARsoN., op. cit. supra, note 37 at 169. See also, NFW YoRK Comment, 28 ARcHiVES OF IUROLOGY & PSYCHIATRY TimES, Oct. 22, 1924, p. 14. 1223 (1932). 59Why Truth Serum Should be .lfade Legal, op. cit. 5NEw OR-EANs TIMEs-PIcAYU-NE, Nov. 27, 1923. supra, note 37 at 140. p.1; Nov. 28, 1923, p. 1; Nov. 29, 1923, p. 8. 60Ibid. at 147. GILBERT GEIS [Vol. 50 elaborated technique of narcoanalysis,6 L one of the years. The confessions were corroborated when the most exciting uses of drugs, that of dealing suspects come out from under the drugs.6 Four with mentally disturbed patients. At San Quentin, years later, in Hawaii, scopolamine suffered a public setback that led to some brief scientific House noted, he had injected scopolamine into a soul-searching. An Oriental chauffeur, suspected of a convict who remembered nothing prior to the kidnap murder, was given a scopolamine injection Argonne battle when a hand grenade exploded and confessed to writing the kidnap note. Later, his head. Questioned by House under the near he repudiated the confession, and a second drug the convict was able to influence of scopolamine, test yielded negative results. At this stage the recollect his earlier life. Excited by this discovery, drug questioning was abandoned-the murderer, House wrote to mental hospitals, asking them to another person, had been discovered.65 test his new insight on drug therapy, but his Seattle was the scene of a third publicized use of 62 request received scant attention. In this final the drug in 1931 when an attempt was made to article House, appropriately enough, presents a give truth serum tests to Decasta Earl Mayer in summary panegyric to the drug to which he had order to learn the whereabouts of an alleged tied his professional star: murder victim. An injunction halted this form of inquiry, 66 and also led the country's leading law My paper is presented for several reasons: 1) In review to note that truth serum tests probably respect to the Creator who gave to mankind scopola- violated the privilege against self-incrimination in min; 2) it is the most useful drug for the control of the criminal matters, and where the questioning con- insane; 3) it ranks supreme in the humane treatment of cerned "irrelevant inquiries into private affairs" all addicts; 4) in my opinion, it is God's greatest gift to the procedure was also likely an "infringement on the parturient woman; 5) it will serve more medical the essential underlying interest in privacy." 6- requirements than any one drug to be found in the U. About the same year a case in Canada was re- S. Pharmacopeia; 6) it is the most abused and least portedly cleared up through the use of truth serum, understood drug which should be regarded as a friend to approval that the 65 and two writers noted with the physician. suspect "paid the extreme penalty for the murder which would have gone unavenged were it not for CASES INVOLVING SCOPOLAISuNE this new and powerful instrument for the detection of crime-scopolamine."s Finally, in 1935 a Sporadic episodes, breaking out in various parts Kansas City butcher submitted to the use of of the country, kept scopolamine in the public eye scopolamine, and was cleared of suspicion on a revolutionary form of psychological as a new and murder charge.6 third degree, both during House's life and after 61BIRMINGHAM AGE HERALD, Jan. 7, 1924, p. 1; his death. Some of the events were colorful, others Jan. 8, 1924, p. 1; NEw YORK TIMES, Jan. 8, 1924, p. 1; garish, and all were inconclusive from any scien- WIGMoRE, 2 PRINCIPLES OF JUDICIAL PROOF OR THE tific viewpoint. PROCESS OF PROOF 610 (2nd ed. 1931). 65 Cross-Examined Under an Anesthetic, 91 J.A.M.A. The first occurred in Birmingham in 1924 when 2006 (1928), reprinted WAITE, THE CRIMINAL LAW five persons were announced to have confessed, AND ITS ENFORCEMENT 627 (3rd ed. 1947). The leading British medical journal, commenting on this case in an while under the influence of scopolamine, to some appalled tone, noted: two dozen axe murders over the course of three We cannot ... accept a method which would nega- tive [the caution] and which would trick a suspect .... 61 See HORSLEY, NARco-ANALYSIS (1943) for a It would be instinctively repulsive.... To dope a man general statement. A good English-language bibli- into confession would be as distasteful as to extract ography is LIPTON, The Amytal Interview. A Review, evidence by torture. Medicine & the Law: Cross-Exam- ination Under Anesthetic, 106 LANcET 990 (1928). I AM. PRACTITIONER & DIGEST OF TREATMENT 148 6 6 (1950), while an extensive international bibliography CHAFEE, JR., POLLAK, & STERN, The Third Degree, appears in GOMIRATO & GAMMA, NARCOANALISI, in 4 REPORTS OF THE NAT'L. COMM'N. ON LAW OB- PSICOFARMACOLOGIA E CLINICA DELLA SUBNARCOSI SERVANCE & ENFORCEMENT 13, 149 (1931); MARSTON, BARBITURICA 213-256 (1958). THE LIE DETECTOR TEST 78 (1938). 62Diagnosis and Treatment of Insanity by the De- 6 Note, Methods of Scientific Crime Detection as tection of Delusion, op. cit. supra, note 37 at 300. The Infringements of Personal Rights, 44 HARVARD L. REV. lone collaborator was P. R. Vessie of New York State. 842 (1931). (VEssIE, Scopolamin-Apomorphia Amnesia in Psy- 6 BAKER & INBAU, Scientific Detection of Crime, 177 chiatry, 4 CumR. RESEARCHES IN ANESTHESIA & ANAL- MINN. L. REv. 602, 623 (1933). GESIA 170 (1925). 69 Scopolamine Confession, 26 TIME 54 (Nov. 18, 6 Ibid. at 301. 1935). 19591 IN SCOPOLAMINE VERITAS

While these handful of cases represent virtually lone truth serum decision for more than a decade. the total public notice of the use of scopolamine The case involved George Hudson, a St. Louis man in police interrogation there exists some evidence convicted of the rape of a 65-year-old woman. The that the drug was employed much more extensively defense attempted to introduce testimony that by various police forces." The Wickersham Com- under the influence of truth serum Hudson had mission, for instance, charged that between 1920 denied his guilt. Speaking for a unanimous court, and 1930 suspects had been given "tear gas, however, Judge Robert Walker Franklin, a 76- scopolamine injections, and chloroform" for the year-old jurist known for the "liberality of his 7 17 purpose of securing confessions, ' while one police views and the frequency of his dissents,' - de- writer noted (apparently with disapproval) that livered a blistering indictment of truth serum in "fear can be built up by suggesting the use of criminal prosecutions: scopolamine" and went on to give an example: Testimony of this character-barring the sufficient One department demonstrated to suspects just how fact that it cannot be otherwise classified than as a self- the drug was administered, and went on to explain just serving declaration-is, in the present state of human how it worked. A story was also told about the bank knowledge, unworthy of serious consideration. We are robber who was put under the drug and faithfully re- not told from what well this serum is drawn or in what enacted the whole crime, including the division of loot alembic its alleged truth compelling powers are dis- afterwards. If the suspect said that they couldn't force tilled. Its origin is as nebulous as its effect is uncertain. him to submit to the drug, it was pointed out that the A belief in its potency, if it has any existence, is con- drug also worked when the suspect was first rendered fined to the modern Cagliostros, who still, as Balsamo unconscious by chloral hydrate ...placed in his coffee did of old, 76 cozen the credulous for a quid pro quo, by or drinking water. In many instances, the terrified inducing them to believe in the magic powers of suspect talked to avoid being tested with the truth philters, potions, and cures by faith. The trial court, serumY2 therefore, whether it assigned a reason for its action or not, ruled correctly in excluding this clap-trap from the Meanwhile, serious attempts to provide scien- consideration of the jury.n tific material on the value of scopolamine in police work were being carried out by Goddard, Muehl- As scientific evidence and judicial vitriol ac- berger, and Keeler at the Scientific Crime Detec- cumulated, they were inevitably accompanied by tion Laboratory in Chicago. The experiments general evaluations concerning the present utility produced only "fairly satisfactory results,"7 - and the future prospects of scopolamine. Such though a number of intriguing disclosures of evaluations ranged from the wildly enthusiastic to information were reported, such as the admission the harshly condemnatory, sandwiching between of a prior traffic offense by a subject under the them some milder judgments by less polemical, drug who himself had forgotten the incident when more cautious workers. questioned prior to the test.y' The major claim of those favoring expanded It was during this period also that the courts usage of scopolamine was that such usage would passed initial judgment on this new evidentiary eliminate more barbaric police interrogation pro- technique, a judgment that was to stand as the cedures and add an element of scientific certainty 70 The same seems true today. Note, for instance, to court hearings. One writer believed that "the BA.cxiim, Truth Drugs: The New Crime Solver, 29 use of brutality by the police in securing confes- CORONET 71 72, 75 (Jan. 1951). sions, the reception of flimsy testimony as to NAT'L. Coa'N. ON LAW OBSERVATION, Op. cit. supra, note 66; HOPKINS, OUR LAWLESS PoLicE: A identity, and the ineffectiveness of circumstantial STUDY OF THE UNLAw tuxENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW evidence may be curtailed by more reliance upon 25 (1931). 72 KIDD, POLICE INTERROGATION 147 (1940). This was scientific data and less reliance upon individual the approach used to produce a confession in the 75 ST. Louis GLOBE-DEMOCRAT, Nov. 20, 1930. Applegate case in 1935. See, LEVIN, The Slow Poison in FIVE WHO VANisnED, 157, 178 (1959); and HoFF- 78 Guiseppe Balsamo was the real name of Count MAN AND BISHOP, THE GIRL 1N-TE POISON COTTAGE, Cagliostro, a notorious charlatan and swindler. For a 45 (1953). chronicle of his deeds, see BOLITHO, Cagliostro (& 73 INAU, Methods of Detecting Deception, 24 J. Seraphina), TWELVE AGAINST THE GODS 179 (1929). Calm. L. 1140, 1155 (1934). 77State v. Hudson, 314 Mo. 599, 602, 289 S.W. 920, 7 4 MUELHHBERGER, op. cit. supra, note 28 at 515; 921 (1926); Noted, SHORT, Evidence-Expert Testimony GODDARD, op. cit. supra, note 27 at 339; MULBAR, -Admission of Deception Tests, 12 ST. Lou is L. REv. INTERROGATION 102 (1951). 215 (1927). GILBERT GEIS [Vol. so

'reasoning' ",78 while another writer, of consider- strated that various derivatives of barbituric acid. ably more flamboyant nature, accused the courts such as sodium pentothal and sodium amytal, of being "pitifully jealous of... prerogatives" were safer for the interrogation of criminals.M and therefore "grimly hostile to the scientific Today, scopolamine still serves a good deal as an invader" but predicted the continued assault of obstetrical aid, and has been found to be an truth serum "until the last judicial periwig capitu- excellent remedy for seasickness, probably because lates and the groans of the maimed and mishandled of its depressant and anti-spasmodic qualities. It 79 suspect is heard no more in the land." is also used to control rigidity and tremors in Considerably more restrained was the pertinent Parkinson's disease, and employed somewhat to observation of a leading authority on the law of mitigate the severity of withdrawal symptoms in evidence who pointed out that the major advan- narcotic addicts. It was, in fact, in connection with tage of truth serum, "if valid," particularly in con- this last usage that scopolamine figured most trast to the , was that "it directly elic- recently in court annals, as a suspect confessed to a its truth, and not merely signalizes falsehood" crime and then later claimed-the appellate court and, even more important, that its results "are not disagreeing-that a scopolamine injection he had '' 8 dependent upon any question of interpretation. 7 received in jail had illegally led to the confession.8 This viewpoint was pushed to a more sophisti- Despite the passage of scopolamine itself from cated level by Gault, who noted that the utmost police interrogation, the groundwork had been that could be claimed for truth serum at that firmly placed for subsequent scientific develop- was moment that it might suggest lines of inquiry. ments in the use of drugs for police work, develop- He stressed that even the 'truth', as it might be ments which would occur with extreme rapidity elicited by scopolamine, was always only the truth during the second World War, and which would as the person under inquiry saw or understood it.81 The most telling criticism against scopolamine, harass the courts with increasing regularity and of course, related to its ability to provide accurate intensity as science and the legal system vied, in results, a fact questioned severely by many critics. terms of respective values, differing factual inter- Highly significant was an experiment with scopola- pretations, and sometimes contradictory evidence, mine conducted on medical and psychology stu- to find the most satisfactory niche for interroga- dents at the University of Wisconsin which found tion drugs. that "in general ... the subjects who were resistant to suggestions in the normal state were also re- periment, which used balance as the test of suggesti- sistant when under the influence of the drug. There bility, were these: 1. Some subjects apparently negative with the con- was a fairly marked tendency, however, for those trol show an unequivocal response to suggestions. who were susceptible in the normal state to be 2. All slightly suggestible subjects... became more markedly more so when the under the influence of suggestible. 82 3. All subjects showing very marked suggestibility scopolamine." ... show increased suggestibility with the drug. 4. Some subjects who are negative in the control re- The legal and scientific objections to scopola- main negative to suggestion in the drug experiment, or mine effectively barred its expanded usage in police so very slightly suggestible that the increase is not work, particularly after House, with his crusading unambiguous (55 percent of all subjects on whom we have records were negative both with drug and with- zeal and his ability to call public attention to his out.) work, passed from the scene. By the mid-1930's 5. No subjects who were negative with the drug scopolamine became passe as experiments demon- were more suggestible in the control experiments. BAERNSTEIN, AN EXPERIHMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECT 78BAKER & INBAU, op. cit. supra, note 68 at 628. ON WAKING SUGGESTIBILITY OF SMALL DOSES OF ,9ROBINSON, SCIENCE VERSUS CRIME 280 (1935). SCOPOLAMINE HYDROBROMID 54. Master's thesis: Uni- See also, HERZOG, MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE §472 versity of Wisconsin, 1929. (1931). 8 The transition began with LORENZ, Criminal Con- 80McComcK, Deception Tests and the Law of Evi- Jessions Under Narcosis, 31 WISCONSIN MED. J. 245 dence, 15 CAL. L. REV.484, 493 (1927). (1932). 81GAULT, CRIMINOLOGY 392, 393 (1932). I"People v. Townsend, 11 Ill.2d 30, 141 N.E.2d 729 8 2 HULL, & SUGGESTIBILITY: AN EXPERI- (1957). The court felt that whatever effect the drug MENTAL APPROACH 99 (1933). See also, SHARPE, might have had had worn off by the time the confession Medication as a Threat to Testamentary Capacity, 35 was forthcoming. See COMMENT, Admissibility of Con- U. No. CAP. L. REV. 380 (1957); BuRT, LEGAL fessions & Denials Made Under the Influence of Drugs, PSYCHOLOGY 137 (1931). The precise results of the ex- 52 NORTHWESTERN U.L.REv. 666 (1957). 19591 IN SCOPOLAMINE VERITAS

The rationale for this development had been confession induced by some artificial means known clearly sounded by Wigmore who advised judges to such science, then a confession so induced and lawyers to "watch for the chronicles" of the should be admissible."' ' ; Wigmore's words pro- developments in interrogation drugs,8 noting vided both a goal and a caution, and as both they that "if medical science or psychic science, repre- would pervade and stand in judgment through the sented by an accord among the experts of the subsequent history of the so-called truth serum science, establishes the trustworthiness of a drugs. 8 5 86 VIGuoRE, 3 EVIDENCE §998 (3rd ed. 1940). Ibid. at §841a.