Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 3 (of 3)

The College of Physicians in London being lawfully assembled by the command of their Sovereign Lord the King, about certain questions proposed concerning the death of Joseph Lane, reported to be killed by poison, and having made a diligent search, and well considering all circumstances relating; 1. As to the state of the body of the foresaid Lane; 2. As to the disease which (by a long series of violent symptoms) brought him to his end; 3. As to the kind and appearance of his death; 4. As to the observations made upon his dead body by the Physicians and Chirurgeons present; 5. As to the conjectures taken from the strict examination of a bolus extremely suspicious, whose parts were artificially separated, found in Mr. Lane’s house when dead, and after brought into Court before the Judges, and from thence to the Physicians at their College: To whom (by the command and in the name of the King) Letters were wrote from the Right honourable Sir John Cooke principal Secretary of State that they might diligently enquire and give a faithful account to the following Questions, 1 Concerning Lane’s death, whether it was procured from Poison? 2 Their opinion about a purging potion carried the 4th of April, 1632 from Mr. Mathews an Apothecary’s shop to Lane’s House; and taken by Lane the 6th, whether it had any thing of poison in it? The College after very mature deliberation, did humbly present the following Decree to his sacred Majesty as a testimony of their obedience.

1 That the said Joseph Lane did certainly dye of a violent death. 2 That he had taken poison, and that corrosive. 3 That they could determine nothing concerning the Potion sent and given by Mr. Mathews the Apothecary to Mr. Lane without the advice of any Physician, because many of their Medicines were too negligently prepared by their Servants; But if this potion did only consist of those ingredients which he had given an account of, and for which we have solely his word, then there was nothing of poison contained therein. 4. In the remainder of the aforesaid Bolus there was found Mercury Sublimate, not sweet, but the most harsh and highly caustick, which was separated from the rest of the Bolus and shown to the whole College; In testimony whereof the College by the unanimous Consent of the President and Fellows and all present at this consultation, signed this Decree with their own hands, and sealed it with the College Seal, that it might appear more authentick.

And because that from the beginning of the world to this very day good and wholesome Laws have derived their original from evil manners, the whole College of Physicians doe most humbly beseach your most sacred Majesty that as the Father of your Country, you would consult the health and welfare both of your City Subjects and would by your Royal Proclamation strictly command that for the future, No Grocer, Drugster, Apothecary, Chymist, or any other person presume to sell Arsenick, Quicksilver, Sublimate, Precipitate, Opium, Coloquintida, Scammony, Hellebore, or other Druggs either poisonous or dangerous, to poor sorry Women or poor people (which hath been too common) but only to those who are willing to give their names; that if there should be occasion they may give an account of the reason of their buying these dangerous medicines.

May it likewise please your Majesty to issue out your Royal Edict under the most severe penalties, that no Apothecary for the future shall dare to compound for the Well, or administer to the Sick any medicines, especially Vomits, Purges, Opiates, Mercurial or Antimonial remedies without the prescription of Physicians then living; which prescription they shall be bound to produce upon the command or request of the Censors of the College. He that shall act contrary, shall be punished by the Law as a publick enemy to the life of man. Dated from the College of Physicians in London the Last day of May 1632 And subscribed

(See Goodall’s Proceedings)