CHAPTER VIII.
POISONING BY ANTIMONY.
The cases under this head are very numerous, and, therefore, difficult of selection. I have given, as the leading cases, full reports, (1), of that of Dr. Pritchard, of Glasgow, tried in the High Court of Justiciary, in July, 1865, for the poisoning of his wife by repeated small doses of antimony, and his mother-in-law by antimony and aconite; (2), of that of Dr. Smethurst (the Richmond poisoning case), tried for the poisoning of his mistress by small doses of antimony and arsenic, at the Central Criminal Court, August 15th, 1859[141]; (3), I have added a report of the Liverpool poisoning case—that of Thomas Waislow, for the poisoning of Ann James, by antimony, tried at Liverpool, August 20th, 1860.
TRIAL OF DR. PRITCHARD.[142]
Before The Lord Justice Clerk (Right Hon. John Inglis), Lord Ardmillan, and Lord Jerviswoode, at the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, July, 1865.
For the Prosecution: The Solicitor-General (now Lord Young), Mr. Gifford, and Mr. Chrichton.
For the Defence: Mr. Rutherford Clark, Mr. Watson, and Mr. Brand.
By the first count of the indictment the prisoner was charged with the murder of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Taylor, by administering to her, between the 10th and 25th of February, 1865, in Battley’s sedative solution, tapioca, porter, or some other medicine or food, to the prosecutor, unknown, tartarised antimony, aconite, and opium, or one or more of them. In the second count he was charged with the murder of his wife by administering the like poisons, or one or more of them, between the 22nd day of December, 1864, and the 25th of March, 1865, in egg flip, cheese, porter, beer, or wine, or some other articles of food, to the prosecutor, unknown. To the relevancy of the indictment several objections were taken, but overruled, and the prisoner pleaded “Not Guilty.”
THE HISTORY OF THE CASE.
Edward William Pritchard, a native of England, and member of the Royal College of Surgeons since 1846, before he came to Glasgow, had been a traveller in the Polar and Pacific Seas, and in the countries bordering the Mediterranean, and first set up in practice at Filey, in Yorkshire, where he married the daughter of a Glasgow silk merchant, by whom he had a family. In consequence of this connection, about 1859 he removed to Glasgow, where, from his writings on several diseases, he became favourably known as a person of superior attainments, and gradually obtained a fair practice. Whilst thus apparently in the enjoyment of popularity and success, he, in 1863, became the subject of much adverse report, from the suspicious circumstances attending a fire in his house, by which a maid servant was killed—the Insurance Company refusing to pay his claim, and the doctor not taking legal steps to enforce its recovery. The ugly rumours about this affair, however, gradually subsided, and his social and professional position was retained, until the sudden death of his mother-in-law, whilst staying in his house to nurse his sick wife, was quickly followed by that of the wife herself. As the mother-in-law was 70 years of age, the statement that she had died of apoplexy was at first accepted. When, however, the death of the wife so quickly followed, suspicion was excited, inquiries were instituted by the police, and on the 21st of March, 1865, Dr. Pritchard was arrested on the charge of poisoning her. A post-mortem examination of her remains had proved that her death had not been due to natural causes, and a subsequent examination of the body of his mother-in-law, exhumed for the purpose, led to the same result in her case. Chemical analyzations of the interior portions of both bodies disclosed in that of the wife the presence of antimony in sufficient quantities to account for her death; and in that of the mother-in-law to reduce the powers of her constitution so far as to increase and facilitate the effects of a narcotic poison.
THE SYMPTOMS.
The details of the progress of the lingering illness of Mrs. Pritchard until her death, and of the sudden seizure of Mrs. Taylor with what proved to be a fatal attack apparently of apoplexy, were given in great minuteness by several non-professional witnesses, servants in the house at the time, pupils of Dr. Pritchard’s, and a girl whom Dr. Pritchard had seduced and promised to marry when his wife died.
Up to October, 1864, Mrs. Pritchard, never apparently a very strong woman, had been in her usual state of health. Towards the end of that month, however, she began to look pale and lose her strength from frequent vomitings, and had to keep her bed, as she believed, from a severe cold, for four or five days. About this time, on her temporary recovery, she went on a visit to her parents in Edinburgh, and there gradually recovered, returning home about Christmas in her former state of health. After a week or so the vomiting returned, and on the 1st of February, 1865, she had a severe attack of cramp. Some few days after, as the prisoner said, Dr. Cowan, a relative, saw her, and prescribed small doses of champagne as a stimulant. However, the vomiting returned, and about midnight on the 8th she was seized with such a violent attack of cramp that, at her request, Dr. Gairdner was called in, who at once stopped all stimulants. Dr. Pritchard told every one that his wife was suffering from gastric fever. Dr. Gairdner, however, could not find any feverish symptoms, and based his advice on their absence, confessing himself “puzzled with the case.” On the 10th Mrs. Taylor, her mother, came from Edinburgh to nurse her daughter. She was a hale, hearty woman, though 70 years of age, but at times affected with severe headaches, as a remedy for which she had been accustomed for some years to have recourse to Battley’s sedative solution. On the 13th, at her suggestion, some tapioca was bought, brought into the house, and left for some time on the lobby table. Of this, afterwards, a cupful was made, and fetched by Mary McLeod, the younger servant, and by her carried up to her mistress’s bedroom. Whether Mrs. Pritchard partook of this or not was not known, but Mrs. Taylor ate a portion of it, and the cook tasted it before it left the kitchen. Both Mrs. Taylor and the cook were violently sick after taking the tapioca, the old lady saying that she feared she was suffering from the same complaint as her daughter. The tapioca had not been tampered with when purchased, but when the remainder of it was analysed it was found to be charged with nearly five grains of tartarised antimony. On the 16th the old cook left, and Mary Patterson came. She found her mistress suffering from continual vomits, and gradually getting weaker—as Mrs. Taylor said, “one day better, and two days worse.” For the next twelve days this state continued, and then a dreadful scene occurred. Mrs. Taylor, who, whilst at Dr. Pritchard’s, had sent for a bottle of Battley’s solution, was violently sick in the evening of the 24th of February, and about nine on that night rang the bell violently, and was found by the servant vainly endeavouring to vomit and asking for hot water to assist her. By the prisoner’s orders this was twice brought, and when on the second occasion Mary Patterson entered the room Mrs. Taylor was sitting in her chair with her head down, apparently insensible, and with her eyes closed. She was lifted into bed, and died in about three hours. Whilst dressing her corpse a bottle, about two-thirds full of Battley’s solution, was found in her pocket, and identified as that which she had last purchased. That this also was pure and free from poison when sold was clearly proved. When, however, it was analysed, it was found to be charged with antimony and aconite. Dr. Pritchard declared that she had died of apoplexy following on paralysis; but Dr. Paterson, who had been called in at the last moment, distinctly declared that there were no such symptoms. An attempt was made by the prisoner to get Dr. Paterson to give the usual certificate of the cause of death, and on his indignant refusal, the prisoner himself filled up the form with the words, “Paralysis for twelve hours, followed by apoplexy,” and the first victim was buried.[143]
Mrs. Pritchard still lingered. She had been sick on the day before her mother’s death, but not for two or three days afterwards. Then, however, the attacks returned, coming on, as before, within an hour or two after her meals, which were uniformly sent to her by her husband—generally by the hands of McLeod. It was during the last three weeks of her miserable existence, that on one occasion he sent to her from the supper table a small bit of cheese, which McLeod tasted at Mrs. Pritchard’s request, when it gave her a burning sensation in the throat, and made her thirsty. At another time he sent her a jug of camomile tea, after taking a wine-glass of which, from time to time, as ordered, she uniformly vomited. At another time, he had some egg-flip prepared for her in the kitchen, and brought down the pieces of sugar for it, taking them, as the witness believed, into his consulting room, where he kept his drugs and poisons, before he put them into the glass. Patterson, who tasted it, was struck with the taste, and Mrs. Pritchard, who drank it, was sick very soon after, and in the following night. In the week in which Mrs. Pritchard died she drank some port wine which Dr. Pritchard had sent up, and again was sick. On the 17th of March, the day before she died, Patterson, who had gone up to her bedroom to speak about some linen, found Dr. Pritchard handing his wife a glass of porter, which she drank. At that time Mrs. Pritchard was in her senses. About five o’clock the bell rang violently. McLeod called Patterson to come up at once. She did so, and found her mistress raving about her mother, and calling on them to leave her and assist Mrs. Taylor; her hands severely cramped—speaking wildly about her children. After her hands had been rubbed, Mrs. Pritchard seemed to get more calm, and Mary Patterson left, having handed the patient’s supper to her husband. Until about half-past one the next morning Patterson heard nothing. Then she was called up by McLeod to get a mustard poultice, which the latter took up to the bedroom, and in a few minutes after the bell again rang violently. She hurried up, and found the prisoner in bed by his wife’s side. Her mistress was dead. The long agony of months was at an end.
EVIDENCE OF THE MEDICAL ATTENDANTS.
Dr. James Moffat Cowan, her second cousin, in consequence of a letter from the prisoner, saw Mrs. Pritchard on the 7th and 8th of February. She was then in the drawing-room, and complained of great irritability of the stomach, combined with an inability to keep down her food, and vomiting for some time back. He visited her rather as an old friend than as a professional man, recommended her to go to bed, and advised small quantities of champagne with ice to be taken at intervals, and as she expressed a desire for food, recommended her husband to try injections of beef tea. She was seized with vomiting during the evening, but when he saw her before he left on the following day, seemed better, and he never saw her again alive. He spoke to the apparent happiness in which she lived with her husband, and to the fact that, after her death Dr. Pritchard, to enable the servants to take a last look at their mistress, had the coffin opened. Mrs. Taylor, with whom he was intimately acquainted, Dr. Cowan described as a person of very temperate habits.
Dr. William Tennent Gairdner, who was sent for during the night between the 8th and 9th of February, immediately after Dr. Cowan left, was told by the prisoner that for some time his wife had suffered from sickness and spasms, and that Dr. Cowan had recommended stimulants, and that she had had champagne and chloroform.
“I found her,” said the witness, “in bed, lying on her back, with a considerably flushed face, and in a state of pretty considerable excitement. She told me of Dr. Cowan’s previous visit and of her wish that I should be sent for, and we had a good deal of general conversation about her symptoms. I found her to a certain extent exhausted, but by no means extremely so. She had a pretty good pulse. There was nothing in her symptoms to indicate immediate danger, and the most remarkable thing about her symptoms was the violent state of mental excitement she was in and the spasms of the hands. She held her hands outside the bedclothes above her head, and I saw that the wrists were turned in, and the thumbs somewhat inverted towards the wrists—a very peculiar state of the hand. I thought she was intoxicated from the combination of champagne and chloroform. When I turned to the fire to warm my hands before feeling her, she called me very unfeeling, and begged me not to leave her, using expressions for which I thought she was not responsible, from her temporary intoxication. I then examined her belly, and asked particularly if there was any chance of her being pregnant,—that being a frequent cause of vomitings,—and found there was none; and, after various inquiries, feeling her pulse and her skin, spoke strongly against the use of stimulants, which I ordered to be at once discontinued until I saw her again. Next day when I saw her, she assured me that she felt better and had had no return of the vomiting, but had still the remains of the spasms in her hands. I repeated my injunctions of no stimulants or medicine, and that her only food should be a plain boiled egg and bread and milk—that is, nothing that could produce sickness or sit heavy on her stomach. I told her that if her stomach had fair play it would digest the simple food I indicated. I was very much puzzled as to what was the matter with her, and, had I been attending her as a general practitioner, should probably have seen her once or twice a day; but there was a doctor in the house, and my habit is to act as a consulting physician, and not as a general practitioner. I had to leave town for a distant engagement, but before I left I wrote to Dr. Pritchard to inquire how his wife was, and received the reply that she was better. I wrote also to her brother, Mr. Michael Taylor, as I was very much puzzled with the case, and asked to be backed up by him in forbidding the use of stimulants. On my return Dr. Pritchard called, and left word that his wife was better, and that I need not call again. I do not think that there was any fever at all.”
In his cross-examination Mr. Clark, in consequence of Dr. Pritchard having said to the witness that it was a case of catalepsy, elicited that Dr. Pritchard was somewhat careless in his nomenclature of disease—“that he spoke occasionally a little at random, and was not a model of wisdom, accuracy, and caution, in applying names to things;” and that, in writing to her brother—who had been a fellow-student with him—“he had not indicated to him that there had been any foul play, but nothing more than improper treatment.”
Dr. James Paterson, who gave his evidence with an apparently strong feeling against the prisoner, a man of very large experience, living within two hundred yards of Dr. Pritchard’s house, had been called in a little before eleven on the night of the 24th of February, to see the mother-in-law.
“Dr. Pritchard,” said the witness, “met me in his hall, and conducted me to the bedroom, telling me that his mother-in-law, whilst in the act of writing a letter, had fallen off her chair on to the floor, and been conveyed upstairs about half an hour before I came. She and his wife, said the prisoner, had partaken of some bitter beer for supper, and soon after both became sick and vomited, and complained of its being more bitter than usual. From the quantity remaining in the bottle they could not have taken more than a third of a pint each.[144] I asked in regard to the previous state of his mother-in-law’s health, and particularly as to her social habits, when he led me distinctly to understand that she drank spirits occasionally. He also stated that his wife had been very poorly for some time with gastric fever, and that, some days previously, he had telegraphed for her mother to come and nurse her. On entering the bedroom I observed Mrs. Taylor lying on the edge of the bed nearest to me on her right side, with all her clothes on. She had all the appearance of a sudden seizure. Mrs. Pritchard, in her night-dress and nothing on her head, and her hair very much dishevelled, was in the same bed, but underneath the clothes, sitting up immediately beyond her mother. Mrs. Taylor was then alive, and she gave me the impression of a healthy-looking old lady, and previously in very good health—rather beyond the usual size, well-formed; a very superior-looking person, not having the slightest appearance of being addicted to the use of spirituous or intoxicating liquors. Her face was rather pale, but the expression was calm and placid. The eyelids partially closed, the lips rather pale and livid; the breathing slow and laborious; the skin cool, and covered with a clammy perspiration; the pulse almost imperceptible, and she seemed to me perfectly unconscious. On my opening up the eyelids, I found both pupils very much contracted. From these symptoms, and judging from her general appearance, my conviction was that she was under the influence of opium or of some other powerful narcotic, and I at once pronounced my opinion that she was dying.
“I and Dr. Pritchard retired a little from the bedside, and went to the fireplace, and I then stated distinctly that she was dying. Pritchard said she had frequently had attacks of a similar kind before, but never one so severe. I said, nothing that we could do would have the slightest effect, but that, as a last resource, we might try mustard poultices to the soles of the feet, the calves of the legs, and the inside of the thighs, and as quickly as possible administer a strong turpentine enema. Pritchard at once proceeded to prepare the enema, and said he had a little before given her one, in which he had administered a glass of brandy. The old lady lay apparently comatose, or unconscious; but on being roused a little, and the head and shoulders slightly elevated, there was a degree of consciousness came on, and the pulse became perceptible at the wrist. She had not manifested consciousness before. I directed Pritchard’s attention to the pulse, and he then clapped the old lady on the shoulder and said, ‘You are getting better, darling.’ I looked at him and shook my head ominously, as much as to say, ‘Never in this world.’ A slight fit of retching now came on, and she put up a small quantity of a frothy kind of mucus, immediately after which the ‘coma,’ or insensibility, returned—the breathing became more oppressed, more laboured, and the alvine evacuations were passed involuntarily, I then concluded that the case was hopeless, but Pritchard administered his enema. I then left the room, and went downstairs with Pritchard to his consulting room, and there repeated my opinion that she was in a state of narcotism. Pritchard then said that the old lady was in the habit of regularly using Battley’s Sedative Solution, and that she had a few days before purchased not less than a half-pound bottle of that medicine, and that he had no doubt, or it was very likely, that she might have taken a good swig of it. I know that medicine, but seldom use it. My impression was that she was not what is called an opium-eater, or one that used opium to any great extent. She presented no appearance of that.”
At this visit Dr. Paterson’s attention was forcibly attracted to the appearances presented by Mrs. Pritchard.
“She seemed,” said the witness, “exceedingly weak and exhausted. Her features were sharp or thin, with a high hectic flush on her cheeks, and her voice was very weak and peculiar—in fact, very much resembling a person verging into the collapsed stage of cholera. The expression of her countenance conveyed to me the idea of a kind of silly or semi-imbecile person at the time. At first I was inclined to attribute her appearance to the recent severe attack of gastric fever, which I was told by the prisoner she had had, and her symptoms aggravated, of course, by the great consternation and grief not unnaturally caused by the sudden and alarming condition of her mother. At the same time I must say that I could not banish from my mind the idea, or rather conviction, that her symptoms betokened that she was under the depressing influence of antimony—that conviction came upon me while in her presence, and I could not get quit of it. I did not put a single question to her.”
At half-past eleven Dr. Paterson went home, and about one the next morning he was sent for again, but refused to go, as he was certain he could do nothing, but sent word that he would do so if Dr. Pritchard thought he could be of any use. No answer came, and it was not until the Saturday morning that he heard of Mrs. Taylor’s death, when her husband called on him to ask him to certify the cause of death, and the duration of her disease. This he refused, telling Mr. Taylor that that document was not given to friends of the deceased, but only to the Registrar. Soon after Dr. Paterson received from the Registrar the usual form to fill up, which he returned at once in blank as it came, with this note:—“Dear Sir,—I am surprised that I am called on to certify the cause of death in this case. I only saw the person for a few minutes a very short period before her death. She seemed to be under some narcotic; but Dr. Pritchard, who was present from the first moment of the illness until death occurred, and which happened in his own house, may certify the cause. The death was certainly sudden, unexpected, and to me mysterious.” The words “the cause of death” he rendered emphatic by underlining them. That was the only communication which he made to anyone, beyond speaking about it in his own family. The certificate was eventually given by Dr. Pritchard, assigning as the cause of death “paralysis for twelve hours as the primary cause, and the secondary, apoplexy,” the duration of which had been one hour.[145]
On the 1st of March he met Pritchard accidentally, who asked him to come and see his wife, which he did the next day.[146]
“She was in bed, still very weak and prostrate, and in a weak voice expressed her satisfaction and her gratitude at my calling. Then, in a very earnest manner, she asked me if I really thought that her mother was dying when I saw her. I said most decidedly I did, and had told Pritchard so. She then clasped her hands, looked up, and feebly exclaimed, ‘Good God, is it possible!’ and burst into a flood of tears. I put some questions then as to her mother’s previous state of health, especially if she was habitually addicted to the use of Battley’s solution. She told me that her mother’s health, generally speaking, was good, but that she suffered occasionally from what she called neuralgic headaches, and for relief of these attacks she did take a little Battley’s solution; but she added that she could not be said to be in the habitual use of that medicine.
“I then questioned her about herself. She told me that for a considerable time past she had suffered very much from sickness, retching, and vomiting, with severe pains in the stomach and throughout the bowels, accompanied with purgings, great heat and uneasiness about the throat and mouth, and a constant urgent thirst. I examined her tongue; it was very foul, and of a lightish brown colour. Her features were still very sharp and deeply flushed. Her pulse was weak, contracted, and very rapid. Her skin was moist, but defective in animal heat, and altogether she presented the appearance of great general prostration. Her eyes were watery, but clear and intelligent. I prescribed for her small quantities of brandy and champagne to recruit her strength, and small pieces of ice to relieve the thirst and irritability of her stomach. If she tired of these, she should have recourse to granulated citrate of magnesia as a cooling effervescent drink, and have a mustard poultice applied on the pit of the stomach—these were verbal directions. I also recommended, at short intervals, small quantities of easily digested nutritious food, such as beef tea, calves’ foot jelly, chicken soup, arrowroot, and so on. I then wrote a prescription for 12 grains of camomile, 24 of blue or gray powder, 12 of powdered ipecacuanha, and 6 grains of aromatic powder, to be carefully mixed and divided into six parts, one to be taken daily, to relieve the biliary disturbance and soothe the mucous lining of the alimentary canal. I gave her the prescription, and told her to show it to Pritchard when he came home.”
From then until the day before her death the witness did not see Mrs. Pritchard. On the 5th of March Dr. Pritchard had called on him, and reported that his wife was better for his advice, but still very weakly, and her stomach irritable, and had been strongly advised by Dr. Paterson to continue the treatment he had recommended.
“On Friday evening,” continued the witness, “Dr. Pritchard called upon me personally and requested me to come and see his wife. I did so. She was in bed in a sitting posture, supported by pillows, and I was very much struck with her terribly altered appearance. She seemed quite conscious. I went up to her bedside and she caught my hand, and I could see a half-smile of recognition on her countenance. She very soon began to mutter something about her having been vomiting. Dr. Pritchard was standing beside me, and he volunteered to say that she had not been vomiting—that she was raving. She complained of great thirst, and Pritchard poured some water out of a carafe into a tumbler and gave it her, and she drank it. I observed her countenance very much changed from what it had been when I saw her last. Her cheeks were hollow, sharp, pinched-looking, and still very much flushed. There was a peculiarly wild expression: the eyes were of a fiery red and sunk-looking. Her pulse was very weak and exceedingly rapid. Her tongue was a darkish brown colour, very foul; and she immediately began to grasp with her hand as if to catch some imaginary object on the bedclothes. She muttered something about the clock, but there was none in the room. I expressed my surprise at the great change and alarming appearances, and asked Pritchard how long she had been confined to bed since I saw her. He said only since morning, that yesterday and yesterday afternoon she was in the drawing room amusing herself with the children. I again expressed my surprise at her alarming condition. He said she had not slept for four or five nights, and I replied that we must endeavour to procure some refreshing sleep. We went downstairs, and I then prescribed 30 drops of solution of morphia, 30 drops of ipecacuanha wine, 10 drops of chlorodyne, and an ounce of cinnamon water, to be taken every four hours if the first dose did not give relief. Pritchard wrote the prescription at my dictation. I said it was unnecessary; it was simple, and he might mix it himself. I was anxious to save time, and give relief as soon as possible. He said he kept no medicines but chloroform and Battley’s solution; he did not keep a small stock for any emergency, which I thought strange.[147] I then left the house, and at one o’clock the next morning a message came that Mrs. Pritchard was dying, and in less than three minutes after another that she was dead. I never entered Dr. Pritchard’s house except on the occasions I have mentioned. I never told him that I thought his wife had taken too much wine, and I never recommended Dublin stout for her.”[148]
The cross-examination of Dr. Paterson was confined to two points, the grounds on which he held that Mrs. Taylor had not the appearance of having been in the habit of using opium, and his conduct in not disclosing to some member of her family the impression he had formed that Mrs. Pritchard was being slowly poisoned by antimony. “When a person is in the habit of taking opium to a great extent,” he said, “you generally find that they are not very good in colour. They are generally thin in features and hollow about the eyes—in fact, not of a healthy appearance. Mrs. Taylor being stout and healthy-looking, my impression was that she was not an habitual consumer of opium, though she might take it occasionally as medicine.” On the second point he stood on professional etiquette as a consulting physician, and not the regular medical attendant, insisting that he had no right to revisit his patient unless sent for, and saying that he believed he should never have been called in the second time had he not accidentally met Dr. Pritchard in the street.
“His first impression arose simply from seeing Mrs. Pritchard at the time of her mother’s fatal seizure, when he formed his diagnosis from the symptoms that were present, just as he was in the habit of forming his opinion of any patient he saw for the first time—judging from symptomatology, the science of the signs of disease. It was not his duty to interfere in the family without being invited, as there was another doctor in the house, and he did the best he could by apprising the registrar when refusing to sign the certificate of Mrs. Taylor’s death. Had he been called in consultation with another medical man, he should have felt it his duty to state his medical opinion; and had there been a post-mortem examination of Mrs. Taylor’s body at the time, he believed that in all probability the drugging of Mrs. Pritchard with antimony would have gone no further, at least at that time.”
When called in the second time on the 2nd of March, he said:—
“I believed her to be suffering under poisoning by antimony,” and I prescribed accordingly. I saw her alone, but I did not give her any indication of what I thought her ailment. I did not mention antimony or poison in the slightest. I did not give her any idea that she was labouring under any but a natural disease, because the treatment which I prescribed for her, provided she got nothing else, was in my mind quite sufficient to have very soon brought her round, taking it for granted that my advice was carefully walked up to. I did not mention to Dr. Pritchard that his wife was being poisoned by antimony. It would not have been a very safe matter to have done so. I did not go back the next day to see if my advice had been acted on. I did not consider that she was my patient at all. I had no right or title to go back and see her. In any case where a consultation is held, the consulting physician has no right to go back to see the patient; it would be a breach of the etiquette of the profession.”[149]
On re-examination Dr. Paterson stoutly adhered to his opinion that his being called in to see Mrs. Pritchard was purely accidental, and that it would not have been very natural to have communicated his suspicions to the husband.
PURCHASE AND POSSESSION OF MEDICINES AND POISONS BY THE PRISONER.
The prisoner, when it was suggested by Dr. Paterson that he should mix in his own consulting-room the prescription, on the 17th of March, told the doctor that he did not, like other medical men, keep in his house a small stock of medicines for any emergency. It was, however, proved that in the presses in his room were at least five-and-thirty bottles of medicinal preparations, and several papers and bottles of poisons; and that he had been a constant purchaser of poisons, and especially of Fleming’s tincture of aconite and tartarised antimony, from September, 1864, to as late as the 16th of March, 1865.[150] According to the witnesses for the prosecution, the quantities of antimony and tincture of aconite bought by him were largely in excess of the amounts sold to other medical men, though not so according to the experience of two druggists called by the prisoner. Anyhow, as will be seen by the list in the note, the purchases were larger than could have been required in any ordinary practice. Besides the phials and papers subsequently proved to contain poison, in one of the presses was a bottle labelled Battley’s solution, which was found to contain an appreciable quantity of antimony, to the extent of 1·5 of a grain per fluid ounce, and the remainder of the tapioca to be charged with 4·62 grains of antimony to the pound. A phial containing 3·5 grains of tartarised antimony, and three others containing tincture of conium, and six other phials with small portions of tincture of aconite, conium, and digitalis, were found in the prisoner’s cupboard. In the chloroform, no metallic poison was discovered; but in a small wooden box with a screw cover were 15·5 grains of tartarised antimony and arsenious acid (the common poison of arsenic), in nearly equal proportions; 35 grains of tartarised antimony in a pasteboard box, and about ten drops of aqueous solution of corrosive sublimate were found in a quart wine-bottle.[151]
MEDICAL AND CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF THE BODIES OF MRS. TAYLOR AND MRS. PRITCHARD.
Mrs. Taylor.
On the 29th and 30th of March the exhumed body of Mrs. Taylor was medically and chemically examined by Dr. Maclagan, the professor of medical jurisprudence in the university of Edinburgh, and Dr. Henry Duncan Littlejohn, surgeon of the Edinburgh police. In accordance with the admirable practice of the Scotch courts these experts gave in formal certificates “on soul and conscience,” which were read in court before any personal examination was allowed. The medical report, after detailing the healthy condition in which the different portions of the body were found, concluded by stating that the examiners “had not been able to discover in the body any morbid appearances capable of accounting for death, and that they were of opinion that the cause of death could not be determined without chemical analysis, and that for that purpose they had secured the alimentary canal and its contents, the heart and some of the blood, the liver, the kidneys, the bladder and uterus, and a portion of the brain,” which had been entrusted to Dr. Maclagan, of whose report the substance is now given:—
“Contents of stomach, amounting to five ounces, having been first tested for vegetable poisons, and then for meconic acid, without success, ‘the residues of the above process were tested for mineral poisons; and a preliminary trial, by Reinsch’s method, having revealed the presence of antimony, I subjected the whole to a process by which I was enabled to determine the amount of this metal (process then described). Assuming, for reasons afterwards to be given, that the antimony existed in the form of tartar emetic, the amount of this represented by the sulphuret which I obtained from the stomach was a little more than a quarter of a grain (0·279).
“Contents of intestines.—The whole contents were evaporated at a gentle heat on the water-bath, and a dry residue obtained, weighing 430 grains. Ten grains of this, by Reinsch’s process, yielded a characteristic deposit of antimony. To determine in what form this antimony existed, other ten grains were treated with distilled water, the solution filtered, and the fluid subjected to Reinsch’s process. A characteristic antimonial deposit was obtained, thus proving that this metal was present in a soluble form. There are only two soluble forms of antimony met with in commerce. One of these, the chloride, is a dark-coloured, acid, corrosive fluid, totally unsuited for internal administration. The other is what is known scientifically as ‘tartarised antimony,’ and popularly as ‘tartar emetic,’ a colourless substance possessed of comparatively little taste, and in daily use as a medicinal agent. I have no doubt it was in this form that the antimony had been taken, which I found in the alimentary canal of Mrs. Taylor. I endeavoured to determine the amount of antimony in the contents of the intestines, but the deposit was too small to enable me with confidence to make it the subject of a quantitative determination. No arsenic was found.
“The Blood.—From one ounce a characteristic antimonial deposit was obtained.
“The Liver.—By operating on 1000 grains of this, I obtained a quantity of sulphuret, indicating that the whole liver contained one grain and one-tenth (1·151) of tartar emetic. I also examined the other solid organs and tissues removed from Mrs. Taylor’s body, in each case following Reinsch’s method, and in each case obtaining on copper a characteristic antimonial deposit. I thus found that there was more or less of antimony present in the muscular substance of the heart, the spleen, the kidney, the coats of the stomach, and of the rectum, the uterus, and the brain.
“Lastly. As Mrs. Taylor’s body had been exhumed, I thought it my duty to examine some of the earth in which it had been interred, though this was superfluous, from the fact of the soil being dry, and the coffin entire: it was not found to contain a trace of soluble antimony, and was therefore incapable of impregnating with this metal any body buried in it.”
Mrs. Pritchard.
On the 21st of March a similar examination was made of the body of Mrs. Pritchard three days after death by the same medical men, who reported “that it presented no appearances of recent morbid action beyond a certain irritation of the alimentary canal, and nothing at all capable of accounting for death.” They had therefore secured for chemical analysis those parts of the body which they deemed likely to disclose the cause of death. As a portion of this analysis had been conducted during the temporary absence of Dr. Maclagan in London by Dr. Gamgee and Dr. Littlejohn, previously to the report being read they were called to prove that Dr. Maclagan’s report of what they had done in his absence was correct. The following was the substance of the report of the chemical analysis:—
“(1.) Contents of stomach amounted to little more than ½ an ounce, and free from all odour of any poisonous drug. Not a trace of any vegetable poison or of antimony was found.
“(2.) Urine.—The presence of antimony having already been ascertained in a portion of this secretion, the remainder (7 ounces) was employed to determine the quantity. The process followed was that by which antimony is obtained in the form of the sulphuret, after destroying the organic matter by means of hydrochloric acid and potash. The quantity was readily weighed, and found to be rather more than one-tenth of a grain (0·1078). This corresponds to nearly one-fourth of a grain (0·121) of tartar emetic.
“(3.) The Bile.—A little more than ½ an ounce of this fluid was obtained from the gall-bladder. By Reinsch’s process 50 minims readily gave an antimonial deposit. The remainder (4 drachms) used to determine the amount, yielded sulphuret of antimony corresponding to more than one-tenth of a grain (0·121) of tartar emetic.
“(4.) The Blood.—1 ounce, by Reinsch’s process, readily gave evidence of the presence of antimony.
“(5.) The Liver.—The weight was 36 ounces, a portion of which, weighing less than 4 ounces (1460 grains), by Reinsch’s process, gave sufficient antimony to coat rather more than four square inches of copper foil. (This experiment was satisfactorily tested by another process described in the report.) As to quantity, 1,000 grains gave of sulphuret of antimony 0·1234 grains, corresponding to a quarter of a grain of tartar emetic, making the whole amount contained in the liver almost exactly 4 grains (3·93 grains).
“I next examined the remainder of the solid organs removed from the body of Mrs. Pritchard, and found more or less antimony in the whole of them.
“I also examined certain articles of clothing and bed-linen handed to me by the officer, and in the stains on four of them—the chemise, two sheets, and a toilet-cover, on which was a stain as of wine—I found antimony. From these experiments I have been led to the following conclusions:—
“(1.) Mrs. Pritchard had taken a large quantity of antimony in the form of tartar emetic.
“(2.) Having regard to the absence in her body of any morbid appearances sufficient to account for death, and to the presence in it of a substance known as capable of destroying life, her death must be ascribed to the action of antimony.
“(3.) That it is most unlikely that this poison was taken in a single large dose. Had this been the case, I should have expected to have found some more decided evidence of irritant action in the mouth, the throat, or the alimentary canal.
“(4.) That from the extent to which the whole organs and fluids of the body were impregnated with it, it must have been taken in repeated doses, the aggregate of which must have amounted to a large quantity.
“(5.) That from the large amount found in the liver, from its ready detection in the blood, and from its being found passing so copiously out of the body by the bile and the urine, it is probable that some of the poison had been taken at no greater interval than a period of a few days previous to death.
“(6.) That I am inclined to believe that it had not been administered, at all events in any great quantity, within a few hours of her death. Had this been the case, I should have expected to have found at least some traces of it in the contents of the stomach, and more in those of the intestines; whereas none was found in the former, and the amount found in the latter seems to be amply accounted for by the bile impregnated with the poison discharged into them from the liver.
“(7.) That the period over which the administration had extended cannot be determined by mere chemical investigation, but must be deduced from the history of the case, with which I am unacquainted.”
Dr. Maclagan then stated what portions of the bodies he had handed to Professor Penny for further analysis, and described the result of his examination of the solid residue obtained from Mrs. Pritchard’s body by the process adopted by Dr. Gamgee and Dr. Littlejohn.
“I determined the presence of mercury, and found a considerable quantity of antimony remaining in it. I got a clear fluid by operating on that residue with chlorate of potash and hydrochloric acid; and then passing sulphuretted hydrogen, I got a precipitate of a dirty orange colour, which was collected, washed and boiled in strong hydrochloric acid. The yellow colour disappeared, and the precipitate became black. The hydrochloric solution was then mixed with water and tartaric acid, and it gave an orange precipitate which, when collected and weighed, amounted to 0.082, equal on the whole to 1.265 of sulphuret of antimony—rather more than a grain and a quarter—in the whole of the solid residue. This was in addition to what had been found in the intestines after the precipitate had been obtained by Dr. Gamgee and Dr. Littlejohn. A grain and a quarter of sulphuret of antimony is equal to two and a half of tartar emetic; the amount of tartar emetic in the whole of the intestines would be about five grains and three-quarters (5.712).”
In cross-examination, Dr. Maclagan deposed to the discovery of about the three hundredth part of a grain of mercury in the 50 grains of sulphuret; that in some cases he was not content with the mere presence of the deposit on the foil, but boiled the copper foil in potash—namely, with the contents of the intestines and with the liver—but otherwise was content with the coloured deposit.
Dr. Frederick Penny then gave in his reports on the portions of the bodies of Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Pritchard, given to him by Dr. Maclagan. The following is the substance of the report in Mrs. Pritchard’s case:—