[107] “Arsenious oil applied to scalp to cure vermin caused death on 10th day.”—Taylor, I., 254. “A solution to cure itch caused death in two years.” Cours de Med., Leq., p. 121. “Arsenious acid and gum to the head, caused death in 36 hours.”—American Journal of Med. Science, July, 1851. “When used as a face powder it caused poisoning symptoms.”—Christison, p. 329. “Arsenical soap applied to scrotum and axillæ produced violent pains in stomach, vomiting, purging, but patient recovered in fourteen days.”—Med. Times and Gazette, December 10, 1853. And see other similar cases in list in “Woodman and Tidy.”
[108] See Chapter VII.
[109] Referring to the evidence of Dr. Penny, the Dean, in his speech for the defence, said: “Here comes again another point on which the evidence for the Crown is very defective, to say the least of it. They knew very well when they were examining the contents of this poor man’s stomach, and his intestines generally, what was the arsenic that the prisoner had bought. They knew from her own candid statement that she bought it partly at Murdoch’s and partly at Currie’s. If that arsenic had been swallowed by the deceased, the colouring-matter could have been detected in the stomach—there was one means of connecting the prisoner with this poison which was found in L’Angelier’s stomach, and a very obvious means. It may be very well for Professor Penny and Dr. Christison to say now that their attention was not directed to this matter. Whose fault was this?—the whole thing was in the hand of the authorities. They kept it to themselves—they dealt with it exclusively—and they present this lame and impotent conclusion.”
[110] 14 Vict. c. 13, sec. 3: “Before the sale, the arsenic shall be mixed with soot or indigo in the proportion of one ounce of soot or half an ounce of indigo, at least, to one pound of arsenic, except in cases where, according to the representation of the purchaser, such mixture would render it unfit for his purpose, when it may be sold in quantities of not less than ten pounds.”
[111] In the Edinburgh Monthly Journal of Dec., 1857, Professor Christison gives the details of a case—not of suicide—in which 90 to 100 grains were found, and the party lived seven hours. In the case of R. v. Dodds, Lincoln Assizes, December, 1860, 150 grains were found; in that of R. v. Hewitt, or Holt, Chester Winter Assizes, 1863, 154 grains were found eleven weeks after death. Professor Christison’s letter will be found in Appendix B., p. 358.
[112] In Woodman and Tidy the following Table, showing the solubility of arsenic, is given:—
| Transparent Form. | Opaque Form. | Crystalline Acid. | |
| (1) 1,000 grains of distilled cold water, after standing 24 hours—dissolved | 1·74 gr. | 1·16 gr. | 2·0 gr. |
| (2) 1,000 grains of boiling water, poured on the acid, and allowed to stand 24 hours—dissolved | 10·12 gr. | 5·4 gr. | 15·0 gr. |
| (3) 1,000 grains of water, boiled for one hour, the quantity being kept uniform by the addition of boiling water from time to time, and filtered immediately—dissolved | 64·5 gr. | 76·5 gr. | 87·0 gr. |
[113] As proof that L’Angelier’s first illness could not have been on the night of the 19th and morning of the 20th, the Dean referred to the fact that “on the 21st he ordered of his butcher the largest piece of beef to be found in his pass-book (7lbs.), and had fresh herrings in such a quantity as to alarm his landlady, and a still more alarming quantity and variety of vegetables.” “There’s a dinner for a sick person!” He also said, “I give my learned friend the option of being impaled on one of the horns of the dilemma—I care not which. He was ill from arsenical poisoning on the morning of the 20th, or he was not. If he was, he received arsenic from other hands than the prisoner’s. If he was not, the foundation of the case was shaken.”
[114] “What is the evidence of Mrs. Jenkins on this point? She says he was in his usual condition on the 21st, when he made that celebrated dinner, and she thought he was making himself ill, and on that 21st he told her he should not leave the house all the following day—the Sunday. He had, therefore, I maintain, no appointment to keep, else he would never have made that statement. On the 22nd Mrs. Jenkins says she had no recollection of his going out. When he did go out at night, and came in late, what was his habit? Mrs. Jenkins says he never got into the house on those occasions except in one of two ways—either he asked her for a check key, and got one, or Thuau opened the door for him. He did not ask for a key that night, and Thuau says he certainly did not let him in.”—Speech of the Dean of Faculty for the defence.
[115] To the evidence for these statements, the Dean of Faculty objected that, though the guard of the train from Stirling was shown the photograph of L’Angelier, and identified him by it, the photo. was not shown to Ross—that Ross only spoke of him as a foreigner—that no one at the place where he had refreshments at Coatbridge was called to identify him—that the “foreigner” told Ross he had walked from Alloa (eight miles), and not from the Bridge of Allan, and that on the Friday or Saturday previous he had walked into Stirling to try and get a cheque cashed, and yet no attempt was made to show that he did so. The witnesses for the defence, on the contrary (Adams, Kirk, Dickson, druggists), were clear (Adams) that at half-past five on Sunday, the 22nd, a gentleman came to his shop for 25 drops of laudanum; Dickson, of Batherton, two miles from Coatbridge, that one whom he recognised as extremely like the photo. of L’Angelier came for a similar dose at 6.30 on a Sunday at the end of March, suffering from a bowel complaint; and Miss Kirk, of the Gallowgate, Glasgow, who remembered a gentleman, “as like as anything I ever saw” to the photo. of L’Angelier, came about 8 p.m. on a Sunday night at the end of March for a medicine, and got a white powder. [But it must be remarked that, weak as this evidence was, it was weakened by the admission of Adams that his customer did not complain of illness—by that of Dickson that it might have been in April, and by the inability of Miss Kirk to fix any date for the occurrence, or to state what the powder was, though she identified the purse from which the party took the money for the payment of it.]
[116] On the question whether this letter brought L’Angelier to Glasgow, the Dean referred to an expression in one of his letters to Thuau, that he did not know what “Mr. Mitchell could want with him,” and inferred that it might be to hear about this person that he hurried up to Glasgow and called on M’Alister, who probably might have given some information on this point had he been called. [If so, why was he not called for the defence?]
[117] “I have already shown,” said the Dean, “how constantly she repeated to him her warning that on no account he was to make the slightest noise of any kind. Therefore, without previous arrangement, it does not appear to me possible for these parties to have met on the occasion on which the prosecutor says they did. If I am right in reading that letter, she expected him on Saturday evening, and she waited and waited, as she had upon Thursday, but he did not come. On the Sunday evening she did not expect him. Why should she? When he did not come on Thursday evening, when he did not come on Saturday evening, why should she expect him on the following evening? Well, then, that is the state in which her expectations were on that occasion, and her conduct precisely squares with it. She is at home in the family. They are all at prayers at nine o’clock. The servants come up to attend prayers with the family. Mackenzie, the suitor of Haggart, remains below while the family are at prayers. The servants afterwards go down stairs to bed, as usual—one after the other. The family then retire to rest, and the prisoner, with her youngest sister, goes to her bedroom about half-past ten or eleven. They both get into bed about the same time; and, so far as human knowledge can go, that house is undisturbed and unapproached till the prisoner is lying in the morning side by side with her sister, as she had fallen asleep. The watchman was on his beat—he knew L’Angelier well—and he saw nothing.”
[118] Regarding this third charge in the light of probabilities, the Dean said:—“If you believe the evidence of the Crown, he suspected the prisoner of having tried to poison him. But my learned friend says his suspicions were then lulled—she had become more kind to him before he left town. I thought my learned friend said he was brooding over it when in Edinburgh, and spoke of it in a serious tone to the Towerses. That was on the 16th of March, after which date he had nothing to change his mind in the shape of kindness from the prisoner, and therefore if he did once entertain the suspicion, however unfounded, there was nothing to remove it from his mind anterior to the 22nd of March. A man, whose suspicions are excited against a particular person, is not very likely to take poison at that person’s hand; and yet, what are we asked to believe that he took from her hand that night? That he took from her hand a poisoned cup, in which there lurked such a quantity of arsenic as was sufficient to leave in his stomach after death 82 grains; such a dose indicating the administration of at least double—aye, I think Dr. Christison said the administration of at least half an ounce (240 grains)—and that he took it that evening from the hand of the prisoner, with all his previous suspicions that she was practising on him. It is a dose which, as far as experience goes, was never successfully administered by a murderer. There is not a case on record in which it has ever been shown that a person administering poison to another ever succeeded in persuading him to swallow such a quantity.” [But note as to confidence after suspicion, that of Cook in Palmer, after the suspicious illness at Shrewsbury.—See Palmer’s Case, ante; and as to quantity administered by murderers, note ante, p. 319, and Appendix B., p. 358.]
[119] Christina Haggart, if she was to be believed, appears to contradict this assertion. On re-examination she said that between a month and two before her apprehension Miss Smith asked her to leave the back gate into the lane open after ten at night, and stay in the kitchen a little, as she was to see her friend. When she did so she saw no one in the lane, but as she went into the kitchen, which was in front of the house, she met Miss Smith going towards the back door. She heard footsteps coming through the gate—that she stayed in the kitchen till she heard Miss Smith go to her own room. She stayed about half an hour. “Charlotte Maclean, the cook, stayed in the kitchen with me at my request.” In this she was confirmed by Maclean, but she could not say she heard Miss Smith in the passage, though she heard her afterwards go to her bedroom. Miss Smith’s statement to Dr. Meau is true, if the meeting took place only at the back gate. The Lord Justice Clerk, however, spoke of this evidence as proving that L’Angelier was in the house in Blythswood Square.
[120] In a letter with post-mark September 18, 1855, she alludes to some such threat, “Beloved, you are young, you ought to desire life.” In another with post-mark October 19, 1855, she writes, “‘Before long,’ you say, ‘I shall rid you and all the world of my presence.’ God forbid that you should do this.” “This,” said the Judge, “was a common enough mode of influencing females; and if such was his design, he seemed to have succeeded.”
[121] As to the evidence for the defence, that L’Angelier had on one occasion threatened to throw himself out of the window at the “Rainbow” Tavern, his lordship observed, “As the witness was in bed at the time the deceased had ample opportunity to have thrown himself over, if he had been so inclined, before the witness could interfere; and the jury would consider whether, when going about the room in that excited state, he had only thrown open the window to get air. As to the other stories that he would drown himself, if jilted, they did not amount to much, as on one occasion he had been jilted, and had not drowned himself. You will consider whether all this is merely the vapouring of a loose, talkative man, fond of awakening an interest in the minds of others about himself, or whether it affords any indication that he was likely to commit suicide. As to the evidence about giving arsenic to horses in France, which would be useless unless given constantly, he did not see its importance. If he was in the habit of taking it in small quantities, he knew its qualities, and therefore this did not aid the notion that he took an immense quantity on the 22nd to destroy himself. No doubt the prisoner was not bound to prove that he poisoned himself, but it was a hazardous thing to set up a defence that L’Angelier went out that night carrying such a quantity of arsenic in his pocket, and that he swallowed it, how, when, and where, no human being could conceive.”
[122] “It is very difficult,” said the learned Judge, “to say what the exasperated feelings of a female placed in such a situation as this woman was might not lead her to do. And here it is that the correspondence becomes of the utmost importance, as shewing what feelings she cherished about that time, what state and disposition of mind she was in, and whether there was any trace of moral sense or propriety to be found in her letters, or whether they did not exhibit such a degree of ill-regulated, disordered, distempered, and licentious feelings, as shew that the writer was quite capable of compassing any end by which she could avoid exposure and disgrace, and of cherishing any feeling of revenge which such treatment might excite in her mind, driven nearly to madness by the thought of what might follow the revelation of this correspondence. We have heard a good deal said by the Dean of Faculty as to the character of this person: we have no evidence on the subject, except what these letters exhibit, and no witness to character is brought; and certainly these letters exhibit as extraordinary a frame of mind and of passion as perhaps ever appeared in a court of justice. Can you be surprised, that after such letters as those of the 29th April and 3rd May (inviting him in very plain terms to meet her for that purpose at the garden gate of the country house), that on the 6th May, three days afterwards, he got possession of her person? On the 7th she again writes, and in that letter is there the slightest appearance of grief, of repentance, of remorse? It is the letter of a girl rejoicing in what had passed, and alluding to it particularly in terms which I will not read, for perhaps they were never previously committed to paper, as having passed between man and woman. There could be no doubt of the state of degraded and unholy feeling into which she had sunk, probably not the less so if it was produced by his undermining and corruption.”
[123] If this was the use for which the prisoner bought the arsenic, it is at least curious that she did not buy it until the 21st of February, 1857, when she was endeavouring to get her letters back from L’Angelier. The article in Blackwood was in December, 1853. Johnston’s Book was published in 1855, and of the papers in Chambers, the first was in December, 1851, the second in June, 1853, and the third in July, 1856.
[124] Without wishing to fight over again the case of Eliza Fenning, I would refer any one at all curious on this point to a letter to the Times, quoted in the “Annual Register” for July 29, 1855, from the Rev. J. H. Gurney, the nephew of the well-known shorthand writer, in which it is stated, on the authority of an extract from his uncle’s note-book, that Eliza Fenning did confess the crime to the Rev. James Upton, a Baptist minister, whose chapel she attended, though she subsequently maintained her innocence to other visitors.
[125] The learned Judge had previously said, “If this had been an appointment about business, and it had been shown that a person came to town for the purpose of seeing another, and he went out for that purpose, having no other object in coming to Glasgow, they would probably scout the notion of a person saying, ‘I never saw or heard of him that day that he came;’ but the inference they were asked to draw was this, that they met on that night, when the fact of their meeting is the foundation of the charge of murder. Therefore the jury must feel that the grounds of drawing an inference in the ordinary matters of civil business, or the actual appointment of mutual friends is one thing, and the inference from the fact that he came to Glasgow, that they did meet, and that, therefore, the poison was administered to him by her at that time, is another, and a most enormous jump in the category of inferences.”
[126] Evidence of Samuel Peckeridge, his fellow-workman; Thomas Denman, who had seen him near the reservoir on Stamford Hill, on the 24th, vomiting, and going to the public-house for brandy; James Ashby, another turncock of the East London Company’s; Mrs. Gillett, and Mr. Toulmin, of Clapton.
[127] On Dr. Letheby’s evidence, see remarks in Chapter VII., p. 395.
[128] A. Andrews also proved that she had only objected to the post-mortem because she knew the deceased objected to it; that she said “Thank God, I am innocent. Poor dear soul, I loved him too well to injure him;” and had told him that Annie had eaten the rest of the gruel, and that Mrs. Gillett knew it.
[129] James Urry, the secretary of the benefit society, proved that the deceased had been insured in it nearly two years—these would not have been completed until February 2nd, and that, in consequence, she would be entitled to only £7 10s. instead of £10. When he saw the prisoner she seemed absorbed in grief.
[130] See on this the remarks in Chapter VII. p. 395.
[131] Tidy (Handbook of Modern Chem., 1878, p. 397) states that 1,000 parts of boiling water, digested for twenty-four hours with the powder, dissolve—of the opaque form, 5·4 parts; of the transparent, 10; of the crystalline, 15.
[132] In this case, which was tried before the late Lord Denman, at the Summer Assizes, 1848, very many of the guests at a dinner given to celebrate the election of an Independent minister were seriously affected, and the death of the chairman (an invalid) hastened, by eating of a blancmange made in the form of a cucumber, surrounded with leaves—all of the natural green colour. In colouring this sweet, emerald green, in which, on analysis, 47½ per cent. of arsenite of copper was found, had been used to such an extent that the colour was in some parts half an inch in depth. The pastrycook (Franklin) had been previously warned, by the chemist who sold it to him, of its poisonous qualities, and for a time had discontinued its use for eatables; and the defence was, that in this case his apprentice (Randall) had used it under the impression that the sweet was only for ornament. They were both found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
[133] According to the Apotheker Zeitung, No. 14, April 3, 1879, out of 118 samples of children’s toys officially examined in 1878, 53, or nearly one-half, were found adorned with poisonous colours. In the cases of 46 the vendors were punished. As to dresses, see Chem. News, v. 114.
[134] In the case of Maria Gage, tried at the Summer Assizes, at Ipswich, on the 2nd of August, 1851, for the murder of her husband, it was proved that she had got a neighbour to purchase for her a pennyworth of stuff for rats and mice, which was found to consist of linseed with arsenic enough to kill half a dozen men.
[135] “Considerable sensation has been excited by the report that arsenic had been detected in the paper collars, &c., manufactured by a Leipzig firm. On a careful examination, conducted by six of the most eminent chemists, the accusation was proved to be utterly unfounded.”—Chemiker Zeitung, No. 45, 1879.
[136] In this case, which was tried in April, 1835, before Sir Charles Wetherell, as Recorder of Bristol, a widow lady of the name of Mary Smith, who had lodged with the prisoner, was poisoned by her, in October, 1833, for the sake of the money and other property she had with her. The accused was proved to have purchased yellow arsenic about six days before Mrs. Smith’s death, and to have been seen putting some yellow powder out of a paper from her pocket into a basin of gruel, after taking which Mrs. Smith was seized with dreadful convulsions, and died. In consequence of suspicions created by the prisoner’s subsequent conduct and false statements, a post-mortem was held of the body, exhumed fourteen months after death. The report of this examination was very striking. “A thick, yellow coating, like paint, lay on the mucous membrane of the stomach, particularly over the pyloric third, but it extended more or less with some small interjections of unstained membrane to within two or three inches of the great cul-de-sac.” The accused was convicted and executed.
[137] Phosphates give nothing with sulphuretted hydrogen, and a yellow with silver nitrate.
[138] “A curious toxicological case is reported from Hamburg. The body of a man who died in 1867 was taken for examination. It was thought necessary to determine arsenic, not merely in the corpse in question, but in the soil of the churchyard at different distances from the coffin, and also in the body of another man who had been subsequently buried in the same grave. This latter body was perfectly free from arsenic, which, however, was found in the first corpse in ample fatal quantity (3·6 grains), whilst in the lid of the coffin and in the adjacent ground very minute quantities were traced. Hence the conclusion was fairly drawn that the man in question had been poisoned with arsenic, and that a portion of the poison had been gradually transferred from his body to the wood of the coffin and the adjacent soil.”—Chemiker Zeitung, No. 7, February 13th, 1879.
[139] See also a case in the Gaz. Médicale, 1850.
[140] When we bear in mind how small a space even 200 grains of arsenic would occupy—not more than that of an ordinary seidlitz powder—the suggestion of L’Angelier carrying this means of suicide about him, when keeping the supposed appointment on the Sunday night, is by no means improbable. And when his evident tendency to attempt self-destruction, when irritated or depresssed, is remembered, it is within the range of probability, that, if either the meeting took place and ended with a quarrel, or he failed to obtain a meeting, in the excited state of mind which either circumstance would have created, he in desperation swallowed the drug very shortly before he returned to his lodgings, only to die. This is a far more probable suggestion than that set up by the defence, that he had been dosing himself with arsenic on the road from Stirling to Glasgow. The difficulty is that purchases of arsenic by L’Angelier could not be proved. But, looking to the careless way in which it was exposed in the shops of some of the firms with which he had relations (evidence of Fleming and Townsend), he might have got it from thence, without its being known, or he might have purchased it in Edinburgh on his visit there, where he could not be easily recognised. He certainly had an unwholesome hankering after this drug.—G. L. B.
[141] To the medical profession, for whose use, as well as for that of their legal brethren, this volume is intended, any but a detailed report of the medical evidence in this disputed case would be useless.
[142] For the report of this trial I have relied on that published in Edinburgh by William Kay, 1865.
[143] Evidence of James Struthers. Registrar of Deaths for the Blythswood district of Glasgow.
[144] According to Mary Patterson, Mrs. Taylor was in the kitchen about 7 p.m., as well as usual, only appearing a little peevish in consequence of her night-watching. Mary McLeod met her going up stairs from the consulting-room about nine o’clock, and in a short time her bell rang, and she found her in her daughter’s bedroom asking for hot water to make her vomit, when she desired her to go for the doctor.
[145] See evidence, ante, p. 414 (note), of McLeod and Paterson, as to her health and actions during the evening before her seizure.
[146] It was with reference to this visit that Paterson afterwards expressed his opinion, that, but for the accident of meeting Pritchard, he would not have been asked to visit his wife. This was severely commented on by Mr. R. Clark as showing the ill-feeling towards the prisoner which was imputed to the witness.
[147] It was proved that he kept large quantities of antimony, poisons, and other drugs in his consulting-room, though no chlorodyne.—Evidence of McCall, Dr. Penny, McHattie, Foulger, and Kerr.
[148] In a letter to his father-in-law on the 3rd of March, Pritchard wrote: “I am very much fatigued with being up with dear Mary Jane, who was very much worse yesterday, and passed a wretched night. Wednesday has been a periodic day with her during this illness, and she always dreads it. Her prostration is extreme, and her appetite quite failed. Dr. Paterson has recommended Dublin stout and some very simple medicine.”—Evidence of Mr. Taylor. Second day.
[149] On Dr. Paterson’s evident feeling against the prisoner, the Lord Justice Clerk made the following remarks: “It is said that he exhibited a strong feeling against the prisoner; no human being could feel otherwise if he had formed the impression that Mrs. Pritchard was being poisoned in the hands of her husband, her medical attendant. It is said that he exhibited this feeling in a marked unpleasant manner in the box. That is a matter of manner, and, if the feeling existed, I do not know that he could have made his evidence really more valuable if he had concealed the existence of it. It may be an unpleasant thing to see what is called an animus in a witness exhibited in the witness-box. If he has a feeling strong upon him, and that on good ground, he may come into the box and entirely suppress all appearance of it, because he has more command of his feeling, or a better manner of concealing it. The fact remains, that if he takes up the position I have described, he cannot, as a man of ordinary feeling, feel otherwise than unfavourably prepossessed against the prisoner.” Again, on his concealment of his suspicions, the Judge said: “Now, he thought it consistent with his professional duty—and I must also add with his duty as a citizen of this country—to keep this opinion to himself. In that I cannot say he did right. I should be very sorry to lead you to think so. I care not for professional etiquette, or professional rule. There is a rule of life and a consideration far higher than these—the duty that every citizen of this country, that every right-minded man owes to his neighbour—to prevent the destruction of human life in this world, and in that duty I cannot but say that Dr. Paterson has failed. Now you will consider what effect that is to have, or whether it is to have any effect on your minds. It is a very painful subject—a subject which I would fain avoid, but the exigencies of this case drive me to its consideration—and I am bound to say that, because a man is so mistaken in regard to his duty to his fellow-citizens, and his fellow-creatures, it by no means follows that he is undeserving of credit as a witness. You may con sider his evidence always in the light of that failing; if you can see reason to modify anything that he says, because of the existence of that failing, it is your bounden duty to do that.”—Charge of the Lord Justice Clerk. Fifth day.
[150] From Western Branch of Glasgow Apothecaries’ Company, September 19, 1864, 10 grains strychnia; November 4, ½ oz. tincture conii (Hemlock); November 16, 1 oz. laudanum, 1 oz. tartar emetic; November 24, 1 oz. tincture aconite; December 8, 1 oz. tincture (Fleming’s) aconite; December 9, 1 oz. tincture conii. 1865: February 4, 1 oz. tincture conii; February 7, 1 oz. tartarised antimony, 1 oz. tincture of aconite; February 9, 1 oz. tincture of aconite; February 11, 1 oz. tincture of digitalis; February 18, 2 oz. tincture conii (all sold by the manager, J. Campbell); November 24, 1 oz. tincture of aconite; December 9, 1 oz. tincture conii; February 4, 1865, 1 oz. tincture conii (sold by the assistant). Fleming’s tincture of aconite is six times stronger than the ordinary tincture.—Evidence of J. Campbell. From John Currie, chemist in Glasgow:—1865: February 18, 2 oz. solution of morphia and 1 oz. of Fleming’s tincture of aconite; March 8, solution of atropine, 1 drachm, with 2 grains of atropia to a drachm; March 13, ½ oz. of Fleming’s tincture of aconite; March 14, solution of atropine, 1 drachm, with 2 grains to a drachm; March 16, solution of atropine, 1 drachm, with 5 grains to a drachm.—Evidence of John Currie. Chloroform from July 13 to December 9, 1864, 132 oz.—J. Campbell. This witness said that 2 oz. of tartarised antimony and about 1 to 2 ozs. of Fleming’s tincture would cover the whole of their sales for a year, and that the chloroform was also in excess of usual sale to one person. For the defence it was proved that as much as 80 oz. of Fleming’s tincture was sold by them within a year.—Evidence of John Simpson, of Duncan, Flockhart & Co., of North Bridge, Glasgow. And from 2 to 3 oz. of tartar emetic, besides larger quantities to veterinary surgeons.—Thomas Fairgreive, chemist, of Edinburgh.
[151] Evidence of Alexander McCall, superintendent of Glasgow Police, and John Murray, an officer of the Sheriff—third day; and reports of analyses by Professor Frederick Penny, same day. Another specimen of tapioca, bought direct from Barton and Henderson, had no antimony in it—Same witness.
[152] In reply to the Judge, the witness said that to take 7 grains of Fleming’s tincture Mrs. Taylor must have taken 100 drops of the poisoned Battley in a single dose, equal to a teaspoonful; that 100 drops would not be an unusual amount to a person accustomed to the use of it in moderation, and that many opium eaters would not thank you for 100 drops. Aconite might be given in divided doses, and not prove fatal, though the same quantity was taken, the distressing effect of one dose going off before the other was taken.
[153] Dr. Gairdner stated that the only time he saw Mrs. Pritchard was on the night of the 8th of February, and that at that interview Pritchard told him Dr. Cowan had prescribed stimulants, which he ordered to be discontinued, and no medicine till he saw her again. Dr. Cowan said that he did not see her until the 11th of February, “to the best of his recollection, stopped all night, saw her again next day, and left in the evening for Edinburgh.”
[154] Dr. Paterson stated that he was called on the 24th of February to see Mrs. Taylor, and then noticed the state in which Mrs. Pritchard was, but not being asked did not prescribe for her. He was called in to Mrs. Pritchard first on the 2nd of March, when he prescribed powders containing camomile, blue or gray powder, ipecacuanha, and aromatic powder, and he never saw her again until five hours before her death. There is not a word in his evidence of his having been previously consulted about the use of Battley’s solution. The only interviews with the prisoner, other than in the sick-room, were on the 1st of March, when he met him in the street and he asked him to see his wife, and on the 5th of March, when Pritchard called on him, reported that the remedies had had a good effect, and Dr. Paterson recommended their continuance.
[155] Mary McLeod stated that she was in the bedroom from the time Dr. Paterson left till Mrs. Pritchard died; that she lay on the sofa, and that Pritchard told her to get the mustard-plaster, and that it was applied to Mrs. Pritchard’s stomach, and as it did not seem to do her good, she was sent down again for another, and that when she and Mary Patterson returned with it, Mrs. Pritchard was dead.
[156] From an account sent in to Mr. Taylor after his wife’s death, the last purchases appeared to be:—18th January, 1865, 2 oz.; 29th January, 2 oz.; and 4th February, 2 oz. James Thomson stated that the last time he took the bottle to be filled was on the night before Mrs. Taylor left for Glasgow, and that for a year or so before her death he took the bottle to be filled at first only once in every two or three months, but latterly every two or three weeks.
[157] Evidence of J. Foulger and George Kerr.
[158] This had previously been admitted by Dr. Penny.
[159] See remarks of the Lord Justice Clerk on the motive, post, p. 445.
[160] See the argument of the Dean of Faculty imputing the murder to McLeod, and the Judge’s charge on that point, post, 437-440.
[161] “Mr. Clark very properly said,” remarked the Judge in this charge, “‘it is not his fault that he had abundant opportunities. The relation existing between him and these ladies is not his fault, and it was the existence of this relation that gave him these opportunities.’ Quite true, gentlemen—a very just observation; but remember, on the other hand, that as the opportunities did in point of fact exist, he cannot argue the case as if they did not.”
[162] “His possession of poisonous drugs,” said the Judge in his charge, “to such an extent is not a suspicious circumstance in the case of a medical man. They are in some degree necessary; but the peculiar position of the matter in this case—the nature of the drugs found in his consulting-room—is certainly not to be lightly passed over, and still more the nature of the purchases that he had been making from two different apothecaries during the period to which our inquiries particularly refer. In his consulting-room were found some parcels of tartaric acid—not a very large quantity; some phials, containing the remains of tincture of aconite and white powder to the extent of three or four grains, containing a somewhat strange and unexplained mixture of tartarised antimony or tartar emetic and aconite. These things were found in his consulting-room; but what had he been purchasing during the period to which our inquiry refers? On the 16th of November he purchased an ounce of tartar emetic, and upon the 7th of February another ounce of the same poison—very unusual quantities, as the apothecaries state. He also purchased no less than 5½ ounces of tincture of aconite. That, the apothecaries state, is a very unusual quantity for a medical man to purchase: but I think it was a mistake in some respects to push this statement to the extent to which the prosecutor pressed it, because some of the other witnesses of the same description said that for external application tincture of aconite is sometimes used in considerable quantities, and if it were used for that purpose we might account for such a large quantity being used by the prisoner. But I do not think anybody said, that two ounces of tartar emetic within a month or two was a usual quantity for one medical man to use who was not in the practice of mixing it at home, which the prisoner, in his conversation with Dr. Paterson, says he was not. Besides, there were other very strange purchases, which have no immediate connection with this case—all of them strong poisons. He was, therefore, undoubtedly possessed of a very large quantity of different kinds of poisonous substances; but what is most important is, that he was in possession of that very poison to which the death of Mrs. Pritchard is undoubtedly to be traced, and to which, in combination with others, the death of Mrs. Taylor is to be traced—that is antimony. So that whether we adopt to the full extent the suggestion of the Crown, it appears beyond a doubt that some one had been practising a system of poisoning, and that in the possession of the prisoner were the agents necessary for carrying it on.”
[163] See, post, p. 446, the Judge’s remarks on this attempt to throw the crime on McLeod.
[164] “It is said,” remarked the Lord Justice Clerk, “that it would be very difficult that cheese could be poisoned by antimony—very difficult to make a powder like tartar emetic adhere to a piece of cheese in sufficient quantity to have any effect, and that, if it did, it must have been visible to the naked eye, because the cheese was yellow and the tartar emetic was white. But we know from the evidence before us that tartar emetic is easily dissolved, and the poisoned cheese could easily have been poisoned by dipping it into a solution, quite as easily as by dipping it into a powder.” See Chapter IX.
[165] On this argument of the prisoner’s counsel the Lord Justice Clerk said:—“It is difficult to offer an answer to that. It is impossible to say what is the precise point to which a poison of this kind will kill—what is the precise amount that will at once destroy life as compared with that which will only inflict suffering and torture. But that Patterson did suffer these severe vomitings and pains immediately after having tasted the egg-flip I suppose you will not disbelieve, looking to the general character of the evidence which she gave here as a witness.”
[166] With reference to the finding of the bottle of Battley’s solution the Lord Justice Clerk made the following remarks:—“To that scene I beg now to call your attention as given by Mary Patterson. ‘When the bottle was found,’ she says, ‘he expressed great surprise that she should have taken so much of its contents in so short a time.’ Now he was quite aware, as you will see by the evidence, that the old lady was in the habit of taking a great quantity, and you will consider whether the surprise was real or feigned. That is but a very small point, however, in reference to this matter. His expression in regard to it, seemed to me much more strong. He expressed surprise at her having sent ‘a girl like that for it’—namely, McLeod. I cannot see that there is anything so startling in that. Did he mean to suggest that in sending such a messenger there might be some mistake as to the contents of the bottle? Why, what was it, ‘to send a girl like that?’ What was the harm of sending a girl—an intelligent servant girl? What was wanted was Battley’s solution, because it was what Mrs. Taylor wanted—was accustomed to take. But still he thought that it was a very serious matter—and further, that it was one of those things that it would not do to have spoken of as having occurred in his house—a man of his profession.”
[167] Had she survived the wife, would she not have been a most important witness to aid in the conviction of the prisoner?
[168] For the report of this trial I have used that in the Sessions Papers, Central Criminal Court, 1859, collated with that given by Mr. Justice Stephen in his “History of the Criminal Law of England,” vol. iii., p. 438, and that in the Annual Register of 1859.
[169] According to her sister she had for some time suffered from an affection of the uterus requiring the use of an injection.
[170] The prisoner called on the solicitor on the Saturday and asked him to come up the next day to draw the will, to which he consented on the prisoner’s representation of the state of the lady—but wished a medical man to be present. The prisoner, however, assured him it was quite unnecessary, as she was suffering only from diarrhœa, and was quite in her right mind. “I went,” said the witness, “to the prisoner’s lodging, and he informed me that they were not married, which was another reason why he did not wish a medical man to be present. I then went up to the bedroom of the deceased, and the prisoner said to her, ‘My dear, this is the gentleman who has come to make your will.’ She bowed, and handed me the paper which I had seen on Saturday. I looked at it, and asked her if that was what she wished, and read it to her, and she said it was quite correct, except that she wished to leave a brooch to a friend. I then drew up the will in accordance with her instructions, in a lower room. The prisoner was with me, and, when the will had been drawn up, said the daughter of the landlady could be one of the witnesses, and he supposed I could say it was some Chancery paper. I told him that would not do. She must know it was a will, and he replied, ‘Oh, very well.’ Shortly afterwards the deceased executed the will, and I and Miss Wheatley attested it, and I handed the document to the prisoner, who paid me my fee. She appeared perfectly competent to make a will.”—Evidence of Mr. Senior. The will was proved by Smethurst, notwithstanding opposition, after his punishment for bigamy.
[171] From the sudden and serious illness of one of the jurors, however, the examination of the witnesses had to be suspended, and the trial adjourned to the first day of the next Session. Eventually he was put on his trial, before another jury, on the 15th of August. As the statement of Serjeant Ballantine was fully confirmed by the witnesses, the landladies of the respective lodgings, and the sister, it will be necessary only to report the medical evidence.
[172] It was apparently with reference to this case that the name of a Dr. Barker, of Bedford, was repeatedly mentioned, but he was not called to confirm or explain the supposed instance of dysentery in early pregnancy.
[173] It must be borne in mind that there was no error in this experiment, and that it was never suggested that the arsenic in this case came from the copper, as it was not destroyed, as when the bottle of chlorate of potash was afterwards tested with copper gauze, which was destroyed by it, and the arsenic in the gauze liberated. Serjeant Parry, of course, said that the experiments in both cases were the same. So they were so far as copper was used, but the presence of the chlorate of potash in the other case made all the difference.—See Chapter IX.
[174] Had this discovery of arsenic not been erroneous, the gap in the evidence, as to the possession of the poison by the prisoner in a form most likely to be administered, would have been filled up. It in no way, however, militated against the discovery of arsenic in bottle 2. See post, Chap. IX., how far Mr. Herapath was correct in asserting that more arsenic was found than could have been released from the copper. In his statement before the committing magistrates, on the 20th of May, Serjeant Ballantine stated that bottle 21 had originally been sent by Dr. Julius with a quinine mixture.
[175] On farther cross-examination, Professor Brande said that the copper he used in Reinsch’s test was generally rolled down from a halfpenny, which he considered pure enough for the purpose.
[176] But see his evidence, Palmer’s trial, p. 175, ante.
[177] Handbuch der Pathologischen Anatomie, by Baron Carl von Rokitansky, Vienna, 1842-46, of which a translation by various English medical men of eminence was published by the Sydenham Society in 4 vols. 8vo. 1849-54. It is still considered a valuable book of reference.
[178] Subsequent to the verdict, in a memorial to the Prince Consort, it was stated that “a lady friend of the deceased was a witness,” to Miss Bankes’ knowledge, of the fact that he was married already, and that she wished the ceremony to be gone through. This lady, the memorial stated, was to have been called, but Mr. Parry deemed it unnecessary. Upon this, the Lord Chief Baron, in his report to the Home Secretary, observed—“I do not believe Mr. Serjeant Parry gave any such advice; but if it be true that any such evidence was ready, why is not the lady friend named, and why is not her statement or declaration now offered and laid before you? Such evidence would, in my opinion, much alter the complexion of the case.”—Judge Stephen’s Hist. of Crim, Law, iii., 461. [What need was there of this evidence, when it had been proved that for weeks together Miss Bankes had been lodging and associating in the same house with Smethurst and his wife?]
[179] Not quite correct; on the prisoners representations of the effect of the sister’s prior visit, Dr. Bird had advised that she should not see her—at any rate at present.—See his evidence, ante, p. 450.
[180] When Dr. Julius was recalled, and stated that at the first examination before the magistrates the prisoner urged that it was necessary for him to go back to his wife; that her death might be occasioned by his absence; and that it was imperative that he should go; Serjeant Parry asked the witness “whether the magistrates at that time did not direct or require him not to interfere further with the patient?” To this he replied—“I do not think it was addressed to him, but it was addressed generally—it was in his presence. It might have been a general direction, but he might have heard it.”
[181] “And not only in the evacuations, where small portions of both were found?” They also laid great stress on the absence of certain symptoms generally present in slow poisoning by arsenic or antimony, or both.
[182] Or he might have added, the results of his experiments on the evacuations, the correctness of which were proved by the subsequent 76 tests by Reinsch’s method.
[183] “There were,” says Judge Stephen, “fourteen reasons in all assigned by Sir B. Brodie, six in favour of the prisoner, and eight against him, of which only two of the first and four of the second proceeded on medical or chemical grounds. Until these are published it is impossible to judge fairly of Brodie’s opinion.”
[184] Stephen’s Hist. Crim. Law of Eng., iii., 465.
[185] Margaret Higgins, a servant of Mrs. James, told a very different story when put into the box for cross-examination, her evidence not being taken for the prosecution. “On the morning of the 10th I went into Mrs. James’s bedroom, about half-past eight, and found two or three spoonsful of warmsago in a tea-cup by the bedside, and two cups on the table. I took the cup from the chair by the bedside down stairs, and ate the sago, which did me no harm.”[As the prisoner said he took it in about 5 a.m., the sago, being in an open cup, could not have been warm at 8·30. It was also clear, from other parts of her evidence, that she was in favour of the prisoner, and anxious to throw the crime on the Cafferatas.
[186] Evidence of Mrs. Cafferata, Dr. Cameron, Mr. Clarence Pemberton (surgeon), Mr. Tennyson Lloyd (solicitor), Inspector Horne, and detective Kehoe, who proved the seizure of the medicine bottles, &c., and their safe delivery to Dr. Edwards.
[187] “Free antimony” is what has not been taken up into the system. “Eliminated,” which has been taken up into the system.
[188] For these acids I have used the systematic nomenclature corresponding to the phosphates, as in Bernay’s “Notes for Students,” in preference to Fremy’s original titles.
[189] Sulphuric acid may be freed from arsenic or antimony by treating it with a few small fragments of charcoal and a little rock salt, and boiling till the hydrochloric and sulphurous acids have been expelled.
[190] Solutions of bismuth give with water white precipitates, which are not re-dissolved by tartaric acid.
[191] But it must be borne in mind that it was late in the evening when the cheese was taken up to the bedroom, where the light was not likely to have been strong; probably, on the contrary, was carefully shaded, so as not to annoy the invalid.
[192] This bottle, according to Serjeant Ballantine’s statement, had been sent by Dr. Julius to the deceased containing a quinine mixture.
[193] Arsenic is tasteless. See evidence of Professor Christison, in Madeline Smith’s case, ante, p. 322.
[194] This must be an error of the reporter, and must mean McIntyre, who, with Dr. Bird, took possession of the bottles in the bedroom. Dr. Bird delivered only bottles 1, 2, 3.
[195] In his evidence at the trial Dr. Taylor said that he found less than half a grain of arsenic, equal to 2¼ per cent. in the copper dissolved—an impossibility.
[196] “An attempt,” says Mr. Justice Stephen, “was made to account for the presence of antimony and arsenic alleged to be discovered by Dr. Taylor, by the suggestion that it might have been contained in the medicines administered to Miss Bankes during her life. Arsenic is generally found in bismuth, and for three or four days doses of bismuth, containing five or six grains, were administered to Miss Bankes. Dr. Richardson put the proportion of arsenic in bismuth at half a grain to an ounce, and as an ounce contains 480 grains, each dose would have contained about 1/140 of a grain of arsenic. If, therefore, Miss Bankes took twelve doses of bismuth, she would have taken between one-eleventh and one-twelfth of a grain of arsenic in four days. This seems (for it is not perfectly clear), from Dr. Bird’s evidence, to have been more than a week before the day on which he obtained the evacuation analysed by Dr. Taylor, and in 4 oz. of which he said he found nearly a quarter of a grain.”—History of Criminal Law of England, Vol. III., 459.
[197] The authorities relied on for this report are—(1) The Central Criminal Court Sessions Paper, 5th session of 1882; (2) the report in the Standard, in which the evidence is in many points given more fully and clearly, including the charge of the learned judge, in which he has kindly made some corrections; (3) the Summary of Affidavits in support of the petition to the Home Secretary, and the affidavits themselves, 70 in number, relating to his conduct and state of mind from his youth to his conviction.
[198] Dublin Medical Journal, vol. xix., p. 403.
[199] On the death of Herbert John, in 1879, the prisoner had received £479 India Stock and £269 Consols as his wife’s share of that child’s property.—Evidence of Mr. Chapman, and of Mr. Ormond, the trustee.
[200] At Blenheim House he had two wheel-chairs—one on the basement floor, and one on the bedroom floor. From the evidence of Mrs. Jolliffe, at whose house the Chapmans lodged at Shanklin, in August, 1880, he was then able to get himself up and down stairs, but with great difficulty—crawling up on his hands and knees. The spinal-curvature was gradually increasing.
[201] It will be seen later that he went through the form of going to Wimbledon that evening with Mr. Tulloch, and pretending to him that he had been to the school.—See evidence of John Law Tulloch, post.
[202] It is incorrectly stated, in the Summary of Affidavits, that symptoms of poisoning did not begin till about three-quarters of an hour after Lamson had left (p. 5).
[203] According to Banbury, a pupil, the boy had gone over some examination papers with him after tea, and was in good health and spirits. Ball, another pupil, gave the same account of the boy’s health.
[204] The following is a list of the various articles delivered to Dr. Stevenson for analysis:—“I received a number of bottles and things from Mr. Bond. There was a bottle, duly secured and sealed, and labelled ‘liver, spleen, and kidneys.’ That was labelled with the letter A. I received a bottle labelled ‘B,’ containing parts of small intestines, cæcum and colon, and other parts of the intestines handed to Dr. Bond on December 7. A third bottle was received, containing part of the stomach. The fourth was a bottle secured, sealed, and labelled ‘stomach,’ handed to Dr. Dupré by Mr. Bond on December 7th, ‘D.’ The fifth was a bottle, sealed and secured as before, ‘urine,’ handed to Dr. Dupré by Mr. Bond on December 7, ‘E.’ The sixth was a bottle, sealed and labelled ‘vomit;’ and on another label, handed to Dr. Bond by Dr. Berry, December 6, ‘F.’ With this was a broken bottle, unlabelled, and a gutta-percha wrapper, with two seals upon it, as Mr. Griffin said. The next, ‘7,’ was a pill-box. It was secured and sealed, and marked on the tape which secured it ‘C.B.’ That is the pill-box (identified), and it is sealed in the same manner as the wrapper of the broken bottle. ‘8’ was a newspaper parcel sealed; ‘9’ was a brown paper parcel sealed; ‘10’ was a paper parcel sealed. That was the whole of what I received from Mr. Bond. ‘11’ I received from Inspector Butcher. That was opened in the presence of Mr. Bond. It contained a box—(this is the box)—with capsules in it. These capsules in the bottle were some of the 107 capsules. There was a paper with some sugar in it; some loose sugar, sweetmeat sugar. It contained a box of quinine powders—(box identified)—labelled ‘quinine powders’ in writing, and had the name ‘J. W. Littlefield, Ventnor,’ in print. There were four pills loose, one large comfit from a Dundee cake, and one of the capsules contained what appeared to be a pill, but which was really a similar comfit.”
“I don’t think you said what was in the newspaper parcel?”
“Eight packets.”
“What did the next parcel contain?”
“Nine packets. Packet 11 I received from Inspector Butcher on December 12, marked ‘1 W. D.’ Inside that there were two little tinfoil packages. Twelve was received from Butcher on December 14. It was a parcel labelled ‘The remainder of the sugar from Dr. Bedbrook’s.’ Sherry from the decanter used by Lamson was handed to me by Butcher on the 14th.”
“Did you later on receive this box and wafers?”
“Yes. It is marked 14.”
[205] See post, Chapter XI.
[206] See post, Chapter XI.
[207] The only evidence offered of his being at Shanklin on the 29th was an entry, in the “luggage and cloak office” book of the Shanklin railway station, of a ticket having been issued for luggage on the 29th August, in the name of “Lamson,” which Mr. Poland proposed the porter (John Durrant) should use to refresh his memory. As the witness could not identify the prisoner as the party; without saying that it was strictly inadmissible, Mr. Justice Hawkins considered it would have little effect, and it was not pressed. Neither Mr. Chapman nor Mrs. Jolliffe saw him there on that day.