Dr. Anthony Addington & Dr. William Lewis sworn.
Counsel. Did you, Dr. Addington, attend Mr. Blandy in his last illness?
Dr. Addington. Yes, Sir.
C. When was you called to him the first time?
Dr. A. On Saturday evening August the 10th.
C. In what condition did you find him?
Dr. A. He was in bed; and told me, that after drinking some gruel on Monday night, August the 5th, he had perceived an extraordinary grittiness in his mouth, attended with a very painful burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with sickness and gripings; which symptoms had been relieved by fits of vomiting and purging.
C. Were those fits owing to any physic he had taken or to the gruel?
Dr. A. Not to any physic; they came on very soon after taking the gruel.
C. Had he taken no physic that day?
Dr. A. No.
C. Did he make any further complaints?
Dr. A. He said, that, after drinking more gruel on Tuesday night August the 6th, he had felt the grittiness in his Mouth again, and that the burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach and bowels, had returned with double violence and had been aggravated by a prodigious swelling of the belly, and exquisite pains and prickings in every external as well as internal part of his body, which prickings he compared to an infinite number of needles darting into him all at once.
C. How soon after drinking the gruel?
Dr. A. Almost immediately. He told me likewise, that at the same time, he had had cold sweats, hiccup, extreme restlessness and anxiety; but that then, viz. on Saturday night August the 10th, having had a great many stools, and some bloody ones, he was pretty easy every where, except in his mouth, lips, nose, eyes, and fundament; and except some transient gripings in his bowels. I asked him, to what he imputed those uneasy sensations in his mouth, lips, nose, and eyes? he said to the fumes of something he had taken in his gruel on Monday night August the 5th, and Tuesday night August the 6th.
On inspection, I found his tongue swelled and his throat slightly inflamed and excoriated. His lips especially the upper one were dry and rough, and had angry pimples on them. The inside of his nostrils was in the same condition. His eyes were a little blood-shot. Besides these appearances, I observed that he had a low, trembling, intermitting pulse; a difficult unequal respiration; a yellowish complexion; a difficulty in the utterance of his words; and an inability of swallowing even a tea-spoonful of the thinnest liquor at a time.
As I suspected that these appearances and symptoms were the effect of poison, I asked Miss Blandy whether Mr. Blandy had lately given offence to either of his servants or clients or any other person? She answered That he was at Peace with all the World, and that all the World was at Peace with him. I then asked her whether he had ever been subject to complaints of this kind before? She said, that he had often been subject to the cholic and heart-burn; and that she supposed this was only a fit of that sort, and would soon go off as usual. I told Mr. Blandy that I asked these questions because I suspected that by some means or other he had taken poison. He replied, It might be so, or in words to that effect: but Miss Blandy said It was impossible.
On Saturday morning August the 10th, he seemed much relieved; his pulse, breath, complexion, and power of swallowing, were greatly mended. He had had several stools in the night and no blood in them. The complaints which he had made of his mouth, lips, nose, and eyes were lessened; but he said the pain in his fundament continued and that he still felt some pinchings in his bowels. On viewing his fundament I found it almost surrounded with gleety Excoriations and Ulcers.
About eight o’clock this Morning I took my leave of him, but before I quitted the room, Miss Blandy desired I would visit him again the next day.
When I got down stairs, one of the maids put a paper into my hands, which she said Miss Blandy had thrown into the kitchen fire, several holes were burnt in the paper but not a letter of the superscription was effaced. The Superscription was, The Powder to clean the Pebbles with.
C. What is the maid’s name that gave you that paper?
Dr. A. I cannot recollect which of the maids it was that gave it to me. I opened the paper very carefully, and found in it a whitish powder, like white arsenic in taste, but slightly discoloured by a little burnt paper mixed with it. I cannot swear this powder was arsenic or any other poison, because the quantity was too small to make any experiment with, that could be depended on.
C. What do you really suspect it to be?
Dr. A. I really suspect it to be white arsenic.
C. Please to proceed Sir.
Dr. A. As soon as the maid had left me, Mr. Norton the Apothecary produced a powder, that, he said had been found at the bottom of that mess of gruel, which, as was supposed had poisoned Mr. Blandy. He gave me some of that powder, and I examined it at my leisure, and believe it to be white arsenic.
On Monday morning August the 12th I found Mr. Blandy much worse than I had left him the day before, his bowels were still in pain.
I now desired that another Physician might be called in, as I apprehended Mr. Blandy to be in the utmost danger, and that this affair might come before a Court of Judicature. Dr. Lewis was then sent for from Oxford. I staid with Mr. Blandy all this day. I asked him more than once whether he really thought he had taken poison? He answered each time, that he believed he had. I asked him whether he thought he had taken poison often? He answered in the affirmative. His reasons for thinking so, were, because some of his teeth had decayed much faster than was natural; and because he had frequently for some months past, especially after his daughter had received a present of Scotch Pebbles from Mr. Cranstoun, been affected with very violent and unaccountable prickings and heats in his tongue and throat, and with most intolerable burnings, and pains in his stomach and bowels, which used to go off in vomitings and purgings. I asked him whom he suspected to be the giver of the poison? The tears stood in his eyes; yet he forced a smile and said—A poor Love-sick Girl—I forgive her—I always thought there was mischief in those cursed Scotch Pebbles.
Dr. Lewis came about eight o’clock in the evening. Before he came Mr. Blandy’s complexion, pulse, breath, and faculty of Swallowing were got much better again; but he complained more of pain in the fundament.
Dr. Addington. On Tuesday morning August the 13th, we found him worse again. His countenance, pulse, breath and power of swallowing, were extremely bad. He was excessively weak. His hands trembled. Both they and his face were cold and clammy. The pain was intirely gone from his bowels, but not from his fundament. He was now and then a little delirious. He had frequently a short cough, and a very extraordinary elevation of his chest, in fetching his breath; on which occasions an ulcerous matter generally issued from his fundament. Yet in his sensible intervals, he was cheerful and jocose; He said, He was like a Person bit by a Mad Dog; for that he should be glad to drink, but could not swallow.
About noon this day his speech faultered more and more. He was sometimes very restless, at others very sleepy. His face was quite ghastly. This night was a terrible one.
On Wednesday morning, August the 14th, he recovered his senses for an hour or more. He told me, he would make his will in two or three days; but he soon grew delirious again; and sinking every moment, died about Two o’Clock in the afternoon.
C. Upon the whole, did you then think, from the symptoms you have described, and the observations you made, that Mr. Blandy died by poison?
Dr. A. Indeed I did.
C. And it is your present opinion?
Dr. A. It is; and I have never had the least occasion to alter it. His case was so particular that he had not a symptom of any consequence, but what other persons have had, who have taken White Arsenic; and, after death, had no appearance (except a stone in the Gall bladder) in his body, but what other persons have had, who have been destroyed by white arsenic.
C. When was his body opened?
Dr. A. On Tuesday in the afternoon, August the 15th.
C. What appeard on opening it?
Dr. A. I committed the appearances to writing, and should be glad to read them, if the Court will give me leave.
Then the Doctor, on leave given by the Court, read as follows:
Mr. Blandy’s back and the hinder part of his arms, thighs, and legs were livid. That fat which lay on the muscles of his belly, was of a loose texture, inclining to a state of fluidity. The muscles of his belly were very pale and flaccid. The cawl was yellower than is natural; and on the side next the stomach and intestines looked brownish. The heart was variegated with purple spots. There was no water in the pericardium. The lungs resembled bladders half filled with air and blotted in some places with pale but in most with black ink. The liver and spleen were much discoloured; the former looked as if it had been boiled, but that part of it which covered the stomach was particularly dark. A stone was found in the gall-bladder. The bile was very fluid and of a dirty yellow colour, inclining to red. The kidneys were all over stained with livid spots. The stomach and bowels were inflated, and appeared, before any incision was made into them, as if they had been pinched, and extravasated blood had stagnated between their membranes. They contained nothing, as far as we examined, but a slimy bloody froth. Their coats were remarkably smooth, thin, and flabby. The wrinkles of the stomach were totally obliterated. The internal coat of the stomach and duodenum, especially about the orifices of the former, were prodigiously inflamed and excoriated. The redness of the white of the eye, in a violent inflammation of that part, or rather the white of the eye just brushed and bleeding with the beards of barley, may serve to give some idea how this coat had been wounded. There was no schirrus in any gland of the abdomen; no adhesion of the lungs to the pleura; nor indeed the least trace of a natural decay in any part whatever.
Prisoners Counsel. Why do you believe it to be White Arsenic?
Dr. A. For the following Reasons: 1. This Powder has a milky Whiteness; so has White Arsenic. 2. This is gritty and almost insipid; so is White Arsenic. 3. Part of it swims on the surface of cold water like a pale sulphureous film; but the greatest part sinks to the bottom, and remains there undissolved; the same is true of white arsenic. 4. This thrown on red hot iron, does not flame, but rises entirely in thick white fumes, which have the stench of garlick; and cover cold iron held just over them, with white flowers; white arsenic does the same. 5. I boiled ten grains of this powder in four ounces of clean water, and then, passing the decoction through a filtre, divided into five equal parts, which were put into as many glasses: Into one glass I poured a few drops of Spirit of Sal Ammoniac; into another some of the Lixivium of Tartar; into the third some strong Spirit of Vitriol; into the fourth some Spirit of Salt; and into the last some Syrup of Violets. The Spirit of Sal Ammoniac threw down a few particles of pale sediment. The Lixivium of Tartar gave a white cloud, which hung a little about the middle of the glass. The Spirits of Vitriol and Salt made a considerable precipitation of a lightish coloured substance; which in the former, hardened into glittering chrystals, sticking to the sides and bottom of the glass. Syrup of Violets produced a beautiful pale green tincture. Having washed the saucepan, funnel, and glasses, used in the foregoing experiments, very clean, and provided a fresh filtre, I boiled ten grains of white arsenic bought of Mr. Wilcock, Druggist in Reading, in four ounces of clean water; and filtering it and dividing it into five equal parts, proceeded with them just as I had done with the former decoction. There was an exact similitude between the experiments made on the two decoctions. They corresponded so nicely on each trial, that I declare I never saw any two things in Nature more alike, than the decoction made with the powder found in Mr. Blandy’s gruel, and that made with white arsenic. From the experiments, and others, which I am ready to produce, if desired, I believe that powder to be White Arsenic.
She had put a little of it into his cup of tea; but that he never drank it; that part of the powder swimming at top of the tea, and part sinking at the bottom, she had poured it out of the window.