This witness was not cross-examined.
Dr. Henry Corbett, physician of Glasgow, examined by Mr. James, Q.C.: In September, 1845, I was medical clerk at the Glasgow Infirmary, and I remember a patient, named Agnes Sennett, alias Agnes French, who died there on the 27th of September, 1845. It was stated that she had taken strychnine pills, which had been prepared for another patient in the ward, and the symptoms which accompanied her death were those of strychnine. The pills were for a paralytic patient. I saw her when she was under the influence of the poison, and I had seen her the day before that perfectly well. She had been admitted for a skin disease of the head. When I saw her after she had taken the poison she was in bed. The symptoms were these: There was a strong retraction of the mouth; the face was much suffused and red; the pupils of the eye were dilated; the head was bent back; the spine was curved; and the muscles were rigid and hard like a board; the arms were stretched out; the hands were clinched; and there were severe paroxysms recurring every few seconds. She died in about an hour and a-quarter after taking the pills. When I was called first the paroxysms did not last so long; but they increased in severity. According to the prescription there should have been a quarter of a grain of strychnine in each pill, and this woman had taken three. The paralytic patient was to have taken a pill each night, or one each night and morning, I forget which.
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: The retraction of the mouth was continuous, but it was worse at times. I do not think that I observed it after death. The hands were not clinched after death—they were “semi-bent.” She died an hour-and-a-quarter after taking the medicine. The symptoms appeared about twenty minutes after. I tried to make her vomit with a feather, but failed. She only vomited partially after I had given her an emetic.
Re-examined by the Attorney-General: There was spasmodic action and grinding of the teeth. She could open her mouth and swallow. There was no lock-jaw or ordinary tetanus.
By Mr. Serjeant Shee: I do not recollect that touching her sent her into paroxysms.
Dr. Watson, examined by the Attorney-General: I am a surgeon at the Glasgow Infirmary. I remember the case of Agnes Sennett. I was called in about a quarter of an hour after she was taken ill. She was in violent convulsions, and her arms were stretched out and rigid. The muscles of the body were also rigid; they were kept quiet by rigidity. She did not breathe, the muscles being kept still by tetanic rigidity. That paroxysm subsided, and fresh paroxysms came on after a short interval. She died in about half an hour. She seemed perfectly conscious. I don’t recollect the state of her hands. Her body was opened. The heart was found distended and stiff. The cavities of the heart were empty. My father published an account of the case.
Cross-examined by Mr. Grove: The spinal cord was quite healthy.
Dr. J. Patterson, examined by Mr. Welsby: In 1845 I was engaged in the laboratory of the Infirmary at Glasgow. I dispensed the prescriptions. I made up a prescription for a paralytic patient named M’Intyre. It consisted of pills which contained strychnine. There were four pills, and one grain of strychnine in the four.
Baron Alderson: Was there any noise made about their being taken by a wrong person?—Yes.
Mary Kelly, examined by Mr. Bodkin: In September, 1845, I was a patient in the Glasgow Infirmary; a paralytic patient was in the same ward, and I attended to her. There was also a patient named French or Sennett who was suffering from a sore head. She died. I was turning a wheel near the paralytic patient on the afternoon of the day Sennett died, for the purpose of applying something to her skin. There were some pills which she was to take near her. The paralytic woman took one and swallowed it according to the orders that had been given, and then handed the box to the girl with a sore head. The girl swallowed two of the pills, and then went and sat by the ward fire. She was taken ill in about three-quarters of an hour. She fell back on the floor, and I went for the nurse. We took her to bed and sent for the doctor. We were obliged to cut her clothes off, because she never moved. She was like a poker. I was by her side when she died. She never spoke after she fell down.