At an early period his bedroom was searched, but nothing was found but the laudanum bottle, and a little chloroform and camphor liniment which had been brought from another room. There were no remains of any solid poison in paper, glass, or tumbler, and nothing to indicate any poison had been taken. The post-mortem examination showed evidence of great gastric irritation, extending downwards, but there was no appearance of any disease in the body, or inflammation, congestion, or ulceration. It was left therefore to the chemical examination to show what was the irritating substance which had been introduced into the body, and supply a key to part of the mystery. The matters which had been vomited in the early stage of Mr. Bravo's illness had been thrown away; but, singular to relate, on examination of the leads of the house beneath the bedroom window, some portion of the matter was found undisturbed, although much rain had fallen and the greater part must have been washed away. This was carefully collected and handed to Professor Redwood for analysis. From this matter he extracted a large amount of antimony. Antimony was also discovered in the liver and other parts of the body, and it was concluded that altogether nearly forty grains of this poison must have been swallowed by the unfortunate man. How he came to swallow this enormous dose, whether the design was homicidal or suicidal, there was not the slightest evidence to show, or where the antimony was obtained. The whole affair was shrouded in mystery, and a mystery it remains.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CASE OF DR. PRITCHARD
The remarkable case of Dr. E. W. Pritchard of Glasgow, who was arrested and charged with murdering his wife and mother-in-law in that city in the year 1865, excited great interest at the time. The respectable position occupied by the accused man in society in Glasgow, and the practice as a physician which he had been enabled to attain in the course of his six years' residence there, awakened an unusual degree of attention in the public mind when the fact of his apprehension became known. The excitement was strengthened by the mystery invariably attached to the prosecution of all criminal inquiries in Scotland.
It appears that for some time previous to her decease, Mrs. Pritchard had been in a delicate state of heath, and her mother, Mrs. Taylor, wife of Mr. Taylor, a silk weaver of Edinburgh, had gone to Glasgow to nurse her during her illness. Mrs. Taylor took up her abode in the house of Dr. Pritchard, and ministered to her daughter's comfort; but while so engaged she became ill, and died suddenly, about three weeks previous to the day on which the accused man was apprehended. The cause of death was assigned to apoplexy, and as Mrs. Taylor was about seventy years of age no public attention was awakened, and the body was conveyed to Edinburgh and buried in the Grange Cemetery.
Circumstances closely following on this, however, awakened grave suspicions. Mrs. Pritchard died shortly after her mother, and a report was circulated that she had succumbed to gastric fever. The family grave at the Grange was fixed on as the place of interment, and arrangements were made for the funeral without delay. The body was taken to Edinburgh by rail, and Dr. Pritchard accompanied it to the house of his father-in-law, where it was to await interment. The deaths of the two ladies occurring within so short an interval of each other, coupled with certain hints which they had received, set the police on the alert, and while Dr. Pritchard was absent in Edinburgh they instituted inquiries, which led to a warrant being issued for his apprehension. On his return to Glasgow, previous to the day fixed for the funeral, he was arrested at the railway station in Queen Street and conveyed to the police offices.
Meanwhile the authorities had transmitted to Edinburgh information of what had been done, and at the same time had issued a warrant for a post-mortem examination of the body of Mrs. Pritchard. This was entrusted to Professor Douglas Maclagan, assisted by Drs. Arthur Gamgee and Littlejohn. The result of the post-mortem proved that death had not resulted from natural causes, and a subsequent examination disclosed the presence of minute particles of antimony in the liver.
The case now assumed a grave and mysterious aspect, and the authorities resolved to carry the investigations further. The next step was to order the exhumation of the body of Mrs. Taylor. This having been effected, the internal organs were submitted to analysis by Professor Maclagan, Dr. Littlejohn, and Professor Penny of Glasgow, who, after a protracted examination, reported that the death of Mrs. Taylor, like that of her daughter, was due to poisoning by antimony. On these facts being elicited, Dr. Pritchard was fully committed on the charge of murdering Jane Taylor his mother-in-law and Mary Jane Pritchard his wife.