Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning; / by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons used

by G. Lathom Browne; active 19th century C. G. Stewart

[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.