[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).