“It was supplied by me.”
“Do you usually supply your patients with medicine?”
“No. Only a few of my old patients who prefer to have their medicine from me. Usually, I write prescriptions which my patients have made up by chemists.”
“This bottle, then, was made up in your own dispensary?”
“Yes.”
“Now, I put it to you, Dr. Dimsdale: this medicine did actually contain Fowler’s Solution, according to the prescription. Is it not possible that some mistake may have occurred in the amount put into the bottle?”
“No, it is quite impossible.”
“Why is it impossible?”
“Because I made up this particular bottle myself. As my dispenser is not a qualified pharmacist, I always dispense, with my own hands, any medicines containing poisons. All dangerous drugs are kept in a poison cupboard under lock and key, and I carry the key on my private bunch. This is the key, and as you see, the lock is a Yale lock.”
He held up the bunch with the little flat key separated, for the coroner’s and the jurymen’s inspection.