Wall was one of the coroner's jury, and saw the marks on the body which he described; Mr. Camlin and the younger Dimsdale were requested to examine them, which they did, and reported that they were no more than were usual in such cases. Wall refreshed his memory from his notes, and said that Sarah Walker had said that it was about eleven when she had taken the coals up to warm Cowper's bed, but she could not say when it was that Cowper went out, for she took up some more coals, and then tarried a little, and then went down and found that Cowper and her mistress had gone out.
Hatsell, Baron—The woman said the same thing.
Cowper—It is necessary in this particular as to time.
Hatsell, Baron—She told you the clocks did differ.
Bowden and Shute gave evidence as to the finding of the body and as to its state when found, corroborating the other witnesses.
Cowper—My lord, I am very tender how I take up your lordship's time, and therefore I will not trouble you with any more witnesses on this head; but with your lordship's leave I will proceed to call some physicians of note and eminence, to confront the learning of the gentlemen on the other side.
Dr. Sloane[48] said he had not heard the other witnesses very distinctly, because of the crowd; but that cases of the present kind were very uncommon, and that none of them had fallen under his own knowledge. It was plain that a great quantity of water might be swallowed without suffocation;
drunkards, who swallow freely a great deal of liquor, and those who are forced by the civil law to drink a great quantity of water, which in giving the question (as it is called) is poured into them by way of torture to make them confess crimes,[49] have no suffocation or drowning happen to them.
But on the other hand, when any quantity comes into the windpipe, so it does hinder or intercept the inspiration, or coming in of the air, which is necessary for the respiration, or breathing, the person is suffocated. Such a small quantity will do, as sometimes in prescriptions, when people have been very weak, or forced to take medicines, I have observed some spoonfuls in that condition (if it went the wrong way) to have choaked or suffocated the person.
He took drowning to be when water got into the windpipe or lungs, and believed that whether a person fell into the water alive or dead, some quantity would find its way there. He inclined to believe that the general condition of the body was consistent with the woman having been drowned.