Observations on the medical evidence in the case of the Queen v. Smethurst / by T.G. Geoghegan.

  • Geoghegan, Thomas Grace, 1807-1869.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the medical evidence in the case of the Queen v. Smethurst / by T.G. Geoghegan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    OBSERVATIONS. As the late decision of the Secretarj' of State in the case of the Queen v. Smethurst, seems to permit a general recon- sideration of the medical evidence, I feel induced to offer a few observations on what appear to me to be the more essen- tial bearings of the facts, and briefly to examine the validity of the grounds on which the Crown sought to establish a charge of poisoning, together with the precise force of some of the objections preferred against the views of the medical witnesses for the prosecution. Those who have had practical experience in legal medi- cine, and who have also taken the trouble to peruse the mass of medical correspondence and comment on the Smethurst trial, will not be slow to perceive that uo inconsiderable portion of the statements put forward, if free from the charge of want of candour, appear, at least, to indicate much misapprehension of the sources from whence evidence as to the cause of death is to be derived in cases of the above nature, and of the precise scope and mode of appli- cation of the facts. The medical circumstances, as elicited in evidence, as far as they bear upon the matter in hand, may be succinctly stated. The deceased, a middle-aged and generally healthy woman, about six weeks pregnant, had suffered, for about five weeks previously to her death, from violent gastric dis-