The Brighton poisoning case.

Date:
[1859?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Brighton poisoning case. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and he entreated the jury to weigh well the evidence which would be given on tbastiMoTtDAvinsoN.M.D.)was the first witness called He was gained bj Mr. Gait, He said-I am a coroner of this county. I held an inquest on the body of the prisoner's wife, on the Sth of November last Perf8t.^hwa8 removed, and placed in a clean earthen dish on the first day of the inquest in the presence of the jury. From that dish it was taken and placed a bottle, in the neck of which I placed a cork, and tied it down with a string This bottle I took with me to Brighton. I locked it up in a bureau, and put the key in my pocket. Next dav-the jury having adjourned ovcr-by their con- sent, I sealed the bottle, wrapped it up, and sealed the paper; placed this in a case, which was also sealed, and forwarded it to Queen s College, KC?ossnexamined by Mr. Cameron-I was present in the room the whole time of the inquest. I did not leave the room from the time the stomach was taken from deceased until 1 placed it in a bottle. The bottleiwafla pickle bottle. I washed it out with cold water. Between the time the bottle was tied up, and the time I got to Brighton, three quarters of an hour might have elapsed. The place where the inquest was held is about three miles and a-haIf from Brighton. I stayed at Mr. DeLong's tavern in Brighton that night. TbTcnpboard or closet in which I placed it, was behind theharm Mr. De- Long's. I kept the key in the pocket of my pantaloons, which I did not taft off that night, as I sat up writing out the papers relative to the inquest, De- Long told me there was no other key than the one which he gave me. A man name\l Squires sitting in the room asked me to show him the stomach I simply look the bottle from my pocket and let him see itl Next day the stomach was placed iu a clean dish, in the presence ot the jury, as Pre. Utoss and Proctor wished again to see it, the post mortem examination having previously been conducted by candle light. No one beside the doctors touch. ,1 it. The table was between me and them. The stomach was in the disn about fifteen or twenty minutes. It was then replaced in the bottle and sealed in the presence of the jury. The stamp I used was a penny piece. _ 1 am not iurc that a renny piece was used on the twine that I wound round the oox. 1 rather think I used an ordinary wafer stamp—but am not confident. I gave the package to Mr. Robert Barker, one of the jury to take to Kingston, on the day it was sealed. . . . Robert Barker M.D.—I was one of the jury who enquired into the death of Mrs. King. The bottle containing the stomach was delivered to me. The stomach was secured as described by last witness. [ received it on the morn- ing of either the 10th or 11th of November, and by the twelve o'clock train I went o Kmgston. The package was in my carpet bag. which I kept in my hand all the time. In the evening I saw the Profess' r of Queen's College, who declined to give me a decisive answer until next morning. I left my ha* in a closet of the laboratory, which I locked up. Next morning I called, took it away and returned with it to Brighton—the package being precisely in the same condition as when I received it. Cross-examined.—When the stomach was placed in the bottle it (the bottle) was not at once corked. The post mortem examination was conducted in the school-house, in the presence of the jury. There was fourteen or fifl eon on the jury. No one, that I saw. either went near to the body or touched it. 1 do'not think that during the post mortem examination any of the relatives of the deceased were present. It was not impossible, certainly, for any of the jurors to drop something into the basin whieh contained the stomach ; but I do not think any of them went near. it. The mouth of the bottle was not corked on the day the stomach was taken from the body, it was merely covered