On the detection of aconite by its physiological action : being notes of experiments made in connection with the trial of Dr. E. W. Pritchard / by Frederick Penny and James Adams.

  • Penny, Frederick, 1816-1869.
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the detection of aconite by its physiological action : being notes of experiments made in connection with the trial of Dr. E. W. Pritchard / by Frederick Penny and James Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    DETECTION OF ACONITE BY ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION. The recent trial of Dr. Pritchard for the murder by poison of his wife and mother-in-law, is likely to take a high place in the causes celebres of this country. Irrespective of those circumstances which distinguished the crime as peculiarly cruel and revolting, there existed in the singular combination of poisonous agents em- ployed, and in the means used for their detection, considerations of special interest to the medical profession; and it is with the view of satisfying the numerous inquiries which have been addressed to us that we have prepared the present communication. Besides conducting an independent examination of the organs of both ladies, similar to that committed to Dr. Douglas Maclagan of Edinburgh, and the results of which are fully described in Dr. Penny's reports to the Crown, and read by him in giving evidence at the trial, there was entrusted to Dr. Penny another, and a very extensive and difficult, investigation. He was required to report upon the nature and properties of a large number of articles of food—of various substances, labelled to indicate that they were officmal preparations of well-known drugs—and of various other articles, regarding the nature of which there was no clue. These were not delivered at one time, but were brought at irregular intervals up to a date very shortly preceding the criminal trial. o kJcuciLive ooiurion, etc., (kc, aii or wnicn were clearly and satisfactorily identified. The contents of the phial labelled Battley's Solution, which, as shown at the trial,