Volume 1

The principles and practice of medical jurisprudence / by the late Alfred Swaine Taylor.

  • Alfred Swaine Taylor
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The principles and practice of medical jurisprudence / by the late Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    HUNTEE AS A WITNESS. the symptoms described, the death proceeded from the medicine (laurel- water), or any other cause ? ^. I do not mean to equivocate ; but when I tell the sentiments of my own mind, what I feel at the time, I can give nothing decisive. With that candour which exists m all great minds. Hunter admitted his deficiencies ; and he regretted to the latest period of his life that he had not directed more attention to subjects of this nature. It might be thought from Ins answer that he should not have appeared in the case at all, but it must be remembered that in Hunter's time the science of medical jurisprudence was unknown in this country, but the want of it was clearly perceived. The case excited so much public interest, it has been so constantly commented on since, and illustrates so well the principles we are now discussmg, that a briet outline of its principal features is not out of place [Rex v. .Donellan, Warwick Lent Assizes, 1781, and Palmer's Lite of Hunter, vol. 1, p. 81). The facts ascer- tained were that Sir- T. Boughton, a young man, previously m good health, expired in convulsions about half an hour after taking a draught of rhubarb and jalap sent by his medical man with which it was alleged that Captain Donellan had mixed laurel-water, as the victim's mother observed that it smelt of bitter abnonds when administered. It was not till ten days after death that the body was exhumed and examined by several medical men. This exhumation was ordered because suspicions of poison had been excited. The examiners did not opeu the bram, nor did they investigate the condition of the intestines. No analysis either of the con- tents of the stomach or of the remainder—if any—of the draught was made. Hunter deposed that the appearances found in the stomach were ordinary post- mortem changes with which he was quite familiar, probably more so than any man of his time; that the symptoms with which the victim died were quite compatible with apoplexy or epilepsy, a point which might have been cleared up by proper examination of the brain. He allowed in his cross-examination that the occurrence of the symptoms immediately after taking the draught was a circumstance in favour of its having caused them, and if, said he, I k7ieiu that the draught had contamed poison, I should say that most probably the symptoms arose from that. He was, however, directed by the judge (Buller) to separate the medical/cicis he had observed from the suggestions that poison had been administered, and on this direction he declared that there was no direct medical evidence to show how death had been caused. The prisoner was convicted and hanged. Analysing this case in the light of our present-day knowledge, so far at least as the medical evidence is concerned, the conviction seems to have rested almost entirely on circumstantial evidence. There can be no doubt that if death was due to poisoning at all it was due to poison- ing by a dilute solution of hydrocyanic acid; and, as may be seen by reference to Sections on Poisons, the post-mortem evidence of this is, apart from smell and analysis, very vague, not to say absolutely indecisive. Hence one can have no hesitation in saying that Hunter's evidence was as straightforward as his knowledge would permit, for the smell would probably have passed off in ten days, and there was then no means available for exact analysis of the contents of a stomach ; and instead of blaming him one should rather take his evidence as the type of what medical evidence ought to be. The real flaws in the evidence arose from (1) the incompleteness of the post-mortem exami- nation, which was no fault of Hunter's, but does point a warning to all medical men under similar circumstances, and (2) the difficulties of analysis insuperable in those days, but which are now easily overcome if the medical man will only take those precautions which will be found in Sections on Poisons. The variety of subjects in which a medical jurist is required to have 1—2
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