A report on the trial and acquital of Mary Hunter, for the alleged murder of her husband by arsenic : with arguments in proof of her innocence, and strictures upon some parts of the medical jurisprudence of this country / by P. H. Holland, surgeon.

  • Holland, P. H. (Philip H.)
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A report on the trial and acquital of Mary Hunter, for the alleged murder of her husband by arsenic : with arguments in proof of her innocence, and strictures upon some parts of the medical jurisprudence of this country / by P. H. Holland, surgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    Elizabeth Bedford, a little girl about eight years old, was called to prove that the prisoner had on that particular evening sent her out with the children, contrary to her usual custom, lest, as was insinuated, her husband should give some of the poisoned porridge to them. She proved, however, that Mrs Hunter very often sent her out with the children when she was cleaning the house, as she was doing all that Friday afternoon. Not very likely, by the way, that a woman contemplating her husband’s murder should be very anxious about the cleanliness of her house. An attempt was made to make this witness prove that Mary Hunter had made the porridge herself, but it failed. It is probable that she did so, but it was not proved. Sarah Street : 1 am the wife of Jonathan Street, a warehouseman. We lived next door to Mr. Hunter. I had known him and his wife, before his decease, for about three months. I was occasionally in the habit of going into the house. I heard some one vomiting in the house about a quarter past six in the evening of the 25th of November. The prisoner came to me about twenty minutes after six and said, “Will you come in? John is very sick.” I went in, and found the deceased vomiting at the slop stone in the kitchen. I asked him if he had a bowel complaint? The prisoner was out. Mr. Hunter seemed to be very ill. He complained of pain in his bowels ; that his throat was very hot, as if he had swallowed cayenne pepper or snuff. I held his head. The prisoner then came in, and said she thought it was his porridge that made him ill. [Very unlikely that she would herself attribute his illness to the porridge had she guilty knowledge of its contents.] He said, “ Give the porridge to the dog.” The prisoner said she thought if it was not fit for him it was not fit for the dog, and that she had thrown it away, and the basin which contained it into the midden. [How natural was this conduct! Who that loves a dog would not have done just the same, and this evidence of the kindliness of her dis- position, was urged as a proof that she knew the porridge was poisoned, and would not give it to the dog lest his subsequent death should ex- pose her guilt.] She said she had tasted the porridge, that it had made her sick, and that she had swallowed two spoonsful. [Mrs. Hunter says she did taste the porridge herself, and felt a mo- mentary sickness ; this may have been the effect of imagination from seeing her husband sick. Had she poisoned it, she would perhaps have said she had taken some, and it had not made her sick, and, therefore it could not have been that which made him ill.] The deceased vomited into a small tub. There was a good deal in the tub, and Mrs. Hunter threw it away into the midden. She emptied the contents twice. Mr. Hunter said that he would require help, and his wife went out as if to fetch it. She was absent about half an hour and then came back, saying that neither Mr. Lonsdale, nor Mr. Cook, the druggist, was in. Mr. Cook’s house was further off
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