A complete report of the trial of Dr. E. W. Pritchard, for the alleged poisoning of his wife and mother-in-law. Reprinted, by special permission, from the 'Scotsman' / Carefully revised by an eminent lawyer.
- Eminent lawyer
- Date:
- 1865
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A complete report of the trial of Dr. E. W. Pritchard, for the alleged poisoning of his wife and mother-in-law. Reprinted, by special permission, from the 'Scotsman' / Carefully revised by an eminent lawyer. 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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![purposely from opening when Mary Patterson came ; but you will consider whether there is not some reason to believe that that looks like a secret intercom- munication between the prisoner and Mary M‘Leod upon that particular evening. [His Lordship then read the evidence given by Mary Patterson as to the death of Mrs Pritchard, and the conduct of the prisoner on that occasion. He also read Dr Paterson’s evidence in regard to the condition in which he found Mrs Pritchard on the night of the 17th March, immediately before her death ; and pointed out that Dr Paterson had denied that he had ever ordered wine for Mrs Pritchard, which was asserted by the prisoner, and also that he had ordered Dublin stout—another gratuitous assertion which the prisoner made.] His Lordship then continued—Now, gentlemen, such is the scene of Mrs Pritchard’s death, and that brings to a close the main facts of this history, during the period which I referred to at the outset—I mean from about the beginning of February down to the 18th of March—and such is mainly the evidence upon which the prosecutor relies for a conviction against the prisoner. But in connexion with the death of Mrs Pritchard it is also necessary that I should call your attention to the return which Dr Pritchard made to the district registrar of what caused her death. You see what he had been calling her complaint to other people, and even to medical men—gastric fever. These medical men saw plainly enough that that was not true, whatever her com- plaint might be, and yet he persisted in that to the end, and returns the cause of his wife’s death to the registrar as gastric fever. It is not possible to say here, as in the case of Mrs Taylor, that that is an assertion of a physical fact, where paralysis was stated to have taken place twelve hours before her death; but you will consider whether in the case of a professional man like the prisoner’, he could under the circumstances—if his wife died under the effects of antimonial poison—be so far deceived as to believe she died of gastric fever. But now let us consider what is the general effect and import of all this evidence. As I said before, Mrs Pritchard appears never to have been out of the house from the time when she became seriously ill. There is no appearance of her ever going out. Mrs Taylor, from the time she came on the 10th February down to the date of her death on the 25th—a period of fifteen days—was engaged in attending upon her daughter and in managing the house, and whether she was ever out of doors or not does not appear, but it cannot have been much or long. Therefore, the two deceased ladies during the whole of the important period in this case were in the house, and we may say practically were never out of it. The prisoner was living in the house through the whole of the time uninterruptedly. It does not appear that he ever went from home during the time,—of course he was out in the course of the day. We saw instances of that, but then we had in evidence that he was resident in the house constantly. There were two boai'ders in the house, l^L- King and Mr Connell, who were examined before you, and very properly examined before you, although they could say nothing very material in the case. The other inmates besides the children, previous to the 16th February, were Catherine Lattimer and Mary M'Leod, and subsequently to the 16th February, Mary M'Leod and Mary Patterson. If you are satisfied upon the first question which I presented for your consideration, that Mrs Pritchard certainly died of antimony; and if you are satisfied that Mrs Taylor also died of poison—although it might bo from the combined action of thi-ee or four; if you are further satisfied that those deaths were not produced accidentally nor suicidally; and further that the poison which produced their deaths must have been administered by some one](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28407258_0140.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
