A complete report of the trial of Miss Madeline Smith : for the alleged poisoning of Pierre Emile L'Angelier / Revised and corrected, with an introductory chapter, by John Morison ... With a correct portrait taken in the court.

  • Madeleine Smith
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A complete report of the trial of Miss Madeline Smith : for the alleged poisoning of Pierre Emile L'Angelier / Revised and corrected, with an introductory chapter, by John Morison ... With a correct portrait taken in the court. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    125 superintending and directing every step in a precognition for rnurdev; and that, in the experience of myself as an old Crown offieei*, and of my two brethren as Sheriffs, the course which this case seems to have taken is unprecedented. I must say that your memoranda (addi'essing witness) were not made artistically or scientifically; but I think you have done the best according to your judgment and experience, nor do I suppose that there is any imputation against you. The Dean op Faculty—Oh, dear no, on the contrary. The Lord Advocate—I think it right to say, that perhaps before the end of the case, in some respects the observation of your Lordship will bo modified. The Lord Justice-Clerk—I only speak to what occurred in reference to the examination of one Avitness, who apparently received all the letters founded on to support a charge, I presume. ' The Lord Advocate—^With regard to the first stages, unquestiouab]}- there was a very great looseness. The witness then left the Court, on the understanding that he was to hold himself in readiness for being recalled. Dv Thomson, examined by the Lord Advocate—I am a physician in Glasgow. I knew the late Mr L'Angelier for fully two years. He con- sulted me ]irofessionally; the first time fully a year ago. He had a bowel complaint. He got the better of that. Next time he consulted me on .3d February of this year. He had a cold and cough, and a ]3oil at the back of his neck. He vv^as very feverish, and the cough was rather a dry cough. These are all the particulars I have. I pre- scribed for him. I saw him next about a week after the 3d February. He was better of his cold, but I think another boil had made its appearance on his neck. I saw him again on the 23d Februar}-. He came to me. He was veiy feverish, and his tongue was furred and had a patchy appearance, from the fur being oflf in various ])laces. He complained of naiisea, and said he had been vomiting. He was prostrate, his pulse was quick, and had tlie general symptom of fever. I prescribed for him. I took his complaint to be a bilious dei'angement, and prescribed an aperient draught. He had been unwell I think for a day or t^^•o, but he had been taken vv^orse the night before he called on me. It was during the night of the 22d and morning of the 23d that he was taken worse. He was confined to the house for two or three days afterwards. I am reading from notes I made on the 6tli April. I made them from recollection, but the dates of my visits and the medicines were entered in my liooks. I visited him on the 2-l-th February, and on the 25th, and on the 2Gth, and on the 1st of March I intended to visit him, but I met him on the Great Western Road. Tlie aperient draught I purchased for him on the 23d contained magnesia and soda. On the 2'ltli I jjrescribed some pov/ders containing rhubarb, soda, chalk of mei'cuiy, and ipecacuanha. These were the medicines I prescribed on the 23d February. I have described his state. On the 2-lth he was much in the same state. He had vomited tlie drauglit that I had given him on the 23d, and I observed that his skin wivs consi- derably jamidiced on the 24th, and from the whole sj'mptoins I called the disease a bilious fever. On the 2.5th he was ratlier better, and liad risen frona his bed to the sofa, but he was not dressed. On the 2()th lu; felt considerably better and cooler, and I did not think it necessary to
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