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

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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$repeat my visits till I liappened to he in the neighbourhood. It did not occur to me at the time that these symptoms arose from the action of any irritant poison. If I had known he had taken an irritant poison, these were the symptoms which I should have expected to follow. I don't think I asked him when he was seriously taken ill. I had not seen him for some little time before, and certainly he looked very de- jected and ill; his colour was rather darker and jaundiced, and io\ind the eye the colour was rather darker than usual. I saw him agaii] eight or ten days after the 1st March. He called on me, and I have no note of the day. He was then much the same as on the 1st March. He said that he was thinking of going to the country, but he did not say where. I did not prescribe medicines for him then. About the 26tli February, I think, I told him to give np smoking; I thought that was injurious to his stomach. I never saw him again in life. On the morning of the 23d March, Mr Stevenson and Mr Tlniau called on me, and mentioned that Mr ]7Angelier was dead, and they wished me to go and see the body, and see if I could give any opinion as to the cause of death. They did not know that I had not seen him alive during his last illness. I went to the house. The body was laid out on a stretcher lying on the table. The skin had a slightly jaundiced hue. I made the notes from which I read on the same day. I said it was impossible to give any decided opinion as to the cause of death, and I requested Dr Steven to be called, who had been in attendance. I examined the body with my hands externally, and over the region of the liver the sound was dull—the region seemed full; and over the region of the heart the sound was natural. I saw what he had vomited, and I made inquiry as to the symptoms before death. When Dr Steven arrived, he corroborated the laiidlady's statements as far as he was concerned. There was no resolu- tion come to on the Monday as to a j^ost mortem examination. On the afternoon of that day I v/as called on by Mr Huggins and another gentleman, and I said the symptoms were such as might have been produced by an irritant poison. I said it was such a case as, if it had occurred in England, a coroner's inquest would be held. Next morning Mr Stevenson called again, and said that Mr Huggins requested me to make an inspection. In consequence of that, I said I would require a colleague, and Dr Steven was agreed on. I called on him, and he went with me to the house, and we made the inspection on Tuesday forenoon about twelve o'clock. We wrote a short report of that examination to Mr Huggins immediately. We afterwards made an enlarged report. Witness then read the Report, which was as follows:— At the request of Messrs W. B. Huggins & Co., of this city, we, the undersigned, ninde apo.s'i mortem examination of tlie body of tlie late M. L'Augelicr, at the house of Mrs Jen- kins, 11 Great Western Road, on the 24tli of March current, at noon, when tlie appear- ances were as follows:—The body, dressed in the grave clothes and coiHned, viewed exter- nally, presented nothing remarkable, except a tawny hue of the surface. The incision made on opening the belly and chest revealed a considerable deposit of sub-cutaneous fat. The heart appeared large for the hidividual, but not so large as, in our opinion, to amount to disease. Its surface presented, externally, some opaque patches, such as are frequently seen on this organ without giving rise to any symptoms. Its right cavities were filled witii dark fluid blood. The Inngs, tlie liver, and the spleen, appeared quite healthy. The gall bladder was moderately lull of hile, and contained no calculi. The stomach and intestines, externally, presented nothing abnormal. The stomach, being tied at bolli extremities, was removed from the body. Its contents, consisting of about half-a- ])int (if dark fluid, rescndning cofl'ee, Avere poured into a clean bottle, and the organ itself was laid open along its great curvature. The mucous membrane, except for a$