Trial for murder by poisoning with arsenic, Berkshire Lent Assizes, 1845 : Post-mortem appearences; chemical analysis; detection of the poison as sulphuret, twenty-eight days after interment / by Alfred S. Taylor.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Trial for murder by poisoning with arsenic, Berkshire Lent Assizes, 1845 : Post-mortem appearences; chemical analysis; detection of the poison as sulphuret, twenty-eight days after interment / by Alfred S. Taylor. 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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    o* v PHYSICIAN# ot TRIAL FOR MURDER BY POISONING WITH ARSENIC, BERKSHIRE LENT ASSIZES, 1845. POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES; CHEMICAL ANALYSIS; DETECTION OF THE POISON AS SULPHURET, TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS AFTER INTERMENT * BY ALFRED S. TAYLOR. O Thomas Jennings was charged with the murder of his infant son, Eleazar Jennings, a child aged three years and eight months, by administering to him arsenic on the 23d of December 1844. From the statement of the case for the prosecution, it ap- peared that the prisoner resided in a small cottage with his family, consisting of a wife and four young children, in- cluding Eleazar, the deceased. The only direct evidence against the prisoner was in a statement made by his niece, Maria Garter, a young girl, who had lived with him about a year, and took care of his children. She stated, that on the Monday before Christmas Day (December 23d), the prisoner, his children, and herself (the mother being absent) dined together on bacon and potatoes; that there was a salt-cellar on the table, from which all the party, except the deceased, took salt; that as soon as they began to eat their dinner the prisoner went to the pantry, and brought out, between his finger and thumb, a pinch (as the witness described it) of something white, like salt, and put it upon the edge of the plate out of which the deceased was eating his dinner.t The * This case is drawn up partly from the brief for the prosecution, and partly from notes taken at the trial. t A question arose at the trial respecting the weight of a pinch of arsenic. It was stated that it might be about twelve or fifteen grains. Actual weighing afterwards proved that a good pinch of the powder was equal to seventeen grains. Medical men are often asked to state the weights of parti- cular measures of the poison in powder, as of a teaspoonful, a tablespoonful,