A letter to the Right Hon. Sir G.C. Lewis, Bart., M.P. ... / from three of the medical witnesses for the defence, in the case of Thomas Smethurst.

  • Richardson, Sir Benjamin Ward, (1828-1897)
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Right Hon. Sir G.C. Lewis, Bart., M.P. ... / from three of the medical witnesses for the defence, in the case of Thomas Smethurst. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    no right to assume that the known pathology of arseni- cal poisoning was in this single example utterly sub- verted ; we are compelled to arrive at the only possible conclusion, viz., that the pathology of the case of Miss Bankes was not that of chronic arsenical poisoning; and in this conclusion we are supported by the records of all experiments and experience. Again, to take up the hypothesis of Antimonial ^oisoning^—while it is admitted that the symptoms of vomiting and purging are such as characterise poisoning by tartarised antimony, we are convinced that various symptoms specific of this poison were absent in the case of Isabella Bankes. These absent specific symptoms are— 1. Sweating and cold clammy condition of skin, without febrile excitement. 2. A pustular eruption. The characteristic tartar- emetic pustule occurring on the skin, on the palate, or on both ; or a red rash much resembling the eruption of scarlet-fever. 3. Symptoms of congestion of the lungs. 4. Watery choleraic discharges from the bowels, alternating with or succeeded by constipation. [We can discover no case in which slow antimonial poisoning has been accompanied by dysenteric evacuations.] We do not presume that a case of antimonial J-