Report of the trial of Madeleine Smith : before the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh, June 30th to July 9th, 1857, for the alleged poisoning of Pierre Émile l'Angelier / by Alexander Forbes Irvine, advocate.

  • Madeleine Smith
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the trial of Madeleine Smith : before the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh, June 30th to July 9th, 1857, for the alleged poisoning of Pierre Émile l'Angelier / by Alexander Forbes Irvine, advocate. 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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    try-book [No. 186 of Inventory], there is also an entry under date 18th March ; there are no other entries this year excepting these two ; that entry is— Miss Smith, 7 Blythswood Square—arsenic, one ounce, to kill rats; it is signed in the same way as the other. I recollect her coming for that. She asked for other 6d. worth ; and said that in conse- quence of the first being so effectual—.she having found eight or nine large rats lying dead—she had come back to get the dose renewed. Mr Currie was in at that time. He made some objections ; he said that we never sold it except to parties we knew, and to parties of respectability ; and he was about to refuse it, when I told him that she had got it on a former occa- sion, and then we gave it her; it was from the same bottle. A young lady, Avho I suppose was her sister, was with her. I never heard of arsenic such as I gave Miss Smith being used as a cosmetic. A prepara- tion of arsenic is used as a depilatory for taking hairs off the face ; that is the yellow sulphuret of arsenic. She paid for the arsenic. Cross-examined by Mr Young.—Both purchases were made quite openly. I don't know who accompanied Miss Smith on the first occasion. They were speaking together at the counter while I was putting up the arsenic. The young lady with Miss Smith remarked that she thought arsenic was white, and I said we had to colour it according to the Act of Parliament. I had never seen the young lady, who accompanied her on the second occasion, before. She was a grown-up young lady ; not the lady who was with her on the former occasion. I mixed the arsenic myself with the colouring matter. It was indigo. I put in the proper quantity ordered by the Act of Parliament, To the LoKD Justice-Clerk.—The yellow sulphuret is quite a diffe- rent thing from the white arsenic. It is used as a depilatory, because it so affects the skin as to bring out the roots of the hair. That is the very opposite action from that of a cosmetic. I think any preparation of arsenic as a cosmetic would be extremely dangerous ; it is not a thing that we sell for that purpose. Fowler's preparation is four grains of ai'senic to an ounce of fluid. By the Lord Advocate.—Miss Smith said on the first occasion that rats were to be killed in the Blythswood Square house; and she spoke of these rats on the second occasion. 28. John Currie (38), examined by the Lord Advocate.—I am a chemist and druggist in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. I do not know the panel by sight. I remember a lady, who gave the name of Miss Smith, being in my shop on the 18tli March last. [Shown No. 186 of Inven- tory.] That is my registry-book. I see an entry, under date 18th March, of one ounce of arsenic, signed M. H. Smith, and also signed by my assistant. He was dispensing at the counter ; but seeing she was not being served, I went forward and asked what she wanted. He said, Poison to kill rats. I suggested phosphorus paste. He said she had got some before. I said to Miss Smith that we would much rather give her something else than arsenic. She did not insist on having it, but she said she would prefer having it. I then stated another objection, that we never sold arsenic to any one without entering it in a book, and that she must sign her name in the book if she got it, and state the purpose to which it was to be applied. She said she had no objection to do that; and from her apparent respectability and her fi-ankness I had no suspicion, and told the young man to give it to her. She got an ounce of coloured
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