Medico-legal observations upon the case of Amos Greenwood, tried at the Liverpool Assizes, December, 1857, for the wilful murder of Mary Johnson, and sentenced to penal servitude for life / by W.R. Wilde.

  • Wilde, William Robert Willis, 1815-1876.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medico-legal observations upon the case of Amos Greenwood, tried at the Liverpool Assizes, December, 1857, for the wilful murder of Mary Johnson, and sentenced to penal servitude for life / by W.R. Wilde. 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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    discharge from the vagina. She was treated for syphilis, as it was discovered that the prisoner had warty excrescences on the penis, and also syphilitic sores. Mortification set in on the 29th, and she died on the 5th November, thirteen days after the alleged connexion. On the 7th a post-mortem examina- tion was made, when the following appearances were noted:— Mortification of the genitals, extending downwards and back- wards to the sacrum. The whole of the soft parts in the genital region, including the urethra, labia, and vaginal orifice, were mortified to the depth of two inches; the rectum and nates were also mortified; the external surface of the bladder showed several patches of inflammation, and its lining membrane was coated with purulent matter. The whole mucous lining of the vagina was black with mortification.” Fortified with the answers received, I addressed the follow- ing letter to the Judge:— “ Dublin, January 30, 1858. “ My Lord,—I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 23rd ultimo; I have also been favoured with the perusal of your letter to Mr. Lawrence; I have likewise had communications with Mr. Cobbett, the prisoner’s counsel; and have received the depositions of the witnesses in the case of Amos Greenwood. I have, in addition, addressed a circular to, and received answers from, some of the most eminent physi- cians, surgeons, and medical jurists in the kingdom, respecting this case; and from the investigations I have made, I feel more and more convinced that Mary Johnson died from natural causes, neither the result of violence nor syphilis. In endeavour- ing to make this plain to your Lordship, I labour under the same disabilities which a lawyer would in making me under- stand the bearings of a legal argument. In both cases the mind requires to be prepared by previous application to the subject, and your Lordship may not have a medical, as I may not possess a legal, mind. “Your Lordship lays much stress upon the assumed fact that ‘ private parts of the child were extensively lacerated, and the perineum ruptured;’ and that ‘ she made no complaint for some days. On the first of these points I would respectfully join issue with your Lordship, or, more properly speaking, with the evidence adduced to support that allegation. The peri- neum, or the septum which divides the vagina and anus, it should be remembered, is an exceedingly sensitive part, highly endowed with nerves, and so very vascular that a solution of
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