The trial of Mrs. Ellen Byrne for the murder of Mr. Augustine Byrne, her husband : at the Commission Court, Dublin, on the 15th and 16th August, 1842, with a portrait of the deceased / specially reported by Thomas R. Dunckley.

  • Dunckley, Thomas R.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The trial of Mrs. Ellen Byrne for the murder of Mr. Augustine Byrne, her husband : at the Commission Court, Dublin, on the 15th and 16th August, 1842, with a portrait of the deceased / specially reported by Thomas R. Dunckley. 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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    would not venture on an opinion as to the number of days; under the circum- stances of the case, protrusion of the right eye might be accounted for by de- composition ; as to my medical opinion, protrusion of the eye is considered by writers on the subject as one of the signs of strangulation ; I did not particu- lai-ly observe the eye; I only saw the body again for a very short period on the day after; I was not able to form an opinion as to the cause to which his death was referrible. [This witness was not cross-examined.] Dr. Harnson^ examined by Mr. Brewster —I am a surgeon and professor of ana- tomy and surgery, in Trinity College; I was professor of anatomy in the College of Surgeons in Ireland for several years ; 1 have been in Court during the exami- nation of the three last witnesses especially ; I attended carefully to the appearances they have described ; I should attribute the protrusion of the right eye to the effect of muscular action previous to death ; it is impossible, 1 think, it could proceed from gravitation; and decomposition, according to my experience, would have a totally opposite effect, as, whenever the human eye undergoes that change it becomes sunk in the socket, but never prominent. The protrusion of the tongue must have proceed- ed, I think, either from a convulsive muscular effort before death, or have been pro- duced mechanically after; decomposition does not produce it, according to my experience. 1 have examined a great many bodies who have been hanged, when it was the custom to send criminals to the College of Surgeons for dissection. 1 have also seen three or four whose deaths were caused by drowning, but I do not recollect having seen any who died by suffocation. Taking all the circumstances I have heard deposed to here as to the appearances of the body, the eyes, the tongue, and fmces, I have come to two conclusions—first, that the body was dead some days ; secondly, that he died suddenly, the death being attended with some convuTsn'e struggle, but whether from an epileptic or apoplectic fit, or from any other cause, it is totally impossible for me to form a conjecture. If the body had been examined at an earlier period, the causes of death would have been more easily discoverable, becauseif it had been produced by suffocation, by means of stop- ping the nose and mouth, or by a ligature or strong pressure being applied to the throat, you would see the marks ; but all such marks are done away, by the body undergoing decomposition; or if it were caused by epilepsy or apoplexy, we are in the dark also from lapse of time, as the brain, in which, in such a case, we should most probably have found some disorganization, was in such a state of decomposi- tion that no evidence could be drawn from it. In all ca«-es I have examined of persons hanged, and I have seeen a great number, the blood was fluid, and conti- nued fluid. The blood of those who die rather suddenly, in intoxication or epilepsy, is not. according to my experience, ever found fluid, and does not apparently differ from that of a person meeting an ordinary death. I recollect having seen a person in Baggot-street Hospital who was brought in by the police “dead drunk I ex- amined the body of this man, and found it generally rather healthy as to structure, except that there was that appearance of the liver which drunkards present, but which does not necessarily shorten life ; the general appearance was not similar to that of those who died suddenly from violence. Mr. Brewster—Are bending of the Angers, protrusion of the eye and tongue, usual appearances in the bodies of those who died by intoxication ? Witness—It is a fact in medicine, that in cases of intoxication, the records of dissection are very various, and this indeed is to be expected. Many persons die in intoxication, and there is no injury of any organ observed, so much so, that a recent authority conceives, that persons often die in intoxication^ merely from the poisonous effect of spirits on the brain, without producing any disease or change of structure, something similar to a doze of opium. Baron Pennefather—Does intoxication cause convulsions or fits ? Witness—If a child who has had epileptic fits becomes a drunkard, it is exceed- ingly apt to lead to a perpetuation of these fits, and a repetition of them at short intervals,and in one of these fits, death may occur. I cannot answer the question, w'hether intoxication necessarily makes men epileptic ; I am not aware of the fact. It leads, of course, to disease of the brain, and to apoplexy; this is a common effect, and frequently, the death stroke of the drunkard is by apoplexy. To the Chief-Justice—The blood in that case would not be found fluid, accord- ing to my experience.