A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handy-book of forensic medicine and toxicology / by W. Bathurst Woodman and Charles Meymott Tidy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    1201/1268 (page 1165)
    THE SHOOTING AT DRAYTON. - wished that the supposed blood should be examined chemically, micro- scopically, aud by the spectroscope.—Authors.] Case V.—Rupture of an Aneurism; Death Supposed to be due to Violence. [This case was given us by Dr. Corfe, from the records of the Middlesex Hospital.] Jane S , a married woman, aged twenty-eight years, plethoric and intemperate, was violently struck by her husband six weeks before her death. Three weeks after the blow she had hmmoptysis, and finally died from a fatal bleeding in the street. The coroner’s inquest brought in a verdict of manslaughter against the husband. Death was proved to have resulted from the bursting of an aneurism of the aorta, the size of a pullet’s egg, in the descending part of the arch, just about the bifurca- tion of the bronchi. It burst into the left pleura. The medical witness deposing that aneurism was generally due to atheroma, the bench stopped the case, remarking, “ If previous disease is sworn to I must stop the case.” The man was therefore acquitted. This law, however, is inconsistent with repeated decisions of our judges. See p. 1060, where the dictum of Lord Hale is quoted. Case VI. The Attempted Murders at Drayton. Shooting with Intent to Murder. [From the “ Oxford Journal,” Jan. 13, 1877.] “ At the County Bench on Monday last Benjamin Marshall was brought up on remand, charged with shooting at, with intent to murder, James Beesley and Elizabeth Beesley at Drayton, on the 30th December, 1876. James Beesley deposed that the prisoner had been courting his daughter Elizabeth. She broke it off about Christmas. The prisoner made his appearance again first the day after Christmas Day; his daughter told him she would have nothing more to do with him, and went out of his way. On Wednesday and Thursday he called again, and there was further conversation on the same subject. On Friday evening he wanted her to have a drop of drink. On the Saturday he shot at both father and daughter. The surgeon, Mr. Slade Innes Baker, deposedthat on going to the house, he found Miss Beesley very faint, sitting on the sofa, supported by two women. ‘ There was blood on the outer garment, and a small hole in it, such as would be produced by a bullet passing through it. I found a corresponding hole in the inner garmeut. After taking off her clothes I found between the eighth and ninth ribs a small opening, which was bleeding a little. I probed the wound, and found it passed in about one and a half inches downwards and outwards. I could not detect any bullet. I think the bullet is somewhere in her body. She is at present making satisfactory progress. The bullet could not have come out. I afterwards examined Mr. Beesley. I found in his trousers on the right groin a mark of singeing, and a small hole, such as would be made by a bullet, and a mark on the skin, such as would be produced by a bullet glancing off a hard object. There were also marks through the fob, as of a bullet passing through it. The mark passed downwards and outwards. There was no abrasion. The next morning when I saw him