The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-19 00:00:00

is the living, unfettered human energy. You ought to know that in Manchester, if others don't; and I believe you do know it. Without a rare original talent this work could not be done at all, and with such a talent, the best thing you can do is to let it work out its own ends and its own way. We promise to leave Miss Nightingale free and unhampered; and we believe that is the best guarantee for efficiency we can give. His lordship then briefly sketched the origin of the institution of hospital nurses on the Continent, and concluded his speech amidst loud applause. Mr. Monckton Manes, and other gentlemen, then ad dressed the meeting ; and resolutions were passed appointing a committee to further the aims of the central committee in Manchester. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL OF PRIOR -PARK, near Bath, has become bankrupt. Prior park, built by Ralph Allen, will be remembered as the spot where Fielding wrote " Tom Jones," taking Mr. Allen as Squire Allworthy. THE LEA-BROOK Worms, Tifton, South Stafford shire, were the scene of a boiler explosion on Mon day, by which three men were killed and fifteen more or less severely injured. The explosion was tre mendous, and the damage done estimated at 700/. An inquiry into the cause has commenced. THE Tows COUNCIL OF CAMBRIDGE held a meet ing on Monday, to consider the state of the Eastern Counties Railway. Colonel Wynne's late report was freely commented on, and resolutions requesting the Board of Trade to cause survey to be immedi ately made upon the other lines of the railway. A TESTIMONIAL TO LORD CARDIGAN, in the shape of a handsome sword, valued at 250 guineas, has been subscribed for and purchased in Yorkshire. A meeting was lately held at Leeds, to consider the proper mode of presentation, and a strong wish ex pressed that the presentation should be public. A deputation, however, was appointed to wait upon Lord Cardigan and ascertain his wishes upon the subject. Ctrtion grdelligtntt. CAMBRIDGE. - The leading members of this University have expressed their intention of pro posing the Right Honourable Spencer H. Walpole to fill the vacancy caused in the representation by the death of Mr. Goulburn. The right honourable gentleman has accepted the offer to stand for the University. HEREFORD.-Mr. G. Gleice, Mr. R. Biddulph, and Mr. Thomas Evans, are mentioned as probable can didates for the vacancy expected to arise in the re presentation of this borough. LINCOLN.—The election of a member for this city took place on Wednesday. Major G. A. Sibthorp having been proposed, and no other candidate offer ing himself, the gallant major was declared duly elected. In reply to several questions put to him, Major Sibthorp declared with respect to the war that he was most anxious for peace upon certain condi tions : But., gentlemen (continued the hou. member), I am not for any patched-up, trumpery peace. I have no dispo• sition to lay down my arms to-day that I may,in all proba bility, be compelled to take them up again to-morrow. I am not one of that small insignificant party termed the " peace-at-any-price party," whose whole soul and ideas seem to be centred upon pounds, shillings, and pence, who would sacrifice their country at the shrine of interest, and who would barter her honour for a pot of gold. With reference to his politics, he was a Conservative, but not a party man, and was willing to support any Minister who would prosecute the war with the utmost vigour till a lasting and honourable peace was obtained. NORTH ESSEX.—The Conservative electors have declared their intention of calling upon the Right Hon. William Beresford to stand for North Essex at the next general election. TAMWORTH.—Viscount Raynham, son of the late member, has issued an address to the electors : My political opinions (observes the noble lord) are in accordance with those entertained and advocated by my father. They would induce me to give a general support to the present Government, and particularly in the vigorous prosecution of a war, the object of which is the attainment of an honourable and lasting peace, and the se curity of the liberties of the civilised world. I am pre pared to forward measnres for the internal economy of the country and its commercial relations with foreign States' and it will ever be my anxious desire to promote the local interests of your ancient borough, and the welfare of the nation at large. Sab3 an Volta. THE RUGELEY POISONING CASE. THE preliminary inquiry as to the cause of death in the cases of Mts. Anne Palmer and Mr. Walter Palmer, the wife and brother of William Palmer, committed on the charge of having poisoned Mr. Cook, bas advanced a stage during the week. The case of Mrs. Anne I'almer was resumed on Friday last, and the examination of witnesses lasted to a late hour on Saturday evening. The circttm- THE PRESS. stances of her illness and death are simple and few. On Monday, the 18th of September, 1854, the deceased went to Liverpool to spend some days, and on Tuesday evening, in a thin white dress, she attended a concert at St. George's-hall. On the Wednesday evening she returned home to Rugeloy very unwell, and expressed a belief that she had caught a severe cold. On the following morning she complained of still feeling very ill, was sick, and continued voiniting throughout the day. On the Friday and Saturday she continued to suffer from sickness, no medicine being administered to her up to Sunday, when Dr. Bamford was called in. He found the deceased in bed labouring under nausea, and so much debility that she had great difficulty in giving him an answer. She did not apgear to have vomited to him, and was suffering from constipation. He prescribed and prepared for her an opening draught and two pills of colocynth, calomel, and oil of carraway. On Monday, finding deceased rapidly sinking, by his request Dr. Knight was called in; he prescribed two smali pills, with a weak dose of prussic acid in water, but the deceased still suffered so severely from constant vomiting, from excessive retching and purgings, and was so ex hausted, that she never rallied, sunk rapidly, and died on the Friday. The first witnesses called were the domestic servants in attendance during the deceased's last illness. Without exception they all testified to the affectionate kindness with which Mr. Palmer appeared to treat his wife. Anne Rowley, the char woman, says During the whole time of Mrs. Palmer's illness, and all the time that I knew him since he was married, he appeared to live comfortably with his wife. They lived very comfortably together. He was kind to all about him." Eliza Tharme, the general servant :—" Mr. Palmer appeared kind to his wife and all about him." Mrs. Bradshaw, the nurse:— "Mr. Palmer appeared affectionate to his wife, and seemed anxious to do everything for her comfort that lay in his power. When told of her death he appeared unconscious, and shed tears." Dr. Bam ford Palmer paid every attention to his wife while I was there. No man could have been more attentive." No complaint of any particular pain was made by Mrs. Palmer, but, according to the evidence of the witnesses, Eliza Tharme, Miss Palmer, and Mrs. Bradshaw, the nurse, the deceased expressed her belief that she had caught a severe cold at St. George's-hall. Mrs. Bradshaw, who was the prin cipal attendant during the deceased's illness, stated that the deceased die not suffer much from purging until just previous to death ; she gave the deceased the pills and mixture prescribed by Dr. Bamford; the deceased also took frequent effervescing draughts, which were administered to her, in the witness's presence, by Mr. Palmer. The evidence of the witness upon this point was clear : They were given to her by ➢[r. Palmer, her husband. I cannot recollect how many she took. She generally asked for the effervescing mixtures. They were given in my presence in this way: he brought some quite clear water in a glass and a spoon with some powder in it. The glass was au ordinary tumbler, and was half filled with water. He put the mixture into the water, and when he stirred it with a spoon it effervesced. The mixture looked like the ordinary effervescing draughts ; and she frequently said that the preparation was very refreshing, and did her more good than anything else. These draughts were taken two or three times in the course of the day for sense days previous to death. The witness further stated that she tasted all the medi cines given to the deceased with the exception of these effervescing draughts. At the time el her death she appeared quite composed, For some time before she begged I would not trouble her to give her anything. I did not notice anything par ticular in her breathing. She appeared quite sensible to the last. She was never otherwise, night or day, during the time that 1 was with her. She had no convulsions or spasms. It was two or three hours before her death that she told me not to trouble her. The last thing she took before her death was the juice of some grapes. I asked her to take some grapes. She said she could not suck them, when I replied," [ can squeeze them into a spoon." I did so, and put it into her mouth, when she looked at me in a very pleasing manner, and said, " Oh, that was very nice." This was before the purging which preceded her death. No one else besides Mr. Palmer and myself gave her anything during the time that I was there. He did not give her anything the day that she died. He was with her very frequently—coming into the room very often. Dr. Bamford, in his evidence, stated his belief that the deceased had died of "bilious cholera." Dr. Knight, who did not see her till the 25th, said that as far as he could form a judgment on the case, for the deceased was too exhausted to describe her symptoms, he thought, from the account Mr. Palmer gave of his wife's sufferings, that the cause of death was " English cholera." He had recommended two minims of diluted prussic acid to allay the retching, and saline effervescing draughts, but prescribed no pre paration of antimony. Dr. Monckton deposed to having made the post mortem examination on the 22nd December last. There was no alteration in the structure of the body sufficient to account for death ; and in his opinion SATURDAY, the appearances of the body were not consistent with death from cholera, though death might have been caused from extreme vomitings, producing exhaus t JD. Dr. Taylor deposed to having made, in company with Dr. Bees tifteen different analyses of th e b o d y of the deceased, and finding antimony in the liver, spleen, kidney, the substance of the heart and the substance of the lung, and in the stomach and rectum. There was nathing to account for death in the shape of disease, and the conclusion lie and Dr. ltees at once came to was that the deceased hail di e d from the effects of antimony administered in small doses for some period previous to death. The disco very of antimony in the liver, kidney, spleen, heart, and lungs proved the absorption during the life, while its presence in the stomach, and particularly in the rectum, was an incontestable proof that it had been administered but a few hours previous to death : We can detect (observed Dr. Taylor in the course of his evidence) from a five•hundredth or a thousandth part of a grain of tartar emetic when it is present. In the stomach there was found from three-quarters of a grain to a grain of tartar emetic, and in the rectum probably a grain. There was antimony throughout the whole body. In the whole of the tissues there could not have been less than a grain and a half or two grains. From the results of our experiments upon two ounces of the liver I was satisfied that the deceased was saturated with antimony. I have frequently found antimony in the dead; but I never found so much in absorption. Dr. Rees confirmed the evidence of Dr. Taylor, and briefly stated, " I am decidedly of opinion that the deceased died from the effects of antimony ad. ministered in small doses, repeated at intervals." Dr. Knight, upon a re-examination, stated that after hearing the evidence of I)rs. Taylor and Rees, although at the time of his visiting the deceased he neither suspected nor perceived the effects of poison, he now believed that at that time the deceased was suffering from the effects of antimony. Further evidence to prove the insurance of the de ceased's life by her husband for 13,0001. in the Sun Life, the New Equitable, and the Scottish Equitable, in the course of January and February, 1854, was then given, when the examination concluded. The Coroner then read over his notes, pointing out to the jury that they had first to consider the cause of death ; secondly, if the cause of death was poison ; thirdly, by whom poison was administered, if at all administered; and, lastly, whether it was taken accidentally, or given deliberately. The jury, after an absence of twenty minutes, returned a ver dict that " the deceased had died from the effects of tartarized antimony, designedly administered to her by her husband, William Palmer." A verdict of Wilful Murder was then taken, and the inquiry closed. The inquest upon the body of Mr. Walter Palmer, who died at Stafford on the 16th of August last, was opened on Monday before the same jury empanelled to investigate the death of Mrs. Anne Palmer. From the general tenor of the evidence adduced, Walter Palmer appears to have been for some years a confirmed drunkard, and seldom free from the effects of gin, his favorite drink. For some time previous to his death he had been in bad health, and was known to be suffering from diseased lungs and kidneys. At the exact moment of death there was every appearance of an attack of apoplexy, induced by weeks of continued hard drinking ; but, from the medical testimony given, such symptoms are not at all incompatible with death from poison just pre viously administered. Walter Palmer died on the 16th of August. On the first or second Tuesday in that month Mr. Palmer purchases an ounce of prussic acid an ounce of jalap, and a third small article, at Wolverhampton. On the Iltb, while at Stafford, where his brother was staying, Mr. Palmer, on the plea that his brother was drinking bad liquor, orders a bottle of the best brandy for him. On the 14th he gives two small bottles into the care of the " boots" of the Junction Hotel, at Stafford. The same day he calls for them, takes them away for three quarters of an hour, and returns them into the care of the groom. The next day be comes down to the stable with a third bottle in his hand, asks for the other two, takes one and mixes the contents with the one he brought. On the Thursday morning Walter Palmer died sud denly ; and at the time of death a thin liquid, smelling like brandy and water, was noticed running from his mouth. The evidence at this stage was stopped ; and until Wednesday next nothing further will be heard. The first witness called was Mr. Henry Day, a surgeon of Stafford, who attended the deceased for six weeks previous to his death. In the course of his evidence, Mr. Day stated that he found the de ceased suffering from chronic inflammation of the lungs, and an affection of the liver and kidneys. lie attended him every day from the 7th to the 31st of July, and from the 10th to the 10th of August, the day of his death. At one of his last visits, in the course of conversation, the deceased said : " Doctor, those pills last night were twisters." I asked him, " What pills ?" He replied, " Those you sent last