The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-01-17 00:00:00

A STRANGE CASE.

On Thursday in last week, Mr. W. Tomlin, the
deputy coroner for the county of Northampton, held
an adjourned inquest at West Haddon, in that counjy,
on the body of Mrs. Alice Gulliver, late of Crick, woo
died on the 23rd of November hat, red wile b edy
was subsequently disinterred.
The inquest was opened by the Groner on the 23rd
of December, and, some evidence having been takes,
WM adjourned till Thursday. In order to give time for
an analysis of the contents of the stomach.
Mr. J. Backe, of Northampton, solicitor, attending
on behalf of the relatives of Mrs. Gull ver, and Mr. R.
T. Rae soliciter, Worcester, appeared in the Interest
of Mr. Waters, surgeon, of Wore-titer, whom wife was
visiting the deceased at the time of her death. Air.
Waters was also presents
The deceased, it appeared, lived alone, and was sup-
posed to be poseessed of a large property. Near her
resided a victor, Mies Watts, and a niece, Mrs. Watts,
wife of Mr. W. Watts.. Another niece, Mrs. Waters,
wife of &medical practitioner, lived at Worcester. In
the middle of November last Mrs. Gulliver wrote to
Mrs. Waters askine her to pay her a visit, and on the
20th of -hat mouth Mrs. Waters arrived at her aunt's.
On Saturdw, the 22nd, two days afterwards Mrs.
Glilliver was seized with sudden Meese, and Mrs.
Waters called upon Mee. Walker, surgeon, of Crick, on
Diet morning, and asked him to visit her aunt in the
evening. Mr. Walker offered to see her at once, but she
begged him not to go then, as her aunt was asleep. He
accordingly went about five o'clock in the evening and
found the deceased very ill—much worse than he ex-
perted to find her. He had psielher a friendly visit on the
Friday evening, and had then found her unusually
well. He prescribed for her, and saw hr again on
Sunday morning, when he found her much better.
Soon after he had left, however, she was regain taken
very ill, and Jane Middleton' a servant, deposed on
the inquest that she heard Mrs. Waters open the
windows and, es she thought, shut the door. On going
uprairs she found her mistress was dead. Mrs. Waters
sent for Mr. Walker and Miss Watts; the former
found the bedroom door and window open, and also
the staircase window, and there wae a "tremendous
current and draught." Mrs. Watera Laid to him,
"Oh, lam so sorry now I Was here." He asked tor
why, to which she replied, "Oh, Mrs. Gulliver made
a will in favour of my husband, and the other family
kaow nothing about it." She afterwards said, "I
suppose there will be a 'rumpus,'" or "a row." Mr.
Waiker gave a certificate of the death. Ile believed
at the time that death malted from valvular heart
disease.
On Thursday, Prefaser Rodgers, of the Londou
Hospital, said he bad had great experience in toxico-
I igical analyses. On the 24th of December last he
received three jars from Inguector Batley containing
the viscera of a human subject—stomach, with the
a:esophagus attached, liver, and kidneys. In the moo-
phagus he found a quantity of the same material as
that found in the stomach, proving that immediately
before death there must have been an effort to vomit.
On epenieg the stomach he found no appearance of
irritatioo, and he found, on analysis, that there was no
mineral poison in the contenes of the stomach. He had
the Irlealla of detecting the presence of alkaloids, and
he found the presence of an alkaloid in the stomach,
liver, and reeophague. 111 had not quite finished
the analysis of the kidneys. He found Diet that
alkaloid was morphia; he had no doubt of it. Ha
found morphia in the stomach and its con-
tents. In the liver and the blood he found the
On Monday The Times published the following letter re.
: presence of an alkaloid, but there Was not suffie
opecting the accident
I cient to enable him to determine its character. The
was a passenger by the Great Northern train from
alkalide in the liver might be harmless, but that in the
Scotland which ran into the Grantham and Boston
train at Barkstotie last night, and I propose, with sour stomach "might cause death, awarding to the dose that
was given. Hating heard the statemente made by Mr.
permiesion, to describe what I saw or know of the acct.
Waters the surgeon, as to the state in which the de,
dent. It happened soon after 7 p.m., at the point
ased ;as during the Saturday—a state of stupor ape
where the Boston line branches off from the main line, ce
acbing to c01714--and also to the evidence as to the
• short distance north of Grantham. Our train, which Pr° - '-
heel started se me 18 minutes late from York, malt appearances presented on the post rportcm examination,
he would say that in his juilee ent the condition in
have been ce raider.* behind time. and was proceeding which the deceased was on the SAttirday could not be
at high speed at the moment. The Bosten train waa
attributed to the disease which Was apparent ite the
crossing our path at a slow rate, having just started moron, examination. ,pieeee appearances were
and proceeding in a slanting direction when we drove °
:dies of many of consistent with the supposition that a narcotic peison,
Into asd through it, tumbling the be
ich as n outride had been administered. Taking
the carrirseee over an embarkment ten or twelve feet
into eonsideratiou the feet that morphia was found
I igh, and instantly canoieg an amount of dentruction
in the body, and the condition of the deceased on
and suffering which it is deft :nit to describe. We the setae, ay
that would aceonnt for her cosalition,
being on the left or up line were, I believe, tilted
on to the six-foot way, and our engine boiler was so The vomitting would accoun't for so smalls quantity of
ranch dameged by the shock that it hum:, scattering morphia being foiled. if there had been a larger quan-
tity admiaistered. Tie facts would tend beeehow that
steam and boiling water all around. The driver, I be' the deceased was recovering from the effects of this rear-
lie ee, escaped without any eerions injury, but the us' cetic poison. The cirounetaricee actually attendant on
fortunate stoke r was terribly scalded, and his screams of
death were not such as would lead him to town an opinion
agony could be heard through the darkness from one
as tie the immediate cause of &Mb. He was net pro.
end of the train to the other. Mounted on the front of
pared to say whether death arose from natural causes
the engine we ro the wheels and axle of the carriage
or not, but, labia judgment, a &sea morphia produ dug
which it had smashed into. Of course the shock was
such effects, as were obaerved in the deceased most tepee
very severe, aid arnieng the numerous passengers ref the
verily tend to hasten death. Death Was not the result of
main lino train many must have been severely shaken, a narcotic poison administered on Saturday; but, from
bat as far mil could observe the woret case among us was
the appearances observed, he was equally positive that
thatof the stoker. The moat severe e ffects of the collision
death did not arise from the state of the heart.
fell upon the Beaton tr.sin, which, luckily however, Was
The statements of the medical and ether whnemes
rather empty. One man, apparently about 40, was
as to the condition of the deceased, with the result
found deaden the slope of the embankment, the (libris of
of the post mertem exemination and his own analysis,
the carriage in which he travelled resting on his back,
justified him in coming to that conclusion. The high
and his f ass downwards. Another unfortunate had
temperature of the body negatived that idea, but some-
his leg so feetencd in the wreck around him that he
thing such as a preemie acid, and which now could not
could not fee: some time be extricated. In a third cue
be detected, would cause death. Peach must have been
the sufferer was got out with ocauparative ease, but at
acorl,rated by the administration of morphia, hut the
Peterborough we beard that his injuries had proved
actual canoe of death was the administration of come
fatal. One woman in particular I noticed very severely
o'her volatile noxious sub.ttance which could not be de-
cut about the fare, end here I nay remark that the tooled after so long a period. Long experieece had
women hurt showed at least as much endurance as the
proved the necessity of Purposes making a post mortcm
men. examination where death was not fully accounted for,

. -
Old persons when florins were issued champed the
bit; they would not have them, and I can readily
believe the replies to the Master of the Mint from
them will be unanimous. But the coin is now domi-
ciled ; it is no longer a puzzle, and is well entitled to a
prrnianent issue from the Mint.
-

The half.erown is also well entitled, but less so. Bat
AS the two o 'insll, longer &It'll as at first, let the
public have all the ease that is now offered them by
the Muter of the Mint by keeping up the icons of
W. E.
J anuary 9.

The circular of the Deputy.M miter of the Mint in-
viiing opinion as to the convenience of continuing the
etriking of half-crowns and fl dins, or only one of them
him evoked such widely expreaged dislike to the latter
coin that it is not improbable Its further issue will
cease, awl in course of time disappear from circula-
tion. . _

Under tkese circumstances perhaps the following
few particulars relative to its introduction may have
some present interest. When the two-shilling piece
wes projected it WAR a matter of deliberation as is
whether it should ba called the ceutum, de-nde,
dims, or florin. Dies were prepared with these deno-
mination, of value inscribed, with three varieties of
portrait and nine various reverses; from these dies no
fewer than 27 different patterns for the coins were
struck, insluding the one subsequently ad, pled for cir-
culation. As frequently happens in such and kindred
matters, where choice exist+, the least beau • dui specimen
was approved. Many of the others were far superior
in beauty and elegance of design, and are much
admired examples of niedalhc art. As regarded the
portraits, both those rejected had greater merit than
the fanciful one now known so well; they were heads
similar to that OD the half-crown, but larger in propor-
tion and of finer work—one had a plain band encircling
the hair, the other a wreath of laurel. Beside the
reverse of the four shields of arms as a cross, some had
the name of the coin in a wreath, others the Royal
cypher " V.R." entwined with the Rose. Shamrock,
, and Thistle, and inscribed with the proposed name of
the coin.

Had one or other of these been preferred, the artistic
merit might have urged a toleration of the existence of
a coin which is now con&mned for solely cimmercial
reasons.—Your obedient servant. W. H. JOHNSTON.
407, S,rand, Jau. 10.

1
To extricate the sufferers wilier axe nor screw-jack,
nor any other simple implement suitable for atoll an
emergency was avaihible. The passengers for the most
part seemed pozalyzed, and unable to render any
effectual assistance—some of those in our train never
even quitting their seats to help. As for the signalmoi,
his box was partly carried away by the colltidon, and
he seemed so stupefied by what had happened that seine
delay arose in getting him to telegraph for medical as-
sistance. An axe was at length got from an adjoining
cottage, and by the energy of some of the passengers
acs ustomed to face difficulties in a practical way the
wounded and dead were removed to the station. In
such emergencies the grotesque and the horrible are
often brought into curious contrast. One man was be-
lieved to have been killed, but on a closer scrutiny he
trued out to be drunk. A little child, only four years
old, had been put into the train at Newcastle to hod its
way up to town alone, and had to pass through this try-
ing scene as best it coold. An engineer from Newcastle
wade himself conspicuous by his energy and practical
resource under the circumetances. He also expressed
with nench vigour what be thought of the leoeengere
arinod him who either could not or wool i not lend a
helping hand ts the injured. For myself, having
all my life in New Zealand, where our railway
system has to be crested, on my first visit to the mother
country I have had an uncomfortably early rimortunity
of becoming acquainted with what is meant by a col.
Mien. I earnestly frost I may never again be called
pp' imassoonces. venison J-t
was two o'clock this Morning before we reached King's-
croak the train being due the re shortly before ten p.m. a
and though a delay of four hours may appear abort in
• journey so interrupted, I find it midi conedlation

It would either prevent unfounded susixicion or expose
crime where it had been-committed.
In reply to questions put by Mr. Res' the witness
paid he judge's' that the deceased did not die of mere
Wilting. The state of the body after death—its
great warnath---thewed that the death did net arise
from syncope.
Dr. Buszerd WAS next examined. Having heard the
evidence of Professor Rodgers and the result of kis
analysis, and taking that In connexion with the date
of the deceased on the day before her death„aa detailed
by Dr. Walker and the other witnesses, he considered
It highly probable that the state of the deceased was at-
tributable to a dose of morphia. He would not state it
with abaolr certainty. He could suggest another
cause produc.ng the effects; described. A dose of mot,
phia euffioiently strong to produce such effects would
accelerate death, especially to a person with a heart like
that of the deceased. He believed that death was so.
celerated by a dose of morphia, but he could not ttate
that with absolute cert.tinty. She did not die from the
direct .ffecto of morphia though it was poesibie she
died from its indirect effects.
Me. Waters wri4 also recalled, and said that, having
heard the result of the analysis, it appeared to him
that the state of hie patient on the Satorday was the
remit of morphia. Morphia administered to hits palient
in her condition of • dis, seed heart would, when ticimin
'stored in such quantities as had Keen detected, be in.
josi me, and would accelerate death. He was not at
all aware tbat Ole creceasieu'orse th ede &ahem.' 444-
morphia.
Mre. Harper, wife of John Harper, of Crick, baker,
denoted that lifter produad was in Afro. Waters'