The Express.
London, England, 1859-09-02 00:00:00

THE SMETHURST CASE.

TO TEE EDITOR OP TILE EXPRESS.

61a,—Having been one of the medical witnesses
is this cow—having heard smarty the whole trial, and, more-
over, having a arced soguaintmos with some of the subjecta
to which the moat important evidence refers, I hove deter-
mined to forward you a few obsewations upon the main
points of the medical evideime for the proeecution, and will at
the wee time advert to the letter in the columna of Tuseday's
Vous front " A Barrister."

I fully agree with this gentleman ea to the necessity of
having heard the actual evidence, and seen the demeanour of
the witnesses, in eider to forma jut opinion of the cam; but
the mein facts which were proved have led me, and nine-
tenths of the opinions I have beard, to a cocolusion directly
opposed to hie—viz., that the verdict is a moot onaccoontaldo
one.

It is said :—Three doctors seeing her while alive indepen-
dently sad successively conceived the opinion that she was
being poisoned.
This startling fact would be almost enough to prove the
accusation, U their conduct bear out the statement and dis-
play such an amount of mediosl knowledge and sagacity as
Would be required to give due weight to their opinion. Is
this the use P

Dr. Julius mys that hie suspicions were ironed more than
three weeks before the death, and Dr. Bird rye that a week
later they were comborated by his own, yet these two allow
their patient to go en for two weeks without taking any step.
Ina quarter of an hour they might Ilinrientol the painting
urine, and, without any overt act of euspition, they pttgbi
have displayed the poison or dispelled their alegesion ; nit
they do nothing—no, sot even introduce a new moon into
the rick room, not even call in another medical opinion-bet
after two weeks Dr. Todd Is summoned, and not at the in-
stance of them doctors, but at the reiterated request of the
prboner•
dosepting their statement, wee this conduct in accordanos
with common sense? Common sense repudiates it. Does the
treatment bear out their opinions, and prove them to have
boon the convictions of the time. No: the reveres. They
treated her with metallic medicine', proper foe the disease et
which, if not poisoned, she died, but aggravatory fora one
poisoning.
Dr. Todd i.e. her for a few minute., notes an eapranion of
countenance in to way associand with poisoning, but dis-
tinctly referable to dicers; he awn she is 'untiring from
irritant poisoning, he pesionbes fur dysentery, and leaves for
town. Why did he not treat her for poisoning ? Why did
he not prescribe an antidote? Dr. Taylor V the only man.
who seems to have believed Maoism; and he, acting upon hie
belief, naturally pies:sins au antidote.
It is difficult to avoid admitting that this conduce shakes
their evidence on this moat important point. By impugning
their knowledge and sagnity, it renders their opinion velar
less, or else indicates that their evidence was a coorlasion
subsequent to the evidence of Dr. Taylor, rather than a
transcript of their feeling" at the time in question.
Independently, however, of this argument, it is difficult to
believe that Julius could sand Bird to the tees without osci-
llating his suspicion, or that he could annequently give Dr.
Todd a fair medical history of the patient "Blot! in Nome
way or other manning It to the dooke's mind. There eau
be no doubt that such language as would be need by say
medial man under the circumstances would almost unavoid-
ably suggest the notion . and thet it would be a most difficult
thing to conceal the suspicioc, if that suspicion were really a
conviction of the narrator's mind.

Probably the three were inapircd with the notion by one
of their number, although that one may have sever directly
intimated the suggestion; and, if so, the evidence on this
moat material point may be faithful to their own belief,
though not correctly descriptive of the actual fact; and it
seems to me, as a piece of circumstantial evidence at any
rate, totally unable to bear the weight which bee devolved
upon it by the failure of other points of the evidence.
The speculative medical evidence on the question of
dysentery was greatly in favour of the ptitoner. It clearly
proved that Miss Banks. did not die from eastern dysentery, le
it rens its couree in the male subject ; bat this was asserted
by no ea. Dr. Willow, who saw the post aortas appear-
mess, end is undoubtedly the moat important witeees on that
point, says: "Excluding dysentery, I know of no disease
I which would produce similar symptoms," and several wit-
nesses celled by the defence stated their belief that the care
wee lees compatible with irritant poisoning than with dysen-
tery occurring during pregnancy.
Moreover, the wrier of this letter adduced a eh:oiler ease
which had occurred in his own practice, in which even a
sumpicka of 1)011,0111n, bad been entertained, but, after doe
consideration, diet:lll,oBd, and where, in consequence of the
*unordinary symptoms, a poat•emortrn exeminaticia was
made, which clearly revealed the emus of death, via., pro-
longed dysentery occurring during pregnancy. Exteaeive
ulcers:don through the large bowel from the mecum to the
rectum, with a comparatively healthy .4i:enacts and upper
intestines, will describe alike the sppearances of Miss Bank's
and of my own patient. The symptoms during Life also were
alike.

The barrister says that the medical evidence was cot-
flemed by the finding of poison in the body. This ia Is-
accurate.

Nothing wan found in the body but a half grain of anti-
moey, and from this no conclusion of ',Meaning can be drawn,
as entimony is almost a domestic medicine and may have
been taken by her for a Gough or a cold months before, and
possibly longer. Many metals remains in the body for you,
mercury has been found is a metallic form even after death.
In one evacuation the test showed a sixth of a grain of
arsenic, but in no other cue was anything found.

Say nothing of the fact that this was found with the same
implements which 11:13 found four grains of arsenic in a solu-
tion which contained none ; say nothing of the jarring fact
that this very evacuation was furniehed by Smethurst him.
self. The finding itself in inconsistent with the nun-existence

of snide in the liver and the body generally, and if meanie
wen originally In that evacuation there is arsenic in the
body now and it should be re-eximined, not oily for the vin-
dication of Wen°, and the satisfection of its disciples, but
also in justice to society ant to the nun condemned to infamy,
and now awaiting death.
Now for the refutation of the argument to prove the
parity of the teats Deed for the evacuation. The banister
rye that the two eructations were tested at the same
time and with the earns testa. Oas showed arsenic and the
other did not, therefore the ersalio was in the evacuation
and not derived from the teats. This is not s logical de-
duction, unless it be also proved that the two 'vacuities'
were the same in every ether pirticular. By the same tens
Taylor also examined a solution without sneak, and yet he
calculated that it contained four grains, so with this
evacuation, If it oontiined sorting to dissolve the copper if
it had been put into a vend that hid contained chlorite of
potato', It would show arsenic, though it had contained none ;
and se there is no proof that the arsenic-showing evacuation
was free from sciutive power over the copper, the test Ia not
to be depended on, and the berrister'e argument falls to the
ground. . .

But, if there were this proof, then—even though Taylor
admits that his testing copper contained areemi.., and pre.
vb•sly misled him—the argument might demonstrate the
accuracy of the test. But this finding of • sixth of a grain
of arsenic in en evacuation which might have twcoroe am-
laminated before It reached Taylor's hands, which might
have been pnt into a vessel that had contained chlorate of
poems, or into ajar lined with • soinbis metallic glees, is not
so trustworthy as the finding alit in the body ; end unless
it had bre detected by him in the body Wolf, is surely too
slender a feet on which to hang • man.

No poison was found about or associated with Smethurst
la say way. The cam has gained Immense publicity, and
yet no evidence has appeared on this point. Nevertheless
the banister RN up the chum by a gratuitous sammption
that he got rid of It. I Isere that sa It Wanda. Now for the
motive. To her life was attechsd 240/. annually; by her
death he might obtain about 600!. She might have got tired
of the doctor, end have him charged with bigamy.
There is not a shadow of evidence that she believed hue a
single man. She knew the teal Yrs. Smethurst. She ha-
plied the fact by the words to bar sister, " Never mind, It
will soma be all right ;" end Ia the last scene she avowed it by
slip's( bar will sa a spinster.
To my mind the motives point all another way. Sheswee dr
votedly attached to him; they bad but one parse and she con-
fided everything to him. I cannot but think that the
Smiediarstof the proascation would, by poisoning the elder as
ea litcombranot and tun is-marrying the younger, at the