Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-07-09 00:00:00

Mrs Grabowska said—l keep a lodging house, No. 37,
Kildare-terrace, Bayswater. On the 29th of November

last, the deceased came to lodge at my house, and went
away on the 9th of Decombcr. She appeared to be very

delicate, but no medical man attended her

The prisoner

never visited her at my house. She told me where she was

going when she left

Cross-examined : The deceased never complained of any

particular illness

Mr. James Spice said : lam parish clerk of Battersea,
and I produce the register of marriages for that parish. It
contains the entry of a marriage between the prisoner and a
petion named Isabella Bankes, on the 9th of December. I
was present at the marriage
who was then married.

The prisoner is the person

Miss Louisa Bankes, the sister of the deceased, said : ,The
.•
signature to the register of manage now produced is that of

my sister.
The register was put in and read

Mrs. Ann Robinson said : I 'reside at No. 27, OV

Palace-gardens, and let lodgings

On the 9th of December

the prisoner and a lady whom he called Mrs. Smethurst
hired apartments in my house. She appeared to be quite
well at this time, and used' to walk out every day for three
hours, and took her meals regularly, so far as I knew. She
was taken ill about three weeks before she left, and Dr.
Smethurst told me it was a bilious attack. He said he was
not quite satisfied with the way she was going on, and I
recommeneed him to obtain the assistance of Mr. Julius, a
medical gentleman of Richmond. Medicines were sent in
by Dr. Julius for the deceased, but she did not appear to
get any better and she could not take any solid food, and
.had nothing but arrow-root and slops. "he left on the 15th
of April and was then very ill indeed. My daughter and
myself usually took in the medicines that were sent.
Cross-examined: The deceased used to vomit green and
bilious-looking matter. The prisoner spoke to me about
having another medical man, and he gave me his card to
hand to Dr. Julius. He has a large practice at Richmond.
The prisoner and the deceased appeared to me to be on
very kind and affectionate terms. Dr. Smethurst was
particularly kind to the deceased. His object in calling in
another medical man was that he would not
way'
to him-
self any further, as he did not like the way in which his
wife's illness was going on. The deceased was never con-
fined to her bed when she was in mylouse. The sickness

used to come on when the deceased moved. I remember
the deceased having a severe attack of toothache when she
was staying in my house, and I believe she went to London
to consult a dentist.
Mrs. Susannah Wheatley said : I reside at No. 10, Alma-
villas, Richmond, and let some part of my house in lodgings.
The prisoner and the deceased took possession of some
apartments in my house on the 15th of April. Dr. Smethurst
told me he should stay with me some time if Mrs. Smethurst
got well. The prisoner engaged the apartments himself in the
first instance, and he afterwardsgtought the deceased in a
cab, and she appeared to be very ill, and went to bed almost
immediately. She only came down four times before her
death. She was attended by Dr. Julius and Dr. Bird. I pre-
pared her food. It consisted of arrow-root, tapioca, and rice.
The prisoner always carried the food up himself, or received
it from me at the door of the deceased's bedroom. No
administered any food or medicine to

one nut the prlsouui
the deceased, and he used to bring the slops from the rooms
and place them on the landing for us to carry away. Upon
one occasion I suggested to Dr. Julius that the deceased
should have remember and the prisoner said he could not
afford it. I some matters being taken from the
deceased's room on the 29th of April by Dr. Julius. I
never on auy occasion saw any remains of the food I pre-
pared for the deceased, except once, when the prisoner
brought me some rice, and told me to throw it away as it

was sour.
Cross-examined—Dr. Smethurst always appeared to me
to be very kind and affecti.nate to the deceased. He occu- I
pied a sitting-room and bed-room only, and he was to pay
me fifteen shillings a week for the apartments. Dr.
Smethurst used to say that he removed the evacuations
immediately in order to prevent a bad smell in the room. It
was a small room with only one window.
SECOND DAY, ' '
The Loid Chief Baron took his seat on the bench at ten
o'clock, and immediately afterwards the prisoner was placed
at the bar.
Serjeant Ballantine, Mr. Bodkin, Mr. Clerk, and Mr.
Merryweatber again appeared for the prosecution
Serjeant Parry and Mr. Giffard appeared for the prisoner.
The prisoner having been placed at the bar, the jury
entered the box and answered to their names.
Mr. William Easter, clerk at St. Mary's Church, Ken-
nington, produced the register of marriages, of that church
for the year 1828. That proved the marriage of a person
named °Thomas Smethurst with a lady named Mary
Durham.
Mr. Alexander Crostie, a clerk at the London and West-
minster Bank, said : The prisoner had an account at their
bank. He knew his handwriting, and the signature in the
register was the prisoner's.
Dr. Samuel Bird said, in the Crimean war be was attached
to the staff of Omer Pacha for fifteen months, and had
experience in bowel complaints. On the 18th April he was
asked by Dr. Julius to attend to the deceased, and had
received no communication from him beyond the symptoms
and the remedies he had applied. He saw Dr. Smethurst,
who stated that she had disordered bowels and congested
liver. He then went up stairs and saw the lady. lie paid
attention to the symptoms, and saw her vomiting. She
had a sore mouth, but no fever. He ordered a continuation
of the medicines Dr. Julius had been giving her. The
1
vomit. was of a green bilious nature. The next day when
he went he saw Dr. Smethurst, and he told him she was no

better. After attending her for three days he saw the
motions of the deceased. They contained bile, but no par-
ticular characteristic. The motions were accompanied by
great straining. He found the medicines hl gave her had
no effect in staying the straining. About the 23rd
of April he noticed, for the first time, that there
was blood in them, and they were mucous and
thrcaly. He then said it was necessary to give her
some aceate of lead and opium. The prisoner said it
was a very valuable remedy, but he thought it would
. .

he as well to give the acetate of lead without the opium.
It was ultimately decided that she should have the acetate
of lead with the opium. The prisoner told him that the
effect of the opium was that it was too strong, and that it
excited her too much. They then decided to give her nitrate
of silver, and gave her a quarter of a grain. Dr. Smethurst
told him that the effect of that was to cause a burning
sensation from her throat to the bottom of her bowels, and
it also aggravated the sickness and diarrhoea. She had
marked fluctuations during the day, but was sinking very
rapidly. He never saw the deceased except in the prisoner's
presence, and five or six days before Dr. Todd was call in,
when she said she wished to see some one else. Th•
remedies he prescribed never arrested the disease, and he
came to the conclusion on the 22nd that she was suffering
from some stimulant, of whose administration he was
ignorant. Dr. Julius had stated his opinion to him,
and until then he had not formed his own opinion.
He was present at the death ; but there was nothing
about her appearance remarkable. Taking all her
symptoms from the beginning to the end, there
was no disease be was acquainted with that
they would be reconcileable with. There was a
kind of dysentery peculiar to warm climates, but he had
never seen it here, and the symptoms were not reconcileable
with that disease. The deceased complained of a burning
thirst and a ball in the throat, after she had taken the pills.
He asked Dr. Smethurst for a portion of the evacuation,
which he gave as the last one she bad had. He took it to
his surgery, where his assistant sealed it up in No: 2 bottle,
and put his seal on it. In consequence of finding arsenic
in it he was given into custody, and liberated on his own
recognisance. He returned home with the prisoner, and
they collected all the bottles they could find, and gave them
to Inspector M'lntyre, who stood outside the door. If
antimony, or arsenic, or both of them had been given to the
deceased in small doses, they would be sufficient to account
for the symptoms be had noticed. He had prescribed
neither antimony nor arsenic. He had not been present
during the post morton examination.
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Parry : It would be
necessary to study the appearance. .of the body after
death' to form an opinion of the cause of death. Any
opinion 'formed from the appearance during life would be
merely conjectural. He had never attended a post mortem
. examination where the parties had been poisoned, either
accidentally or otherwise, by either antomy or arsenic.

At this period of the proceedings one of the jurymen
nearly fainted, and had to be Ted out of court under the
care of one of the, sheriff's officers. After he had been
absent about an hour under the treatment of the medical
men who were in attendance to give evidence, and Mr.
Thomas Gibson, the surgeon of Newgate, those gentlemen
came into court and gave evidence as to the state of the

j nryman.
Dr. Copeland having been sworn, said : I have seen the
juryman Thomas Instone.
The Lord Chief Barou : Is he at present in a condition
to discharge the duties of a juryman ?
Dr. Copeland: Altogether unfit.
The Lord Chief Baron : Would it be dangerous to his
life or his health to compel him to perform the duties of
a juryman ?
Dr. Copeland: It is likely to be dangerbus to his health.
The Lord Chief Baron: Would his life be in danger ?
Dr. Copeland : I could not say that it would, my lord.
The Lord Chief Baron : Is he now quite unable to dis-
charge his duties ?

Dr. Copeland : Quite so, my lord.
The Lord Chief Baron : Is he likely to continue so for

some time

Dr. Copeland : For two or three days, my lord.
Dr. Todd, of King's College, was next examined, and
gave similar evidence, which was further supported by Mr.
Thomas Gibson, the surgeon of Newgate.
The Lord Chief Baron then said! Gentlemen of the jury,
in consequence of the sudden illness of one of your number,
I think it my duty to discharge you. I ought not to keep•
you assembled and confine you, as we cannot go on with the
trial now. Ido not think, brother Parry, that we ought to
go on immediately, and I do not think we ought to go on
to-morrow. It is quite plain that the trial will last over
to-morrow, and that 'will include Sunday. You had better
fix it for Monday, or some other day that will not include
Sunday. _

Serjeant Ballantine : There are a great many witnesses in
this case who live at a distance, and I think that time should
be given to communicate with them. I think that the trial
ought to be put off to a comparatively remote period.
The Lord Chief Baron : What does my brother Parry
say? -

Serjeant Parry: I have consulted my client, and he is
most anxious that the trial should be proceeded with.
Serjeant. Ballantine : Will Monday week be convenient?
The Lord Chief Baron : 'The circuits will have com-
menced then, and it will be very inconvenient to put it off
so long. _

Serjeant Parry: The prisoner would rather, if it were
possible, go on with this jury on Monday next, but it is
the opinion of Mr. Giffard and myself that if there be
any adjournment over Monday next it should be till next
session.
After some further conversation,

The Lord Chief Baron said he would go to Guildhall and
consult his brother judges; from there he would go to the
House of Lords, and see how the business stood and return
in the course of the day and fix the day for the trial.
The prisoner was then removed.
Ultimately the trial was fixed to take place on the 15tb
instant.