The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-18 00:00:00

ASSIZE IMELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.—GUILDFORD, Aug. 15.
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)
NYMAN V. BRAY AND WARD.
This was an action brought by the plaintiff, who
carries on business as a surgical instrument
in Boundary-row, Blackfriars-road, to recover a-
nlawfu
mages from the defendants, for having u maker
lly
seized certain working tools under a distress torrent.
Mr. Ribton and Mr. B. Rigby were counsel for
was the
the plaintiff; Sergeant Parry and Smith
were for the defendants.
landlord of the house where the plaintiff resided,
It appeared that the defendant Bray
and that the latter being in arrears for four quar-
ters' rent, he instructed the other defendant, who is
a broker, to make a seizure, and on April 11 he did
so, and having made an inventory of the furniture,
he next proceeded to seize two vices, a bellows, and
an anvil, all of which articles were used by the
plaintiff in his trade. The plaintiff's witnesses stated
that the defendant Ward was remonstrated with for
taking the working tools, and reminded that when
he had made seizures on former occasions he had not
done so, but he persisted, and the whole of the arti-
cles, with the exception of the bellows, were sold at
less than half the value that was set upon them by
the plaintiff. Several witnesses were examined,who
swore positively that the tools were in actual use at
the time they were seized by the broker, and one of
the plaintiff's sons stated that he was using the
anvil to make surgeons' scalpels that had been or-
dered. It was also stated that plaintiff had several
orders from customers at the time, but he was un-
able to execute them, and it appeared that when he
applied to the defendant Ward for the restoration
of his tools, he said he should not give them up, and
he might take his own course.
Sergeant Parry, on behalf of the defendant, urged
upon the jury the hardship of his having to defend
an action like this. He was unable to get any rent,
and was compelled to put in a distress, and then an
action was brought against him, in which, even if
he succeeded, he would never be able to get a single
farthing of costs. He said that he should, however,
be able to prove that the tools in question were not
in actual use at the time they were seized, and upon
that ground he should ask for their verdict.
Baron Martin remarked that he had always un-
derstood the law to be that workmen's tools were
absolutely free from seizure.
Sergeant Parry said that in all the cases that had
been decided it was ruled that they must be in ac-
tual use *-,exempt them from seizure.
The defendant Ward was then examined, and he
swore that at the time he made the seizure there
was no fire in the forge, or any work going on, and
he said that if there had been he should not have
seized the tools, as he was perfectly well aware of
the law upon the subject.
Mr. Ribton, in his reply, said there could be no
doubt that the construction of the law was that a
poor man should not be utterly ruined by having
the tools used in his trade, upon which he alone de-
pended for subsistence, taken away from him, and
he submitted that it was not necessary that the tools
should be actually in the hands of the person to
whom they belonged, and that it was quite sufficient
to prove that work was going on for which they
would be required.
Baron Martin, in summing up, said he concurred
with the learned counsel that the law should not be
construed too strictly with regard to the tools being
in actual use, and that, if the jury should think
there was reasonable evidence that the tools were
I in ordinary use at the time they were seized, the
!plaintiff was entitled to a verdict.
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff—
damages £2O.

anything to say, the son replied—"l am innocent."
The daughter—" And I, too, sir." The mother—
" I am innocent, the girl is the guilty party."
The Judge, in passing sentence, said the priso-
ners had had a patient trial, and the verdict of the
jury was justified by the evidence. It was evident
that all the prisoners were present at the birth. The
jury had acquitted them of the murder, they not
being satisfied that the child had been born fully
alive. the verdict its reasonable meaning hemust G
think tnat they never intended the child
should live. If the child was not murdered it was
solely because it was not born alive. There was
evidence to convict them of the offence, and even
evidence to convict them of the capital offence ; as
it was they were convicted of the lesser offence, and
it was as bad an instance of the offence as it possi-
bly could be. If the child was not murdered it was
not owing to them. He could make no distinction
between them, and should pass upon them the
severest sentence the law allowed, two years' im-
prisonment.
The prisoners were then removed. They had
shown no emotion during the trial, but on the pass-
ing of the sentence their calmness forsook them.

THE EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF
TVHOLESALE POISONING.

IMPORTANT MEDICAL TESTIMONY.
On Saturday evening last Constance Wilson, alias
Catherine Taylor, was again brought before the
Hon. G. C. Norton, at the Lambeth Police-court,
for further, and, it was supposed, final examination,
on the several charges preferred against her for the
wilful murder, by poison, of the late Mrs. Atkinson,
of Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland, in October,
1860; and of Mrs. Soames, of Alfred-place, Bedford-
squmarr e. ,cihnipOpcetrofibeeird,, laBs bs6e.
fore, appearedtoconduct
the prosecution in both cases ; and Mr.
Neale for the
defence.

On the prisoner being placed at the bar, Mr.
Chippfield intimated to the magistrate that not only
_ _

were Mr. Renore and Mr. Whidbourn, the media,

gentlemen who attended the deceased ladies, pre

sent, but also Dr. Taylor and Mr. Nunneley, o.

Leeds, who had made an analysis of portions of the
remains of the deceased, were now in attendance

prepared to give the result of that analysis. Though

there were several witnesses then in attendance in
the case of Mrs. Soames, he proposed, in order to

relieve the medical gentlemen from having again
to appear, to take their evidence at once, and with
the permission of the Court he would proceed with
that which applied to the case of Mrs_ Atkinson.
Mr. Norton acquiesced in this course of proceed-

in g, and
Mr. Thomas Nunneley, of Leeds, and Fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons, was called and sworn,

and presented his written report of the analysis of
portions of the body of Mrs. Ann Atkinson, and

which he had received on April 23d last from an
officer of police.
The document thus handed in was read by the
Chief Clerk, who transferred it into a formal depo-
sition. It commenced by stating that the parts of
the body submitted to analysis presented a pecu-
liarly offensive odour. They were not however de-
composed. Indeed, the preservation of their tex-

ture was remarkable, considering the long period
which had elapsed since death. All the organs were
atrophied and attenuated, though preserving their
form and general character. Then the liver only
weighed 22 ounces, the average weight in the
healthy living female being over 50 ounces. The
kidney weighed 11 of an ounce instead of 5 or 6
ounces ; and the spleen weighed little more than
one-third of an ounce, instead of 5 or 6 ounces. The
wasting of the coats of the stomach and intestines
was in a corresponding degree. The liver was of
an uniform grey slate colour; its peritoneal coat
was distinct, and neither upon it nor on any part
of the other viscera were there any indications of
their having lymph effused or adhesions formed
during life such as might have been formed by in-
flammation of the parts. Hence the idea of this
having caused death, so far as the evidence is of any
value, is negatived. The coats of the stomach were
extremely thin ; it was completely empty, except
that its whole inner surface was uniformly covered
by a homogeneous pultaceous matter, of a dark cho-
colate colour, without a particle of food or other
solid in it. There was an ounce and a half of this
matter, and on its being carefully removed the
mucous membrane under it was found to be thrown
into folds, as though the stomach had been empty
and strongly contracted before death. It was of a
red colour, with patches of a darker hue. With
the exception of the mourn, the entire length of the
intestinal canal was completely empty, and in this
part of the gut there was a small quantity of mat-
ter precisely similar to that found in the stomach.
The mesentery, the omen turn, the large intestine,
and the kidneys, ware loaded with fat, showing that
there had not been any emaciation before death.
Under the conditions in which these parts were pre-
sented, if any noxious agent were present it could
only be discovered by the complete destruction of
the tissue in which it might be locked up. This
had been performed with the greater part of the
viscera, with the following results. (The witness
here intimated that all the materials and chemicals
used were tested and found to be pure, and per-
fectly free from arsenic or other substances likely
to interfere with the investigation.) The following
parts were separately analysed, and by the process
known as Reisnch's, all yielded distinct metallic
stains upon the copper foil boiled with the struc-
tures and hydrochloric acid. First the rectum,
when the coating on the copper was decided.
Second, five ounces of the liver yielded dark grey
stains on several pieces of copper. Third, the colon,
or large intestine, gave the same stains. Fourth,
the lower end of the small intestine, with the
ccecum, gave a similar colour to the copper. Fifth,
the small gut gave similar results. Sixth, one
half of the stomach itself yielded the same metallic
coating ; but the thick matter scraped from its
surface did not give any coating to the copper
boiled with it. Seventh, the kidney gave as
distinct stains as the liver did. Eighth, from
the little spleen the same evidence was obtained.
Ninth, the small quantity of red fluid which had
drained from the viscera also yelded the same grey
dark coating to the copper. Tenth, the omentum
yielded a like but much less distinct stain. Eleventh,
part of the coated copper from the small intestine
was placed in a short sublimating tube, and yielded
on a slip of microscopic glass a few very minute
octohedral crystals. 12th, the copper coated from
the omentum was similarly treated, and also yielded
a few similar crystals. 13th, part of the copper
used in the analysis of the stomach and liver gave
decided crystals of arsenious acid. 14th, from
the copper used in the analysis of the rectum an
equally evident layer of octohedral crystals was ob-
tained. From a minute sublimate obtained from the
copper used in the larger intestines analysis a slight
yellow stain was seen to be formed on the addition
of water and the ammonia-nitrate of silver. A sub-
limate obtained from the copper used with the
spleen was boiled in distilled water, and one portion
of this yielded a green precipitate on the addition
of the ammonio-sulphate of copper. Six ounces of
the liver were treated with sulphuric acid, dried,
and then with nitric acid, for being used in Marshe's
apparatus, and the result was a mere stain, which
yielded so slight a yellow colour with the ammonio-
nitrate of silver that the result must be regarded as
negative. Another portion of the liver was first
dried and tested with sulphuric acid until carbonised
and dry, and subsequently with nitric acid, for use
in Marshe's apparatus, and the result was similar
to that in the last experiment, namely, negative,
except a stain too slight to be relied on. Tnis re-
sult (continued the witness), I am convinced, is only
what might be expected, and will, I believe, be
found to occur in similar circumstances when the
quantity of absorbed arsenic is small, and is com-
bined with the animal tissues, in the condition those
submitted to me were; for the difficulty of driving
off the water and securing the entire disintegra-
tion, so as to get the arsenic free without the loss of
it is so great that I regard this process—though
much used and very satisfactory where arsenic
exists in a large quantity or in a condition
of ready solubility—as of much less delicacy
than Reinsch's, and consequently of much less value
in a case like the present. Considering that by
Reinsch's process metals of a characteristic iron
grey colour were obtained from so many different
viscera, that from at least four of these distinct
like
tuerals octahedral crystals were sublimated, and
re:utili, other substance than arsenic will yield such
men',„vslconsidering that a minute portion of COM-
present
.flatZie arsenic treated as nearly as possible in a
arrive a t yielded corresponding results, I can
and that it
in :tither conclusion than that arsenic was
liquid
evidence tests
very small.
of the deceased, aeo7
is, it
haq \lir not all, of the organs of the body,
introduced during the lifetime
that probably at
.some short
period anterior to
at the time the analysis
present in any one „,,,`h- That the quantity actually
vas and
re-
sults of Marsha's tests Etna tile the negative
setsbt;ained by the other proj'
made was
bat these do not slight results of the
ra the aiositive
the viscera had not been
probably the use:isues;he As the
wholeremaining
more complete examination a the
a further and