The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-19 00:00:00

and fire insurances, but he was afraid it could not be done
for some considerable period, without unforeseen c,rcuro-
stances occurred t,,faciiitato them. The right bon. bat onet
said he had made his statement, and relied on the
favour of the house in forming an equitable opioi,n
thereon. In preparing his plan it had been the study of the
Government to arrange a sy • e,n iduitdd to present exi-
gencies of the times, and relied with cunfideLce on re-
ceiving the support of the house
The right h.i. baronet finished his statement at a
quarter to seven o'clock.

GENITAL CRIMINAL COURT. —May 17.

THE RUGELEY POISONINGS.

[The following appeared in part of our impression of
Saturday.]
Mr. Taylor, a surgeon, living at Romsey attended
Mrs. .Smith, and I remember seeing her dead. It was
between eight and nine. Tee bady was on the floor.
The hands were clenched; the feet were contracted and
turned inward. Toe soles of the feet were hollowed up
and the toes remarkably contracted, I should sup lose,
from spasmodic action. The inner edge
,of each fo
was turned up. The limbs were remarkably stiff.
By Lord Campbell—The body was still warm.
By Mr. Welsby—The eyelids were tightly adherent
to the eyeballs. The druggist who made the mixture
was Jones. I met him running up to the heuse. I
made a post mortem examination three days after
death. At that time the contraction of the feet con-
tinued, but it had gone off somewhat from the rest
of the body. I did not find any trace of disease in the
body. The heart was contracted and perfectly empty,
and all the large arteries leading from the heart were
also empty, and the blood was fluid. I subsequently
analysed the medicine, and found in it a large quan-
tity of strychnine, dissolved and undissolved. Tae
mixture contained nine grains of strychnine, of which
Mrs Smith had taken three, so six remained in the
bottle. (Great sensation.) I took out the stomach and
bowels, but did not examine the parts sufficieutly to
say from the examination the cause of death. That was
so very apparent that no cloe examination was made.
Cross-examined by Sergeant Shee —A. corpse would
stiffen is the position it died in. In this case there
seemed to have been great difficulty in laying out the
body. The feet had to be tied together. We first exa-
mined the trunk and then the head. Charles Brextiolrne
was the apprentice to Jones, the chemist. Jones is
since dead. Mr. Smith's prescription contained a
salicine. Upon the shelf beside it was strychnine, and
a mistake was made, and strychnine administered. I
did not give it ; it was my master, who afterwards com-
mitted suicide.
Jane Witham examined by Mr. Edwin James—ln
March last I attended a lady who died.
Lord Campbell—You need not state her name.
Witness—She first complained of her back, and said,
" Come to my back." I could not get to it. There
was a twitching. Her eyes were staring and fixed.
She first complained of this illness upon 25th February.
'.he died the 3d of March. She had five attacks, one a
slight one, upon the day of her death. She was first
attacked at 8 and died about 11. She had been better
and up on the afternoon of her death. She was attacked
with twitching of the muscles. She requested that her
arms and legs might be rubbed.
Cross-examined—It was at the beginning of the at
tack she asked to be rubbed. When she asked that
her legs were rigid during the intervals. Touching her
brought the spasms on. She could not swallow during
rho spasms. After death her body was stiff. She was
sensiole, but did not speak. The last attack was the
most violent one.
Geo. Morley, surgeon, attended the lady last alluded
to. He was attending her for functional disarrangement.
Upon the Monday before her death she appeared com-
fortable. There was a twitching of her arms which I
thought was hysteria. She had another attack upon
Thursday. Ups n the morning of her death she ap-
peared better. She described an attack which she had
and shortly before she spoke of spasms, and said she had
a shock. I was sent for upon the day of her death, and
was told that she was dead. I saw the body upon the
following Monday. We made the post mortem exa
mination of the body. We found nothing to account
for death. The face bore the appearance of anxiety
the hands were curved, the feet arched. We used all
the usual tests, and in each case detected the presence of
strychnine. We applied nitric and prolo chloride of tin,
-ulphuric acid, and bi-chromate of potash, liquid and solid.
After separation by the chemical analysis we gave the
'ntents of the stomach to two mice, two rabbits, and a
Guinea pig. It produced difficulty of breathing, tetaeie
ymptoms, rigidity, and an archin?,. The rab-
bits died one in two minutes, another in about five,
the mice in a few minutes. The guinea pig recovered,
hut was found dead the next day, and they all exhibited
symptoms of having taken strychnine. I tried the same
experiments with strychnine, arid produced the same
results.