The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-31 00:00:00

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night, she having been much worse during the
night, although she had been better on the preced-
e ing evening. Some of the contents of the vessels
named were taken away. There were one or two
cups and some medicine bottles on the table. One
of the cups contained a little sago, which detective
officer Herne took possession of. From the 10th to
the 22d, while she was in the hospital, her state
was variable, with no marked change in her condi-
tion. The symptoms were great exhaustion, a total
want of appetite, and a continuance of the vomiting
and purging; but these latter were not so urgent
after the first few days she was there. On the
afternoon of Friday, the 22d, she was seized with
great pain in the abdomen, accompanied by ex-
treme collapse, from which she never recovered.
She died on the morning of Sunday the 24th. A
past mortem examination of the body was made by
Mr. Clarence Pemberton six hours after death.
The lining membrane of the esophagus was deeply
tinged with yellow. At the lower end of the stomach
were two circular ulcers, which were found to com-
municate with a tumour. On the duodenum there
were a few patches of superficial :redness. The
small intestines presented no other indication of
moment. On the ccecura there was a cancerous
tumour, which involved the coats of the bowel.
The tumour was between four and five inches one
way by an inch to an inch and a-half in thickness.
On the right side of this tumour there was a per-
foration through which the contents of the bowel
had passed into the peritoneal cavity. The dis-
ease was strictly confined to the ccecum. Several
portions of the bowel presented red patches. In
the peritoneal cavity there were several ounces of
thickened fluid, giving rise to great irritation.
The intestines were remarkably empty. The other
organs were generally healthy.
TOO Xeni44-,--liritness did not pre; oribe anti-
motif tit the'deCeased on any oCeasion.
~ Croatsit/examined by Mr. Cobb—Witness's suspi-
cion Iflipieoning arose from the circumstance that
the symptoms of deceased's disease were such as he
could not amount for on any ordinary hypothesis,
and these suspiciOns were confirmed •by -Dr, Ed-
wards' analysis on the 6th of June, He then gave
ari antidote—tanic acid. His general treatment,
however, had proved so satisfactory in alleviating
the symptoms that he trusted to it, believing that
the vomiting and purging were the efforts of nature
to throw off the poison. rn regard to antidotes he
had been guided by the extreme irritability of the
stomach, and the aversion to medicine evinced by
the deceased, He believed the poison- was admi-
nistered in small but poisonous doses. Purging and
vomiting might have been caused by the disease
under which she laboured, but the mode of their oc-
currence and their violence were not accordant with
that cause, Had seen a case of • similar cancer to
that of Mrs. James, but there purging was slight
and continuous, and was not attended by vomiting.
That case ended fatally. On a post mortem exami-,
' nation in that ease there was no ulceration of the
stomach. In the case of Mrs. James there was
ulceration of the stomach. Witness said he was
quite willin to admit that in the cage of Mrs. James
there might have been vomiting produced by the
natural disease, but it would, have been of a very
different character.
John Baker Edwards—On the 7th of June exa-
mined-a bottle of urine which he received from the
witness Dickens. In it he found a trace of anti-
mony. On the 9th. of June received from Dr. Ca-
meron two bottles, one containing feces. In this he
found a trace of antimony. The other bottle con-
tained vomit, and in it he found a considerable de-
posit of antimony. On the 12th of June received from
Dickens a bottle marked " red vomit, Mrs. James,
Sunday." Found in it two deposits of antimony.
Also received At the same time a bottle marked
"faeces, Mrs. James, Sunday." Analysed this, and
found a trace of antimony. On the same day re-
ceived similar bottles, marked, " Mrs. James, Mon-
day," and found in them a trace of antimony,
Similar bottles were received by him marked " Tues-
day," and in these there was scarcely a trace of
antimony. Inspector Horne, the same day, gave
witness a bottle containing portiyine. That con-
tained no antimony. He also grve witness a cup
containing about a tablespoonful of cooked sago
foqd. He analysed the sago, and found it contained
two considerable deposits of antimony. On the 14th
received three bottles from Dickens marked " Wed-
nesday." These contained deposits from the body,
and in the urine.found a trace of antimony ; in the
vomit none, but the farces gave a trace of antimony.
Thursday's evacuations on being examined presented
distinct traced of antimony.PeFriday's -evacuations
-ilia ',et gee* indicer ff ionnE thffmoay. except in the
feces, which showed a trace. iiaturday's diseharge3
contained decided traces of antimony. On that day
received from Horne a quantity of uncooked sago,
which on examination did not show any trace of
antimony. Analyses of the discharges on each of
the days, from the time noticed to the death of the
deceased, gave alternating indications of the pre-
sence of antimony and of its absence. On the 25th
witness received vessels containing portions of the
viscera, brain, and other organs of the deceased. In
five of the intestines he received obtained five anti-
monial deposits ; from one kidney four antimonial
deposits; from 31b. of the liver three antimonial
deposits ; from the brain and from 3oz. of the bile
no antimonial deposit ; from 4oz. of the blood a
distinct deposit of antimony; from a pint of fluid
from the stomach a distinct deposit of antimony ;
from 12oz. of fluid from the peritoneal cavity a trace
of antimony. The medicine marked " Costini" and
" Dyson" contained no antimony, nor did any of
the other medicines or wine which had been taken
from the residence of deceased at the time she was
removed to the hospital. The results were obtained
by digesting the fluids with hydrochloric acid and
the solids with hydrochloric acid and water. Hav-
ing obtained the fluids he added a strip of copper.
Both the copper and hydrochloric acid he had ana-
lysed and found free from antimony. The deposits
spoken of were thin films of metallic antimony.
which become deposited on the surface of
the copper when the former metal is pre-
sent. As far as possible he observed the same
conditions with respect to the quantity of acid
and the duration of the experiments, and the
quantitive opinion he had given was founded on the
colour of the copper, which was coated. The de-
posits of the vomits were heated in a tube, by which
they became oxydised. The witness here entered
into a long and minute description of the different
processes and results which he had arrived at from
them, and also of the tests of accuracy which he
had applied to them.
Dr. Taylor, of Guy's Hospital, London, said he
had received some jars purporting to contain por-
tions of the viscera of Ann James on the 10th of
July. They contained portions of the stomach, the
diseased cacum, a portion of the liver, one kidney,
the heart, and portions of the intestines. Subse-
quently received from Dr. Edwards portions of the
spleen and the lungs. Excepting the spleen and
the lungs, he divided the viscera, and delivered one
half to Dr. Millar. Examined the viscera for anti-
mony and for arsenic. Found antimony clearly in
the spleen, the lungs, and the liver. The other
portions of the viscera which he examined did not
yield any traces of antimony. Examined the liver
and lungs in the presence of Dr. Millar and Dr.
Edwards. With Dr. Millar also examined the
deposits on copper obtained by Dr. Edwards, and
also some sublimates on glass obtained by Dr. Ed-
wards in examining the viscera. He further exa-
mined with Dr. Millar the deposits found by Dr.
Edwards from the urine and evacuations. The re-
sult was that both were produced by some com-
pound of antimony in the body. He might add
that from finding it in these organs he formed the
opinion that the antimony had entered the body of
the deceased person during life. From the appear-
ance of the viscera there was no cause of death,
except the cancerous or scirrhons condition of the
COPCUM. He had adopted the mode of analysis de-
scribed by Dr. Edwards, and both himself and Dr.
Millar were satisfied that the deposits were due to
antimony. From what he had heard at the post
mortem examination he should say the cause of
death was rupture of the diseased ceecum. The
symptoms of vomiting and purging were such as
the administration of small dozes of antimony would
cause, and, hearing that antimony was found in the
vomited matter as well as in the fa=ces, he should
attribute those symptoms to the presence of anti-
mony, but how far that might have contributed to
the death of the deceased be found it impossible to
say, There was extensive disease of the coacum,
and antimony given to a person labouring under a
chronic disease of this nature would be likely to
produce great exhaustion and accelerate a fatal ter-
mination. How far that effect might have been
produced in this case he could not say, not having
seen the patient during life.
To the Bench—He did not know of any one so
likely to judge correctly of that as the medical at-
tendant of the patieut. .Any answerhecould give
would, under the circumstances„he
merely
Gremeron as to the
specu-
lative. He agreed with Dr.
opinion he had expressed on the vomiting and purg-
ing. The ulcerated state of the stomach might pro-
duce vomiting. The difficulty he had here to ac.
count for was the presence of antimony in the
matter vomited.
To Mr. Cobb—A very small dose of tartar emetic