The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON: TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1859.

TILE SMETHU.RST CASE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sir, —Now that the fate of the unhappy culprit
in the recent poisoning case at Richmond must
have been decided (and at this distance I have no
means of knowing how), it cannot be improper that
I should ask you to admit into your columns a de-
tailed statement of medical facts and arguments
which favour the verdict of the jury that he was
guilty of the crime imputed to him, and that he
effected his purpose by the administration of cer-
tain. poisons.
In my evidence on the trial I stated that the poi-
sons.used were, in my opinion, antimony, arsenic,
and corrosive sublimate.
Antimony was found in the tissues of the body ;
and the excessive vomiting from which Miss
Bankes suffered was explained by the frequent ad-
ministration of that poison.
Arsenic was found in one of the discharges from
the bowels, and a peculiar morbid change in the
lining membrane of the stomach was decidedly in-
dicative of the irritation of arsenic. It is not im-
probable that the vomiting was partly due to arse-
nic ; and the peculiar constriction in her throat, of
which she complained frequently, was also in part
at least due to that drug.
No trace of arsenic, however, was found in any of
the organs or in the blood. But how could it have
been, for with or after every dose, there was given
a certain quantity of antimony, which did not allow
the metallic, agent to remain long enough for its
absorption, and barely sufficiently long to cause a
slight irritation of the stomach and throat ?
This poison was used, I have no doubt very cau-
tiously and in comparatively small quantities, and
most probably only during the last 10 or 14 days.
It was not intended to employ this agent otherwise
than in aid of others, to promote their action and to
confuse the medical attendants by modifying symp-
toms, and to divert the attention of the chemical in-
vestigators from the poison which was really the most
destructive. Perhaps, also, it may have been thought
that the employment of arsenic might embarrass the
chemists in drawing conclusions from their tests.
Of the third poison—the bichloride of mercury,
commonly called corrosive sublimate, although it
has been ignored by the chemists, and, notwith-
standing that other medical witnesses for the pro-
secution have not seemed to attach importance to it,
I have no hesitation in expressing my opinion that
it was the principal agent in causing the death of
the victim, aided very much by antimony and
slightly by arsenic.
It must be admitted, however, that two most im-
portant points were wanting in the evidence in fa-
vour of this view ; and it was the absence of these
proofs which no doubt prevented the counsel for
the prosecution directing the attention of the jury
more fully to the influence of this poison.
The proofs to which I allude were the detection
of the mineral in the body of the patient and the
occurrence of that which so often follows the admi-
nistration of mercurial agents, viz., salivation.
That no trace of mercury was found in the tissues
or in the bowels I ascribe chiefly to its having been
given in small doses; accompanied by more or less
of antimony. It passed through the bowels rapidly
and was either not at all absorbed in the blood, or
in such very minute quantities as admitted of a
rapid elimination. Its action was, therefore, purely
topical upon that part of the bowels towards which
it has an affinity, and it is not improbable that its
energy as a purgative was greatly increased by the
combination with antimony, while its specific action
in producing salivation was diminished by the same
combination.
It is not improbable that Miss Bankes may have
been one of those persons whom mercury cannot
salivate.

But another drug was given which tended to pre-
vent the salivation, the occurrence of which would
have instantly led to the detection of the poison
employed. The drug was chlorate of potass.
It had become known early in the inquiry that
the prisoner had employed this drug without the
sanction, and, if I am not mistaken, without the
knowledge of the attending medical men.
It has been suggested that the object of giving
chlorate of potass was to promote the elimination
of arsenic, and that the prisoner was aware of the
fact (new to the most experienced chymical ana-
lysts) that chlorine will dissolve out arsenic from
its association with copper.
The influence of chlorate of potass as an elimi-
nator of arsenic is new in medicine, so far as my
reading and experience inform me; and it seems to
me highly improbable that this is true; nor do I
believe that the drug was used for that purpose.
Not less improbable is it that the prisoner, a man
certainly not of a high order of education, nor de-
voted to scientific pursuits, should have been fami-
liar with a delicate point of chymical analysis
hitherto undiscovered. The admission of either or
both of these propositions would tell materially
against the prisoner, as indicating that his mind
had been much directed to the study of poisonous
agents.
That the chlorate of potass was used with refer-
ence to the administration of mercury and not of
arsenic is clearly suggested to me by the testimony
of the very last witness for the defence. It seems
that as long ago as February last the prisoner was
anxious to discover something which would correct
a foul smell on the breath. He applied to the wit-
ness, a dentist, who recommended him chlorate of
potass for this purpose.
Now, chlorate of potass is a known remedy for
the foulness and fcetor of breath which arise from
salivation. It is often used to moderate salivation,
to promote the healing of the ulceration and
sloughing of the mouth which accompany it, as a
local application, and if given internally it is sup.
posed by some to prevent or retard salivation.
This testimony (which had not been given while
I was in court, and which I learnt from the news-
papers after the conclusion of the trial) supplies an
important additional link in the chain of evidence
in favour of bichloride of mercury having been
much relied upon by the prisoner. He knew how
important it was to prevent salivation, and he did
not wish to trust to antimony alone.
Is it impossible, even now, to find out where he
got his chlorate of potass ?
I would also ask, is it impossible to make a fur-
ther search for mercury ? If the body were disin-
terred I should recommend that the salivary glands
should be examined.
Additional proof that bichloride of mercury was
used is furnished by the symptoms. These symp-
toms were those of a dysenteric diarrhoea of the
most acute and irritant, and, at the same time, of a
peculiar kind, and the most important question
laised by the defence was as to the probability that
this was in reality a case of disease arising from
natural causes and not from poisoning.
It will be remembered that the symptoms under
which the deceased lady suffered were those of a
severe and obstinate diarrhoea, accompanied by
frequent bloody discharges, with incessant vomit-
ing, and of the most distressing kind, to which
must be added the frequent complaint of a peculiar
burning sensation in her throat. There was ab-
dominal tenderness, and, on one occasion at least, a
peculiar rigidity of the abdominal muscles forci-
bly excited by the least pressure. These symptoms,
it will be further remembered, not only resisted
a variety of appropriate remedies, such as in
the most severe cases generally give at least a tem-
porary relief; but latterly, in the most mysterious
way, they seemed aggravated by each medicine in
succession to an alarming extent, and led to the
objectionable practice of frequent change of reme-
dies. Thus, among other instances, one or two pills,
consisting of a quarter of a grain of sulphate of cop-
per and a third of a grain of opium, in all (if two
had been taken) half a grain of the first and two-
thirds of a grain of the second, seemed to produce a
frightful increase of every symptom, including the
peculiar burning sensation of the throat,—a result
which no medical man could believe would arise
from such a cause, and which is equally opposed to
all medical experience and to the dictates of com-
mon sense.
The symptoms suggested to the medical men in
attendance the existence of ulceration of the bowels
of grest acuteness and extent; but the intense.
vomiting and the peculiar throat affection were in-
consistent with the opinion that the case was one
of ordinary dysentery, or, in other words, a very ex-
traordinary case of acute dysentery. Looking at
all the; circumstances, Drs. Julius, Bird, and my-
self came independently to the concluoion that the
symptoms were not those of a natural disease, but
were excited and maintained by the frequent ad-
ministration of one or more irritant poisons of a
nature to promote at once an excessive vomiting
and severe diarrhoea.
We have now the additional information afforded
us by the post mortem examination. Acute sloughy
ulcers of the upper part of the large intestine were
found, and smaller and less numerous ulcers existed
in the lower part of the same great division of the
bowels.
The existence of such ulcers, and in such positions,
was consistent with the supposition that the dis-
ease was dysentery; but they were too much in
the upper part and too little in the lower part
of the bowel. In fact, the position of the ulcers

was reversed from that which they occupy in
the natural disease. In dysentery the ulcers are
chiefly accumulated to the lowest part of the large
bowel, and are least numerous in its upper part. In
this case the ulcers were most numerous above, and
gradually diminished in number at the lower part.
The ulcers also wanted a certain degree of thicken-
ing about them which belongs to disease.
Now, these ulcerations were exactly, both in posi-
tion, nature, and relative number such as bichloride
of mercury would produce. When this salt is given
in small but poisonous doses, it seems to pass over
the stomach and the small intestine (25 or 30 feet of
bowel), and expends its action on the first part of
the large bowel, sometimes the lower part of the
small bowel, and in a less degree the lower part of
the large bowel.
To put this matter in a plainer light, I will arrange
in parallel columns the leading points which favour
each view, namely, those which indicate the use of a
combination of antimony and bichloride of mercury,
and those in favour of the natural disease.
POISONING.

Excessive and uncontrollable vomiting.
Severe dysenteric diarrhea.
Absence of slight development of certain symp-
toms of dysentery.
Extreme rarity of very acute dysentery, especi-
ally as an isolated case in this country.
Aggravation of symptoms on each. change of
remedy.
Frequent changes of remedies suggested by the
poisoner.
Position occupied by the ulcers, being the reverse
of that occupied by the ulcers of disease; absence-
of thickening of the edges of the ulcers.
Peculiar throat symptoms—the sense of burning'
and constriction.

The peculiar terrified aspect of the patient, un-
ke that of abdominal disease.

DISEASE.

The dysenteric diarrhoea and evacuation of blood.

. ne existence of ulcers in the large intestine.
To explain the excessive vomiting, the defence
suggested that it was caused by early pregnancy.
The advocates of this hypothesis forget that a major
irritation, with scarcely. an exception, controls a
minor, even although in a different organ; and in
such a case as this there cannot be a doubt that th•
excessive intestinal irritation would have kept in
abeyance that from the uterine condition, had it
existed. Nor, I may add, is it likely that men of
large experience would overlook an irritation of
that kind.

It is true that a case apparently to a certain ex-
tent in point was adduced by one of the witnesses
for the defence. This case was so imperfectly re-
ported that I could draw no conclusion from it, and
most certainly I should have fears of " foul play,"
or " nzala praxis," if I met with such a combination
as uncontrollable sickness, excessive diarrhoea, and
pregnancy.
I have thus endeavoured fairly to analyse this
very serious case, and after the most careful con-
sideration I find myself unable to arrive at any
other conclusion than that Isabella Bankes died
from the frequent administration of antimony and
bichloride of mercury, with occasional doses of
arsenic. Had iodide of potassium or iodine in auy
other form been occasionally added, the effects of
the other poisons would have been enhanced.
I trust this very important case will not be lost
upon toxicologists, and that it will lead to new and
careful observations upon the effects of poisons in
combination, upon their mode of elimination, upon
the means which may be'used to prevent the accu-
mulation of them in the tissues and organs of the
body, and, finally, that it will induce analytical
chemists to review carefully all the processes
hitherto in use for the purpose of detecting mineral
and other poisons with a view to clear up every
possible source of fallacy.
The interests of science and the good of man-
kind (the constant aim of the best cultivators of
science) demand all this.
I need scarcely add, that it will be infinitely
more agreeable to me to learn that all my argu-
ments are fallacioui, and that the innocence of the
prisoner has been proved, than that another life
should be sacrificed.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
It. B. TODD.

Vevay, Switzerland, Sept. 5.

TEE WAR IN CHINA AND TILE GREAT
EA STERN.

(From the Tones.)
The most conspicuous troubles of life are not
utter failures, but such accidents as ladies cal:

" provoking," because just enough to disappoint a
too sanguine expectation. We have no desire to
depreciate what we deeply lament, but just of this
sort are the two disasters that gave so sad a shade
to our yesterday's columns. Was it in reason that
.by throwing a few rockets into a provincial city,
and extorting a bit of paper from a barbarian, we
should be able to walk all over China ? Was it in
reason that the grandest achievement of human en-
terprise should start on its first voyage without a
misap ? No one can doubt that we shall soon be as
much at home and as safe at Pekin as at Paris ; as
little can it be doubted that the Great Eastern will
soon be plying across the ocean as regularly as the
packets between Folkestone and Boulogne. That
an unexpected resistance has driven back an
escort, or that a people whose only skill is trea-
chery should have succeeded in an ambuscade, only
recalls a thousand similar incidents that had no
effect whatever on the result. It is like the travel-
ler's mishap, which loses him a train, frets" him for
a day, is forgotten in a week, and does not retard
by one minute the termination of his journey. If
we look to the end, what has happened in the Great
Eastern is, in proportion, a still smaller affair. As
our correspondent justly remarks, it is only as if a
drunken pilot had run the ship ashore. A parti-
cular invention, which if it succeeds will economise
heat and prevent it from incommoding pas-
s?ngers, has failed. It has failed, we are told, and
been given up often before. So the question lay
between enterprise and caution, and, as often hap-
pens, the builders of the Great Eastern ventured to
try the experiment with their paddle-wheel fun-
nels, in spite of the protest of their enginemaker,
but took the safer course with those of the screw.
The warning of the enginemaker was not ground-
less, and should have been followed with all five
funnels. But from first to last the progress of
steam has been a succession of experiments, often
very disastrous, and sometimes fatal to inventors.
Of 'course there is something to blame, and, if
we do dwell an instant on the fault, it is 'simply
because everybody will anticipate us. The stake
was too great for, the introduction of such a risk
as this appears to have been. Experiments are
proverbially made upon trifles ; and even the
Collins Company and others had thought their
ships too valuable for this experiment. It is like
trying an Armstrong gun at short range, n 4
against a sandbank, or a bit of masonry, or an
iron shield, but at once against a magazine, and
so jumping to the most terrible conclusion. The
experiment was here tried, not only on the
place where a
failure would
sca
le,
ebinutostinditshaestrvoeursyr_in
the funnel
passing through the gorgeous ladies' saloon. Every
one must have admired the rather oppressive
masgnnifioctengclaessowf
atshattheapmaortsmt apartment, where all that
wa
gorgeous
decoration.
Every one, too, must have lamented the apparent
necessity for breaking the area of the apartment
with a large solid mass in the middle. True, it was
so disguised by mirrors that one could not tell
where the room ended. None, however, but the
most initiated visitors could have imagined that in
the centre of the room thus glassed and garlanded
was an infernal machine. An inch or two behind
these glasses was a huge steam boiler constructed
on the most dangerous principles. You might as
well be smoking a cigar in a powder magazine.
The reflection you saw there had a spectral import.
It was like the hideous jest of the pistol gallery at
a French fete, where if you hit the button the showy
dame turns into a skeleton. It was an oversight we
have been told, in the original'plan of the ship that
the funnels were not placed in the bulkheads, so as
not to interfere with the open spaces. If it was
necessary
.to place them where they were, there
would arise an evident necessity for surrounding
the funnel with every possible non-conductor. The
invention described seems specious enough, though
it is evident that when all depended on precisely
the same quantity of water being admitted at one
end of the apparatus as was let out at the other,the
calculation ought to be very nice indeed. At one
end the water would have to be admitted cold from
an open reservoir ; at the other it would have to be
forced into a boiler at high pressure. The danger
consisted in the difficulty of making the two opera-
tions keep exact time. Of course, both could be
regulated, and no doubt there were regulators.
Was the contrivance imperfect, or did the man at
the post neglect hid duty ? Pilots have slept before
now, but this man's post was more critical even
than a pilot's, for he had the safety of the whole
ship in his hands, without check or correction.
There is just a look of the same error of judg-
ment, the same risky experimenting, the same
trusting to appearances in that other disaster, so

strangely coincident in the tidings, though it hap-
pened three months ago, on the other side of the
world. There was good reason for, caution ; no
notice had been taken of the announcement sent in
by the Plenipottintiaries; the batteries had been
rebuilt, they were masked, and all was sullen
silence. Surely this was an occasion for a recon-
naisance ; possibly we shall hear that ono was
tried. Had the force of the enemy bees discovered
the pc)sition might probably have been turned, as
has been always done before in China. However,
all seem to have gone on, trusting to that audacity
which has so often worked miraclCs, and found
themselves suddenly exposed to a destructive fire
from batteries manned by 20,000 men. Three ships
lost and nearly 500 men killed and wounded, and
most probably the greater part of them in stranded
vessels, indicate a great battle and a great defeat.
Seven officers were killed, 17 wounded, the Admiral
among them. All this proves, what indeed all
know,—the difficulty of dealing with people who
appear to have no fixed ideas of peace and war,
truth and falsehood. Lin kept in his drawers and
never sent to Pekin the Treaty of Canton. What
if the treaty extorted last year with such difficulty,
and in spite of such evident duplicity, should never
have been permitted to reach the Celestial City ?
If we are to deal with these people at all, and bring
them to reason, it must be by some stronger process
than words. A sort of delicacy has hitherto pre-
vented us from showing ourselves at Pekin. It is
there that we must negotiate. Our allies will pro-
bably be ready to send for this purpose a larger
force than they seem to have had on the present
occasion, for they -Would hardly like to be so feebly
represented in the capture of the Chinese capital.
The •American Ambassador, without the force of
arms, is said to have been admitted at Pekin. Of
course, he had a peculiar claim to this exceptional
privilege on account of the assistance given to the
Chinese Mandarins to deprive us of the just fruits
of the late successful war. Whether this, or some
new claim of the same character, rendered him more
admissible than those who had opened the way to
him does not yet appear. If the Americans can
open China to all nations by peaceful methods, let
them do it; but, thus far, they seem better able to
help themselves than do anything for the world at
large.