The Proceedings of the Old Bailey

 

367.   GEORGE HENRY LAMSON (29) was indicted for the wilful murder of   Percy Malcolm John. He was also charged On the Coroner's Inquisition with the like murder. THE SOLICITORGENERAL with MESSRS. POLAND and A. L. SMITH Prosecuted;

MESSRS. MONTAGU WILLIAMS, CHARLES MATTHEWS, E. GLADSTONE, and

W. H. ROBSON Defended.

  WILLIAM HENRY BEDBROOK . I am the proprietor of the Blenheim House School at Wimbledon—I had a pupil named Percy Malcolm John—he had been with me three years, and would have been 19 years of age on 18th December—he was placed with me by Mr. Chapman, his brother-in-law—he was paralysed in the lower limbs and unable to walk,

and there were for his use two wheel chairs, one of which was kept on the secondfloor, where he slept, and the other in the basement, where he was during the day—in December two or three other boys occupied the same room with him—they were Bell, Hay, and another, whose name I do not recollect—it was the custom for one of the boys to carry him every morning from the secondfloor to the basement for him to spend the day, and to carry him up again at night in the same way—on Saturday, 3rd December, he was carried down in the usual way to the basement—I saw him from time to time during the day, and with the exception of the paralysis in the lower limbs he was in perfect health and spirits—during the three years he was with me he was only attended by a doctor for ordinary ailments, for no serious illness—he was usually cheerful, but at times despondent, particularly when he saw the other boys enjoying a game; he was particularly fond of games, although not able to join in them—on Friday, 2nd December, he was not visited by any one—he informed me that he expected a visit—the letter produced is in the prisoner's handwriting, but I did not see it till after the death. (The letter was read, and was as follows: "Nelson's Hotel, Great Portland Street, London, Dec. 1, 1881.—My dear Percy,—I had intended running down to Wimbledon to see you today, but I have been delayed by various matters until it is now nearly 6 o'clock, and by the time I should reach Blenheim House you would probably be preparing for bed. I leave for Paris and Florence tomorrow, and wish to see you before going. So I purpose to run down to your place as early as I can, for a few minutes even, if I can accomplish no more.—Believe me, dear boy, your loving brother, G. H. LAMSON. ") On Saturday, 3rd December, the prisoner called at five minutes to 7 o'clock in the evening—I cannot say how long it was since I had last seen him; it must have been some weeks—I knew that he was the deceased's brother-in-law, and that he had married one sister and Mr. Chapman the other—I saw the prisoner in the hall when he called, and at first I did not know him—he was very much thinner, and I remarked to him how much he had changed since I had last seen him—I took him through the drawingroom into the diningroom on the ground floor, where the boys usually see their friends—he said he had come to see his brother-in-law, and I sent for the deceased—Mr. Banbury, one of the pupils, carried him up from the basement into the diningroom and put him into a chair—the prisoner said to Mr. Banbury "I thought you would have been in India by this time," referring to his passing into the Army—the prisoner then said to the deceased" Why, how fat you are looking, Percy, old boy," and the deceased replied "I wish I could say the same of you, George"—Mr. Banbury then left the room—I asked the prisoner whether he would have some wine, and he replied that he would take some sherry—knowing his fondness for sherry I got a large claret glass from the waggon and poured him out some sherry into it—after a conversation upon several subjects, the prisoner asked me for some sugar, saying that these wines contained a large quantity of brandy, and that the sugar would destroy the alcoholic effects—I told him I understood the contrary was the case—I rang the bell for some sugar—Mrs. Bowles, the matron, brought a basin containing white powdered sugar—the prisoner put some sugar into the sherry, stirred it with his penknife, and then drank a portion of the wine—he had a black leather bag with him at the time and he took from it some Dundee cake

and some sweets—he cut some of the cake with his penknife, and I took some of it and some of the sweets—the deceased took some cake and sweets as well—I did not see the deceased take any wine—the prisoner was eating the cake daring the whole of the interview—after talking for some little time upon general matters, at a quarter-past 7 o'clock the prisoner said "Oh, by the way, Mr. Bedbrook, when I was in America I thought of you and your boys; I thought what excellent things these capsules would be for your boys to take nauseous medicines in"—he then produced two boxes containing capsules from his bag, and passed one in the direction where I was standing, saying "I should like you to try one, to see how easily they can be swallowed"—after examining them I took one out of the box and put it in my mouth—I opened them the same as one would a pillbox—the box was handed to me open—it was hardly half full—the capsules were precisely like these (produced)—holding it in my hand the heat of my hand made it exceedingly soft, and I was able very easily to swallow it—the other box was immediately in front of him—I do not think the capsules were all the same size—while I was examining the capsule, which was empty, I saw the prisoner filling another with sugar from the basin in front of him, with a small spade spoon—I could not say where he took it from—he had the capsule between his fingers, and, having apparently filled it with sugar, he said" If you shake it in this way it will bring the medicine down to one end"—he then handed the capsule to the deceased, who was sitting on his right, about a yard from him, and said "Here, Percy, you are a swell pilltaker; take this, and show Mr. Bedbrook how easily it may be swallowed," or words to that effect—the deceased placed the capsule in his mouth as far back as he could to the root of the tongue, and with one gulp it was gone—I remarked" That's soon gone, my boy"—the prisoner then said "I must be going now"—I at once looked at the timecard to see the next train for London; it was then 7.20 or thereabouts, and I told him the next train left at 7.21, and advised him to go at once or he would miss it; I had previously asked him to remain a little longer till the next train, which was 7.50—he said "I cannot, because I have to catch a train at 8 o'clock at London Bridge en route for the Continent"—he told me he was going to Florence via Paris—my house is close to the Wimbledon Station of the SouthWestern Railway, not a minute's walk from it—he stayed more than another minute, and I remarked that he would miss the train if he did not go at once—he said "I intend to go to Florence for a few months for the benefit of my health, and then return and settle down in England"—he then said goodbye to the deceased—I accompanied him through the drawingroom to the street door, and remarked to him that I thought the curvature of the deceased's spine was getting worse—he said that he did not think the boy could last long—I made no reply—he left the house at 21 or 22 minutes past 7 o'clock, leaving behind the two boxes of capsules; I placed them upon the waggon in the diningroom—the prisoner, within five minutes of the deceased swallowing the capsule, said "I must be going"—after he left I returned to the diningroom, where the deceased was—the cake and sweets were removed on to the dinnerwaggon in the course of an hour, and I think the sugarbasin also—I had visitors that evening; two young ladies went into the diningroom where the deceased was, and played music and sang glees for ten or fifteen minutes—I left the room with them, but shortly afterwards returned; the deceased was

still there, and directly I got back he said "I feel as if I had an attack of heartburn"—I returned to my guests and left him reading some papers which the prisoner had left with him; I returned in perhaps five minutes, and the deceased said "I feel as I felt after my brother-in-law had given me a quinine pill at Shanklin," and he said he should like to go to bed—I gave orders that he should be taken to bed, and Mr. Bell, a fellowpupil, carried him upstairs; that was between 8 and 9 o'clock; about half an hour afterwards I received a communication as to his state, and went up into his bedroom, and found him lying on the bed in his clothes, apparently in great pain and vomiting violently; I saw the vomit on the floor, on the bed, and in a basin—the matron and Mr. Godward, a junior master, were in attendance upon him—the deceased appeared to be in great pain, and was throwing himself about most violently—he complained that his throat appeared to be closing, and his skin seemed to be drawn up—I left the room for a time, leaving the matron there and Mr. Godward and one or two of the boys; I returned shortly to find that he was much worse; Dr. Berry had just arrived as a guest, and I got him to go and see him; Dr. Little was likewise in the house, and those two attended the deceased till his death, at about 11.30—I was in the bathroom the same evening and saw some of the vomit there and also on the floor, and a small quantity in the pan—I went to the policestation next morning and gave information to Inspector Fuller—before the deceased died an envelope containing some money was brought to my house for him—I do not know what has become of the envelope—I opened it inadvertently, and apologised to him for having done so—I gave information to Inspector Fuller next morning; he came to my house and I gave him the two boxes of capsules, which had been left in the diningroom—I had noticed that the boxes contained some white pills in addition to the capsules—the label produced, with the name" George Henry Lamson, M.D., care of H.F. Gilling and Co., 499, Strand, London, England," was lying at the bottom of one of the boxes; I gave it to Inspector Fuller, and the cake and sweets and a sample of sugar, and also the whole of it and the bottle of sherry—two of the deceased's boxes were searched, I am not certain whether on the Sunday or Monday; a small box of quinine powders was found; I had seen the box before in the bedroom and dining room and in the basement—the powders were given to Inspector Fuller—a box containing two pills wrapped in tinfoil was afterwards brought to me by the matron, and I gave it to the inspector—I had received a box similar to that by post from America from the prisoner with a letter; I have searched everywhere for the letter, but cannot find it, and I am persuaded that I destroyed it—it must have been about the beginning of 1881—the box contained from ten to twelve pills; the letter stated that the prisoner had met some one in America suffering from a similar complaint, and had derived great benefit from taking medicine similar to that forwarded, and he asked me to see that the boy took the medicine—after I received the pills I saw the deceased, who was in bed, and gave him one of the pills to take, telling him what his brother-in-law had said respecting it—I did not wait to see whether he took it, but next morning he complained of feeling very unwell—the box was lying on the bed, and he said he should take no more of the pills, and I took it downstairs—I was under the impression that I had thrown it away, till it was found containing

pills coated in tinfoil in the same way, but how it got into his possession I do not know—I afterwards saw some wafers which were found in one of the boxes, and gave them to Inspector Fuller—on the day the deceased died I had all my meals with him, breakfast, dinner at 1.30, and tea—he had his tea about an hour and a quarter before the prisoner came to see him—I do not think he had anything after his tea except the cake—for breakfast he had bread and butter and coffee; for dinner stewed rabbits, onion sauce, potatoes, bread, and bread and butter pudding; and for tea, bread and butter and tea with its usual accompaniments—he used sometimes to go to his brother-in-law's, Mr. Chapman's, at Willesden, and also to the prisoner's at Bournemouth—at Shanklin also he stayed with Mr. Chapman—I never was a director of any railway or steamboat company, and I never told the prisoner that there was a bad boat on any particular night.

Cross-examined. As a rule either the matron or I gave medicines to the pupils, and they would be such as were prescribed by the doctor—I had noticed that the deceased's curvative of the spine was getting worse—I told the prisoner so, and he said he did not think the boy would last long—he had made that observation to me on other occasions—I did not know that the deceased contemplated spending his Christmas holiday with the prisoner, or that he had written to his sister to that effect—this postcard is in his writing: "December 3, 1881. Dear old Kitten,—We break up on the 20th, Tuesday. I will write and tell you by what train I intend to come.—Yours, &c. To Mrs. G. H. Lamson, Tangmore Hotel, Tangmore, near Chichester, Sussex. "On the occasion of the prisoner's visit I told him I was glad he had not come the day before, as the deceased was undergoing a school examination, and he had generally been excited in his examinations—when the capsules were taken out of the bag the prisoner was sitting down—I was standing the whole time, and was above them—the deceased was on the prisoner's right, about a yard from him—when the prisoner put the sugar into the capsule he was sitting—I took one of the capsules quite at haphazard from the box, looked at it, and swallowed it—I said before the Magistrate "While he was taking wine and conversing I saw the prisoner filling a capsule with sugar which he took out of a basin with a spadespoon"—I swallowed one that was empty—he had the capsule in his left hand, and I saw him take the sugar into the shovel in his right hand and put it into the capsule—the sugarbasin was directly in front of him—he said that any nauseous medicine could be taken in the capsule—the deceased sat very close to him—the quinine powders I had seen were in the possession of the deceased, and I was aware he was taking them—the pills when they came from America were 11 or 12 in all in the box, and the deceased only took one which I gave him—I took the box downstairs, and was under the impression I had thrown it away—I am certain I did not give the box and the pills back to the deceased—I never saw either again until after his death—I am not certain that the two pills found in the box were those which came from America—I said before the Magistrates that I could not recollect whether the letter from America said anything about the pills, but I have since remembered—the prisoner recalled my memory to the letter, and that refreshed it—I then recollected the statement that the pills had been prescribed for some person in America—there were directions in the prisoner's handwriting on the box—the deceased had suffered

from paralysis during the whole time I knew him—he was always unable to walk—the diningroom is from 16 feet to 17 feet square—from the time the prisoner left until I returned to the room not more than two or three minutes had elapsed, and, as far as I know, during that time the deceased had been alone—after I had seen the prisoner out I came back, and remained with the deceased about 10 or 15 minutes, when I again left the room, and left him about 10 minutes—when I returned I found Banbury with him, and then it was that he complained of being ill of heartburn—there were only two boxes of capsules, and both were left behind—some two or three of the capsules had white pills or comfits in them—everything left behind was handed to the police—Mrs. Bowles was not in the room—we all partook of the cake and sweets, the prisoner, the deceased, and myself—the prisoner helped the cake; he cut it with his penknife—I can't say for certain how many of those that were left behind had the white comfit or pill in them; two or three—they were very much like the ordinary sweets, carraways or comfits—I said before the Magistrate that one capsule containing a white pill was left behind—I think they were placed on the dinnerwaggon, and I found them in the same place, and gave them to the police—it was a welllighted room—I first noticed the capsules when I returned with the doctors after the boy's death—I can't say who noticed them first; I believe I did; I mean in the box—several were loose and two or three were in the capsules—I can't tell in which box they were—I had not noticed the deceased ailing at all, except the curvature of the spine; that had not affected his general health—he was better this last term than since he had been with me.

By the JURY. No special kind of sugar was asked for; I was asked to provide some sugar, that was all—I brought up the usual white pounded sugar—my brother-in-law, who was staying with me at the time, tasted two or three of the capsules taken from the box; not while the prisoner was in the room—I am quite certain that none were partaken of by any one else while the prisoner was in the room.

  WALTER EDWARD BANBURY . In December last I was a pupil at Mr. Bedbrook's—I had been there for eight years, and knew the deceased very well; he was an intimate friend of mine—after breakfast on the morning of 3rd December I had to go to town for an examination, and I returned by the 5.30 train from Waterloo—on my arrival at Mr. Bedbrook's I found the boys at tea, the deceased being among the number—after tea I showed the deceased the examination papers; he said they were rather difficult—I remained with him till he was sent for to go upstairs—that was a quarter of an hour after I had finished tea—at that time he was in good health and spirits—I carried him up from the basement into the diningroom—I there saw the prisoner, whom I had known previously—I remained a short time, and then left—after the prisoner had left, and before the deceased was taken to bed, I went into the diningroom, remained five or six minutes, took a capsule, but it had no effect on me—in consequence of what I heard I went to the deceased's bedroom, looked into the door, and went down again—the deceased was lying on the bed, and several persons were round him—I again went up and saw him in bed—he was struggling very hard with those who were holding him down—I remained a short time and then left, and I was not present when the deceased died.

Cross-examined. I knew the prisoner, and had been to stay at his house at Bournemouth with the deceased in the summer of 1880—I had seen

the box of quinine powders in the possession of the deceased, and had taken one of the powders, but it had no ill-effects on me; I did not take it out of the box, Percy gave it me; I took it in one of the wafers produced—I had three or four times seen the deceased get powders from the box and take them in wafers—on 3rd December after the prisoner had gone I took one of the capsules from a box on the table and swallowed it, it was an empty one—when I came down after the prisoner had gone I found Mr. Bedbrook with the deceased—Mr. Bedbrook left the room, I remained five or six minutes, and then left, leaving the deceased alone, and I next saw him nearly an hour later in his bedroom.

Re-examined. At the time the young ladies were there Mr. Bedbrook was at the piano; I do not think he saw me enter—I do not think I went into the room again before the deceased was carried upstairs.

  JOSEPH BELL . I was a pupil at Mr. Bedbrook's last December, and was on intimate terms with the deceased; we slept in the same room—I had breakfast with him on 3rd December, and was with him a great part of the morning—we did no work that morning; it was a holiday—I went out at 10 o'clock for a walk, and did not return till about 6 p.m. for tea; he was there then—tea was over when I came in—I sat by the deceased in the dining-room; he was in very good spirits and health—he was taken up by Banbury to the dining-room, and later in the evening I was called up there; I took him up to his bedroom—he com-plained of heartburn, and I carried him up on my back to his bedroom—I sat him on his bed, went downstairs again, and told Mrs. Bowles—I did not go up again till I went up to bed, between 8 and 9 o'clock—I then found him in the bath-room vomiting; that is on the same floor as the watercloset.

Cross-examined. I said before the Magistrate "I took him upstairs from the dining-room about 5 minutes to 9 o'clock; I carried him up. "

Re-examined. I afterwards added "I think it was about 5 minutes to 9 o'clock, but I can't fix the time. "

Thursday, March 9 th.

  MARY ANN BOWLES . I am matron at Mr. Bedbrook's school, and was so in December last—I knew the deceased, and saw him on Saturday, December 3—he was in perfect health and excellent spirits—on that evening, before the prisoner came, charades were being played by the boys, and the deceased took part in guessing the words—that was before tea, and I saw him after tea as late as 6.30—up to that time he was in good health and spirits—that evening I was told to fetch some sugar, and got some off the kitchen dresser—it was in a glass sugar basin with an electro frame, and had a spade spoon in it for the purpose of ladling it out—the sugar had been in use in the house for two days previously—it was what is commonly called "castor sugar"—I took it up to the dining-room and placed it on the table—the deceased, Mr. Bedbrook, and the prisoner were in the room—I left the room after taking the sugar up—half an hour afterwards I had a communication with respect to the deceased, and ordered Bell to take him to bed—I went into the dining-room—the de-ceased did not seem quite so well as when I saw him last, but he said nothing to me then—when I went into the dining-room I saw a capsule in Bell's hand—Bell took the deceased upstairs, and about 20 minutes or half an hour afterwards I went to see him in consequence of a communi-cation made to me—I saw him in the bath-room vomiting, he appeared

in very great pain; he was taken into his bedroom—he was sitting is his chair in the bedroom when I ordered him brandy and water—he appeared in very great pain—I remember Dr. Berry coming up to see him; he was the doctor who usually attended the pupils, and was in the house that night—subsequently Dr. Little also came up—I remained with him till the time of his death—he remained in violent pain till he died; there was no cessation of the pain—he seemed to grow a great deal worse, and had to be held down to his bed—both Dr. Berry and Dr. Little were then present—I saw the deceased's boxes searched and the box of quinine powders found in his clothes-box, which was kept in his bedroom—I had seen that box before in the clothes-box—I do not know to whom the box of powders was given—I found the tin box con-taining the two pills in the deceased's play-box, which was usually kept downstairs in the clothes-room; but it was upstairs on the same floor when I found it—I do not know to whom the box of pills was given—after his death the sugar, which had remained in the dining-room, was given to Inspector Fuller—the sherry also remained in the dining-room, and it was likewise given to Inspector Fuller, together with the cake, sweets, and wafers.

Cross-examined. I did not say before the Magistrate that the box was taken to the clothes-room before his death—if I did say so it was a mistake, as it was not brought up till after his death—before he died it was down in the cupboard in the lower dining-room—before the Magistrate I said "I never saw the box of pills before his death, I cannot say how it came into the box"—I had seen the box of quinine powders—I never opened it—it might have been half-past 8 when Bell took the deceased upstairs—he was talking to Bell when I went into the room, and it was about half an hour after when I saw him in the bath-room—I had been at Mr. Bedbrook's 14 months while he was a pupil there—I had noticed that the curvature of the spine was getting worse—I was in the habit of conversing with him very often—I did not know that he had written that day to the prisoner's wife to say by what train he was coming down to spend his Christmas holidays with her—I knew he had spent his holiday from time to time at the prisoner's—I knew that he had been from time to time amusing himself with chemistry—usually speaking, it would be my duty to give medicine to the boys—I have given medicine to the boys on my own account, and also medicine prescribed by the doctors—if medicine was sent by the doctor, I should give it to the boys myself.

Re-examined. The deceased had not amused himself with chemistry during the last term, which commenced in September. The chemicals were kept in a cupboard on the first floor—I did not have charge of them—during the 3rd of December from the time he was carried down in the morning till he was taken up again at night, he had not been up to the, first floor—I was a good deal upstairs on the first and second floors attending to household duties that day—after his death I found this letter in his coat pocket.

By MR. WILLIAMS. The 3rd of December was a holiday—I did say before the Magistrates" On the 3rd of December I did not see the deceased during the afternoon;" but I misunderstood the question—my evidence was read over, but I did not correct it at the time—I did not notice the mistake till I read it in the newspapers afterwards, and I wish to correct it now—I did see him during that afternoon in the lower dining-room, the basement—that is the same room where the box of pills

was found after his death—I saw him frequently during the afternoon, and as late as 6.30 in the evening—the dinner was at 1 o'clock that day, and it was after dinner that I saw him in the dining-room—I was attend-ing to my duties in different parts of the house during the afternoon, and in the morning I was engaged in the clothes-room—that was in the same house as Percy's bedroom and as the downstairs dining-room; the school consists of two houses, and my duties took me to both; they communicate internally—I said before the Coroner "I saw the deceased in the bath-room shortly after, he was very ill and vomited; he said he had taken a quinine pill"—the words were" My brother-in-law has given me a quinine pill"—I asked him if the pill he had at Shanklin made him feel as bad, and he said "No"—he said "My skin feels all drawn up, and my throat burning"—that is all I can remember—I was not examined before the Coroner the first day of the inquest—I did not say a word before the Coroner about a quinine pill which his brother-in-law had given him.

By the COURT. I was only a short time under examination before the Coroner—when the deceased was seated in his chair in a room and left to himself he could not get up and get anything from the other end of the room; he could not stir—he had a chair with which he could wheel him-self to any part of the same floor, but he could not get out of his chair to walk—it was a little higher than an ordinary chair, and he could get out of it and sit on the floor, and get back again—I never know him to get upstairs without assistance—he spent his last Midsummer vacation at the prisoner's at Shanklin—I can't tell you when they commenced—I have seen him doing very little with chemicals; but I have seen him making some sort of gas, nothing more.

By the JURY. The lock of the deceased's clothes-box in his bedroom in which the quinine powders were kept was broken, and there was no key to it; any person could get to the box—I do not know whether there was a lock on the play-box containing the box of pills, but it was not kept locked; it was open to all—he amused himself with chemicals simply for pastime, not for study—I only saw him making gas—the medicines and chemicals were kept in the same cupboard, which was not locked; it had a button, but anybody could go to it—there is a communication between the two houses both on the basement and on the first floor, but not on the top floor—the deceased's bedroom was on the third floor—I call the first floor the one above the basement; I do not call that the ground floor.

  WILLIAM HENRY BEDBROOK (Re-examined). I had some chemicals in my house—they were kept in the cupboard on the first floor, the floor above the basement—it was fastened by a button within a few inches of the top—about 6 ft. 6 in. from the floor—you can reach it standing—they were principally acids used in making gases, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen—they were kept entirely for the use of my science master, Mr. Eastwick—the last term ended on 29th July, and the Christmas term commenced on 18th September, as near as I remember—during the term beginning 18th September the deceased did not use any of these chemicals, and none of the other pupils did—the deceased used them frequently during the previous term, both alone and in my presence—they were kept on the second shelf of the cupboard, 4 ft. from the ground.

By MR. WILLIAMS. The chemicals were sulphuric and nitric acids and so on, but I will not be certain—there was no sulphate of zinc—I have

seen portions of zinc metal—I have heard that sulphuric acid poured on to zinc forms sulphate of zinc; I am not a chemist—I have seen zinc dropped into a bottle and the gas freed by the application of sulphuric acid—when the deceased was in the habit of using chemicals he did so for the purpose of making gas.

By MR. POLAND. Some chemicals of the same kind are in the cupboard now—the deceased could not reach the shelf 4 ft. from the ground; he would have to call in the aid of another person if he wanted to get them; he was in the habit of being waited upon by the other boys.

  ALEXANDER WATT . I am classical master at Mr. Bedbrook's school—I was with the deceased on 3rd December a considerable part of the day in the lower dining-room, till after tea, about 6 o'clock—up to that time he was in his ordinary health and spirits—I had taken meals with him—the next time I saw him was between 8 and 9, in the bath-room, and apparently in great pain—he was vomiting—I afterwards saw him in his bedroom, and attended upon him till he died.

Cross-examined. When I got into the bath-room I found the matron there, I think, and Mr. Godward.

  ALFRED GODWARD . I was assistant-master at Mr. Bedbrook's; I had been there for two years—on 3rd December I saw the deceased in the schoolroom, which is an outbuilding, just before 9 o'clock—he was in his usual state of health—I then took the boys for a walk—I next saw him at a little after 12 in the dining-room—I had dinner with him, and saw him again until a quarter-past 2 o'clock—he was in his usual health—I then went home—I next saw him between half-past 7 and 8 o'clock in the bath-room—I remained with him—he was vomiting—I helped to wheel him into his bedroom, which was on the same floor—I put him on his bed and undressed him—he appeared to be in pain, and was restless—I remained with him until Dr. Berry came, and I was there when Dr. Little came—I stayed until a little before 11 o'clock—while in the bedroom he appeared to get worse—I helped to hold him on his bed—he was retching, and he vomited.

Cross-examined. It was nearly 8 o'clock when I was in the bath-room—he was alone; the boys were outside—the matron came into the bath-room after I arrived—I remained with him all the time he was in the bath-room, except for a few minutes while I went down to see the matron—I first sent a boy down, and subsequently I went down myself, and returned before the matron—I left the bedroom once, and was absent not more than 10 minutes—I left the matron and the doctors there—that was quite an hour and a half before his death—when I returned the matron and doctors were still there.

Re-examined. It was about a quarter of an hour from the time the matron came into the bath-room before he was taken to his bedroom—he spoke to me as to his symptoms—he said he felt that his skin felt all drawn up, and also that his mouth was very painful—I do not think he described any other symptoms—he said he had taken a pill that his brother-in-law had given him—he said two or three moments afterwards that it was a quinine pill—he said that first before Mrs. Bowles came into the room, and several times afterwards—in Mrs. Bowles's presence he said "I have taken a quinine pill which my brother-in-law gave me"—Mrs. Bowles spoke to him, but I can't tell you what she said—he said" I took one before at Shanklin, and was nearly as bad then. "

By MR. WILLIAMS. I was not examined at the inquest; I went there—I do not think I have ever before stated in evidence that the deceased said he had taken a quinine pill which his brother-in-law had given him—Mr. Bedbrook was not present when this conversation about Shanklin took place—I have a distinct recollection of what was said—the deceased told Mrs. Bowles that he had taken one before at Shanklin, and was nearly as bad——I do not remember that Mrs. Bowles made any remark; she asked him what he had taken, and that was the answer to her question.

By MR. JUSTICE HAWKINS. He made several observations, but I do not remember them—I do not remember any further observations about the pill.

  MARY ANN BOWLES (Re-examined by the Jury). It was my duty to give the boys medicine when they required it—I gave the deceased medicine once; that was before we broke up for the Midsummer holidays—I used to keep the medicine by me; they were Seidletz powders and Pyretic saline; no other medicines—I do not remember any chemicals being procured for or by any of the pupils other than those allowed by the masters.

By the COURT. The deceased's second-best clothes were kept in his clothes-box, and any particular book that he chose to keep there—if he wanted anything from his box he had to get somebody to get it for him; he could not get it himself—the play-box was kept in a cupboard in the lower dining-room—he could get at that without assistance, by wheeling his chair to the cupboard—the clothes-box was in his bedroom.

  OTHER WINDSOR BERRY . I am a surgeon and registered medical practitioner, practising at Wimbledon—I knew the deceased Percy Mal-colm John, and had known him about a year and a half; I had frequently seen him before the 3rd of December—I had attended him for one slight illness in March, 1881, while he was at the school—it was a little skin eruption—in June, 1881, I vaccinated him—those were the only occasions—with the exception of the paralysis of his lower limbs his health I believe was generally good—on Saturday, the 3rd of December, I was at the school; Mr. Bedbrook met me as I went in at the hall door about 8.55—I was going as a guest—I went up into Percy John's bedroom at once; he was on one of the beds, and partially undressed; he was in great pain in his stomach; he complained of the skin of his face being drawn, also of a sense of constriction in his throat, and of being unable to swallow; he was retching and vomiting; the vomit was a small quantity of dark-coloured fluid—I asked him, very shortly after, the cause of his illness—that was all he said about his symptoms (Mr. Bedbrook had made a com-munication to me as I was going upstairs) I said "Did your brother-in-law ever give you a quinine pill before?"—he said" Yes"—I then asked him when—he said "At Shanklin"—I then asked "Did it make you ill like this before?"—he answered" Yes, but not so bad"—I then asked "Did your brother-in-law know that it had made you ill like this?"—he answered" I cannot say"—that, as near as I can charge my memory, was what passed—there was nothing in an ordinary quinine pill that could produce such symptoms as those I saw—I did not at that time form any opinion as to what the symptoms were due to—I had some white of egg beaten up in water and given to him—that was during the intervals of his vomiting—he was able to swallow partially—I had hot linseed poultices

put to his stomach—he was very restless on the bed—violently so, throw-ing himself backwards and forwards, and from side to side—several people held him to prevent him from injuring himself—he did not improve at all under this treatment, and learning that Dr. Little was in the house I had him sent for; I knew him as a doctor also practising at Wimbledon—I had been in the bedroom with Percy John about 20 or 25 minutes when Dr. Little came up—we consulted as to the best thing to be done, and determined to inject morphia—I left the house to fetch an instrument for the purpose, and the morphia—I was away five or ten minutes—when I returned the deceased was no better, and I injected a quarter of a grain of morphia under the skin over the region of the stomach—that was about 10o'clock—the symptoms abated somewhat, though not very much, about 10.30—they were still all present, but in a modified degree—they returned again a little before 11 o'clock as severe as before the morphia was administered—in the interval, a little before 11 o'clock, he asked to have the morphia administered again—he complained of pains in his body; that was his expression—I administered l-6th of a grain of morphia in the same way and in the same place—that was about 11—it had no apparent effect—there was a change in him shortly after 11—about ten minutes past 11 he became a little unconscious and wandering—that was the time I noticed him becoming unconscious—his breathing became slower, and sighing, and his heart's action weaker and weaker—I gave him a little brandy and water—he died about 20 minutes past 11—he never rallied at all—at the time of his death I believed he must have had something of an irritant nature in his stomach—that was my judgment from what I saw—after his death Dr. Little and I collected the vomit—there was some in a basin in the bedroom—I went into the bath-room and collected some from the bath and some from the water-closet—the bath was empty—the closet was on the same floor—we found some vomit there on the floor—this we collected and put all together into a breakfast cup, and then into a clean bottle out of my surgery—I afterwards gave the bottle and its contents to Mr. Bond—on Tuesday, 6th December, I and Mr. Bond and Dr. Little jointly made a post-mortem examination—I have the notes I made at the time in the mortuary—with the exception of the paralysis of the lower limbs, he was a particularly muscular, well-developed young man—the brain was slightly congested superficially, and also the substance of the brain—when I said superficially I ought to have said the membranes of the brain—the brain itself was slightly congested—there was no fluid in the ventricles of the brain nor any under the membranes—the pupils of the eyes were dilated, lips pale, tongue bleached and pale—in the right lung there were some old adhe-sions, at the apex between the lung and the chest wall, the result of inflam-mation at some previous time—both lungs were healthy, but considerably congested in the lower part—the heart was healthy muscularly; the valves healthy; it was almost entirely empty and flaccid—there was a small quantity of fluid in the pericardium—the liver was normal in size; intensely congested—the kidneys were normal in size, but considerably congested—the spleen was also much congested, but normal in size—the mucous membrane of the stomach was congested throughout, and on the under surface near the larger end of the stomach were six or eight small yellowish-grey patches, a little raised, about the size of a small bean, and towards the smaller end were two or three similar smaller

spots—I believed from what I then saw, and I have not changed my opinion, that that was the result of inflammation caused recently before death—the stomach contained three or four ounces of dark fluid—that was carefully preserved, Mr. Bond taking charge of it—the first portion of the duodenum was greatly congested, and there were patches of con-gestion in other parts of the small intestine—portions of the intestines themselves were taken by Mr. Bond, who also took possession of the stomach itself, as well as portions of the liver, with the gall bladder, both kidneys, and part or the whole of the spleen—the bladder contained three or four ounces of urine, which was drawn off and taken possession of by Mr. Bond—there was no inflammation in the peritoneum—we examined the spinal cord; the membranes were greatly congested—these were all the appearances I noted on the post-mortem examination—except the appearance of the lungs and the curvature of the spine, there was no natural disease—neither what I observed in the lungs nor the curvature of the spine had anything to do with the cause of death—there was nothing to account for death from natural causes—in my judgment I should say that he died from the effects of some irritant vegetable poison—the administration of an irritant vegetable poison would, I believe, account for all the appearances I noted at the examination—there are certain poisons known as vegetable alkaloids—aconitine is one of those—the appearances would be consistent with the administration of a fatal dose—I have not special knowledge on this subject—in my judg-ment as a medical man I believe those appearances might be accounted for by the administration of a fatal dose of aconitine—I never use aconitine in my own practice—I have been in practice about 17 years——I dispense medicines—I have none of that drug in my dispensary—I believe it is a very powerful poison—I have no special knowledge, I mean derived from my own experience—I received two pills and two capsules at the house from Mr. Bedbrook—they were long, oval-shaped pills—I placed the pills in the capsules and gave them to Mr. Bond at the same time I gave him the vomit.

Cross-examined. Before the Magistrate I said I had never pre-viously seen a case of poisoning by vegetable alkaloids—I have no knowledge of the use of aconitine—I do not know that aconitine appears in the British Pharmacopœia—I do not know a book by Fleming on aconitine—I believe unguentum aconitiœ does appear in the Pharmacopœia, and that it is an ointment used by medical men—I have heard that it is a prescribed remedy for long-standing neuralgia—I do not know personally that the ointment of aconitia is used for acute and chronic rheumatism—I know that aconite is used for erysipelas—I know nothing whatever about aconitine proper—I do know that there is a drug called Morson's aconitine, and I have heard that it is the strongest form of aconitine—of aconite I know something, but of the active prin-ciple, aconitine, I know nothing of my own knowledge—I do know that aconite is used both internally and externally—it may be used internally for cancer in the stomach; it is used for erysipelas, pleuritis, and it may be used for spasmodic asthma—having no experience of aconitia, I am unable to say that a grain of aconitia properly blended into 20 pills would form a reasonable dose as a spinal sedative—I went to Mr. Bed-brook's on this night at about five minutes to 9—I was not fetched—I thought the boy was suffering from irritation of the stomach—I continued

to think so up to the time of his death—I had formed no opinion of the cause up to the time of his death—at the time I had no suspicion of vegetable alkaloids—I came to that conclusion after the post-mortem examination, not before, and my opinion was based, not upon any personal knowledge of poisoning by alkaloids, but was formed simply from my general knowledge—I have heard of "Fleming on Aconitine," but I have never studied the work—I have not read books by Turnbull or Skey on vegetable poisons—my object in injecting morphia was to allay the pain and nervous irritation; the white of egg was to allay the irritation of the stomach—I should have felt justified in using the morphia for allaying irritation of the stomach arising from natural causes, if accompanied by intense pain, and the same may be said of the white of egg—I was with him altogether rather over two hours—I was absent 5 or 10 minutes during that time——before his death his remarks became wandering—I examined the spinal cord and the spinal curvature—the spinal cora was healthy, bnt congested—the existence of paralysis such as I found in the boy was not inconsistent with the healthy state of that part of the spinal cord which I examined—the existence of spinal curvature is not, in my opinion, con-sistent with healthy bone and healthy intervertebral cartilage—I did not examine the condition of the arteries in the neighbourhood of the curva-ture—I am not aware that there are many cases in which death has resulted from the effects of the pressure on the arteries in the region of these curvatures—I am not prepared to say that there are not reports of such cases—I cannot undertake to say that death did not result from some such cause as you have sketched out—I did not examine to see the effect of the spinal curvature on the position of the lungs or upon the position of the heart—in cases of spinal curvature the lungs are frequently much dis-placed—if they had been much displaced in this case I should have observed it—the heart, too, is in such cases frequently very much dis-placed—I say that the irritation of the stomach which I observed was consistent with poisoning by vegetable alkaloids, although I have never seen a case of poisoning by vegetable alkaloids—the apparent irritation of the stomach had not the appearance of a post-mortem irritation—I only judged from what I saw—it may be that after death the stomach often appears inflamed—I do not deny that there may be appearances of inflammation from the settling of blood in the stomach after death—I describe aconitia as an irritant vegetable poison, but I have no knowledge of it—Taylor, in his work on poisons, mentions marks which would correspond to what I saw in the boy's body—he does not mention any cases of poisoning by aconitine—I do not know of any medical test for aconitine—what I said with regard to the emptiness of the heart applies to the entire heart; it was nearly empty of blood, and flaccid—while the boy was ill in the bedroom the vomit was discharged into a basin at first—that was thrown away—that which was shown to me as leaving been vomited before I came was kept—there was an ounce or an ounce and a half of it—it was the dark-coloured fluid which he vomited just after I saw him which was thrown away—the vomit in the bath was collected by Dr. Little in my presence—I think he scraped it from the bottom and sides with a spoon, and from the floor of the water-closet—it was all put together—some poisons are absorbed into the system, and would be found there—I am not an expert as to vegetable alkaloids, and cannot say how the amount which does the work would

be calculated—in poisoning by vegetable alkaloids I presume that the traces of the poison which had done its work would be found in the system, but I have no special knowledge on the subject; I only suppose—I cannot come to any conclusion as to the amount of poison which had caused death where some of it had been rejected by vomiting—the finding any traces of the actual quantity that had caused death is a question for an expert; I cannot answer it.

Re-examined. The deceased's remarks became wandering about ten minutes before his death—as far as I could see from the post-mortem examination, there was nothing in the condition of the curvature of the spine which could have caused death—nothing in the position of the lungs or heart attracted my attention—if either of them had been much displaced I do not think I could have failed to observe it—if death had occurred from pressure on the arteries, I should not have expected to find the symptoms of local irritation in the stomach—I know from my reading something of the recorded effects of vegetable alkaloids.

  EDWARD STEPHEN LITTLE, M.D I live at Merton Road, Wimbledon—on Saturday evening, 3rd December, I went on a visit to Mr. Bedbrook and was called to see the deceased in his bedroom—he was lying on the bed—Dr. Berry was there—the deceased was in great pain; he was retching, and complained of intense pain in the region of the stomach, and also of his skin being drawn up—I remained with him till his death—morphia was injected on two occasions, but he got worse as time went on, and ultimately died at 11.20—we thought he was suffering from the effects of an irritant poison—the complaints he made and the ymptoms exhibited, led us to that conclusion—I collected the vomit from the bath and from the floor of the water-closet and bath-room, with a spoon—on Tuesday, 6th December, a post-mortem examination was made by Dr. Bond, Mr. Berry, and myself—Mr. Berry took notes, and they accurately contain what I noticed—I noticed on the surface of the stomach certain patches, which indicated that there had been intense irritation of the lining membrane of the stomach—they were, I should think, of recent date—the cause of death in my opinion was the adminis-tration of some poison.

Cross-examined. I have had no experience in cases of death caused by vegetable poison—I said before the Magistrates that I had studied poisons, but I do not base my opinion on what I learned in my student days, but on the appearances exhibited during life as well—both Dr. Berry and I came to the conclusion before his death that the boy was suffering from some irritant poison: probably half an hour or more before his death—we did not apply the stomach pump—I have some knowledge of aconite and its preparations, but none of aconitine—I know it is used as a drug, both internally and externally—dispensing chemists will weigh less than a grain; sometimes half a grain is sold, or less—I helped to make the post-mortem examination—I did not examine the condition of the arteries in the neighbourhood of the curvature—I am aware that there have been cases of death by pressure on large arteries in the region of a curvature—it was a lateral curvature below the lungs in the lumbar region, and had displaced neither the stomach, lungs, nor heart—the heart was flaccid and very nearly empty—I am aware that displacement of those organs does take place from curvature of the spine, when it is in the dorsal region—the patches on

the stomach were of recent date and indicated acute inflammation—I agree with the statement that that inflammation could not have existed weeks though it might have existed days.

Re-examined. I only judge from post-mortem appearances—such acute inflammation could not exist without the patient suffering—I have no aconitine in my dispensary; it is not a drug I have ever used—the post-mortem examination was made three days after the death.

  JOHN FULLER (Police Inspector). On Sunday morning, December 4th about 11.30, Mr. Bedbrook came to the police-station and gave informa-tion with respect to the death—I made some inquiries of Mr. Berry, and in the evening, at 9 o'clock, I went to the house, to the dining-room on the ground floor—Mr. Bedbrook was with me—I saw this box of capsules on the table—there were capsules and five pills in it—four pills were loose and one in a capsule—I took charge of it and took it to the station with the other things and locked them up in a desk, and on 6th December handed them to Inspector Butcher—on the same occasion Mr. Bedbrook gave me some sweets, crystallised fruit in a paper, and some cake, and also a sample of sugar, which I saw taken from the basin by Mrs. Bowles—I also received some white powders and two letters; one was from the prisoner to the deceased—I found the quinine powders in a cardboard-box in the deceased's box in the dining-room—on it was a label addressed to 449, Strand, "J.W. Littlefield, chemist, Ventnor," and written in ink were the words" Quinine powers"—there were twenty altogether; six large and fourteen small, numbered 7 to 20—all those things I took to the station and locked up, and after-wards gave to Inspector Butcher—on Tuesday, the 6th, I obtained the remaining half of the Dundee cake, and handed it to Inspector Butcher—on the 8th I received from Mr. Bedbrook a tin box containing two pills wrapped up in tinfoil or silvered-paper—I enclosed it in an envelope and left it at the station with Sergeant Trott with this report, to be forwarded to Superintendent Digby—I went to the house again on the 12th, and received the sherry in a decanter; it was placed in a bottle by Mrs. Bowles—she emptied out the glass sugar basin, and I took them both and gave them to Inspector Butcher the same day.

Cross-examined. Mrs. Bowles and several students were present when I found the quinine powders in the clothes box in the dining-room—the larger powders almost fit the box, the others are very much smaller and were tied round with twine.

  HENRY TROTT (Police Sergeant V 6). On 9th December I received a coloured envelope from Inspector Fuller—I did not open it—I gave it to Rosier, who took it to Wandsworth.

  WILLIAM ROSIER (Policeman). On 9th December I received from Trott a coloured envelope marked "Important," addressed to Super-intendent Digby, and gave it to Pimley.

  WILLIAM PIMLEY (Police Sergeant). On 9th December I received from Rosier an envelope addressed to Superintendent Digby, marked "Im-portant"—I gave it to Davis.

  HENEY DAVIS (Policeman V 42). I received from Pimley an envelope addressed "Superintendent Digby, Important," and gave it to him.

  CHARLES ISAAC DIGBY (Police Superintendent V). On 9th December I received from Davis a letter containing a small tin box and Inspector Fuller's report—I opened the box; it contained two pills—I made a memorandum on the margin of the report, enclosed it in another

envelope, addressed it to Chief Superintendent Williamson, at Scotland Yard, and gave it to Henry Didhams.

Friday, March 10, 1882.

  HARRY DIDHAMS (Detective Officer B). On the morning of 9th December I received a letter about 9.30 from Superintendent Digby, and took it to Scotland Yard between 11 and 12 and delivered it personally to Chief Superintendent Williamson—Mr. Williamson opened it in my presence; it contained this report and the tin box produced—the box contained two pills, which appeared to be wrapped in white paper—I left them with Mr. Williamson.

  FREDERICK WILLIAMSON . I am Chief Superintendent of Police at Scotland Yard—I received this report and tin box—the pills were wrapped in tin-foil—I scratched my initials and the date on the lid of the box, and next day delivered it to Butcher, the officer who had charge of the case.

  JAMES WALLIS BUTCHER . I am a Police Inspector, of Scotland Yard—on 6th December I received from Inspector Fuller a cardboard box containing a number of capsules and five white pills, one of them in a capsule, the others loose in the box; another smaller cardboard box with quinine powders and the name of Littlefield upon it—that contained twenty packets of powders, six large and fourteen smaller packets numbered 7 to 20 inclusive.; also half of a Dundee cake, some sweets, and a small portion of white powdered sugar—I handed these things next morning, the 7th, to Dr. Dupré at the Westminster Hospital—on the night of December 10th I received from Superintendent Williamson the tin box containing two pills, and took it to Dr. Stevenson at Guy's Hos-pital on the morning of the 12th of December—on the same day I received from Inspector Fuller a bottle containing some sherry, and some more white powdered sugar; I took these to Dr. Stevenson on the 14th—on the 16th of December I received a tin box with prepared wafers from Mr. Bedbrook, and delivered it to Dr. Dupre—after the post-mortem examination on the 6th of December Mr. Bond gave me a bag to take care of; I returned it the next day undisturbed; it was not locked.

  WILLIAM HENRY BEDBROOK (Re-examined). The box of capsules I handed to Inspector Fuller contained the contents of both boxes which the prisoner had produced on the 3rd of December—I burnt the other box.

By MR. WILLIAMS. I could not say when my attention was first called to the capsules after the departure of the prisoner on the 3rd of December—they were lying on the table; I did examine them again that night, but I could not say at what time—I might have examined them twice—several times after the prisoner left I saw the capsules on the table; they were lying in the two boxes—I did not take any particular notice of them until after the boy's death.

By the JURY. I have said that the deceased was better than he had been previously; I told the prisoner as he was leaving that the curvature of the spine was getting worse—I noticed that the boy was sitting a little more on one side—he did not complain of pain—in speaking about the receipt of the letter from the prisoner in America I said the boy was Buffering from paralysis—I know nothing of paralysis; I only applied it to what I heard from the boy himself. By the COURT. When I spoke of paralysis I meant curvature of the

spine, the curvature of the spine having produced an inability to use the lower limbs—it was that inability to use the lower limbs caused by the curvature of the spine which I called paralysis.

  THOMAS BOND , M.B. and F.R.C.S. I am Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at Westminster Hospital—I do not lecture on toxicology; my friend Dr. Dupré takes that part—on 6th December I received from Dr. Berry a bottle containing vomit; I put it in my pocket and took it home and locked it up—the bag I handed to Butcher contained things I had taken from the body for analysis—with the bottle of vomit I brought a little pill-box sealed up; I put it in my cupboard; the next morning I handed the vomit and the pill-box to Dr. Dupre—I afterwards received them back from Dr. Dupré, and handed them to Dr. Stevenson—Dr. Berry gave me the pill-box produced at the time he gave me the vomit—some portions of the body taken at the post-mortem, the stomach in one bottle, the contents of the stomach in another, one of the kidneys, part of the spleen, and part of the liver in another, part of the small intestine, and part of the large intestine in another, and the urine in another bottle, were in the bag I handed to Butcher—that was all I took—I handed them to Dr. Dupré on the 7th, at the same time that I handed him the vomit and the pill-box—I received everything back from Dr. Dupré on the 8th of December and handed them back to Dr. Stevenson the same day—I received also the same day from Dr. Dupré a box containing capsulée, sugar, two packets of sweets, part of a cake, and a bottle, the neck of which had been broken by Dr. Dupré in opening it—two pieces of paper were handed to me, one by Dr. Berry and one by Inspector Butcher—I handed everything I received from Dr. Dupré to Dr. Stevenson except the two sheets of paper.

  AUGUSTE DUPRE . I am Lecturer on Chemistry at Westminster Hos-pital—I received certain things from Mr. Bond and Inspector Butcher, and handed back everything the day after to Mr. Bond.

  OTHER WINDSOR BERRY (Re-examined). I put these two pills into the box—one was brought up to me by Mr. Bedbrook while I was in attendance on the deceased, and the other one was taken out of one of the capsule boxes after the boy's death—I put the two pills each into a capsule which I got from the box, put them into the box, and sealed them up.

  WILLIAM HENRY BEDBROOK (Re-examined). I do not recollect taking up one of the pills to Dr. Berry while he was in attendance on the boy; the subsequent events have wiped it entirely out of my memory—if I got it anywhere it must have been from the capsule box—I saw some white pills in the box—I cannot say when I first noticed them.

By the COURT. I have no recollection of having taken up a pill at all on that night—I do remember seeing pills in the capsule box—I do not remember seeing pills anywhere else that night.

By a JUROR. It is impossible for me to say whether I had any pills in the house at that time—I had no pills to my knowledge for my own use—pupils were not allowed to get medicines without my knowledge; they were kept away from the boys.

  THOMAS BOND (Re-examined). I have had large experience in making post-mortem examinations—I have made about a dozen in which persons have died from poisoning—I have not been very much consulted in cases of persons suffering from poison—I have made post-mortem examinations in accidents by poison, but I have never before been engaged in a criminal prosecution—I made this post-mortem examination with Dr. Berry and

Dr. Little on December 6th. (The COURT then read over to the witness Mr. Berry's evidence of the post-mortem examination.) That correctly describes the appearances seen, but it omits to mention that the whole of the lungs were somewhat congested, the posterior part exceedingly so, and I think it omits to say that the body was not decomposed—I received from Dr. Berry an account of the symptoms observed during the illness of the deceased—taking into consideration the time of the illness and the post-mortem appearances, there was nothing, in my judgment, to account for death from natural causes—in my judgment the death is to be attributed to poison, I thought to a vegetable alkaloid—the vegetable alkaloids act in various ways; there are different classes of them—aconitine is one of the vegetable alkaloid poisons; it is a very powerful poison; a fatal dose of aconitine could, I have no doubt, be contained in one of these capsules—the appearances I saw on the post-mortem examination were such as I should expect to find, supposing death had been caused by a dose of aconitine—the patches in the stomach indicate intense irritation—in my judgment these patches were recent—the irritation which caused the patches must have caused pain to the patient—intense irritation would be likely to give great pain, and the irritation indicated by the patches would produce vomiting—the principal curvature of the spine was in the lower part of the body—there was a slight curvature forward in the upper part of the spine—there was no curvature to affect the position of the heart and lungs relatively to each other—the cavities of the chest appeared to me deeper from before backwards than usual, from the bending of the spine forward—the heart was in its right position except that it was higher up in the body than is normal—in the lower region there was a good deal of lateral curvature—I examined the spinal cord down as far as the end of the dorsal vertebrae—I found the membranes very much congested, but otherwise it was to all appearance quite healthy—I did not examine it with the microscope—I did not open the spinal canal in the lower lumbar region—the parts were very twisted, and I had difficulty in getting it open—no disease there could have caused sudden death—the curvature appeared to be of long standing—the bones were very hard, and there was no active disease there—I think it is impossible that death was caused by the pressure on the arteries produced by the curvature.

Cross-examined. I have never seen a case of death from aconitine unless. the present be one—after taking of a dose of aconitine I should expect the symptoms to appear in about half an hour, not in a few minutes, out it would depend upon the condition of the stomach, whether empty or full—the symptoms would occur much sooner on an empty stomach—I do not know whether it would depend on the amount of the dose—I believe it would be possible to cause death by aconitine in so small a dose that it could not be found in the stomach, but so large a dose might be given that it would be quite easy to find it; whether it would be found depends on the amount—my opinion is that if death was caused by an ordinary amount, traces would be found, but not all the amount—enough aconitiue to cause death might be given, and leave no trace in the stomach of aconitine—I do not agree that the poison found on analysis would be over and above that which was used in causing death, unless it means that a small quantity had been absorbed, which caused death, leaving a larger portion in the stomach which did not cause death; I mean that the poison which may have caused death has been removed from the

stomach to the other organs, and it is quite possible that a larger amount may be left behind in the stomach than the portion which has been removed and caused death—I do not know whether it would or would not be decomposed in the act of causing death; I think not; I have not the least idea—"Guy and Terrier's Forensic Medicine" is one of the first authorities—as to whether the symptoms in poisoning by aconitine might commence in one or two minutes or in one or two hours, I really do not know anything about poisoning by aconitine, so I cannot say—the ven tricles and auricles of the heart were both empty—I cannot produce any case on record of poisoning by aconitine.

Re-examined. I have only had personal experience of poisoning by one vegetable alkaloid, strychnine—supposing the poison had been taken in a capsule such as this, a longer time would elapse before the symptoms manifested themselves, because the gelatine would have to be dissolved, if it is gelatine—the poison would be first received into the stomach, and then it would be absorbed and passed into the blood, and from the blood into the other organs—I do not know whether what remained in the stomach after death had any part in causing death—it may have caused some local irritation—it may have had some part in it, the vomiting and so on; it would cause irritation like mustard; it might have had some, but I should think a very small part in causing death—the greatest part in causing death was due to that which had passed into the system—I have seen no death from aconitine, and the recorded cases are very rare.

By the COURT. 1 do not know enough of the physical action of poisons to be able to say whether, if a dose of poison was received into the stomach three or four times as much as would cause death, the whole would assist in causing death, leaving a diluted poison in the stomach—I am a surgeon—the capsule would take from three to six minutes to melt in the tem-perature of the stomach—before the Magistrate I said that the patches might have existed days; I meant two or three days—they might only have existed hours; there was nothing to indicate how long—they could not have existed without the person suffering—the time of operation of a poison in powder or liquid would depend upon the dilution—poison in powder might be in a solution so strong as to be what I may term neat poison—poison taken in food does not operate as soon as on an empty stomach—on opening the stomach I only found three or four ounces of a dark pasty fluid, which I preserved—after violent vomiting I should not expect to find much left in the stomach—different poisons take different times to develop their effects—any other poison would produce the same local condition of the stomach as aconitine—there are other poisons which would produce the same congestion of the stomach and the little white yellow marks which we found—any vegetable irritant would do so; a strong solution of oil of mustard, I think, would do the same.

By the JURY. A substance received into the stomach would be trans-mitted into the blood almost immediately—some substances would be found in the blood within a minute or two, and would therefore reach the heart—prussic acid would do so in a very few seconds—I should not expect to find any trace of prussic acid in the heart; the heart is not the place; I should expect to find it in the liver and urine in certain poisons.

By the COURT. YOU would be more likely to find traces of vegetable alkaloids in the liver, kidneys, and urine than in the heart—I should not, expect to find traces of them in the substance of the heart.

  WILLIAM RALPH DODD . I am an assistant at Messrs. Allen a

Hanbury's, wholesale and retail chemists, of Plough Court) Lombard Street—I remember the prisoner coming there on or about the 24th November—he asked for a piece of paper—I handed him a piece, and he wrote something on it—I do not know what has become of it; I have searched, but cannot find it—I left it on the counter, and have not seen it since—it was such a paper as would be destroyed when the trans-action was complete—he wrote on it "Aconitia, two grains. G.H. Lamson, M.D., Bournemouth, Hants," and the date in the left-hand corner—he handed it to me; I read it; I referred to this "Medical Directory "(produced), and I found his name and address in it—I then proceeded to weigh the aconitia, two grains—when weighing poisons it is the practice to call another assistant to test the weighing and see that the proper weight is given, to check the weighing—I accordingly called for that purpose an assistant named Betts—after weighing the aconitia I suggested to Dr. Lamson that I should put it into a bottle—he said he did not roquire it in a bottle, and I therefore wrapped it in a piece of white paper—I labelled it "Aconitia, Poison"—the name and address of the firm were printed on the label—I wrapped it in another piece of paper, and then handed it him, and he paid me 2s. 6d.; that would be 1s. 3d. per grain, the usual price to a medical man—he left, taking it with him—on the evening of 5th December I read something in an evening newspaper (the Echo), and in consequence I had some conversation with Betts—I then referred again to the "Medical Directory," and made a communication to Mr. Hanbury, my employer—I was at first under the impression that what the prisoner had bought was atropia, the price of which would be about three-halfpence a grain—I then looked at the bottle and called to mind what price had been paid for the poison bought—we keep Morson's aconitia; that is, Morson, of Southampton Bow.

Cross-examined by MR. MONTAGU WILLIAMS. I have a fairly accurate memory—I cannot remember the exact date or day of the week this was bought—when I read the newspaper I was first under the impression that what I sold to the prisoner was atropia, so much so that I said to Betts "Do you remember selling atropia? referring to this transaction; he said "Yes"—at that time we were both agreed that it was atropia—we could not remember whether it was sulphate of atropia or atropia, but were both under the impression that it was atropia of some sort—we keep a register of poisons, but I made no entry of this transaction in it.

Re-examined. I came to the conclusion that I had made a mistake about three hours after I said that it was atropia—we do not enter in the register of poisons sales to medical men—aconitia and its preparations is one of the poisons under the Poisons Act—in the sale to one of the public of any poison, the purchaser must be introduced by some person we know—then we have to enter in our register the date, the name of the purchaser, the name and quantity of the poison sold, the purpose for which it is required, and then to take the signatures of the purchaser and of the person introducing—that is under the Statute—if we aresatisfied that the purchaser is a medical man, then we need not make those entries—that was why we referred to the Directory to see whether he was a medical man.

By the COURT. If you went in and having got hold of the Medical Directory said "I am Dr. Brown, of Birmingham," I should ask you to write an order, and if I were satisfied that you were a medical man, I

should in all probability let you have it—the only way to ascertain that any one of respecteble appearance and well-dressed is not an impostor and is not telling you what is untrue, would be the style of writing, which is a characteristic of medical men—we should notice it directly—this cash-book (produced) is in my writing—here is half-a-crown entered on 24th November, 1881, and to the best of my belief that is the half-crown referred to for payment of the two grains of aconitia—this "C" means "chemist. "

By MR. WILLIAMS. I cannot swear to the day of the week or month the poison was sold—the letter "C" to the entry means "chemist,". or 11""wholesale price," because we sell to chemists at wholesale price—I find on that day there were five different transactions, all initialled "C"—I have no doubt as to the prisoner's identity.

By the COURT. "We never sell at wholesale price without putting "C" to the entry—it is used instead of "W.P.," wholesale price—I have not the slightest doubt now that it was aconitia which was sold to the prisoner, and not atropia—the two grains would not quite cover a shilling if piled up.

  CHARLES ERNEST OSCAR BETTS . I am in the dispensing department of Messrs. Allen and Hanbury—about 24th November I believe the prisoner came up to my counter and asked for two grains of aconitia—I asked if he was a medical man, and he said" Yes"—I then sent him to the counter at which the witness Dodd was in attendance—I saw Dodd go behind the screen where the poisons were kept—I followed and found Dodd looking into the Medical Directory; I looked into it also—I saw the order written by the prisoner—it was "Aconitia two grains, G. H. Lamson, M.D., Bournemouth, Hants, "also the date in figures—I do not remember the day of the month this was; it was between 3 and 4 in the afternoon—I saw Dodd take the bottle down; it was labelled" Aconitia"—I saw the powder in the scale——I tested the weight; it was two grains—it is usual for two assistants to test the weight—on the morning of 6th December I had a conversation with Dodd; he communi-cated to me something he had seen in the paper—in the first instance I thought it was atropia we had sold—I talked the matter over with Dodd that morning, and I am prepared to state that it was aconitia we sold to the prisoner on that occasion—the wholesale price of atropia is 1 1/2 d. a grain, and aconitia 1s. 3d.

Cross-examined. The price of sulphate of atropia would be about 1 1/2 d. per grain—it would be sold by the grain and priced by the ounce—it would be about 40s. an ounce, 8s. a drachm—there are 480 grains to the ounce—I have said that I could not swear to the date of the sale—the last witness had asked me if I remembered selling atropia, and I had replied that I did—I was then of opinion that the sale was of atropia—the only doubt was whether it was atropia or sulphate, of atropia.

Re-examined. It was on further consideration that I remembered it was aconitia—I remembered that aconitia was lumpy.

By the COURT. Atropia is white, aconitia yellowish white; aconitia is lumpy, and atropia a flocculent powder—an equal bulk being taken of each, atropia would be the heavier.

  JOHN EDWARD STILING . I am an assistant in the shop of Messrs. Bell and Co., chemists, 225, Oxford Street—I know the prisoner by sight—he came to the shop on 11th November—I made up a prescription for him on that day—he wrote it in the shop—this is the prescription as it reads

at length: "Hypodermic injection of morphia, 10 grains to the drachm, of that strength, 1/2 oz.; sulphate of atropia, one grain; mix and make a solution"—it was initialled "G.H.L.," and under the initials was written" For own use"—the date is in the left corner, "11 11 81"—he gave the name of George Henry Lamson—he said he was staying at Nelson's Hotel, in Great Portland Street, not far from the shop—I made up the prescription while he waited, and I gave it to him at the time—I referred to the Medical Directory, as is our custom in such cases—he paid for it at the time, 2s. 9d.—I saw him again on the 16th November—he then gave me this prescription, writing it out in the shop: "Hypodermic solution of morphia, 10 grains to the drachm, of that, 1/2 oz.; sulphate of atropia, one grain; mix and make a solution"—underneath was written, "Digitaline, pure, five grains," signed, "G. H. Lamson, M. D., &c.; for own use"—in the left-hand corner," 16 11 81"—he wrote the upper part first—in the course of conversation I asked who was in charge of his practice, and he told me his partner—he said his practice was at Bournemouth—with regard to the digitaline, he led me to infer that he was accustomed to prescribe it himself for internal use—it is the active principle of foxglove, and, taken in large quantities, a poison—I looked at the digitaline in stock, and found it more coloured than I expected—I told him so, and said I would provide him some fresh from the manu-facturer in a few days—he laid stress upon its being pure—he said he would call again in a few days—he then struck out the lower part of the prescription relating to digitaline—the first part of the prescription, the mixture of morphia and sulphate of atropia, I made up, and he took it with him—he paid 2s. 9d.—a few days afterwards, after 20th November, he called again; I cannot say how near that date—he then asked for one grain of aconitine—I do not recollect the exact words—I do not remember the details of the conversation—he said it was for internal use—I declined to give it him—I recommended him to apply where he was better known—nothing more was said—he left the shop—I believe that on that occa-sion he wrote the order while in the shop—when I refused to serve him, I believe he tore up that order himself—except from seeing him on the 11th and 16th, I had known nothing of him before.

Cross-examined. He told me where he was staying; that was on the first occasion—I cannot swear that there was a written order for the aconitine, but my belief is that while I was consulting with my fellow-assistant the order was written, and that when I returned Dr. Lamson tore it up—I was examined before the Magistrate and before the Coroner—I was never asked about a written order before to-day—I have not said a word about it before to-day—the prisoner had not made any other purchases to my knowledge than those I have mentioned.

By the COURT. The retail price of atropia is 6d. a grain; the wholesale price is about 4d. a grain.

  DAVID WAVELL LTTTLEFIELD . I am a chemist at Ventnor, Isle of Wight—I know the prisoner—I remember his coming to my shop in the autumn of 1880; it was 13th October—I sold him one quarter of a pound of arrowroot, a box of wafer papers, and 12 quinine powders, containing a grain and a half each—the white paper box produced in is from my establish-ment—the handwriting I believe to be that of an assistant named Bright—there are now two larger powders in the box—the four papers handed to me by Dr. Dupre are, I should say, of the same size as those we sent out in

the first instance—I should say the larger ones are mine; the smaller ones produced are, I should say, not mine—the powders contained a grain and a half of bi-sulphate of quinine—it was pure; no mixture with it—I did not take it out of the bottle; Mr. Bright did—I have never kept aconitine or aconitia—I have never dealt in aconitine.

Cross-examined. I believe the larger powders came from my establish-ment—I believe that I can identify five of the six larger ones shown to me, but not the sixth—the smaller ones that are numbered I know nothing about.

  GEORGE BRIGHT . I was assistant to Mr. Littlefield at Ventnor in August, 1880—the words "Quinine Powders" on this paper are my writing; that leads me to the conclusion that I dispensed those powders—I have no doubt about it, though I cannot remember doing so.

  DAVID "WAVELL LITTLEFIELD (Re-examined). I remember the order being given by the prisoner for those powders—I identify this box of wafers; there is a mark on it by which I can identify it; it is "Oct., '80. "CHARLES ALBERT SMITH. I am a chemist at 76, High Street, Ventnor—in August last year I knew the prisoner; I had known him about 18 months—I knew his name—he had been living at one time at Mount Vernon, in Ventnor—he was living with his father between 6th August and 23rd October, 1881—I do not know that he was there all that time; between those dates I had transactions with him—on the 8th of August I made up a prescription for him; it was an ordinary prescription from one of the Ventnor doctors—I also saw him on the 28th of August, between 8 and 9 o'clock in the evening; he was alone—he came to my shop; the door was shut—he opened it and came in—he purchased three grams of sulphate of atropine, one grain of aconitine, a bottle of Eau-de-Cologne, and a stick of Pears's shaving soap—I served him, and entered the things in the waste-book—that fixes the date—I knew him as a medical man, and so I did not enter them in the poisons-book—I labelled the packet "Aconitine—poison," and there was my own name and address on it—he did not say what he wanted the aconitine for—I charged 1s. 6d. for the aconitine—I purchased it from my brother, William Smith, I retail chemist, at Ryde—I do not know whose preparation it was—I saw the prisoner again on the 20th of October following—I did not see him on the 23rd, but I supplied things for him—on the 22nd of October he owed me 1l. 10s. 4d., and I sent in a bill for that amount—that sum is still owing—the account had been running from the 6th of August.

Cross-examined. I believe that before the Magistrate I said that aconitia was commonly used in neuralgia and cancer, and that I believed it would be used for the purpose of relieving palpitations in heart disease, and as a diuretic in dropsy.

  SOPHIA JOLLIFFE . I am the wife of George Jolliffe, of Clarence Villa, Shanl—in the autumn of last year my rooms were taken for Mr. and Mrs. Chapman—shortly afterwards they came, and Percy John with them—they came on 27th August—the prisoner came with them, but did not stay at my house; he had tea, and then left—I remember Percy John being'ill—I think it was a day or two after they came—he went to bed at about 9.30—that was earlier than his usual time—he slept on the ground-floor—after he was in bed I went in to see him; he complained that he felt as if he was paralysed all over—he appeared to be unwell—I did not stay with him; I went to my own room, and left my door open

ín case lie should want anything in the night—he felt very poorly—I was not called up during the night—next morning early, about 6 o'clock, he rang his bell—I went up into hie room; he was in bed—he complained that he felt very poorly, and I saw that he had been very much relaxed—he went to the closet, and remained there a long time; so long that Mrs. Chapman and I went and looked through the key-hole to see if he needed assistance—he got better after he had his breakfast.

Cross-examined. Before the Magistrate I was asked if this occurred at the end of September, and I replied I was not sure—the deceased slept in a room on the ground-floor—the closet was not on the same floor—he used to manage to get up and down stairs.

By the COURT. I do not know how he got up and down the stairs, I never saw him—he had no use of his legs—I think he used to crawl on his hands and knees; I am not sure, I never saw him—I never saw him go upstairs; I saw him upstairs—I never saw how he got up; I saw him up and down, and from that I infer that he managed to get up and down—I and his sister went to the closet-door, and looked through—I went away after finding him there, and I think his sister did also—I saw that he was raising himself up.

Re-examined. He had left his wheel chair at the bottom of the stairs—I had seen him wheel himself about in that chair on the ground floor; he always used to sit in it.

By MR. WILLIAMS. He could not wheel himself upstairs to the closet, the chair was left at the bottom of the stairs.

By the COURT. My bedroom was at the bottom of the stairs on the ground floor; his bedroom was also on the ground floor; the closet was on the first landing half way up the first flight of stairs—Mr. and Mrs. Chapman slept upstairs—it was about half-past 6 that I saw him in the closet; I went and rapped at Mrs. Chapman's door after seeing him in the closet—there was nobody to attend upon him but me; I have a girl, but she did not attend upon him—I saw him in the closet raising himself up; he was leaning against the wall as he sat there, as if he was ill—by raising himself up I mean that he raised himself up into a sitting posture—I left him sitting when I came away, and Mrs. Chapman went back to her bedroom—I did not see him come downstairs, so I can't say how he got down.

By the JURY. It was the deceased who rang the bell at 6 in the morning; I answered it; he rang for me to attend to his room; the bell was very near to his bed; he could reach it on his bed—when I got up I found he had been much relaxed, and I attended to his room and opened the window—I heard from my girl that he crawled about by himself, but I never saw him; I kept out of his way, for I did not think he liked to be seen, being so afflicted, but I know he used to get about—I did not lift him out of his bed; he got off the bed himself—I did not see him get off—he was in bed when I went in—I did not see him again till after he came downstairs and was dressed; he used to dress himself I think; I don't know.

  GEORGE HUMBY . I am station master at the Shanklin Railway Station—I produce the luggage and cloak office book of 1881—at that time it was kept by John Durrant—if a passenger left luggage at the station to be taken care of it would be Currant's duty to make an entry in the book of the date and particulars.

  JOHN DURRANT . I now live at Sandown, Isle of Wight—in August last year I was in the service of the Isle of Wight Railway Company at Shanklin Station—this entry in this book is my writing; I made it at the time of the transaction to which it refers—I should give a ticket to the person leaving luggage—some luggage was left on the occasion to which this entry refers on 29th August—the person gave a name; we always ask the person their name—I entered the name in the book—I don't think I have ever seen the person since; I don't re-member—it was a portmanteau, a bundle, and a package that was left.

MR. POLAND proposed to use the entry for the purpose of the witness refreshing his memory by it. MR. WILLIAMS objected, there being nothing to connect the prisoner with the transaction. MR. JUSTICE HAWKINS, without saying that it was strictly inadmissible, considered that in the absence of any proof of the identity of the prisoner as the person leaving the luggage, it could have little or no effect. The evidence was not pressed,

Saturday, March 11th.

  THOMAS STEVENSON . I am a doctor of medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, Fellow of the Council and Institute of Chemistry, lecturer on medical jurisprudence and chemistry at Guy's Hospital, and examiner in forensic medicine at the London University—I have had large experience in analytical chemistry, and especially in toxicology—during the last ten years Ï have been employed by direction of the Home Office in making analyses in cases of supposed poisoning—on December 8th last I was instructed by the Home Secretary to make an analysis in the present case—I applied to him to associate some one with me in the analysis, and he appointed Dr. Dupré—Dr. Bond handed to me a number of bottles and various other things; first a bottle duly secured, sealed, and labelled "Liver, spleen, and kidneys, handed to Dr. Dupré by Mr. Bond, December 7, A "; second, a bottle labelled "B, duodenum, parts of small intestines, cocum, colon "; 3rd, C, a bottle labelled "Contents of stomach; "the 4th, D, was a bottle secured, sealed, and labelled "Contents of stomach," and marked with an arrow; the. 5th, E, was a bottle labelled "Urine"; the 6th, F, a bottle labelled "The Vomit"; with this was a broken bottle unlabelled and a gutta-percha wrapper with two seals with griffins'-heads crests; No. 7 was a pill-box, sealed and secured with tape marked "T. B. "; No. 8 was a newspaper parcel sealed; the 9th a brown paper parcel sealed; the 10th was a paper parcel sealed—that is the whole of what I received from Mr. Bond—No. 10 was opened in the presence of Mr. Bond; it contained a box with 107 capsules in it—another parcel contained some sugar, some sweetmeat sugar, and a box labelled "Quinine powders" in writing, and "J. W. Littlefield, chemist, Ventnor," in print; there were also four pills loose, one large comfit from a Dundee cake, and one of the capsules contained what appeared to be a pill, but which was really a similar comfit—No. 8 contained two packets of sweetmeats, and No. 9 contained half a Dundee cake—parcel 11 I received from Inspector Butcher on Dec. 12; that was a tin box marked "I. W. B. 9,12,81," in which were two little tinfoil packages each containing a pill—No. 12 was received from Butcher on December 14th—it was labelled, "Remainder of sugar from Mr. Bedbrook's"—No. 13 was a bottle, labelled, "Sherry from Mr. Bedbrook's, from decanter used by Lamson; handed to Dr. Stephenson

14, 12, 81"—Butcher handed it to me on that day—I afterwards received the box and wafers marked 14, from Dr. Dupre—I have, with his assistance, submitted to microscopic examination and analysis the whole of the articles submitted to me—every step taken was arranged between myself and Dr. Dupre before being adopted—the manual operations were sometimes carried on by me, and sometimes by Dr. Dupre, and where he performed the analysis I examined it so as to be able to speak to the result—I examined No. 1, the liver and so on; No. 2, the intestines; No. 3, the stomach contents; No. 4, the stomach; No. 5, the urine; No. 6, the vomit; No. 9, the cake, but No. 10 only in part, i. e. powder No. 16—I also examined the capsules, the loose sugar, and the lump sugar, some of the pills, and the wafers partly—in the other cases the manual work was done by Dr. Dupre, but I assisted him from time to time—the bottle marked "A "contained a portion of the liver, spleen, and kidneys—to that I applied a modification of Stass's process, and obtained from it an alkaloidal extract, which contained a trace of morphia, and which, when placed on the tongue, gave a sensation like that produced by aconitia—I reserved it for further experiments—No. 2 contained a small portion of the larger bowels—I applied the same process to them, and obtained an extract which I have not tested—No. 3, the contents of the stomach, contained about three and half ounces of fluid—that was treated in a somewhat similar way—the fluid contained a raisin and a piece of the pulp of some fruit, which agreed in microscopic appearance with that of an apple—from that fluid I obtained from Stass's process an extract which, when tasted, produced a very faint sensation like that of aconitia—though placed upon the tongue there was a sensation of a burning of the lip, although the extract had not touched the lip—the sensation was a burning tingling, a kind of numbness difficult to define, salivation or a desire to expectorate, and a sensation of swelling at the back of the throat, followed by a peculiar seared sensation at the back of the tongue, as if a hot iron had been passed over it, or some strong caustic applied—I reserved that alkaloidal extract for some physiological experiments—the bottle labelled "4 D" contained a human stomach and seven ounces of spirituous liquid which had been added to preserve it—I observed that the stomach was reddened as if from congestion in the region of the greater curvature and posteriorly—at one part there was a little pit as if a blister or inflammatory effusion of lymph had broken—I made an extract from the stomach and the liquid in the bottle by Stass's process, and obtained an alkaloidal extract, which I tasted and reserved—it had no particular taste that I could recognise—No. 5, bottle E, contained six ounces of urine with spirit—I opened it in Dr. Dupre's presence, and he pointed out a mark by which I saw that two ounces of spirit had been added, for the purpose of preservation, to the four ounces of urine—I made an extract from threefourths of that liquid, and obtained an alkaloidal extract which contained a trace of morphia, and then, by a further process, I obtained more morphia—the first alkaloid extract to which I have referred contained more alkaloid than would be accounted for by the morphia present, which was a mere trace—some of this extract I placed upon my tongue, and it produced the effect of aconitia, which I have already described, in a marked degree, and a further effect of aconitia, a peculiar burning sensation, extending down towards the stomach—it is very difficult to describe, and peculiar to aconitia—I have

never found it with any other alkaloid—I have 50 to 80 vegetable preparations in my possession, and have tasted most of them—in this particular case the sensation lasted upon the tongue for four hours—with threefourths of the liquid that I tested I made an experiment with the alkaloidal extract from a quantity corresponding to about 1 ounce of the urine, or onethird of the whole—I dissolved the extract and injected it beneath the skin of a mouse—the animal was obviously affected in two minutes, and from that time onwards it exhibited signs of poisoning, and died in 30 minutes from the time of administration—I made some experiments by injecting into mice a solution of Morson's aconitine, which I procured expressly from Allen and Hanbury—I dissolved it in the same solvent, and operated on mice in the same manner—its effect upon the mice was undistinguishable from the effect produced by the extract from the urine; they died from the same character of symptoms—the solvent itself, which was a dilute solution of tartaric acid, was used on a mouse, and found to be quite inoperative—the extract which I made from the liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, and contents I retained—they all contained an alkaloid, and two of them gave a slight taste of aconitine—I then mixed the extracts 1, 3, and 4 together, and injected it under the skin of a mouse in the same manner, and it produced effects upon the mouse in nine minutes, and from that time onwards it exhibited symptoms of poisoning, and died in 22 minutes—those symptoms were precisely similar to the symptoms exhibited when I injected Morson's aconitine—No. 6, the vomit, contained 10 fluid ounces, or nearly half a pint of a thick semifluid stuff—with that also there was spirits of wine—Dr. Dupre pointed out a mark on a bottle indicating 5 ounces of vomit, and about 5 ounces of spirit had been added—the vomit must have been solid—I examined the solid portion, and found that it consisted of pieces of fat, a very small quantity of muscular fibre of some animal, pieces of onion, a little starch, probably that of wheat, sliced candied peel, such as is put on the top of cakes, pieces of apple pulp, raisins, and some pineapple essence—there was just the odour of pineapple drops—I subsequently examined it again minutely and microscopically; to see whether I could find anything corresponding to the root of aconite or the root of horseradish; I found neither—I made an extract from the vomit, and obtained an alkaloidal extract, which had an intense taste, but no trace of morphia or quinine—I applied some of the extract to my tongue, and found a very powerful result, such as I have previously described as the result of aconitia—the effects lasted in a severe form six hours and a half, when the severity gradually passed off, but the effect lasted very markedly for six hours and a half—I used a portion of this alkaloidal extract corresponding to 124th part of the vomit, and injected it into the back of a mouse—it was severely affected in 21/2 minutes, and the symptoms continued to the time of its death, 151/2 minutes after the injection—those symptoms were parallel with those of aconitia—in my judgment the vomit submitted to me contained a considerable quantity of aconitia—approximately I think I can give an estimate of the quantity; I can put a limit each way—it was not less than oneseventh, and probably not more than. onefourth of a grain—there has been only one fatal case that I know of in which aconitine has caused the death of a human being, and the quantity that proved fatal, the quantity that actually caused death, was known not to be less than onetwentyfirst part of a grain, not more than onethirteenth of a grain—

the pillbox, No. 7, contained two gelatine capsules, and in each was a gelatinecoated pill—I examined them, or rather saw what Dr. Dupre did; he operated, and I saw the results—they contained no poison——they were simple fivegrain quinine pills—the sweetmeats No. 8 contained no trace of poison of any character at all—No. 9, the cake, contained no trace of poison—No. 10, the capsules, were simple gelatine, free from poison—the comfit, the sugar, and some loose pills in a box, simple quinine gelatinecoated pills, were free from poison—of the quinine powders there were six in larger papers than others—they contained a grain and a half each on an average, of disulphate of quinine, some containing one and onethird of a grain, some one and twothirds of a grain—there were fourteen smaller papers containing powers, tied together in a bundle and numbered in ink from 7 to 20—they varied considerably in weight, the lightest weighing sixtenths of a grain; the heaviest one and oneeighth of a grain—the average weight of the 14 powders was very nearly one grain, 131/2 grains in the whole—Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, were disulphate of quinine, or ordinary quinine powders varying from six tenths of a grain to 11/2 grains—my attention was called to No. 16 by Dr. Dupre—it was a little different in colour, as were also two others, 17 and 19—it was an obvious mixture; there were two substances—I mean it was obvious to a skilled person—they were of a pale fawn tint, quinine being a peculiar pure white—it was more a difference in colour than shade—No. 16 weighed just under one and eight tenths of a grain—it was the largest—No. 17 weighed 88 grain, nearly nine tenths—No. 19 weighed 126 or one and a quarter grains—the powder in No. 16 looked as if damaged quinine had been put in, or quineta mixed with it—I tasted it—at first there was the bitterness of quinine, but that passed off, and in three minutes there was a very startling, sensation—the taste I thought was aconitia, but I had not tasted aconitia for years—the sensation lasted severely for three hours, then gradually went away after dinner—I saw the result of Dr. Dupre's examination—there was 83 grain of aconitia and 96 grain of quinine—I took about one fiftieth of a grain of No. 16 for experiment upon a mouse in the same manner—it was very ill in three and a half minutes, and dead in six and a half minutes; the symptoms being the same as in the other cases—I did not taste either No. 17 or No. 19—I cannot tell how much aconitia there was in them—I am convinced that there was aconitia in both from Dr. Dupre's experiments, but from the colour and appearance I should say the proportion of aconitia to the quinine was considerably less than in No. 16—with regard to the pills in the tin box, it is not usual to wrap pills in tinfoil in this country, nor to put them in a box of this kind—some pills become soft by exposure, but not quinine pills—those two pills were examined by Dr. Dupre and myself—I myself particularly examined one—I examined both partially—one of these pills weighed three grains; the other, which I more particularly examined, weighed two and three quarter grains nearly—I took it out of the tinfoil—there was nothing particular in the appearance—I cut it open and tasted it; it was most intense—there was at first the bitterness of quinine, and in about three minutes that passed away—I had cut out the smallest piece I could and put it on my tongue—Dr. Dupre, myself, and my assistant each thus tasted a portion, and some was taken for the microscope, and then we had taken altogether only 122nd part of a grain; that sufficed for the three of us and for the microscope also—

I felt the bitterness of quinine, followed by intense burning on the tongue, tingling and soreness of the tongue—the sensations were the same in character, but more severe in form than those I had already experienced—I injected some of it into the back of a mouse—in two minutes it exhibited symptoms of poisoning and was very ill, and it died in four and a half minutes—I came to the conclusion that there was 45 of a grain, or nearly half a grain, of aconitine in that pill—in the sherry I found no trace of poison—there was no trace of poison in the wafers—the urine, in my opinion, contained aconitia—that would show that poison had been absorbed into the blood, had passed through the tissues of the body, and become excreted—I found traces of morphia in certain of these extracts—I have heard the account of the injection of morphia by Dr. Berry during the last hours of the boy's illness—the traces of morphia I found were such as I should have expected to find from such injection—I should have expected to find it in the urine, probably in the liver too—many times a fatal dose could be administered in one of these capsules—I have put a grain of aconitine into one of those capsules, and here is one with half a grain to show how little space it fills. (The capsules were handed to the Jury.) The taste of the pill lasted for sevenandahalf hours, although a meal had been taken during the time—if taken in a capsule such as this, and swallowed, the taste of the aconitine would not, of course, be perceived in the act of swallowing—there is no specific or characteritic chemical test for aconitine—the tests are first the general chemical tests for an alkaloid, and I did discover an alkaloid: and then the physiological test; first the effect upon the tongue and neighbouring parts, and the general effect on the system if taken in any quantity—the other physiological test is that it will kill after a definite course of symptoms—I have no doubt that in the vomit, the urine, and in the substances from the body submitted to me I did find aconitine—I have no doubt about its being aconitine—I heard the medical men describe the symptoms and the post-mortem appearances—in my judgment, they are such as would be likely to arise in poisoning by aconitine—they point to a vegetable alkaloid principle, and more nearly to aconitine than any other—judging from the appearances on the postmortem and my analysis, I form the conclusion that death arose from aconitine—aconitine is not a medicine commonly used in this country for internal purposes—I have not known it used in any case—the British Pharmacopœia orders it for external use, but makes no mention of any dose—nothing is prescribed for internal use—it was formerly tried a quarter of a century or 30 years ago, but it was given up, because it was found to be so dangerous.

Cross-examined. I have never been present at a death from aconitine, acknowledged to have been so caused—there has never been such a case, so far as I am aware, in this country; there has only been one abroad—my opinions have been founded upon what I have heard of the symptoms: the taste test, experiments upon mice, my knowledge of poisoning by aconite (the substance from which aconitia is extracted), and my reading of cases of aconitine poisoning—I know that aconitine is used in France and in Germany—I know there are French preparations—I do not know that they are sold by Jozeau in the Haymarket—from my general reading I believe it has been considerably used in France within the last two or three years—I do know a work on chemistry in French by Guibert; this is it—I find a formula in it for pills with aconitine in it, not for internal

use for dropping into the ear—there are also formulae for external use as liniment and ointment—in the British Pharmacopœia there is a formula for unguentum aconitia, eight grains of aconitia to one ounce of lard—Sidney Ringer is an acknowledged authority on therapeutics—I know his book—I agree with this; "Aconite is used externally in the form of liniment or ointment to relieve pain"—the formula in the British Pharmacopœia for unguentum aconitia has reference to aconitine—it is applied in cases of neuralgia and rheumatism; I agree with this—" A piece, the size of a bean or nut, should be applied with friction, which enhances its efficacy"—that is the proper way to apply an ointment—a piece the size of a horse bean would barely be equal to half a drachm; it would depend on the size of the bean—half a drachm of the ointment would contain half a grain of aconitia—I agree that the application in such cases of aconite ointment will out short the pain—I do not know that the application would prevent sickness; I have no experience of it—sickness is not a common symptom of neuralgia—I agree that aconite diminishes sensibility, and it has been used internally in various internal diseases; aconite is often given—I have not heard of the use of aconitine in cases of typhoid fever—I have heard of its being used in fevers generally; I cannot speak of typhoid—I have heard of the use of aconitine in cases of pleuropneumonia—I read it in an anonymous article in a journal not edited by a medical man, and the opinion of a nonmedical man is not of much value in the treatment of disease—with regard to symptoms, the pupils of the eyes are generally dilated after a death from natural causes—it is not a distinctive sign of aconitine—the surface of the tongue being rough and furred is not a distinctive sign of aconitine poisoning—it might result from a variety of causes—the congestion of the brain is not peculiar to aconitine poisoning, but has been observed in such cases; it may be due to other causes—bloodstained fluid in the bag of the heart is not characteristic of aconitine poisoning; it has been met with—in aconite poisoning it has been observed that the ventricles and auricles of the heart were empty—in the only case of aconitine poisoning referred to, I believe, in a number of the Philadelphia Journal of Medicine, by Dr. Reichert, who is an authority, there is no mention of the state of the heart, but in poisoning by preparations of aconite containing aconitine it has been observed—congested liver is a sign of aconitine poisoning; congestion of the viscera has been marked in cases of aconitine poisoning; it is to be met with when death has resulted from other causes—it is not a distinctive sign; it is an important sign—I do not know of any case where aconitine has produced corrosion of the stomach—I do not know that this stomach was corroded; I observed no signs of corrosion on it—preparations of aconite would cause irritation of the stomach—in the fatal case of aconitine poisoning to which I have referred the stomach was observed to be greatly congested—the congestion of the kidneys is a mark, but not a distinctive mark, of aconitine poisoning: and congestion of the spleen is not distinctive of it, but is consistent with it—by" consistent" I mean it has been actually observed in cases of aconite poisoning—there have been cases of death which were not and could not be ascertained even by postmortem examination—I have known persons to die and no cause to be discovered—with regard to the patches in the stomach I do not think that they might have existed for days before death without symptoms—I agree that the patches might have existed for days, but I do not believe that a person

with those patches could feel himself or be described as in perfect health—I agree that they might have existed days before death; per se, but not in conjunction with what I have heard of the boy's health—they could not have existed without causing pain to the person—Dr. Dupre and I began together our analysis on the 10th of December—I began my analysis of the vomit and of the urine on the same day—I should not expect to find an alkaloid in the contents of the stomach, owing to the injection of morphia—if morphia were injected I should expect to find it in the urine if it had been administered in sufficient quantity—the alkaloid I found in the urine, was in excess of what I should expect to find from the quantity of morphia injected—the injection would account for a mere trace of morphia, but not for the whole of the alkaloid present—there was just a reaction with the most delicate tests—in testing the alkaloidal extract I took half the contents of the stomach and mixed it with such a quantity of rectified spirit as would, with the spirit previously added by Dr. Dupre, make the proportion of spirit to the liquid taken, two volumes of spirit to one volume of liquid—the liquid which I took was acid in its reaction—the mixture was allowed to stand till the next day, or rather two days; it stood over Sunday from Saturday till Monday; it was then filtered, the insoluble part was well and repeatedly washed with rectified spirit; the clear liquid was then evaporated at a temperature below that of the human body, till it was almost solid: the portion which had not dissolved in spirit was then treated with an additional quantity of spirit, to which a little tartaric acid was added: the mixture was then warmed till it had the temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was then cooled and filtered—the insoluble part was well and repeatedly washed with spirit, and the clear liquid thus obtained was evaporated at a temperature below that of the human body till a fairlysolid residue was obtained—I now obtained two alcoholic extracts, each of which was treated in a precisely similar manner, but separately, by digesting them with warm absolute alcohol, or rather tepid, till the alcohol would take up and dissolve nothing more—the solutions in absolute alcohol were filtered and evaporated nearly to dryness—they were then treated with a little water—they were found to be acid in reaction, and the two solutions, that is to say, that from the plain spirit and the other from the tartaric acid spirit, were mixed—care was taken that they remained just faintly acid, and the solution was then agitated with washed ether—the ether was allowed to separate—it was drawn off and replaced by fresh ether—the operation with the ether was carried out five times—the ether was set apart and allowed to evaporate at a temperature below its boilingpoint—that was reserved as not containing any alkaloid—the residue obtained was oily and partly dissoluble with water; it was of a brownish colour; it was not weighed, but it was of a very appreciable quantity—these tests were not conducted with a view to aconitine only—I tested for metallic poisons, but not with alkaloidal extract—the aqueous liquid which separated from the ether was made alkaline by means of carbonate of soda; it was then agitated with a mixture of washed ether and washed chloroform—the etherchloroform solution was then allowed to separate; it was drawn off and again replaced by ether, which was again drawn off—the ether and chloroform mixtures were evaporated, and finally dried in vacuo over oil of vitriol in the airpump; that was simply to dry it thoroughly without decomposing—before it was placed in the vacuum I examined it to see

whether there was any volatile alkaloid, which could be recognised by its particular odour; there was none, nor any volatile oil—I then dried it over oil of vitriol—it weighed 108, or rather more than 110th of a grain—it was of slightly crystalline appearance—I tasted it by putting a little fragment on my tongue—I reduced it subsequently with a solvent, and administered it to a mouse, but I had previously tested it for an alkaloid—I went through the same operation with the vomit twice, and the urine, with only minor shades of difference, as occasion required—the effect on the tongue was characteristic of aconitine, and of nothing else that I know of—I should not expect to find something of the same sort from veratria; I have tried that on the tongue, and there is a marked difference—I tried delphinia years ago; it is more like atropia; it has more of a bitterness—I do not recollect that delphinia is like aconitia—I do not admit a resemblance—English aconitia, Morson's, has no marked bitterness, whereas most alkaloids have a bitterness—it is more like a stringency; it is quite distinct—I think there is a bitterness about delphinia—it is different from pepperine or pepper, in which the burning comes on directly, and you get it at once—there is no special chemical test for aconitia—I do not consider phosphoric acid a test—I have tried it on aconitia given me by Mr. Morson, and on other specimens, and the phosphoric acid reaction is no doubt due to impurity—it is given as a test except by those who have studied it recently—Messrs. Gough and Wright have experimented upon it as well as myself—it was looked upon as a test until recently—I made several experiments connected with the case to see whether it is a real test, and it is not—I made experiments as a test with pure aconitia, but with no result—Flückner, in this work on the subject, gives it, but German aconitia does give that reaction; it is very different from English aconitia—I see no mention in the book of English aconitia—the date of this edition is 1879—the solution injected into the mouse was measured on each occasion—the quantity injected was three or four minims—the needle at the end of the hypodermic syringe was passed into the animal's back—in the case of the urine three or four minims represente 1 one ounce, and in the case of the vomit the twentyfourth part; in the other cases the whole of the residue was taken—the mice were Albinos, piebalds, and cinnamon coloured—they do not show signs of fear; you can handle them—experiments on animals must not be overestimated—whether it is a recognised fact that alkaloids are to be found in the human body, more especially in the stomach, after death, independently of poisons, is a question still sub judice among experts—it has been asserted that such is the case where the stomach or any other viscera has been much decomposed—I cannot say that it is not a fact; it is still sub judice—I refer to what are called "cadaveric alkaloids," utterly irrespective of the administration of poisons—it is so asserted—Stas's test is for cadaveric as well as natural alkaloids—cadaveric, alkaloids have been described as producing the same effects as vegetable alkaloids—they have been described as producing the same effects, but I have seen none producing the same effects as aconitia—there is a test which distinguishes them from all natural alkaloids except morphia and veratria, and certainly from aconitine—that test was applied to those cases where no morphia was present—the test is the reduction from cyanide of potassium to the

ferrocyanide—Brouder and Boutmy are the authorities for that test; they have described the method of obtaining and distinguishing these cadoveric alkaloids—I was one of the first to point out, 17 years ago, that alkaloidal extracts found in persons after death were poisonous to frogs if injected under the skin, out I did not go far enough—I have read books on cadaveric alkaloids, I put some into an English dress myself—I do not read Italian—I do not remember if I have read Peschi—I cannot say whether cadaveric alkaloids are described as producing a pricking on the tongue—I have made many experiments, and never found the residue of the stomach prove poisonous to the lower animals—I have never known alkaloidal extracts prepared in this way to be poisonous; I cannot say that it is not so, but 1 never met with it—after the administration of aconitine the symptoms usually set in soon, but severe symptoms have been delayed from a few minutes to an hour and a half—the probabilities are that a larger dose would produce effects sooner; not necessarily, but probably a small poisonous dose might produce effects speedily—the smallest dose of nitrate of aconitia that has caused death has been one thirteenth or one sixteenth of a grain.

Re-examined. The experiments have been directed to putrefied corpses—when corpses are putrefying cadaveric poisons are produced—I procured alkaloidal extracts from the urine, viscera, and stomach, and ascertained the effects of them upon mice—I have examined a great number of liquids made from dead bodies, and operated upon mice—I have made 22 experiments this year—there were two cases of the contents of a stomach after death, and cases of heart disease, and four cases of the liver, kidneys, spleen, vomit, and six from urine—I have also in six instances taken extracts from the urine of living persons, and three from the urine of healthy dead persons—those extracts had no effect upon my tongue—I have had many years' experience, and I havecertainly never tasted anything like aconitine—I took in one case the urine of a patient who had been having morphia injected, and found morphia, but the extract had no particular taste—I detected the morphia chemically—I injected 22 different liquids into 22 mice, but some of them lived, and were used over again—I found them suffer from nothing but a trifling irritation due to the puncture—one died, but that was accounted for by the puncture having entered the spinal column—the twothousandth part of a grain of aconitine was invariably speedily fatal to a mouse; the smallest quantity was one threethousandth part of a grain, a hardly visible quantity.

By the COURT. The time when the severe symptoms appeared would depend upon whether the poison came into direct contact with the tongue or whether it was in a capsule—it must be brought into solution in some way before it would produce severe symptoms—anything which would protect it would delay the symptoms.

  AUGUSTS DUPRE (Re-examined). I am a Doctor of Philosophy and a Fellow of the Royal Society and Lecturer on Chemistry and Toxicology at Westminster Hospital, and Chemical Referee to the Local Government Board—I have been largely engaged on analyses for the Home Department—on 7th December, 1881, I received from Mr. Bond and Inspector Butcher the articles marked 1 to 10 inclusive—I opened the bottle marked A, containing the liver and kidneys, and added about half a pint of rectified spirits of wine, and to No. 3, containing the contents of the

stomach, I added about two ounces of spirit, I just doubled the fluid; to No. 4, the stomach, I added five ounces of spirit; to No. 5, the urine, I added two ounces of spirit; No. 6, the bottle containing the vomit, was quite full, the neck broke in opening it, and I transferred the contents to a clean bottle, and added five ounces of spirit—on 8th December I handed all those articles to Mr. Bond—on 10th December I went with Dr. Stevenson to Guy's Hospital, where we arranged a plan on which the analysis should be made—he was to carry on the manual part on certain articles, and I on the residue—I took the six pills found among the capsules, this small pillbox, one parcel of sugar, a small pasteboard box containing powders, and two parcels of sweetmeats—I also on the Monday took away a tin box containing the pills—on the 16th I took from Guy's Hospital the other parts of the sugar—I analysed all those articles—I have heard the evidence and agree with it—I tasted every extract except that Dr. Stevenson tasted, the extract from the stomach and the liver and stomach separately, and I tasted them after they been mixed—I tasted the extract from the urine, and it gave a very strong sensation of aconitine; its effect continued for hours—I tasted the alkaloid obtained from the vomit, and it gave the same sensation painfully marked—the effect lasted for over six hours, although I took lunch and dinner during that time—I found in the vomit no trace of quinine; if aconitine had been taken in conjunction with quinine I should have expected to find quinine in the vomit—I tested powder No. 16, and have heard the proportion of aconite found in it by Dr. Stevenson; it is quite correct—No. 17 powder contained only a very minute portion of aconitine, nothing like as much as in No. 16—I cannot give the amount of aconitine in No. 19—I tasted it—there was aconitine in it, a trifle more than in No. 17, but nothing like so much as in No. 16—I agree with Dr. Stevenson about the analysation of the articles in which no poison was found.

Cross-examined. I am not a medical man—I give my attention chiefly to chemical analyses—I quite agree with Dr. Stevenson as to the test of taste and the experiments on animals—I do not knew that an application was made to the Home Office for an expert to be present at the analyses on behalf the prisoner and refused, of my own knowledge.

  SAMUEL PHILIP EASTWICK . I am a chemical lecturer—I commenced lecturing at Mr. Bedbrook's school on chemistry and physics at Easter, 1881, and continued till the summer holidays in July—I went on alternate Tuesday afternoons—I brought the apparatus from my laboratory in Trinity Square, City—some glass tubes and acids which were being required every week were left at Mr. Bedbrook's, and kept in a cupboard, which was fastened by a button near the top—the tubes and utensils were put away each day by me—when I required it, a boy used to assist me, but not always—I always found them as I left them—they were sulphuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, some ammonia, lime-Water, and a few salts—there were no poisons among them.

  LAWRENCE JOHN WHALLEY . I am an analytical chemist and lecturer, of Lewisham High Road—during Michaelmas term, 1881, I attended at Blenheim House School in place of Mr. Eastwick, from the end of Sept. to 14th Dec.—I lectured on organic chemistry and physics—I used to lecture, and the boys wrote out the answers, and whatever chemical demonstrations were necessary I conducted them—I left some chemicals

in the cupboard—I used to put them away and take them out myself—the cupboard was fastened by a button—I occasionally left poisons there, acetate of lead and sulphuric and hydrochloric acids—they are poisons.

  JOHN HUMPHREY HOWARD RICHARDSON , M. R. C. S. I live in York Road, Wandsworth—in the winter months of 1879 and 1880 I was assistant to Dr. Berry, and sometimes assisted at the school—I knew the deceased, and I once attended him professionally on 26th March last year—it was for an eruption on the face—I prescribed for him half a dram of Fowler's solution of arsenic, a dram of solution of potash, and a saline mixture sufficient to make six ounces, from a private prescription—that was the only medicine I prescribed—the eruption was of a trifling character, probably arising from constitutional causes.

  DAVID ORMOND . I live at Enmore Park, South Norwood, and am a trustee under the will of the late Mrs. John, the mother of the deceased—she was the widow of Mr. William John, a Manchester merchant—she died in 1869—there were five children, two girls and three boys—the eldest, Miss Kate John, was married to the prisoner on 16th October, 1878—one of the sons, Sydney, died on April 12, 1873, and Hubert, one of the other sons, on June 24, 1879, under age—his share of the property was divided between the sisters, Mrs. Lamson, Mrs. Chapman, and the deceased—at the time of the deceased's death he was possessed of, in India Four per Cents, 1,991l. 5s. 11d.; and 1,078l. 18s. 7d. in Consols, producing about 109l. per annum; the value together would be something over 3,000l.—whatever he died possessed of, he being under age, would go to his two sisters in equal moieties.

Cross-examined. The children were wards in Chancery—the share which Mrs. John became entitled to by the death of her brother Hubert was paid over to her as quickly as possible through the solicitor—it was in November.

  WILLIAM GREENHILL CHAPMAN . I live at Willesden, and am a clerk in the Civil Service—I married Miss Margaret John, the second sister of the deceased, in 1877—in 1878 the prisoner was married to Miss Kate John—at the end of 1879 or the beginning of 1880 he went to practise at Bournemouth—I remember his finally leaving England in April last and going to America—he was away about six weeks—in August, 1881, I went to Shanklin on a Saturday, and I think it was the 27th—my wife and the deceased went with me; the prisoner was staying with his mother at that time at Ventnor, which is 4 or 5 miles from Shanklin—the prisoner and his wife met us at Shanklin Station when we arrived—I knew he intended returning to America very shortly—he remained at Shanklin two or three hours; he said he should call on Monday to see the deceased and say goodbye to him before going back to America—on Monday I did not see the prisoner; he did not say at what time he should call, and I was out when he called—when I came in, the deceased complained of being unwell and feeling sick—I did not see him actually vomiting—he went to bed about an hour and a half after dinner, about 9 o'clock—I came in about half-past 3 or 4 o'clock, and he said he felt sick then—I did not see him again that night after he went to bed.

Cross-examined. I said before the Magistrates "I do not call it illness, but indisposition—from 3 or 4 till 9 o'clock he was with me all the time—after he went to bed I did not see him till next morning at breakfast; my wife was with me up to breakfast time—he went from his bedroom up to

the landing—he could go upstairs quicker than you or I could; he travelled upstairs with his hands; there was no difficulty in his crawling about to get from place to place—he could get upstairs without difficulty.

Re-examined. He propelled himself with his hands from step to step backwards, seating himself from step to step—he had visited me on other occasions, but no medical man ever prescribed for him while he was staying with me.

By MR. WILLIAMS. I saw him last before his death on 10th September, when we left him at Mr. Bedbrook's on our return from Shanklin—this paper (produced) is the prisoner's writing to the best of my belief.

Monday, March 13 th.

  WILLIAM STEVENSON . I live at Heywood, Bournemouth—I am the editor of the Bournemouth Observer—I made the acquaintance of the prisoner in October, 1879, when he resided at Beaumont Terrace, Bournemouth—he afterwards removed to another residence called Hursley, which was a house standing in its own grounds—about the end of 1880 the prisoner had communicated to me that he was in difficulties with regard to money, and in April, 1881, he informed me that there was one execution in his house—I subsequently found there were two—I afterwards introduced to the prisoner a Mr. M'Ewen Brown as a suitable person to make an arrangement with his creditors—his furniture was sold by private aution; Mr. M'Ewen Brown bought it and paid out the executions, and had an absolute assignment of the furniture to himself—in the month of April, 1881, the prisoner left Bournemouth for America—at that time he owed me over 100l.—that money is still owing—on the 26th of October, 1881, I received this letter from the prisoner. (This, dated 25 th, stated that it was his intention to raise a sum of money in London for the purpose of satisfying his creditors at Bournemouth.) I saw the prisoner on the following evening, the 27th October, when he asked me for a case of surgical instruments which he had left with me, a travelling rug, and 5l.—I let him have them, and he left Bournemouth at midday on 28th, and I have not seen him since until now—I have seen a case of instruments in the possession of Mr. Robinson, a pawnbroker—that was the case which I had given to the prisoner.

  EDWARD WYSE REBBECK . I am an estate agent at Bournemouth, and am agent for the owner of Hursley, which was occupied by the prisoner—he paid the rent to Christmas, 1880, but the rent to Lady Day, 35l., was not paid—a distress was made, the furniture and effects were seized, and I paid the landlord his rent—the balance, 40l. 17s., was passed over to the Sheriff towards other executions—I believe there were three writs in the hands of the Sheriff—the distress was levied at the latter part of March I believe.

  MEYRICK HEATH . I am cashier at the Bournemouth branch of the Wilts and Dorset Banking Company—I knew the prisoner in the way of business—he opened an account at our bank on 9th November, 1880—it was closed in January, 1881—I wrote him a letter on 20th January, 1881 (Notice to produce this and other letters was proved by William Morley, French clerk to Messrs. Wontner, solicitors conducting the prosecution for the Treasury. The letter not being produced, a copy was read as follows: "Dear Sir,—I much regret that the bank will not allow me to honour any further cheque of yours until you provide for them. I must therefore

request you not to draw more cheques before your remittances arrive. Yours faithfully, M. Heath, pro Manager. ")

  WILLIAM RANSOME CORDER . I am a surgeon—I was a surgeon on board the steamship City of Berlin, which sailed from Liverpool on April 7th last, and arrived at New York on the 17th—the prisoner, who was a passenger on board, introduced himself, and said that he had sold his practice in Bournemouth in consequence of illhealth—on 2nd July following I again saw the prisoner on board the same steamer, which was then homeward bound—the prisoner said he was in want of money, and if I lent him 5l. he would repay it on his arrival in London—I lent him the money—I afterwards met him in London—I did not ask him for it—the money has not been paid.

  ROBERT ILIFF . I am baggage master to the Inman Steamship Company, Liverpool—I remember the steamship City of Brussels leaving Liverpool on 30th August last year—the prisoner left on board for New York.

  THOMAS NEWCOMB . I am a purser in the service of the Inman Steamship Company—on 6th October last I sailed from New York in the steamship City of Montreal—we arrived at Liverpool on 16th or 17th October—the prisoner was a passenger on board.

  JAMES CROOME . I am one of the firm of Croome and Son, upholsterers, of Bournemouth—in January, 1881, the prisoner owed us 63l. 4s. 3d. for goods supplied from November, 1879—I issued a writ and put in an execution in March, but was too late; the goods were all removed—I received 14l. 6s. 7d. from the Sheriff, and the balance is still unpaid.

  THOMAS CULLAN . I am a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and carry on business in Vigo Street—in November, 1880, the prisoner applied to me, and I lent him 200l. between 23rd November, 1880, and 1st March, 1881—I received this letter from him in New York:—" New York, 27th May. My dear brother Cullan,—I am only just off a sick-bed, which has very nearly ended my earthly career, and I feel I must send you a few lines just to tell you of the cause of my long silence. My obligation to you hangs constantly over my head, and by the next European mail (early next week) I trust to be able to send a more satisfactory letter. In the greatest haste, gratefully and sincerely yours, and with best fraternal greetings, GEO. H. LAMSON. TO Thos. Cullan, Esq."—I never saw or heard from him after that.

  THOMAS ALFRED ROBINSON . I am a pawnbroker, of 26, Mortimer Street, Regent Street—this contract note of 24th November, 1881, refers to the pawning by Dr. G. H. Lamson, of Nelson's Hotel, of a case of surgical instruments and a gold hunting watch for 5l.—the instruments are those shown to Mr. Stevenson this morning—the prisoner pawned them himself, and signed this counterfoil.

  JOHN HENRY ASHBRIDGE . I am stationmaster at Ryde, Isle of Wight—on 30th November, about 2 p.m., I saw the prisoner at Ryde Pierhead on his arrival from Portsmouth—he came to me with one of the tickettakers, and said that he wished to get to Ventnor and had no money, and would I enable him to get on—he said that he was well known, and I let him go in charge of a guard—he said that he should return by the 3.10 train from Ventnor—that would only give him three or four minutes there—the fare was 2s. 10d.—I did not see him afterwards, but I ascertained that the money was paid.

  PRICE OWEN . I am a wine merchant, of High Street, Ventnor—I know the prisoner—on 30th November I had been out; my clerk sent for me, and I found the prisoner there—my clerk said in his presence that he had cashed a cheque for 10l. for the prisoner—the prisoner said that he had called to ask me to cash a cheque for 20l., but that he was in such a hurry to catch the train, he had not waited for me to return—there was a cab at the door, and he went away—he returned in 10 or 15 minutes and said that he had lost the train, and would I now cash him a cheque for 20l.—I did so, and he handed me this cheque (Dated 30 th November, 1881, on the Wilts and Dorset Bank. Pay Price Owen or order, 20l.)—I tore up the 10l. cheque and burnt it in his presence—that was on the same bank, out of the same book—after a little conversation he left—on 1st December I received this telegram. (From Dr. Damson, Horsham Railway Station, to Pries Owen:—"Just discovered the cheque you cashed yesterday made on wrong bank; please don't send it on. Letter follows next post. ") In the course of post I received this letter from the prisoner: "Nelson's Hotel, Great Portland Street, London, December 1, 1881. Dear Sir,—I sent you a telegram just before leaving my friends at Horsham, telling you I had written my cheque on the wrong bank, which was the case. I formerly had an account at the Wilts and Dorset Bank, but have since transferred my business to another house. The cheques are precisely the same colour, and as I left home in a great hurry I suatched up from my drawer what I thought was the right book, but I was mistaken. I had in my hurry taken my old Wilts and Dorset chequebook, which contained a few blank cheques. I have not the right book with me, but have wired home for it to be sent me by return to Ventnor, where I return tomorrow or next day; I shall then immediately set the matter right with you. Begging you will excuse such an inexcusable piece of stupidity on my part, in great haste, yours faithfully, Geo. H. Lamson, M. D.") The cheque was returned dishonoured, and I have never received my 20l.

  JOHN LAW TULLOCH . I am a student of medicine, and live at Alma Square, St. John's Wood—I have known the prisoner for some time—I saw him last December, and had not seen him since the previous April—I saw him on December 1 last, on Thursday night, at my house—I think he said he was going to Paris on the following morning—he said he was staying at Nelson's Hotel—the next day he called upon me at 1.30, and had dinner; he then said he was going to Paris in the evening—I went with him to Nelson's Hotel, and assisted him in packing his luggage—I went with him from the hotel to Waterloo Station; we took a large leather portmanteau and handbag, and, I think, a rug; we went to the cloakroom—he said whilst packing that he would run down to Wimbledon to see if he could see his brother-in-law, and if he could catch the train afterwards he would go on to Paris—at the cloakroom he deposited the portmanteau and rug, and took the handbag with him—we went together to Wimbledon; it was, I think, about 6 o'clock—when we got to Wimbledon he told me he was going opposite, to the school; Mr. Bedbrook's—I waited for him at a public-house—he came back in about 20 minutes, and said he had seen his brother-in-law, who was very much worse, and he did not think he would live long, and that Mr. Bedbrook, who was a director of one of the Continental lines to Paris, told him it was as well that he did not go that night, as there was a bad boat on the service—we

returned to town together, and went to the Comedy Theatre, Panton Street; after that we went to Stone's public-house opposite the theatre, where he wrote a cheque for 12l. 10s. in my favour, handed it to me, and asked me to get it cashed for him—we went first to the Adelphi Hotel in Adam Street, but we could not get it cashed there—we then drove to the Eyre Arms, St. John's Wood, near to which I reside—Mr. Perrot, the landlord, cashed the cheque for me, and I handed the money to the prisoner, and parted from him for the night, and arranged to meet him at the Adelphi Hotel next day—I saw him there at about 3 or 4 o'clock on Saturday, December 3—he said he was too late for the Paris train; he should go to the Horse Shoe—I went down to see him off that afternoon, but he was too late, and said he should go in the evening—we went to the Horse Shoe to have some refreshments—when there we found that one of the bags, which was supposed to contain 5l. of silver contained only copper—we returned to the Eyre Arms and got the copper changed for a 5l. note—he left me there at about 6 o'clock—I did not see or hear from him again until after he was in custody—the cheque went forward for presentation, and was dishonoured—it is marked "No account"—since he has been in custody I received this letter from him: "Clerkenwell, December 13, 1881. I have only today learned that the cheque you had cashed for me had been returned. I discovered when too late that I had given it on the wrong bank in Bournemouth by mistake, but sent word there to advise them what has been done, but the events of the past few days stopped everything. I have, however, given the necessary instructions, and the amount will be in your hands very soon. I confess I am very much surprised at the whole affair, and more than anything at your attitude towards, or I should better say, against me, which I am pained and hurt at after your words of a few days ago. For obvious reasons any further explanations must be deferred to a future period.—I am, yours, &c, G. H. Lamson. J. L. Tulloch, Esq. "I have not received the money.

Cross-examined. I have said today "The prisoner said on December 2 the boy is very much worse, and I don't think he will last long," that is correct—I cannot remember whether I said before the Magistrate that the prisoner said" I have been to the school and seen the boy, and he is not very well"—I may have said" The curvature of the spine is getting worse, and the boy generally is not in a good state of health"—I do not think he said anything to me about the boy having been passing though his examination that day—I was perfectly sober that night—my brother is here—the endorsement on the cheque is mine; it was signed that night—I had been on friendly terms with the prisoner—he had lent me money as often as I had lent him—I no not still owe him money—he did not lend me 20l. actually—he gave me a oheque for 20l., which covered a debt of his to me—in August, 1879, I think I owed him 20l.—this letter is in my writing. (The letter was dated August 23, 1879; in it the witness referred to a loan of 20l., which he had received from the prisoner, and which he hoped soon to discharge, and requested to lend him another 20l., and "so add one to the list of favours and kindnesses already very long" which he had experienced from him.) He had been very kind to me, I do not mean in the way of money, but whenever he came to town he used to send for me, and take me out to dinner and to the theatre, and he would pay for all.

Re-examined. I never got the second 20l.—I have repaid the 20l.

  WILLIAM TULLOCH (Not examined in chief.) Cross-examined. The 5l. which the prisoner received from the pawning of the instruments he gave to me, I believe—I have known him some time, and have been on very friendly terms with him—I know of my own knowledge that he has suffered most acutely from neuralgia—I have found him in all his dealings a kindly man, most certainly—he has lent me money on one or two occasions—I think I received the 5l. on November 24—I was temporarily pressed for money, and, understanding that Dr. Lamson was a man of means, I had written to ask him for it—I did not know how he obtained it—I received it from him personally—he came to my office in Moorgate Street—I think I can produce the press copy of my letter, but have not got it with me.

  SIDNEY HARBORD . I am cashier at the American Exchange, Strand—the prisoner was a subscriber to the end of March—I saw him on Nov. 28 last—he brought a cheque for 15l. on the Wilts and Dorset Bank, and asked me to cash it—he told me he was Dr. Lamson, and was staying at Nelson's Hotel—I declined to do it in the absence of the head of the agency, and he took it away—this label marked "Capsules" was attached to a parcel which came to the agency from New York for the prisoner about three weeks before 28th November—I cannot read the date; I can only see "ork"—it was damaged coming through the post, and it would be put into a box kept for that purpose and given to the prisoner when he called—this is one of our receipts: "George H. Lamson, Esq., 5s. for one month, March 30, 1881. "

  JAMES CREIGHTON NELSON . I am the proprietor of Nelson's Hotel, Great Portland Street—the prisoner was staying at my hotel in November last year and down to December—I rendered him accounts on two or three occasions—the total amount due was 7l. 17s. 7d. down to 2nd December—on 26th November I received this letter from him. (Read: Saturday morning, 26, 11, 81. Dear Sir,—I have been sent for to go with as little delay as possible to the place where my wife is now staying, as my little girl is quite ill, and my wife is terribly anxious about the child, and wishes besides to change her quarters. She will come to London for a short time until I leave for the Continent myself. As I am therefore very anxious to yield to her wishes, and as it would render it impossible for me to bring her back with me if I went into the City to procure the sum I require for the journey, her account, &c., up to the present time, I venture to ask you if you would be good enough to let me have 5l. until my return with her in the evening (today). I should be very sorry to have to put you to any inconvenience, but I feel certain you will do this for me, knowing my parents, &c., &c. If I do not catch the 10.30 train from Victoria I cannot return to-day, as it is important that I should. I should require the sitting-room (No. 29) which my mother had while here. The bedroom I now occupy would be naturally sufficient for my wife and self, but if she wishes the child to come here as well I should require another room for her and the nurse. I shall ask you to kindly see that a large trunk be taken out of the left luggage room at Euston Station and brought here and kept in a safe place, as it contains a quantity of silver plate and household valuables worth a considerable sum. Mrs. Lamson wishes to have the plate, &c., and some music contained in the same trunk for her own use. Excuse the very bad and illegible manner I have written this note, but my eyesight

is very bad by artificial light, and I have mislaid my glasses. Apologising for venturing to ask the favour I seek from you, I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully, Geo. H. Lamson. (Room 30.) "I did not comply with the request to let him have 5l.—on Nov. 29 I received this letter from him. "Dr. Lamson (from room No. 30) begs that some one may be sent to Mr. Buszard's, confectioner, &c., Oxford Street, two or three doors from the Pantheon, going towards Oxford Circus, and the following articles procured and brought here for Dr. Lamson, viz., one Dundee cake, 3s. size; 2lbs. crystallized fruits, assorted. In these fruits the following fruits to be left out (chinois, green or yellow, or limes) and nuts. Only the following to be sent in these fruits—apricots (glace, not crystallised), greengages (glace, and only two or three of them), some small yellow plum cherries, "brochettes," knottes, and lunnettes. A large proportion of the three last articles in the 2lbs. as ordered is desired. Dr. Lamson would suggest that the above order be shown to the attendant at Buszard's, as the messenger could hardly be expected to remember the whole order as above given. Dr. Lamson begs there may be no delay in sending for these articles, as he wishes to take them with him to Harrow for a birthday gift, and he particularly wishes to start early so as to be back soon to prepare for leaving for the Continent in the evening. As Dr. Lamson does not know the price of the articles he has ordered, he begs they may be paid for him, and he will settle when he comes down to breakfast. Room No. 30, Nelson's Portland Hotel, November 29, 1881. "That was not complied with—I did not send for them and pay for them—I saw him on the Friday evening he left; he said he would take a portion of his luggage with him, and the remainder he would come for in about two hours; that he would pay his bill, and then start for the Continent—I did not see him again till I saw him at Wandsworth—the police searched the portmanteaus that were left with me—they are still in my possession.

Cross-examined. I had known his father—he came up in the early part of November—I understand he is a reverend gentleman, and is an American clergyman at Florence—his name was given as the Rev. Mr. Lamson.

  DAVID ORMOND (Re-examined). The sum of 497l. 16s. 5d. in India Four Cents., a portion of Hubert's money, was transferred to the prisoner on 24th September, 1879, in Consols—the will of Mr. H. John, the father of the deceased, is here—Mrs. John had only a life interest.

Cross-examined. I do not know that the prisoner's wife was entitled to an equity of the settlement, which she waived.

  WILLIAM GREENHILL CHAPMAN (Re-examined). The signature "George Henry Lamson" to these two affidavits are the prisoner's, and also the signature to this agreement. (The affidavits stated that no settlement was made on or before the prisoner's marriage other than the agreement marked" B, "which was dated 14 th October, 1878, and recited that Kate John was possessed of six freehold mortgage bonds, guaranteed by the Mercantile Trust Company of New York, value 1,000 dollars, for her sole and separate use, free from the control of any husband)—I received this letter dated 7th December, 1881, from the prisoner. (Read:" Paris, Wednesday morning, Dec. 7, 1881. My dear Will,—Your letter reached me on Monday night too late to catch any train except one, via Dieppe, and which I should have had to rush for. This the doctor would not allow me to do. I was so prostrate at

the sudden, awful, and most unexpected news that I became delirious very soon. I was obliged to remain in bed all day yesterday. Early this morning I saw the Evening Standard. I read therein the dreadful suspicion attached to my name. I need not tell you of the absolute falsity of such a fearful accusation. Bedbrook was present all the time I was in the house, and if there was any noxious substance in the capsule it must have been in his sugar, for that was all there was in it. He saw me take the empty capsule and fill it from his own sugarbasin. However, with the consciousness that I am an innocent and unjustly accused man, I am returning at once to London to face the matter out. If they wish to arrest me they will have ample opportunity of doing so. I shall attempt no concealment. I shall arrive at Waterloo Station about 9.15 tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Do try and meet me there. If I do not see you there I shall go straight to your house, trusting to the possibility of finding Kitty there.—In great haste, yours truly, GEO. H. LAMSON.—W. G. Chapman, Esq. "

Cross-examined. The marriage took place in October, 1878, to the best of my recollection—there is one little girl.

INSPECTOR BUTCHER (Re-examined). The matter was put into my hands on Monday, 5th December—on the evening of the 7th I went to Mr. Chapman's at Willesden—next morning, the 8th, I sent Sergeant Moser to Paris—on the morning of the 8th I was at Scotland Yard; the prisoner came there—I saw him in a room there, and he said, "Mr. Butcher?"—I said "Yes"—he said, "My name is Lamson; I am Dr. Lamson, whose name has been mentioned in connection with the death at Wimbledon"—I said, "Will you be seated?"—he continued, "I have called to see what is to be done about it; I considered it best to do so; I read the account in the public papers at Paris, and came over this morning; I have only just now arrived in London; I am very unwell, and much upset about this matter, and am not in a fit state at all to have undertaken the journey"—I made a communication to Chief Superintendent Williamson, and then said to the prisoner, "You will have to remain for a time"—I remained with him—his wife was present, and he conversed on various subjects for some time—he then said, "Where is the delay? I thought I would come here and leave my address. I am going into the country, to Chichester, so that you would know where to find me and attend the inquest. I have travelled from Paris, via Havre and Southampton; I went over via Dover and Calais. "I then again saw Chief Superintendent Williamson, and called the prisoner into another room—I said, "Your case has been fully considered, and it has been decided to charge you with causing the death of Percy John. I thereupon take you into custody, and charge you with causing the death of Percy Malcolm John at Blenheim House, Wimbledon, on December 3rd"—he said, "Very well. Do you think bail will be accepted? I hope the matter will be kept as quiet as possible for the sake of my relations"—I said, "You will now be taken to Wandsworth Police-court, and when before the Magistrates the question of bail will rest with them"—I conveyed him in a cab to Wandsworth, and on the way he said, "You will have my father here in a day or two. I hope it will be stated that I came to Scotland Yard voluntarily, and that I came from Paris on purpose"—I said, "Certainly"—I searched the prisoner at Wandsworth Station and found two letters, one signed "J. W. L." and the other

"W. Tulloch," an envelope containing his address in Paris, a pawnbroker's ticket for a case of surgical instruments and gold watch, a cloakroom ticket, a chequebook upon the Wilts and Dorset Bank, seven and a half francs, 6 1/2 d. in bronze, and the diary produced—in the box at the Euston cloakroom I found some prescription books, a cloakroom ticket books of various kinds, a quantity of music, several plated goods, and a large number of letters.

Cross-examined. When he came to Scotland Yard his wife came with him.

The SOLICITORGENERAL read from one of the books found in possession of the prisoner the following extract:—"Effects of acrid vegetable poisons when swallowed: Soon after swallowing any of these poisons there is felt an acrid biting, more or less bitter tasting in the mouth, with great dryness and burning heat. The throat becomes painfully tight, with a sense of strangling, distressing retching, vomiting and purging, and pains more or less severe in the stomach and bowels ensue, and those are succeeded by a quick and throbbing pulse, oppressed breathing and panting, a tottering gait, as if the patient were intoxicated, alarming weakness, sinking, and death. Sometimes there are convulsions more or less severe, acute pain, causing plaintive cries, with stiffness of the limbs. The several poisons of this class vary much in the violence of their effects."

  GEORGE LAMB . I am a porter at Wimbledon station, the SouthWestern line station—I was on duty there on the evening of Dec. 3—shortly before the 7.20 train was due the prisoner came on the platform, and asked me if it was the Waterloo train—I told him that it was—he got into a carriage, and then asked me if there was time to change carriages—I told him there was, and he did so—he then asked me if I could send a message to Blenheim House, and I told him that I could take it—he wrote something on an envelope, and placed some money inside—I took it to Blenheim House, and left it there.

At MR. WILLIAMS'S request, the following letter was read, addressed to the prisoner's solicitor:

"Whitehall, Dec. 15, 1881. Sir,—The Secretary of State having had under his consideration your letter of the 13th inst., requesting that Dr. G. H. Lamson should be permitted to be represented by an analyst at the examination which is about to be made of the stomach and viscera of Malcolm John deceased, I am directed to acquaint you that he is unable to comply with your request, the presence of a third medical man at an official analysis ordered by this department being contrary to all practice.—I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. F. 0. LIDDELL. A. W. Mills, Esq., 6, South Square, Gray's Inn, W. C."

GUILTY.— DEATH .