PART III.

The determination of the College concerning the Questions proposed to them by the King’s Majestie about the death of _Joseph Lane_.

The College of Physicians in London being lawfully assembled by the command of their Sovereign Lord the King, about certain questions proposed concerning the death of _Joseph Lane_, reported to be killed by poison, and having made a diligent search, and well considering all circumstances relating; 1. As to the state of the body of the foresaid Lane; 2. As to the disease which (by a long series of violent symptoms) brought him to his end; 3. As to the kind and appearance of his death; 4. As to the observations made upon his dead body by the Physicians and Chirurgeons present; 5. As to the conjectures taken from the strict examination of a _bolus_ extremely suspicious, whose parts were artificially separated, found in Mr. _Lane_’s house when dead, and after brought into Court before the Judges, and from thence to the Physicians at their College: To whom (by the command and in the name of the King) Letters were wrote from the Right honourable Sir John Cooke principal Secretary of State that they might diligently enquire and give a faithful account to the following Questions, 1 Concerning Lane’s death, whether it was procured from Poison? 2 Their opinion about a purging potion carried the 4th of April, 1632 from Mr. _Mathews_ an Apothecary’s shop to _Lane’s_ House; and taken by Lane the 6th, whether it had any thing of poison in it? The College after very mature deliberation, did humbly present the following Decree to his sacred Majesty as a testimony of their obedience.

1 That the said _Joseph Lane_ did certainly dye of a violent death. 2 That he had taken poison, and that corrosive. 3 That they could determine nothing concerning the Potion sent and given by Mr. _Mathews_ the Apothecary to Mr. _Lane_ without the advice of any Physician, because many of their Medicines were too negligently prepared by their Servants; But if this potion did only consist of those ingredients which he had given an account of, and for which we have solely his word, then there was nothing of poison contained therein. 4. In the remainder of the aforesaid _Bolus_ there was found Mercury Sublimate, not sweet, but the most harsh and highly caustick, which was separated from the rest of the _Bolus_ and shown to the whole College; In testimony whereof the College by the unanimous Consent of the President and Fellows and all present at this consultation, signed this Decree with their own hands, and sealed it with the College Seal, that it might appear more authentick.

And because that from the beginning of the world to this very day good and wholesome Laws have derived their original from evil manners, the whole College of Physicians doe most humbly beseach your most sacred Majesty that as the Father of your Country, you would consult the health and welfare both of your City Subjects and would by your Royal Proclamation strictly command that for the future, No Grocer, Drugster, Apothecary, Chymist, or any other person presume to sell Arsenick, Quicksilver, Sublimate, Precipitate, Opium, Coloquintida, Scammony, Hellebore, or other Druggs either poisonous or dangerous, to poor sorry Women or poor people (which hath been too common) but only to those who are willing to give their names; that if there should be occasion they may give an account of the reason of their buying these dangerous medicines.

May it likewise please your Majesty to issue out your Royal Edict under the most severe penalties, that no Apothecary for the future shall dare to compound for the Well, or administer to the Sick any medicines, especially Vomits, Purges, Opiates, Mercurial or Antimonial remedies without the prescription of Physicians then living; which prescription they shall be bound to produce upon the command or request of the Censors of the College. He that shall act contrary, shall be punished by the Law as a publick enemy to the life of man. Dated from the College of Physicians in London the Last day of May 1632 And subscribed

Dr. ARGENT President (and seventeen others)

(_See Goodall’s Proceedings_)

Case of Standsfield.

Edinburgh Dec^r 1. 1687.

We under Subscribers, James Craufurd and James Muirhead, Chirurgeons in Edinburgh, having order from Sir John Dalrymple his Majesty’s Advocate, to go to Morum and there to take up the Corps of Sir James Standsfield, and to sight and view the same exactly, and if need were, to open up the body, and to consider whether there appeared any evidence of wounds, bruises, or strangling upon the Corps, besides what might have happened by his falling or drowning in the water, &c. In obedience thereto, we caused take up the said corps in the presence of “(here follow the names)” indwellers in New Milns, and some others. Having with all possible exactness viewed the corps we observed the face a little swelled, and inclining to a dark reddish colour, some fulness of some capillarie veins in the pallet of the mouth towards the uvula, as also a large and conspicuous swelling, about three inches broad, of a dark red or blue colour, from one side of the larinx round backwards to the other side thereof; we observed the jugular veins on both sides the neck very large and distended and full of blood; there was a large swelling under and betwixt the chin and the cartilago scutiformis; there was also a little scratch below the left mandibula, which had rankled the cuticula, and made some little impression on the cutis: Having made incission from the chin down about the larinx, and cross upon the swelling of the neck, we found a greater laxness and distance (as we think) than ordinary betwixt the cartilago scutiformis and os hyoides; we found the tumour on the neck, containing bruised, like dark or blackish blood; the jugulars, when cut, bled inconsiderably especially that on the left side.

Having opened his breast we found the lungs distended to the filling up their capacities, but free of water: his stomach, liver &c. were all in good condition; we found no water at all; the breast, belly, privy parts, &c. were all well coloured, there was no swelling in his belly, nor any thing by ordinary to be seen on his head. This we attest and subscribe with our hands.

James Craufurd James Murehead

Report of the Chirurgeons of Edinburgh on the same case.

We under subscribers, Chirurgeons of Edinburgh, having fully considered the report made by James Craufurd and James Murehead concerning the condition of the corps of Sir James Standsfield, and though it be not usual to declare more than matter of fact, yet in obedience to your Lordships commands, where ye desire to be informed, if these symptoms found upon the body, do import drowning or strangling; we humbly offer opinion, so far as our art or experience will allow. And whereas the report informs us, that there was found a swelling and preternatural redness in the face, a large conspicuous tumour, about three inches broad, of a dark red, or black colour, from the one side of the larynx round backwards to the other side thereof, a large swelling betwixt the chin and the cartilago scutiformis, the jugular veins on both sides very much distended; and when incision was made downwards between the os hyoid and larinx was observed a laxness, and distance between the os hyoid and the cartilago scutiformis, incision was made cross alongst the tumour it was found full of bruised blood; the jugulars likewise, when opened, yielded a considerable quantity of blood, especially on the left side, no smell or corruption appearing in any part of the body. It is very probable these parts have suffered some external violence, which hath made them appear so far different from their natural figure and colour, and could not be caused by drowning simply. As to the other part of the report, the breast and belly being opened, the lungs found distended, the bronchi full of air, without any water, nor any water found in the stomach or intestines, a body when drowned being generally found to have much water in it with other circumstances of the report considered, gives just ground to think he was not drowned. This we subscribe at Edinburgh the 3d day of Feb^y 1687

John Ballie, Deacon, Wil Borthwick George Stirling Thomas Edgar James Craufurd James Murehead

The Report of the College of Physicians,

Edinburgh February 6: 1687

The College of Physicians being assembled at the desire of his Majesty’s Advocat, to consider a report made by some Chirurgeons, concerning the body of the late Sir James Standsfield, and to give their opinion, whether by the said report, there is any just ground to believe that the said Sir James Standsfield was strangled or drowned? And they have accordingly considered the said report. They are of opinion, supposing the verity of the said report or declaration that there is sufficient ground to believe, that the said Sir James Standsfield was strangled, and not drowned. In testimony whereof these presents are subscribed by

Sir Andrew Balfour, President of the said College.

A. Balfour PCRM

(_From Howell’s State Trials_).

Extract from Medical Evidence in the Case of _Spencer Cowper_, Esq. for the murder of _Sarah Stout_.

(13 Howell’s State Trials)

Page 1126. Mr. _Coatsworth_ a Surgeon sworn

My Lord in April last I was sent for by Dr. _Philips_ to come to Hertford to see the body of Mrs. _Stout_ opened, who had been six weeks buried; and he told me that there was a suspicion she was murdered, and that her relations were willing to have her taken up and opened. I came down I think on the 27th of April, and lay at Mrs. _Stout_’s house that night; and by her discourse I understood she wanted to be satisfied, whether her daughter was with child? I told her, it was my opinion we should find the parts contained in the abdomen so rotten, that it would be impossible to discover the uterus from the other parts; however, if she would have her opened, I could not discover whether she was with child, unless the infant was become bony. Her face and neck, to her shoulders, appeared black, and so much corrupted that we were unwilling to proceed any further: but, however, her mother would have it done, and so we did open her; and as soon as she was opened, we perceived the stomach and guts were as full of wind as if they had been blown with a pair of bellows; we put her guts aside, and came to the uterus, and Dr. _Philips_ shewed it us in his hand, and afterwards cut it out and laid it on the table, and opened it, and we saw into the cavity of it, and if there had been any thing there as minute as a hair, we might have seen it, but it was perfectly free and empty; after that we put the intestines into their places; and we bid him open the stomach, and it was opened with an incision knife, and it sunk flat, and let out wind, but no water; afterwards we opened the breast and lobes of the lungs, and there was no water; then we looked on each side and took up the lobes of the lungs too, to see if there was no water in the diaphragm, and there was none, but all dry. Then I remember I said, this woman could not be drowned, for if she had taken in water, the water must have rotted all the guts: that was the construction I made of it then; but for any marks about her head and neck, it was impossible for us to discover it, because they were so rotten.

_Edward Clement_ (a seaman) sworn. In the year 89 or 90, in Beachy fight, I saw several thrown over-board during the engagement, but one particularly I took notice of, that was my friend, and killed by my side; I saw him swim for a considerable distance from the ship; and a ship coming under our stern, caused me to lose sight of him, but I saw several dead bodies floating at the same time; likewise in another engagement, where a man had both his legs shot off, and died instantly, they threw over his legs; though they sunk I saw his body float: likewise I have seen several men who have died natural deaths at sea, they have when they have been dead, had a considerable weight of ballast and shot made fast to them, and so were thrown overboard; because we hold it for a general rule, that all men swim if they be dead before they come into the water; and on the contrary, I have seen men when they have been drowned, that they have sunk as soon as their breath was out of their bodies, and I could see no more of them. For instance, a man fell out of the Cornwall, and sunk down to rights, and seven days afterwards we weighed anchor, and he was brought up grasping his arm about the cable: and we have observed in several cases, that where men fall overboard, as soon as their breath is out of their bodies they sink downright; and on the contrary, where a dead body is thrown over-board without weight, it will swim. * * * Men (that are killed) float with their heads just down, and the small of their backs and buttocks upwards, * * * why should government be at that vast charge to allow threescore or fourscore weight of iron to sink any man, but only that their swimming about should not be a discouragement to others.

_Robert Dew_ sworn—* * * (Question by the Prisoner) After she was taken out, did you observe any froth or foam come from her mouth or nose? _Dew_—There was a white froth came from her, and as they wiped it away, it was on again presently.

—— _Young_—(another witness to a similar question)—* * And when they had taken her up (out of the water) they laid her down upon a green place, and after she was laid down a great quantity of froth, like the froth of new beer, worked out of her nostrils. * * * It rose up in bladders, and ran down on the sides of her face, and so rose again.

Dr. _Sloane_ sworn—* * As to my opinion of drowning it is plain, that if a great quantity of water be swallowed into the stomach by the gullet, it will not suffocate or drown the person: Drunkards who swallow a great deal of liquor, and those who are forced by the civil law to drink a great quantity of water, which in giving the question (as it is called) is poured into them by way of torture to make them confess crimes, have no suffocation or drowning happen to them: But on the other hand, when any quantity comes into the wind-pipe, so as it does hinder or intercept inspiration, or coming in of the air, which is necessary for inspiration or breathing, the person is suffocated. Such a small quantity will do, as sometimes in prescriptions, when people have been very weak, or forced to take medicines, I have observed some spoonfuls in that condition (if it went the wrong way) to have choaked or suffocated the person. I take drowning in a great measure to be thus, and when one struggles he may, to save himself from being choaked, swallow some quantity of water, yet that is not the cause of his death, but that which goes into the wind-pipe and lungs. Whether a person comes dead or alive into the water, I believe some quantity will go into the wind-pipe; and I believe without force after death, little will get into the stomach, because that it should, swallowing is necessary, which after death cannot be done. * * *

Baron _Hatsell_. But what do you say to this? if there had been water in the body, would it not have putrified the parts after it had lain six weeks.

Dr. _Sloane_. My Lord, I am apt to think it would have putrified the stomach less than the lungs, because the stomach is a part of the body that is contrived by nature partly to receive liquids; but the contrivance of the lungs is only for the receiving of air; they being of a spongy nature, the water might sink more into them than the stomach; but I believe it might putrify there too after some time. I am apt to think, that when a body is buried under ground, according to the depth of the grave, and difference of the weather and soil, the fermentation may be greater or lesser, and that according to the several kinds of meats or liquids in the stomach, the putrifaction will likewise vary so that it seems to me to be very uncertain.

Baron _Hatsell_. But when they are in a coffin, how is it then?

Dr. _Sloane_. No doubt there will be a fermentation more or less, according as the air comes more or less to the body. Indeed it may be otherwise where the air is wholly shut out, which is supposed to be the way of embalming, or preserving of dead bodies of late, without the use of any spices, which is thought in a great measure to be brought about by the closeness of the coffin, and hindering of the air from coming into the body.

Question (by the Prisoner). Is it possible, in your judgment, for any water to pass into the thorax?

Dr. _Sloane_. I believe it is hardly possible, that any should go from the wind-pipe into the cavity of the thorax, without great violence and force; for there is a membrane that covers the outside of the lungs, that will hinder the water from passing through it into any part without them.

Dr. _Garth_ sworn.—* * * All dead bodies (I believe) fall to the bottom, unless they be prevented by some extraordinary tumour. * * * I believe when she threw _herself_ in, she might not struggle to save herself, and by consequence not sup up much water. Now there is no direct passage into the stomach but by the gullet, which is contracted or pursed up by a muscle in nature of a sphincter: for if this passage was always open like that of the wind-pipe, the weight of the air would force itself into the stomach, and we should be sensible of the greatest inconveniences. * * * My Lord, I think we have reason to suspect the Seaman’s evidence; for he saith that threescore pound of iron is allowed to sink dead bodies, whereas six or seven pounds would do as well; * * the design of tying weights to their bodies, is to prevent their floating at all, which otherwise would happen in some few days.[182]

Dr. _Morley_, the next witness, related some experiments on animals.

Dr. _Wollaston_, sworn.—* * I saw two men that were drowned out of the same boat. They were taken up the next day after they were drowned; one of them was indeed prodigiously swelled, so much that his clothes were burst in several places of his sides and arms, and his stockings in the seams * * the other was not the least swelled in any part nor discolored; he was as lank, I believe, as ever he was in his lifetime, and there was not the least sign of any water in him, except the watery froth at his mouth and nostrils.[183]

Mr. _W. Cooper_, sworn.—* * Dead bodies necessarily sink in water, if no distention of their parts buoy them up; this distention sometimes happens before death, at other times soon after, and in bodies that are drowned after they lie under water.

Dr. _Crell_, sworn.—My Lord, it must be reading, as well as a man’s own experience, that will make any one a Physician: for without the reading of books in that art, the art itself cannot be attained to: besides, my Lord, I humbly conceive, that in such a difficult case as this, we ought to have a great deference for the reports and opinions of learned men: neither do I see any reason why I should not quote the fathers of my profession in this case, as well as you gentlemen of the long robe quote _Coke_ upon _Littleton_ in others. * * I shall only insist on what _Ambrose Pare_ relates in his Chapter of Renunciations. * *

Mr. _Harriot_ (a Naval Surgeon) sworn.—* * When we threw men overboard that were killed, some of them swam and some sunk * * (when a dead body is thrown overboard) I always observed that it did sink. * *

Mr. _Bartlet_ (a Naval Surgeon), sworn.—* * I never saw any bodies float, either of the men that were killed in our ship, or in the ships that have been near us; I have not seen a body on the surface of the water.

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We have merely made comparatively short extracts from this trial, as more copious quotations, both of the evidence, and pamphlets subsequently published, would have occupied too great a space. The whole will be found in _Howell’s State Trials_, and is well worthy of the attention of the Medical or Legal reader.

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Extracts from the Evidence of Doctor Anthony Addington, on the trial of _Mary Blandy_ at Oxford 1752, for the Murder of her Father by Arsenic.

Dr. Anthony Addington & Dr. William Lewis sworn.

_Counsel._ Did you, Dr. Addington, attend Mr. Blandy in his last illness?

_Dr. Addington._ Yes, Sir.

_C._ When was you called to him the first time?

_Dr. A._ On Saturday evening August the 10th.

_C._ In what condition did you find him?

_Dr. A._ He was in bed; and told me, that after drinking some gruel on Monday night, August the 5th, he had perceived an extraordinary grittiness in his mouth, attended with a very painful burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with sickness and gripings; which symptoms had been relieved by fits of vomiting and purging.

_C._ Were those fits owing to any physic he had taken or to the gruel?

_Dr. A._ Not to any physic; they came on very soon after taking the gruel.

_C._ Had he taken no physic that day?

_Dr. A._ No.

_C._ Did he make any further complaints?

_Dr. A._ He said, that, after drinking more gruel on Tuesday night August the 6th, he had felt the grittiness in his Mouth again, and that the burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach and bowels, had returned with double violence and had been aggravated by a prodigious swelling of the belly, and exquisite pains and prickings in every external as well as internal part of his body, which prickings he compared to an infinite number of needles darting into him all at once.

_C._ How soon after drinking the gruel?

_Dr. A._ Almost immediately. He told me likewise, that at the same time, he had had cold sweats, hiccup, extreme restlessness and anxiety; but that then, viz. on Saturday night August the 10th, having had a great many stools, and some bloody ones, he was pretty easy every where, except in his mouth, lips, nose, eyes, and fundament; and except some transient gripings in his bowels. I asked him, to what he imputed those uneasy sensations in his mouth, lips, nose, and eyes? he said to the fumes of something he had taken in his gruel on Monday night August the 5th, and Tuesday night August the 6th.

On inspection, I found his tongue swelled and his throat slightly inflamed and excoriated. His lips especially the upper one were dry and rough, and had angry pimples on them. The inside of his nostrils was in the same condition. His eyes were a little blood-shot. Besides these appearances, I observed that he had a low, trembling, intermitting pulse; a difficult unequal respiration; a yellowish complexion; a difficulty in the utterance of his words; and an inability of swallowing even a tea-spoonful of the thinnest liquor at a time.

As I suspected that these appearances and symptoms were the effect of poison, I asked Miss Blandy whether Mr. Blandy had lately given offence to either of his servants or clients or any other person? She answered _That he was at Peace with all the World, and that all the World was at Peace with him_. I then asked her whether he had ever been subject to complaints of this kind before? She said, that he had often been subject to the cholic and heart-burn; and that she supposed this was only a fit of that sort, and would soon go off as usual. I told Mr. Blandy that I asked these questions because I suspected that by some means or other he had taken poison. He replied, _It might be so_, or in words to that effect: but Miss Blandy said _It was impossible_.

On Saturday morning August the 10th, he seemed much relieved; his pulse, breath, complexion, and power of swallowing, were greatly mended. He had had several stools in the night and no blood in them. The complaints which he had made of his mouth, lips, nose, and eyes were lessened; but he said the pain in his fundament continued and that he still felt some pinchings in his bowels. On viewing his fundament I found it almost surrounded with gleety Excoriations and Ulcers.

About eight o’clock this Morning I took my leave of him, but before I quitted the room, Miss Blandy desired I would visit him again the next day.

When I got down stairs, one of the maids put a paper into my hands, which she said Miss Blandy had thrown into the kitchen fire, several holes were burnt in the paper but not a letter of the superscription was effaced. The Superscription was, _The Powder to clean the Pebbles with_.

_C._ What is the maid’s name that gave you that paper?

_Dr. A._ I cannot recollect which of the maids it was that gave it to me. I opened the paper very carefully, and found in it a whitish powder, like white arsenic in taste, but slightly discoloured by a little burnt paper mixed with it. I cannot swear this powder was arsenic or any other poison, because the quantity was too small to make any experiment with, that could be depended on.

_C._ What do you really suspect it to be?

_Dr. A._ I really suspect it to be white arsenic.

_C._ Please to proceed Sir.

_Dr. A._ As soon as the maid had left me, Mr. Norton the Apothecary produced a powder, that, he said had been found at the bottom of that mess of gruel, which, as was supposed had poisoned Mr. Blandy. He gave me some of that powder, and I examined it at my leisure, and believe it to be white arsenic.

On Monday morning August the 12th I found Mr. Blandy much worse than I had left him the day before, his bowels were still in pain.

I now desired that another Physician might be called in, as I apprehended Mr. Blandy to be in the utmost danger, and that this affair might come before a Court of Judicature. Dr. Lewis was then sent for from Oxford. I staid with Mr. Blandy all this day. I asked him more than once whether he really thought he had taken poison? He answered each time, that he believed he had. I asked him whether he thought he had taken poison often? He answered in the affirmative. His reasons for thinking so, were, because some of his teeth had decayed much faster than was natural; and because he had frequently for some months past, especially after his daughter had received a present of _Scotch Pebbles_ from Mr. _Cranstoun_, been affected with very violent and unaccountable prickings and heats in his tongue and throat, and with most intolerable burnings, and pains in his stomach and bowels, which used to go off in vomitings and purgings. I asked him whom he suspected to be the giver of the poison? The tears stood in his eyes; yet he forced a smile and said—_A poor Love-sick Girl—I forgive her—I always thought there was mischief in those cursed Scotch Pebbles_.

Dr. Lewis came about eight o’clock in the evening. Before he came Mr. Blandy’s complexion, pulse, breath, and faculty of Swallowing were got much better again; but he complained more of pain in the fundament.

* * * *

_Dr. Addington._ On Tuesday morning August the 13th, we found him worse again. His countenance, pulse, breath and power of swallowing, were extremely bad. He was excessively weak. His hands trembled. Both they and his face were cold and clammy. The pain was intirely gone from his bowels, but not from his fundament. He was now and then a little delirious. He had frequently a short cough, and a very extraordinary elevation of his chest, in fetching his breath; on which occasions an ulcerous matter generally issued from his fundament. Yet in his sensible intervals, he was cheerful and jocose; He said, _He was like a Person bit by a Mad Dog; for that he should be glad to drink, but could not swallow_.

About noon this day his speech faultered more and more. He was sometimes very restless, at others very sleepy. His face was quite ghastly. This night was a terrible one.

On Wednesday morning, August the 14th, he recovered his senses for an hour or more. He told me, he would make his will in two or three days; but he soon grew delirious again; and sinking every moment, died about Two o’Clock in the afternoon.

_C._ Upon the whole, did you then think, from the symptoms you have described, and the observations you made, that Mr. Blandy died by poison?

_Dr. A._ Indeed I did.

_C._ And it is your present opinion?

_Dr. A._ It is; and I have never had the least occasion to alter it. His case was so particular that he had not a symptom of any consequence, but what other persons have had, who have taken White Arsenic; and, after death, had no appearance (_except a stone in the Gall bladder_) in his body, but what other persons have had, who have been destroyed by white arsenic.

_C._ When was his body opened?

_Dr. A._ On Tuesday in the afternoon, August the 15th.

_C._ What appeard on opening it?

_Dr. A._ I committed the appearances to writing, and should be glad to read them, if the Court will give me leave.

Then the Doctor, on leave given by the Court, read as follows:

Mr. Blandy’s back and the hinder part of his arms, thighs, and legs were