Note 162 — Chapter VIII

“His possession of poisonous drugs,” said the Judge in his charge, “to such an extent is not a suspicious circumstance in the case of a medical man. They are in some degree necessary; but the peculiar position of the matter in this case—the nature of the drugs found in his consulting-room—is certainly not to be lightly passed over, and still more the nature of the purchases that he had been making from two different apothecaries during the period to which our inquiries particularly refer. In his consulting-room were found some parcels of tartaric acid—not a very large quantity; some phials, containing the remains of tincture of aconite and white powder to the extent of three or four grains, containing a somewhat strange and unexplained mixture of tartarised antimony or tartar emetic and aconite. These things were found in his consulting-room; but what had he been purchasing during the period to which our inquiry refers? On the 16th of November he purchased an ounce of tartar emetic, and upon the 7th of February another ounce of the same poison—very unusual quantities, as the apothecaries state. He also purchased no less than 5½ ounces of tincture of aconite. That, the apothecaries state, is a very unusual quantity for a medical man to purchase: but I think it was a mistake in some respects to push this statement to the extent to which the prosecutor pressed it, because some of the other witnesses of the same description said that for external application tincture of aconite is sometimes used in considerable quantities, and if it were used for that purpose we might account for such a large quantity being used by the prisoner. But I do not think anybody said, that two ounces of tartar emetic within a month or two was a usual quantity for one medical man to use who was not in the practice of mixing it at home, which the prisoner, in his conversation with Dr. Paterson, says he was not. Besides, there were other very strange purchases, which have no immediate connection with this case—all of them strong poisons. He was, therefore, undoubtedly possessed of a very large quantity of different kinds of poisonous substances; but what is most important is, that he was in possession of that very poison to which the death of Mrs. Pritchard is undoubtedly to be traced, and to which, in combination with others, the death of Mrs. Taylor is to be traced—that is antimony. So that whether we adopt to the full extent the suggestion of the Crown, it appears beyond a doubt that some one had been practising a system of poisoning, and that in the possession of the prisoner were the agents necessary for carrying it on.”