Trial of Dr. PritchardDr. Pritchard was tried in Glasgow, 1865, for the murder of his wife and mother-in-law, Mrs. Michnel Taylor. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aconite administered antimony apoplexy appearance asked Battley's Solution bedroom bottle Catherine Lattimer cheese chemical chloroform CLARK-I commencing consulting-room contained Cowan crime died dining-room doctor doctor of medicine Douglas Maclagan Edinburgh Edward William Pritchard egg-flip evidence examined February Filey Fleming's Tincture following or similar Gairdner gastric fever gave gentlemen Glasgow grains heard hydrochloric acid intestines James Jane Taylor label attached lately residing laudanum Lauder Road letter Littlejohn liver Lord Justice-Clerk M'Call March Mary M'Leod Mary Patterson Medical Prescription medicine mercury Michael Taylor morning mother murder night o'clock opium ounce pantry Paterson Penny phials portion post-mortem present prisoner prisoner's quantity rectum remember Sauchiehall Street sealed label servant sick similar words similarly titled Solicitor-General SOLICITOR-GENERAL-Did stomach symptoms taken tapioca tartar emetic tartarised antimony Taylor's death tell tincture Tincture of Aconite told took upstairs vomiting wife
Popular passages
Page 51 - Glasgow, being all to be used in evidence against you at your trial, will be lodged in due time in the hands of the Clerk of the High Court of Justiciary, before which you are to be tried, that you may have an opportunity of seeing the same...
Page 241 - If you answer the first of these questions in the affirmative, and the second and third in the negative, you are then shut up to this other question — Who committed the murder?
Page 163 - This precipitate, and the remainder of the tartaric acid solution, were reserved for my examination on my return to Edinburgh on the 24th March. I then subjected these materials to the following examination. The orangeyellow precipitate was boiled in a tube with pure hydrochloric acid, and the solution thus obtained was mixed with water, when a white precipitate formed. The fluid containing this precipitate was again subjected to a stream of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and again gave a deposit of...
Page 163 - Reinsch's method, and another fluid drachm was treated by Marsh's process. By each of these well-known methods, and thus operating upon a quantity of fluid corresponding to a forty-second part of the contents of the intestines, I obtained unequivocal evidence of the presence of antimony. By digesting a small quantity of the dried residue of the intestinal contents with distilled water, filtering and subjecting the filtrate to...
Page 182 - ... and no convulsions or spasms of the body were apparent. There was a complete condition of inanity, and with the exception of the open state of the eyes, the animal seemed to be in a state of profound sleep. There was no indication of spasmodic movement; but when aroused or urged to motion, the movements were performed in a crawling tortoise-like manner. In this state the animal remained for several hours, and then gradually recovered. The effects produced by the mixture of genuine...
Page 162 - The whole contents of the intestines weri evaporated to dryness on a water bath, so as to obtain a solid residue ; one-half of this residue was digested with water acidulated with tartaric acid, and filtered, by which a solution measuring two ounces and five drachms was obtained, in which any antimony present in the intestines would be found. One ounce of this fluid was subjected to s.
Page 178 - ... in alphabetical order : — This paper package [A] contained 2850 grains of tapioca. The presence of antimony, in the form of tartarised antimony, was unequivocally detected. Its amount was found to be equal to 4'62 grains in the pound of tapioca. Not a trace of mercury was detected. This bottle...
Page 204 - It provides that the trustees "shall pay one-third part thereof to my son Michael Waistel Taylor, presently in Penrith ; and they shall invest in such way and manner, and in such securities or security of such kind as to them shall seem best, the other two-third parts, and pay the interest or annual produce thereof to my daughter, Mary Jane Taylor or Pritchard, spouse of Edward William Pritchard, surgeon in Hunmanby, and that upon her own receipt as alimentary to her, and exclusive of the...
Page 191 - That having regard to the absence in her case of any morbid appearances sufficient to account for death, and to the presence in it of a large quantity of a substance known to be capable of destroying life, her death must be ascribed to the action of antimony.
Page 149 - I am surprised that I am called on to certify the cause of death in this case. I only saw the person for a few minutes a very short period before her death. She seemed to be under some narcotic, but Dr. Pritchard, who was present from the first moment of the illness until death occurred, and which happened in his own house, may certify the cause. The death was certainly sudden, unexpected, and to me mysterious.