In consequence of the suspicious circumstances attending the death of _Miss Burns_, _Charles Angus_ was indicted for her murder; but, after a trial which occupied the court from eight o’clock on Friday morning, until three on Saturday, the 2d of September, 1808, the prisoner was acquitted. The medical defence, conducted by _Dr. Carson_, and which savoured more of the ingenuity of the forensic pleader, than the justice of the honest inquirer after truth, rested upon the following grounds, viz. 1. The appearances of the stomach upon dissection are to be reconciled upon the supposition of the dissolution of its coats having taken place, _after death_, in consequence of the action of the gastric fluid. 2. The symptoms which preceded death were not such as accompany corrosive poisoning. 3. No poisonous substance was detected in the body. 4. The appearance of the uterus does not justify the conclusion that a delivery had recently taken place; such a dilated state of the organ, had it lately parted with a placenta, must have occasioned death by hemorrhage, or it must have been found gorged with coagulated blood. 5. The appearances may be reconciled by supposing that an expulsion of hydatids had taken place. We must not omit to state, that in consequence of the intense interest excited by this trial, the ovaria were subsequently examined, when a _corpus luteum_ was discovered. We cannot conclude this account without expressing a regret that several important sources of information should have been neglected. The omitting to inspect the appendages of the uterus, to examine the œsophagus, the chest, and the head, and to analyse the membranes of the stomach, are instances of inattention, for which it is not easy to find an excuse. May they furnish a salutary lesson for future anatomists. Footnote 192: Med. Leg. vol. ii, p. 315. Footnote 193: This appearance is particularly mentioned by _Juvenal_ as an effect of poison. “Per famam et populum _nigros_ efferre maritos.”—_Sat._ i, _v._ 72. The reader will remember, that we have already stated our opinion, that the poisons of the ancients were of a vegetable origin. Footnote 194: Dissertatio Inauguralis de effectibus Arsenici in varios Organismos, nec non de Indicus quibusdam Veneficii ab Arsenicoillati. Quam præside _C. F. Kielmayer_ publicé defendet, Jan. 1808, Auctor _Georg_: _Fred_: _Jäeger_, Stuttgardianus. A very full analysis of this Essay was published by Dr. _Siegwart_ in _Gehlen’s_ Chemical and Physical Journal; and which afterwards found its way into the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, no. xxv, Jan. 1811. Footnote 195: Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, no. XX. Footnote 196: Epist. lix, 3. Footnote 197: