He had also found arsenic in a glass of milk in the house, in a vessel in
which luncheon had been sent to the office of Mr. Maybrick, in a medicine
bottle, and in a bottle of glycerine in the lavatory. In fact, one of the
most remarkable features of this case was the number of articles in which
arsenic had been discovered. Dr. Stevenson had also found no arsenic in
the stomach, but had detected a small quantity in the kidney and the
intestines. In a portion of the liver he found an amount which he
calculated to amount to one-third of a grain for the whole liver, and he
gave as his opinion that "the body at the time of death probably contained
approximately a fatal dose of arsenic."
Dr. Tidy, in giving evidence on behalf of the accused, criticised this
evidence of Stevenson on the grounds that it did not necessarily follow
that because one portion of the liver contained so much arsenic, the same
proportion must be present in the remainder. In his experience the amounts
of arsenic retained might vary in different parts of the same organ. He
calculated from the results of Stevenson's analyses that the total amount
of arsenic was 0·082 grains.
If we examine this evidence more closely it is difficult to see upon what
basis Tidy calculated his total. Stevenson had examined approximately one
quarter of the liver, and had extracted from two portions a total quantity
of 0·076 grains, so that, according to Tidy, the remaining three-quarters
could only have contained 0·006 grains of arsenic. On the face of it this
seems an absurd conclusion.
The evidence of Professor Paul went to prove that arsenic was present in
the material of earthenware vessels similar to that in which the lunch was
sent to Mr. Maybrick's office, and that it could be liberated by the
action of an acid, so that the arsenic found in the particular vessel
might have originated from the action of acids in the food itself upon the
interior of the vessel.
As has been mentioned, one of the points brought as evidence against the
prisoner was that a bottle of glycerine had been found in the lavatory,
and that this contained arsenic. There was no evidence that the prisoner
had ever had this bottle in her hand, and, apart from that, arsenic is a
very usual impurity in ordinary commercial glycerine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account