ALLEGED WIFE-MURDER AT NAPIER.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1648, 2 June 1879, Page 4

ALLEGED WIFE-MURDER AT NAPIER.

'Tfie following particulars of the medical evidence given in the charge of wife-murder at Napier are from the latest papers to hand The prisoner, Roderick McLennan, was charged before Mr Kenny, R.M., on Monday, with causing the death of his wife by administering arsenic to her. Dr. Cotterill prosecuted for the Crown, Mr Lascelles appeared for the defence. Dr. Caro stated that when he was called to Mrs McLennan on the 17th March she complained of a tightness in the chest and difficulty of breathing, for which he prescribed. On the same evening she told him she was pregnant, and suffered from excessive morning sickness, and her husband made a similar complaint to him. Her throat was alio slightly inflamed, On the 12th March the deceased said she suffered from palpitation' of the heart, adding that she had consulted Dr. Fish, of Geraldine, for that affection. Dr. Fish then ascribed it to pregnancy, and said it was of no consequence. Prisoner had also told him (witness) that she had consulted Dr. Blair, of Dunedin, for the same complaint. When witness was called in on the morning of her death, the prisoner appeared much affected. He cried bitterly, and said that “ she was an angel of a woman, and never cost him a sigh.’’ Witness was surprised at the suddenness of her death, as she appeared so much better on the previous evening, but there was nothing to cause him to suspect anything. He had for three or four days considered her case a serious one in consequence of the continuance of the excessive sickness. At about two o’clock in the afternoon of the death, the prisoner came to him and asked him for a certificate of death He gave the one produced, which stated tlm jath was due to excessive sickness during pregnancy and to syncope arising from disease of the heart. Ho was in somewhat of a “fix” [to state the cause of death, for though ho had no doubt that she died from natural causes, ho could not well indicate any particular form of disease of the heart. He saw the body again at the post mortem examination. He was n<Bt invited to that examination, but invited himself. The result of the examination convinced him that Mrs M‘Lellan was not pregnant. He still thought her heart was not sound. Had he known at the time of her death, what he knew now, and had found no other cause sufficient to account for death, he would have given the cause of the death as sickness and syncope probably due to disease of the heart. Dr. Caro concluded by reading from a book issued under the authority of the Royal College of physicians, in which it was stated that it was not always possible, even after a post viortem examination, to discover specific disease, and advising that in sobs* such coses some of the leading symptoms of the disease should be named on tho certificate. This he had done. On Tuesday Dr. Hector, the Government analyst, was examined. He deposed to having received the stomach, liver, and spleen of the deceased for examination. Ho first examined the stomach. The exterior of tho organ was decomposed, the interior surface was tolerably well preserved, of a pale color, with pink blotches, and towards the lower end the surface was broken in a few patches by the corrosion of the mucous membrane. It contained a small quantity of dark, dirty colored mucous fluid, and adhering to the lining were a few white particles, some of which were picked out for separate examination. The stomach was thoroughly scraped and freed from its contents and lining membrane, and these were submitted to analysis in the ordinary manner. Arsenic was found to be present, and it was alio found in the white particles that had been previously removed. These particles, however, consisted chiefly of organic matter; tinder the microscope they were of a brilliant white, and had a regular radiating structure, resembling a fungoid growth, Such particles are not ordinarily found in the stomachs of healthy individuals. He considered them to be morbid growths, probably resulting from inflammatory action in the stomach. He found no trace of any poisonous substance in the liver, and tho spleen was too much decomposed for examination. There was not sufficient arsenic in the stomach to have killed a human being at one dose. The arsenic was eliminated from the system by the excretory organs, chiefly by the kidneys. The poison is required to be absorbed to produce fatal results, as it bad no direct irritant action on the system ; it was not, therefore, immediately fatal, like some other poisons. The process of elimination would i a checked by the death of the person. Arsenic acted specifically upon the stomach, in which it rapidly set up an inflammation. It frequently happened that where arsenic was administered its antiseptic properties delayed the decomposition of the interior of the stomach. Its properties as a preservative of animal substances were well known ; and this quality might account for the igood state of preservation of the interior of the stomach after the decomposition of the exterior ; but he should not regard it as a positive proof. He could not offer an opinion as to the cause of death from his examination of tho jars.