The Syms Case.

Manawatu Herald, 20 December 1892, Page 2

The Syms Case.

The trial of William Syms for alleged malpractice upon Elizabeth Hall was concluded on Friday morning. • lenry Wave, nightwatchman at Woodville, deposed to a conversation which he said he had had with Dr

Davenport at the end of February last. The doctor then said that Syms had been giving women medicine, and said. * I'll have the old rascal out of this before long, you mark my words for it.' William Syms, the prisoner, was then sworn. He said that he was educated to the medical profession in London. He was a pupil of Dr W. B. Richardson, and attended the course of lectnres in the department of apothecaries at St George's Hos- | pital. He had practised the medical profession in London, but not in New Zealand. He first prescribed medicine for Mrs Hall in 1890. She said she had been nuder Dr De Lisle's treatment at .Napier, and witness understood that that gentleman had sent her to him upon her departure for Woodville. The instruments he used were employed solely for the I treatment of the disease to which Mrs Hall was subject, and he acted according to the most recent medical text books. He absolutely denied ' the improper intimacy alleged by \ Mrs Hall. (Witness then particularised his treatment of the woman from December 1891, to February, 1892.) He gave her ergot mixture (half-strength), in cousequence of her statement that pills had no effect. Only one bqttle was supplied and it would not have the slightest effect for the purpose alleged in this case. He had not the merest suspicion at any time during his course of treatment that the woman was enceinte. To the foreman of the jury : Mrs Hall had not paid him for his treatment of her case, or for the medicines supplied. He had charged Mrs Hail in his books for the treatment. If necessary his books could be produced. His Honor remarked that chemists were not entitled to charge for advice. The learned counsel on both sides having addressed the Court, His Honor, at 2.15 p.m summed up. The Foreman stated that they wished to ask his Honor if they were correct in understanding him to have said, in his summing up, that if they considered the whole of the circumstances were consistent only with the prisoner's guilt they should convict him, but that if they considered some of them were consistent with his innocence, they should acquit him. His Honor said this Was not exactly what he had said It was not necessary to find that the whole of the facts were consistent only with the prfsoner's guilt in order to convict him, but they must find that the essential facts relied upon by the Crown were consistent oDly \Vith his guilt before they were justified in convicting him. The case for the Crown was based upon the assumption that the prisoner must have known that' the woman was pregnant. If they could not find that he had this knowledge, the whole case camo to the ground at once, and it was not necessary to proceed further. If, however, they found that be had thus known, then they had to address themselves to the turther question : must the prisoner have known that the introduction of the instrument he had used, upon the woman was quite improper? If they found that, then they?; were justified in drawing the inference put by the Crown— that it was introduced for the purpose of procuring abortion, and a verdict of guilty would be returned. But the jury had to be satisfied that he must have known that. its use was .improper. It was not sufficient to hold that from his training he ought to have known it. The jury would have to find that he musfc .have known before they could convict. His Honor dwelt upon these points at some length. The jury retired again at, 6.10 and at 6.25 returned once more, finding, the prisoner • Not guilty.' His Honor said that in face of the medical evidence they could not satisfactorily have come to any qther conclusion. With reference to their request the previous day that a medical local man should be called as a witness, he wished to explain that that was not a court of enquiry, and that the jury had simply to pronounce upon the evidence adduced. Mr Gully intimated that he had intended to call a local medical man, but afterwards deemed in unnecessary. the accused was then discharged, and the jnrora were paid £1 each and relieved from further attendance. N.Z. Time*.