THE TIMARU SENSATION. (BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Timaru Sept. 3.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 169, 11 September 1886, Page 2

THE TIMARU SENSATION. (BY TELEGRAPH— OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Timaru Sept. 3.

Unto; yesterday iftermoon, the^yidenc« I tendered in the; Hall ewe hw.not tftifl very startling; but when Dr. Md^tyre was called;, the movement among the cr6wd in Court showed that something sensational was expected. Daring the morning the evidence had been of a merely formal kind, showing that there -was-a motive.fox»»the* prisoner' Hall to get rid of his wife, «s he had insured her life heavily, and was in financial difficulties, from which tor death would b*v«reteft»ed hio* The following is the evidence of Dr. Maolntyre, •which 'is, so far, the most important that htt been heard. Patrick Mclnty re, Reposed : lama duly qualified medical practitioner. I know the accused, and also Mrs Hall. ' She was a . patient of mine.; I attended her in the year . 1885,. in the early half of November. The most marked symptom at the time was tetchier and vomiting. I prescribed for , her. About the. 14th of the month .she was decidedly better. She was very prostrate for 'some days while the sickness 'lasted, but ' recovered very," quickly ' about the 14th, and waa soon able to drive. I considered this sickness 'doe to * : her pregnancy. I visited her once\or'twice, * but not on an important occasion^ "till she ' was' confined in June ldth.' ' There °-was nothing special about the confinement, which tcok a favourable I course: About the fourth day 'after '-•her confinement vomiting commenced. " This vomiting had continued, more or less, '* tip to the night of the loth August or the : early morning of the 16tb, with steadily in- ' creasing prostration. There were periods when she rallied. On the fifth day after the confinement, 'an inflammation of -the right breast set in. The vomit .matter was sometimes mucous /and bilious, and sometimes consisted of T "watery bilious ma'tter> Just before the attacks of sickness, and during' the attack, * she assumed a very yellow, or jaundice colour. There were repeated attacks of diarrhoea, the first of which I prescribed for on the 27th of June. The motions were generally dark and bilious. She comolained of a hot burning feeling in the throat and stomach, and she also experienced a feeling as if the throat was being grasped by a 'hand. - She complained of a tenderness over the stomach, which extended over the upper half of the belly. During the •last stages of the illness, • it- involved the whole abdomenal ' area, including- the region of the bladder.- During the last 9 or 10 days prior to Auer'u**"- loth there waa an itching of the skin, affecting thn body > and limbs. There was also a soreness of the eyeballs and an itching of the eyelid?. •She complained of feeling as if her nose was enlarged and her noatrils were sore and irritable. Her lips became dry, sore, a*sd hacked, and she complained of a nasty disagreeable taste in the mouth. On Saturday, August 14th; she had" twitching of the arms, and there was eotne retention of the urine, on one occasion lasting from the llth to the night of the' 12th Augnst. On July 14th" her symptoms became so grave that I 'eugge'ted to the husband the advisability •of having another medical man in consultation. Dr. Drew saw her on that day, and we prescribed a certain course of treatment. She appeared to improve during the ensuine two 1 or 'three days, but the symptoms returned again. On July 28, I again suggested a - further consultation. Dr. Stacfcpoole caw her with me on this occasion. We gave her •-whey and lime water and nourishing injec'"tionB for the bowels. She eeemed tfr'im-* Srove & little, and then got worse again. >n August 12th she wa9 so very ill that I . abked for another consultation,' and pue- ' gested Dr. Love to the prisoner Hall. Mr* < Hall expressed a wish that Dr. Drew should also be there. Webeld a consuU&tion on thfit evening at 8 o'clock, and we decided to give" her no food by the mouth, but to allow her » to sip imwater. She was to be fed every 3 , hours by the bowels with beef tea, pepaine, or pancreatine and braudy, to obnat-d the vomiting and retching, whicn occurred from time to time. She became rapidly weaker, j and on Sunday, 15th, when I saw her ac 1.30, she was in a &tate of ' collapse ; her puiee was at 116, ber feature^ pinched, her eyes sunk, and her breathing hardly perceptible, being very feeble.- The pulse at this stage was very irregular, and could hardly be felt at the wrists, She had only just partially recovered|from a severe attack of retching and vomiting. On Friday, August 13ch, I secured two bottles, one or urine and One of vomit, I took them to the Hospital, and Dr. Drew aud I tested the contents. VVo came to the conclusion that they contained antimony. I put & portion of each into bottles, which I sealed and forwarded to Professor Black at Dunedin. O& Sunday, the 15tb, when I visited the house at 1.15, being in Mrs flail's bedroom, the nurse drew my attention to the fact that Mrs Hall's hueband had given her some ice water, of which Mrs Hall complained as having a very nasty taste. She also described it as a somewhat bitter taste, and sa unlike the ice water she had been in the habit of * having At the same time the nuree signalled to me that she had secured a quantity of the icewater which ehe had in her hands; ehe then handed it to me. On that afternoon I made an analysis of a portion of the water in company with Dr. Urew. ;We found very decided indications of antimony being present. On completing the analysis I sealed the bottle,and subsequently banded it over to Mrßrobam. On August 16 Mrs Hall felt much improved. She had' one attack of vomiting on the previous night, but there had been no return of that symptom On the same day she took a considerable amount of liquidnourishment, given in stn&ll quantities by the stomach. On the follow, ing night she retched once or twice, and since then the retching haß not returned. On the 17th ehe took considerably more nourishing food than on the previous day. Ever since then ehe has made steady and rapid improvement, and she is now quite out of danger, though weak. The temperature daring, her illness waa normal except during inflammation of the 'breast; which lasted from 12 to 15 days, when it was highest. Her tongue Was considerably coated with far,. and continued thus for some days after the inflammation had ceaeed. Since then the tongue, had been comparatively clean, although unduly red round thai edges. During the. last week of ■ her illness; 'the patient complained of the back of her tongue feeling sore. On the 16th of August, she felt as. if it weria too large for her mouth and her voice was feeble. • During the 1 last four or five days, and^on <;he 40thi Fcduld hardly hear. her voice; > She complained' of -thirst throughout the .whole course o# her -illnew,»and;«Qe iwtfi greatly prostrated, especially during the latter) part of her (illness. I She improved- from time to time after her confinement, and on*otte decision «he could get out of bed- and roWe^into another roomfjaod oncovghe wenVforf a drive, feeling much, better on her return that evening; but on the following day the vomiting returned. I <sould not' account for the «ymptoms, and wai>eicceedin2ly puzzled. I first looked to find some breanlo

disease of the Internal ' organs or displace- ; ment of the womb, or any »ffootion *of the womb that might account for the symptoms ; but I failecl to satisfy u&pelf as to the presence of the die-< eaYe or diseases. None of the mcdi* c^«s|p|^orib^ foV^h^ertten|^ned/<eit|jew antimony or oolcliloum. .j Tnes|ympttilms| shown f,nby|| Mrs §fi§tl ifwelajl «^eh||asi; mjtjghtbi produced^ by); p6ißonir^» by alti4 np^y'^Arawi^^mirfiCprpßuceJwch^ymp-a tom 6, and chronic gastroenteris might produce some of them,or oancerous affection of the stomach or certain parts of the bowel*. Mr8 x Hall was not suffering from any of the oompl«iflt«:I:;baye-jue^-njontion«di';'«-»a sho'5 ho' drainage of the house is good. I know Dr. Ogston, and went with Him,; through the house when Mrs Hall was lying ill/ The bottle'produceu-texhibitrM )~isnbe"oire"coff s *" taining theice water, whicj^lganre to Inspect tor Brobam; * The water 1 wai given to me by the nurse, Mrs Ellison.- Exhibit JSt, the vomit.of £y£u£s/12th,:wM,left,,at Watt-! kins's chemist shop. I believe exhibit Oid urine of the 12th, which ispartof .what I examined in company with DrDrew. I sent two bottles containing, vom^t and urine to Black by train of, the 14th. , f They were sealed with my : own .private seals. Since August 14th r J have examined vomit, urine, and motions,, > and „ have found indications of antimony working its way out % !of the aystepu The indications * werpk stjrqngly 'marked up te the 16th, and. have been diminishing eince. The last examination I made wa&K the urine of the ,20th (Friday). I 1I 1 have handed them, into the charge of ProfessOr Black and Dr. Ogston. I have received some jelly in & gla^s from Mra Ellison, and have handedjit over to Professor Black md Dr. Ogston, and also all the other specimens in my pensc'ssion except, those ueed in the experiment on Sunday, August 15. Some ( of the things I gob myeelf, some from Inepector Broham, and others from Mrs Ellison. ; Cro«s>cxaminec{ by Mr Joynt : It first oc curred to me that tho symptoms resembled > those of an irritant poteon three or four days before the 12th, but I cannot' fix the day. It rose fiom my own suggestion, and not from Dr. Draw. I could not determine ! then what specific poison wasbeingueed.' On j tbe 13th after I arid Dr. Drew had made'tHe analysis it firet occurred to me thatantimooy was the poison used. I have never before in j my experience met with a caee of antimo ni&l poisoning. I have had experience of poison - Jn g by- somja, if rjitfint,. namely, bydr9ch|o,ric acid ; this was the only instance, some 2 or, 3 yeare ago. ,It was u ca?e of acute poisonintr, ending in death. In jLeating ye used RuncheV test.' ( Wo boiled In hydrochloiic acid with' a pieco' cf copper imencrped, and we got. a decided violet coloured metaltic deposit on the copper. That was the result we expected, and we did not carry the • analysis any; further.' The result would not hf*ve been the eam'e if hydrochloric acid, had been! used ; there would have been no deposit at all. In regard to arsenical poisoning,; a greyieh white precipitate would result. The analysis on the 15th was not made iv the eamo way^ I te9ted the ice-water with Lkiuus paper, and, the reaction was align' tly acid. We evaporated a portion ,of ■ the water on glass to drynessi, examined it uncjef a microscope, and found ifc 'consisted of crysfciila of tartar ©noetic, . Nitriq •was added to another portion of the ice water, and a white precipitate was 'thrown down,, soluble in. tartaric acid, and oot in excess of nitric ' acid. Ferrooyanide of potassium' showed no precipitate; sulphuretted hydrogen, gas gave an orang\s precipitate insoluble in ammonia, and on being treated with hydrochloric acid on copper, gave a strong violet precipitate. TJbis was the complete test of the ice water. After tho 15th we analysed the excreta by Kunche'd process Dr. Diew assisted on. the 136 hand 15th, and. go. other occasions eipep, but, not always. , Dr. Maclntyre's evidence concluded, and the deposition having been signed, the Court adjourned. " • ' '<* <■ * • During the day- the two prisoners maintained, a sqU' -, contajned Jv demoanour, Hall being . occupied in taking nctep, while Houston seemed indifferent as to the evidence. Now arid again the two would hold a conversation together, and the female prisoners laughed heartily when the Clerk of ttie Court said " hydraulic acid," in reading over Dr. Maclntyre's evidence, instead of hydrochloric acid. As tho doctor etated his views on the matter, however, Hall seemed more downcast than has been- usual with him duriug tho bearing. Ho appeared tQ bo considerably impressed by its importance. all appearances, it is extremely unlikoly that the hearing will conclude before Saturday. , I