TRIAL OF A PHYSICIAN ON A CHARGE OF POISONING HIS WIFE.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 237, 14 January 1888, Page 5

TRIAL OF A PHYSICIAN ON A CHARGE OF POISONING HIS WIFE.

Dublin, December 14.— : The trial of Dr. Gross for the murder ' of his wife by- poison -commenced to-day in Cork. The accused pleaded not guilty, and the AttorneyGeneral made a powerful opening speech. The evidence for the prosecution's Went to show that the accused had formed an illicit acquaintance with a- Miss Skinner, a ' governess who had lived in his house, and that he married the governess somevreeks after the r death' of his wife. Arsenic had been traced in the body. Dr. Cross was ah army surgeon, his deceased wife being an English woman, who brought him a fortune of i' 5,000. Her maiden name" was Marriott. Great interest was taken in the case, many ladies being in court. The oase'waa not concluded.

-'Dublin, December 15.— The trial of Dr. Philip Cross, on the charge of poisoning his wife on June 2nd, was resumed this morning in Cork. Mary Baron, a parlourmaid at Shandy Hall, deposed to Boeing a chlorodyne bottle in the room of the deceased. Mrs Gross had fits of vomiting. She complained of her heart. ,She also found dry maccaroni under the deoeaf ed's pillow after her death. Captain -Woodley deposed that Dr. Cross told him Mrs Cross had a fester, but the immediate cause of her death was heart disease. ,- Mr Poolo, manager of the London and Northwestern Hotel, Dublin, identified the persons in photographs produced as occupying one oedroom at the end of March last. They were Dr. Crbse and, the present 1 Mrs Cross. He saw them again in June, and they occupied one* room. Two female servants in the hotel corroborated this evidence, adding that there was one bed in the room. Cornelius Macarth, a messenger, deposed as to the accused in a quarrel with the de- ; ceased saying he wished the devil would take her out of the house. A chemist in Gouldings swore that on September 18th, : 1886, Dr. Cross purchased a pound of ! arsenic there for sheep-dipping purposes. Dr. Yelverton, the person who with Dr. Crowley made a post-mortems examination of the body of the deceased, said he found no trace of {ypTioia fever in the intestines. The organs in ' the central part ' of the body were well preserved.' There was no putrefaction^ as arsenic' preserves the flesh for o/time. The heart was a hea\£hy one. There was no appearance of natural disease in the organs.' l He' found, on analysis, a small quantity^ of arsenic, and also strydhnihe in too small, a quantity to estimate. Asked if that quantity *of arsenic he found would destroy life,' the witness answered :, " Yes, unless some was thrown off by vomiting." - The'court adjourned.