ALLEGED WIFE-MURDER AT NAPIER.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 151, 4 June 1879, Page 3

ALLEGED WIFE-MURDER AT NAPIER.

The following particulars of the medical evidence given in the charge of wife-murder at Rapier arc 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 also 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. W lien witness was called in on the morning of her death, the prisoner appeared much effected. He cried bitterly, and said that “ she was an angel of a woman, a ad never cost him a sigh.” Witness was surprised at the suddenness of her death, as she appeared so muchbettor 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 tho death, the prisoner came to him and asked him for a certificate of death. He gave the one produced, which stated that death was due to excessive sickness during pregnancy ami to syncope arising from disease of tiic heart. He was in somewhat of a '' fix” to state the Realise of death, for though lie had no doubt that she died from natural causes, he could not well indicate any particular form of disease of the heart. He saw the body again as the juo-st mortem, examination. He was not invited to that examination, but invited himself. Tho • result of the examination convinced him that Mrs IrLcllan was not pregnant. He slid thought her heart was not sonml. 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 slated that it was not always possible, oven after a port mortem examination, to discover specific disease, and advising that in some such cases some of the leading symptoms of the disease should bcTiamcd on the certificate. This he Lad done. On Tuesday Dr. Hector, the Government analyst, was examined. He deposed to having received the stomach, liver, ami spleen of the deceased for examination. He first cxa.mincd the stomach. The exterior of the organ was decomposed, the interior surface was tolerably well preserved, of a pale colour, with pink bio Idles, 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 ireed from its contents and lining membrane, and these wore submitted to analysis in the ordinary manner. Arsenic was found to be present, and it was also found in the white particles that had been previously removed. These particles, however, consists chiefly of organic matter ; under the microscope they were of a brilliant white, and had a regular radiating structure, resembling o, fungoid growth. Such particles are ordinarily found in the stomachs "of healthy individuals. He considered them to be morbid growths, probably resulting from inflammatory action ir, the stomach. He found no trace of any poisonyus substance in tho liver, and the spleen was too much decomposed animation. There was not suffi cient arsenic in the stomach to have killed a human being at one dose. Tho 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 had no direct irritant action on tho svstom i it was not, therefore, immediately fatal like some other poisons. Tpe process of elimination would bo checked by Lie death of the person. Arsenic acted spccJieaily neon tne stomach, in which It raj idiy s, t no an inflammation. It frequently happened that- where arsenic wag ad ministered ihs

g-.q;-, .tr, delayed i 110 decomposition of iim inUrUr of Ihe .stomach. Its prcj'-TiK's as a pivscrvauvo ot animal substance ware well known ; and this quality might account for tho good state of preservation of tho interior of the stomach after the decomposition of the exterior : but he should not regard it as a positive proof. He could not give an opinion as to the cause of death from 1 its examination of the jars. The jury retired at 11.30 p.m., but could not agree upon their verdict until 2,20 a.m., when they found that Mrs McLennan had died from poison administered by some person or persons unknown, but that tho conduct of tho husband, Roderick Harry McLennan was highly suspicious. The jury was then discharged.