Untitled

Temuka Leader, Issue 1551, 2 September 1886, Page 2

THIRD DAY—Wids«s»it.

The Court resumed at 10.30 s.m„ the same Magistrates occupying the B'-ncb. *'■ Before; commencing, Mr White asked - that the forgery cases against Hall" be ‘ remanded, for seven days, as the police had not had time to get up the cases. The Court granted the remand. Dennis Wren, deposed—l tin a' laborer, formerly in the employ of the late Captain Cain. I left his house about' a fortnight after his death. .The Hall occupied the premises after Captain Gain’s death,; which. event took place on the 29th January. Halltopk possession after, the sale. 1,. Mrs Newton, the who is now my wife/and Miss Houston ' were in the bouse after the Captain’s death. The house was repaired 'and -painted. The parsons I have mantieiHl ■ -were not in the house at tha time I win m charge. 1 was in the ' bbuse and he took • ..posaion when it was ready to live in. I know the inside of the house. 1 know tha garret upstairs and have been in there, it contained" -some rubbish' and soma old rags, bet not much. The last time I was in the garret previous to Hall’s arrest was When the bellhangers were there. This was'a few day.i before Hall came to live in the house/ I .had all the keys .of the house all the time the repairs were going on until Hall came to jive there, flall had one key biit he gave, it up to roe.' Kerosene and candles were used for lighting, and the kerosene was kept id theonthouse. I left on (be 16th of February and came bnpk on, the 18tb. I have, been working fois Hall every day nine* ’ except in wsl weather. There were enough rags in tha - garret to fill a good big bucket. I cannot, say what kind of stuff was. there, hut there was nothing like the amount in the exhibits T and U. -1 do not remember, seeing any straw or timber there. I am)g am sure there was no tin of kerosene. 1 recollect Hall’s filly having a sore foot; it was in April or May. I did not know anything else being wrong with the horse. On |he application of Mr White, the ledger produced by C. A. Wilson, whep giving evidence (belonging to the firm of Hal) and Measoo), was released from the custody of the Court, the items sworn to by Wilsonbeing initialled, John Wilson deponed: 1 have been id the employ of Hall since May 24th last. 1 never knew anything about the garret opening out from Ball’s - bedroom till about a week ago. At that time I went in there, but 1 forget * ho went with me. I have never been inside, I was only looking in.. - William Gunn deposed ; lim a chemist, residing in Timaru. I know Hall, the accused. I have sold some commodities to Hall during the last six months, and he has had a rufining account with me ever since . 1884. Hp has purchased antimony fvinf me, the’firat time on the 18th June; too drachms. He told me the purpose for which be wanted If, namely, that ■ he' 'had 1 had a receipt sent to him from London by Mr J, Shiera for making cigarettes to contain tartar emetic and s'ramoninm. We also hid n conversation »■ to the making of tha cigarettes. I suggested (he boiling ef the stramonium; seeds and dissolving the tartar emetic in the hot liquor. Hell suggested soaking blotting paper in th« solution, snd rolling it up into cigarette W-. .after it was dried. I sold Hall some more antimony,- two .drachms on Jjfijs 26th. He told me (he cigarettes were the best thing he h id ever used for asthma, but th.sy had one fault—they didn’t burn well. During the conversation Dr Lovegrove came in and one of us (old him of the, efficacy of the cigarettes, and also .the ingredients, and the fault they had. Dr Lovegrove suggested to Hall to put some nitre in the sulmion. .1 sold some Coicbicum wine to Hall, the first quantity (20z.) on tha sth July. I sold him another 2nz. on Juiy.l7, the same quantity on 31st July, and on Aug, 11th 2oz. ' Charles Blenheim £tckbauth deposed: I am a chemist in Timaru, and I know the accused. I sold him some antimony on : August. 4, a shilling’s worth, about [ also sold him some antitnonla) wine on June 12th last. I sold him about 3oz* of stramonium seeds on Aug 4, and a ehilling's worth of nitrate of potneh on the same date. This would be four or five ozs. He said he was preparing a specific for. asthma when he got them. H-ill purchased atropia drops on March 20, 1885, but that was in a prescription from Dr Hogg, fie purchased atropia drops agiiu ia November, 1865,. and again on June 3rd of this year the same quantity, an oz. On July 6he bought from me 2ozsof Colch’cum wine. William Salek, deposed: I arn an assistant in Watkins’ chemist's shop. I have sold Colchicum wine, to Hall; flip July 26th, 2oz«, and the same quantity on Aug 7. Hall said to me when be bought the first quantity, “This is the first time I have tasted it,” adding “Yes, that’s the stuff,” : ■. Michael Mitton deposed—l am s station manager at Mount Peel. 1 knew tba prisoner H ill. 1 never gave his firm a promissory note. The signature -on the note produced is not mine. [The note was put in and marked Z7]. In December, 1885, [ did uot transfer any property to Hall and; Meason. The signature to,tlm memo, of transfer of mortgage produced is not mine. [The document -was pul in and marked ZB]. William Davidson, agent for the Australian Mutual I’rovident Society in Timaru, stated tha 1 Hall told hint that Mre Hall was thinking of insuring her lif-, for his protection in case she should die before he did. He explained that a considerable income would lapse in the event of her death, and it was her suggestion to insure for his protection. Subsequently to this Hall said that he thought the iimouot would b s £SOOO, but after wards changed his mind, and two propotul&Jtjste given for £3OOO each. One proposalArss for life>nd the oilier for seven years, the the latter without profits. Hall explained that it .would depend -uponhow long Captain Cain lived which of the policies would be kept Ip force. The' policies were subsequently hapde'd to witness by llall for. the purpose of having the sge admitted. On the fth I handed them bac!|| with the age admitted 'to Hall, snd obtained the receipt pro'diiced, Between August 10lh and 12th this year Hal! told mb he did not intend to renew the short- ,• dated policy, fold him : be bad plenty time to make up his mind finally about as the premium was-not due till August 28 h, un.d that he had thirty days’ gram »fter that. He made no reply tQ that. Hail fold me his wife bad been very 111 indeed, '

To the Court: t did not see Mrs Hall at all about the policies, Arthur Steelman- deposed : T am the manager of . the Bank of New : South Wales, Titnaru,. The account' of Ha I and Meason in Jauntily, 1885, wan laiee y overdrawn, the advances amohd'tiog altogether to £7OOO or £BOOO, covering discount and everything. Up to the present time it. lias averaged the same. T first •aw the promissory note produced some time in . July. If cams from Hali aid Meason, but I do not know who brought it, X first saw the memo, of transfer of mortgage produced in December, 1885. I believe.l received it froth the hands of Halil for the purpose of securing the discount for a bid of £205, for which ih'promissory note put in wa« a renewal. Whon.giving m* the securities Hal) said that Hr Hitton was a men in good position. ... Robert Silvers Black, manager of the National Bank, deposed that on January 6tb, 1886, Hall’s private account wan in credit £24, and on the 15th of August last it was £617 overdrawn. Dr Macin'} e was then put in the witness, box, Mr Joynt asked that D "Drew withdraw while his evidence w*. being taken. He understood that th* two .doctors had been in combination in regard to the case, and it' would be better that Dr Drew should not be i« (loairt. . Mr Martin did not object, although Dr Drew was .an, expert, and therefore entitled to remain. said that Dr Drew was also * witness as'to fnets, and after some further'remarks the Court said that it wouhi bi better if Dr Drew withdrew, which he seddrdiugly did. Patrick Mscintyre deposed; I am a duly qualified medical practitioner. -1 know tlie accused, and also Mrs Hall. She was a' patient of mine. 1 attended her In tha year 1885 in the early half of : November. The most marked symptom s at that time were retching 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 was soon a bln tp;drive out. I considered this due 'o pregnancy. I visited her once or twice, Dut uoton an important occasion till she vxs confined on June. 19th. There was nothing special-about the confinement, which took a favorable conrse. About the fourth day after her confinement ydmiling commenced. This vomiting had 'Continued more or less up to the uight cf the 15th August or the early part of the 16tb, with steadily increasing prostrltjon. ■There were periods when she rallied. . On. the fifth day after the confinement . inflammation of the right breast set'in - The vomited matter was, mucous, sometimes mucous and bilion-, -and sometimes it consisted of cop. ■u* watery bilious matter. Just before Ho attacks of sickness, and during t <- attacks, tbe skin assumed a very ye!) « or jaundice color. There were repented attacks of dinrrboea, the first of which I prescribed for on the 27th June. Thmotaofls war# generally dark and bilious.

• She complained of a hot burning feeling in the throat and stomach and she also- .- experienced a feeling as if the throat waa being grasped by a hand. She complained of a tenderness over the stornaicb, which extended over the upper half of the belly. During the, last stages of the illness it involved the abdominal ares, including the region of the bladder. During the last nine er ten days prior to August 15, there was an itching of the akin, affecting the body and the limbs. There was also a soreness of the eyeballs and sn itching of the eyelids. She c mplained of feeling as if her nose were enlarged, and that the nostrils were sore end irritable. The lips became dry, sore, and backed. She complained of a pasty disagreeable taste in the mouth. On Saturday, August 14, she had twitching of the erroa and there wss some retention of the urine,, on one occasion lasting from the 11th to the night of the 12th August. On July 14, her symptoms became so gears that I suggested to the husband the advisability of having another medical pish in consultation. Dr Drew saw her on that day and we prescribed a certain , course of treatment. She/appeared to . impiove during the ensuing two or three ' days, but the symptoms returned again. On July 28<b I again suggested a . further consultation. Dr Stacpoole saw her "with me on this occasion. We gave her whey and limewater, and nourishing , injections for the bowels. She seemed to improve, a little, and then got worse again. On August 12th aho was eo very ill that I wishedior another.consultation, and suggested Dr Lovegrbve to the prisoner Hall. Mrs Hall expressed a wish that Dr Drew should be there. We held a consultation on that evening at 8 o'clock,, and wo decided to give her ne food by the mouth, but allowher to suck ice or rip ice water. She was to be fed every three hours by .the bowels with beef tea, pepsine or pancreatine and ’brandy, to obviate the vomiting and retching which occurred from'time to lime. She became rapidly weaker, and ; on Sunday, the 15th, when 1 saw her at ■ 1.30, she was in a state of col'apss. Her pulse was at 116, herfeaturea pinched, her eyes -sunk and glassy, lie* breathing hardly prtceptible, being very feeble. ■ The pulse at this stage was very irregular, and could hardly be felt at the vrisi. .She bad only just partially recovered -from a severe attack of retching and V vomiting. On "Friday, 13th August, 1 •. secured two bottles, one of uripe and one of vomit. 1 took them to the - hospital, ;■ pod Dr Drew apd I tested the contents. We came to the conclusion that they con- • - taioed antimony. I then pul a portion of ../each into bottles, which I sealed and forwarded to Professor' Black", of Dunedin. « Sunday, the 16tb, when I visited the' • house at 1.30, being in Mrs Hall’s bedroom, the nurse drew my attention to the foci that Mrs'Hall’s husband had given . dipr some ice water, of which Mrs Hall complained as having a very nasty taste. > She also described it as a somewhat bitter I»3te fi ahd so unlike the ice’"water she had • been in ths habit bf having from' the .nurse. At the same time the nurse signailed to me tbat she bad secured a quantity of (he -ice Water, which she field : in her band. She then handed it to. me. On that afternoon I made an analysis of a.ppftion of the water |n coippany with J)r Drew. We fopnd very decided iiir ' dications of antimony present. On . completing the analysis 1 pealed the bottle, ■ and subsequently handed it over to Mr Brobain. Oo August 16tb Mrs Ball felt very much improved. She had had one attack of vomiting on the previous

night, but there has been no return of that 'symptom. On the same day she took a considerable amount of liquid nourishment, given in small quantities, by the st' roach. On the following night she retched once or twice, and since then the retching has not returned. On the 17th she took considerably more nourishing food than on the previous day. Ever since then she has made steady and rapid improvement, and she is now quite out of danger, though weak. The temperature during ; her • illness was norma), except during the inflammation of the breast, which lasted from twelve to ifteen days, when it was higher. Her tongue was considerably coated with fur, and continued thus for some days after inflammation had ceased. Since then the tongue had been comparatively clean, though unduly red round the edges. During the Ust week cf her illness the patient comolained of the back of the tongue feeling v»rs. •On the 16tb August she felt as if it was too large for her mouth, and her voice was very feeble during the last four or five days, and on the 15th 1 could hardly hear her voice. She complained of thirst throughout the whole course of liar illness, and she was greatly prostrated, "specially during the latter part of her illness. She did improve from time to • imo after her confinement, and on some ■cessions she could get out of bed, move into another room, find once she went for 1 drive, feeling much better cn her return that evening, but on the following day the vomiting returned, I could not ecount for the symptoms and was exceedingly pushed. 1 first looked to find •ome organic disease* of the internal organs, or displacement of the womb or <oy affection of the womb that might tccouat for the symptoms, but I fuilsd to satisfy myself as to the presence of the disease or diseases. None of the medicines prescribed for her contained either trilimony. or colchicum. The|symptoms, shown by Mrs Hall were such as might be produced by poisoning by antimony. Arsenic might produce such symptoms and chronic gastro-enteritis might produce some of them, or cancerous affection of 'he stomach or certain parts of the bowels. Mrs Hall was not suffering from aay of (he complaints I have just mentioned. The drainage of the house is good. I know Dr Ogston and went with him through the house where Mrs Hall was lying ill. The bottle produced (exhibit M) is the one containing the icewater which I gave to Inspector Broham. The water was given to me by the nurse, Mrs Ellison. Exhibit N, the vomit of August 12, was left at Watkins' chemist shop, 1 believe. Exhibit 0, is urine of the 12tb, which is part of what I examined in company with Dr Drew. I sent two bottles, containing vomit and urine, to Professor Black by train p,n the 14th. They were sealed with my own private S'-al. Since August 14th I have examined vomit, urine, and motions, and have found indications of antimony working its way out of the system. • The indications were strongly marked up to the 17th, and hare been diminishing since. The last examination I made was of the urine on the 20th .(Friday). I have handed them into the charge of Professors Black and Ogston. I have received some jelly in a glass from Mrs Eil’son, and have handed it over to Professors Black and Ogston, and also all the other specimens in my possession except those used in the experiments oa Sunday, August 16th. Some of the things I got myself, some from Inspector Broham, and others from Mrs Ellison.

Cross-examined by Mr Joynt.: It first occurred to me that the symptoms resembled those of qn irritant poison three or four days before the 12tb, but I cannot fir the date. It arose from my own suggestion, and net from Dr Drew’s. I could riot determine then what specific poison wss being used. On the 13th, after I and Drew had made the analysts, it first occurred to me that antimony was the poison used. I have never before in my experience met with a case of autimonisl poisoning. I have had experience of poisoning by some irritant —namely, hydrochloric acid. This was the only instance, some two or three years ago. It was a case of acute poisoning, ending in death. In testing we used Reinsch’s test. We boiled it in hydro? chloric acid, with apiece of copper immersed. We got a decided violet-colored metallic depnit on the copper. That was the result we expected, and wo did not carry the analysis any further. The result would not have been the same if hydrochloric acid bad been used ; there would have been no deposit •t all. In regard to arsenical poisoning, a greyish-white precipitate would The analysis on the 15th was not made in ths same way. I tested the ice-water with litmus paper, and the reaction was slightly acid. We evaporated a portion of the water on glsss lo dryness a-d examined it under a microscope, and found it consisted of crystals of tartar emetic. Nitric acid was added to another portion of the ice water, and a white precipitate was thrown dowo, soluble in tartaric acid, and not in excess of nitric acid. I'erro-cyanide of potassium showed no precipitate. . Sulphuretted hydrogen gas g»vo an orange precipitate insoluble in ammonia, and soluble on being heated with hydrochloric acid. Boiling with hydrochloric acid on copper gave a strong violet precipitate. This was the complete test of the ice-water. After the 15th we analysed the excreta, by Remrch’s pr ocess. Dr Drew assisted me on the 13th and 16th, and on other occasions since, but not always. The Court then adjourned till next morning. ___________