- mises of succour, adds a stronger poison to the cup;
this occurred in the diabolical case of Mary Bateman,[1] better known by the name of the Yorkshire witch, who having poisoned a family with arsenic, sent a jar of honey, mixed with corrosive sublimate, for their relief.
A knowledge of the nature of the medicines that may have been taken, will also assist the chemist in his examination of the matter vomited, as we have fully explained under the history of Poisons.
Appearance of the evacuations.—This should always be attended to, for although it can hardly afford, in itself, a satisfactory indication, yet we have shewn, in the course of our history of poisons, that it may concur with the facts to heighten the probability of a case. The chemist will also require them for examination.
CASE II.
THE PATIENT IS DEAD.—THE ATTENDANTS CAN
FURNISH ONLY AN IMPERFECT ACCOUNT OF HIS
DISSOLUTION.
In conformity with the plan upon which we have
arranged the objects of inquiry into the causes of
sudden sickness and death—that of beginning with
the most simple and plain, and passing in regular
gradation to the more complicated and obscure problems,
the present case, in which the patient is
dead, but the attendants are able to furnish some
history, however imperfect, very naturally constitutes
the connecting link between that in which the
- ↑ See note at page 269 of vol. 2.
