- tion that there is sufficient ground to believe, that the said
Sir James Standsfield was strangled, and not drowned. In testimony whereof these presents are subscribed by
Sir Andrew Balfour, Pesident of the said College.
A. Balfour PCRM
(From Howell's State Trials).
Extract from Medical Evidence in the
Case of Spencer Cowper, Esq. for
the murder of Sarah Stout.
(13 Howell's State Trials)
Page 1126. Mr. Coatsworth a Surgeon sworn
My Lord in April last I was sent for by Dr. Philips to come to Hertford to see the body of Mrs. Stout opened, who had been six weeks buried; and he told me that there was a suspicion she was murdered, and that her relations were willing to have her taken up and opened. I came down I think on the 27th of April, and lay at Mrs. Stout's house that night; and by her discourse I understood she wanted to be satisfied, whether her daughter was with child? I told her, it was my opinion we should find the parts contained in the abdomen so rotten, that it would be impossible to discover the uterus from the other parts; however, if she would have her opened, I could not discover whether she was with child, unless the infant was become bony. Her face and neck, to her shoulders, appeared black, and so much corrupted that we were unwilling to proceed any further: but, however, her mother would have it done, and so we did open her; and as soon as she was opened, we perceived the stomach and guts were as full of wind as if they had been blown with a pair of bellows; we put her guts aside, and came to the uterus, and Dr. Philips shewed it us in his hand, and afterwards cut it out and laid it on
