Extracts from the Evidence of Doctor
Anthony Addington, on the trial of
Mary Blandy at Oxford 1752, for
the Murder of her Father by Arsenic.
Dr. Anthony Addington & Dr. William Lewis sworn.
Counsel. Did you, Dr. Addington, attend Mr. Blandy in his last illness?
Dr. Addington. Yes, Sir.
C. When was you called to him the first time?
Dr. A. On Saturday evening August the 10th.
C. In what condition did you find him?
Dr. A. He was in bed; and told me, that after drinking some gruel on Monday night, August the 5th, he had perceived an extraordinary grittiness in his mouth, attended with a very painful burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach, and bowels, and with sickness and gripings; which symptoms had been relieved by fits of vomiting and purging.
C. Where those fits owing to any physic he had taken or to the gruel?
Dr. A. Not to any physic; they came on very soon after taking the gruel.
C. Had he taken no physic that day?
Dr. A. No.
C. Did he make any further complaints?
Dr. A. He said, that, after drinking more gruel on Tuesday night August the 6th, he had felt the grittiness in his Mouth again, and that the burning and pricking in his tongue, throat, stomach and bowels, had returned with double violence and had been aggravated by a prodigious swelling of the belly, and exquisite pains and prickings in every external as well as internal part of his body, which prickings he compared to an infinite number of needles darting into him all at once.
