- ficient to produce those violent consequences which happened
to him, neither do I know in nature any medicine, properly so called, which administered in any dose, and in any form, could possibly produce the same effects. I know nothing but a poison speedy in its operation that could be attended with such terrible consequences: As to the appearances of the body upon dissection they were certainly, as far as could be collected at that distant period from the time of the death, and in such hot weather, similar to those appearances which are found in the bodies of animals that are killed by poisons collected from vegetable substances, not from mineral ones.
Q. Will you please to look at that phial?
A. The vehicle of it is laurel-water.
Q. Would that quantity be sufficient to cause death?
A. I do not know how this is distilled, or how firm it may be, but I know it may be made in this quantity to destroy animal life in a few seconds. I do not know who distilled this, but I have made it frequently myself, and in such a degree of strength as to destroy animal life in a few seconds; if it is distilled enough to collect the essential oil, a tea-spoonful of it would destroy animal life in a few seconds.
Court. If it was made on purpose?
A. Certainly; I dare say as strong a poison might be made from bitter almonds as that.
Q. Do you or not, from the evidence you have heard, believe Sir Theodosius Boughton died of poison?
A. I do.
Court. You are not to give your opinion from the evidence in general, but upon the symptoms those witnesses have described?
A. By the symptoms those evidences have described, I am of opinion that Sir Theodosius Boughton died of poison.
Dr. Parsons sworn. Examined by Mr. Howorth.
Q. You are I believe professor of anatomy in the university of Oxford?
A. I am.
