Page:Introductory lecture on medical jurisprudence - delivered in the theatre of the Royal Dublin Society, on Saturday, the 16th November, 1839 (IA b21916512).pdf/15

13 Three years after the death of a step-child of his, a report was set on foot that he had killed the child, by pushing an awl into its head, just behind the ear. The coroner was induced to have the body disinterred and on examination, a small round hole was found in the skull, corresponding exactly with the account of the murder given by a witness. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of wilful murder against Bowerman, and at the next assizes of Exeter, a bill was sent to the grand jury against him. In the mean time, however, Mr. Sheldon, a surgeon in Exeter, having investigated the case, found that the hole in the skull was the natural opening for a blood-vessel, which was obvious, as well from the nature of its edges, as from a little channel which led to it; and having pointed this out to the jury, and produced before them a dozen skulls similarly perforated, the bill was ignored.

A few years since, an officer of excise was tried in Kent for shooting a man. The deceased had been, for some purpose or other, in company with a band of smugglers, and was retreating before the officer when he was shot. There was no doubt the officer had fired, but the smugglers, on their retreat, had also fired several shots; and a surgeon made it plain, from the direction and nature of the wound, that the ball must have entered in front, and therefore have come from the smugglers, and not from the prisoner.

Some years since, a Mr. Hodgson, a surgeon, was tried at Durham, for attempting to poison his wife, and the case affords an interesting illustration of the value of medical evidence. She had been ordered by a physician pills of calomel and opium for rheumatism; and it was pretty clearly proved that the prisoner, who kept a shop, and compounded the medicines himself, had substituted corrosive sublimate (a violent poison) for the calomel. When the wife began to suffer from the pills, the physician was sent for, and ordered a laudanum draught, which the prisoner himself immediately prepared; but the doctor, happening to observe that it was muddy, was induced to taste it, and recognized the peculiar acrid taste of cor-