SUPREME COURT.

Bruce Herald, Volume II, Issue 51, 30 March 1865, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

TRIAL OF CAPT. JARVEY.. (Continued from our last.) Ag-nes Lumb. — I am the wife of Geo. Lumb, a shipping- agent, living at Caver,sham. Andrew Jarvey, a son of Captain Jarvey, came to my house about half-past eight o'clock, and told me something, in consequence of which I went to the house of Capt. Jarvey. When I got there, I found Mrs. Jarvey lying dead on her bed. I would be be at the house about nine o'clock, and I first went into the kitchen, ■ T asked the bo}' to. let- me see upstairs. Dr. Worrall was standing at the foot of the bed, and Miss Jarvey. was sitting at the head ot the bed when I entered, the room. About an hour after I got there, Capt. Jarvey arrived with Dr. Hardy, who looked at Mrs. Jarvey, and gave his head a. shake,. paying 'She. is gone, lean do' nothing for her.' Capt. Jarvey blamed Dr. Worall fbr not bleeding his wife when he came. He- then asked Dr. Hardy to bleed her, but he replied that it was no use. Capt: Jarvey said that if he did not do it, he would bleed her. himself, and I saw him take out a knife, L turned my back as I could not look at the blood, She was bled, but I cannot say by whom.. I heard Captain Jarvey sa} r , ' there, she bleeds ! She'll live !' I put my hand on the Captain's shoulder and asked him to console himself and leave the dead. alone, but he said that if I did not get out of the room he would put me out. Captain Jarvey appeared to be very much put about the death of his wife, and he spoke angrily to Dr. Worall for not bleeding her. Mrs Jarvey's corpse looked composed. I don't recollect who went out of the house first, but I recollect Captain Jarvey in the parlor striking Dr. Worrall for not bleeding his wife, and for not going away. After the doctors had left, I went upstairs with Captain Jarvey and asked him. to get some one to help me to dress the corpse as it was getting stiff. He went for Mrs. Sly, and she assisted' me. The corpse was very stiff and the hands were cleneheh, half closed. We bad to rip the clothes off her with the scissors, as the joints would not move. Her arms would not move from her side. Her arms were stretched full length close to her side. I. took the ring from her finger, and as I did so, I made the remark to Captain Jarvey that she was very stiff. I took no notice whether the feet were stiff, but the} r were about eight inches apart, and I took a cloth. and tied them together. I only once dressed a corpse before, and its limbs were quite flexible. I could, turn them any way I liked. I believed thac Japtain Jarvey was sincerely sorry for his wife, and I felt deeply fpr him. Andrew Jarvey, aged 1.3, the son cf the prisoner, was next examined, and stated that he was in the bedroom all the time but did not hear his mother speak. She only moaned. He had seen, her in fits in Tasmania, and the night she died she was just the same. Before his mother left the kitchen, he saw his sister (die previous witness examined,) mix a glass of brandy and water for both his father and mother. The bottle was left on the kitchen table, and. was there when Mrs. Lumb came. Both his father and mother finished their brandy and water. His mother did not seem to have any difficulty in breathing, but she complained of a pain in her chest, and once s.aid.that her old complaint was coming on again. His mother first lay on her back moaning. Both his father and sister occasionally wet her. lips with brandy _;nd water.. This concluded the first clay's proceed-., ings, and the court rose, the jury being removed to the.- Shamrock Hotel..

Xkursda}', March 10th. The trial was resumed by the examination of Mrs. Sly,, who had assisted Mrs. Lumb in laying out the body. She described the appearance of the deceased as follows :- — I found the, room, all in disorder, and the corpse stretched out on the bed. There were two garments on the corpse, and the bed clothes were, over it. I stood, for a few minutes, for the appearance of the corpse was so wild — she w.as perfectly stiff ; as ii she had been de.ad some hours. When we got some water, we attempted to remove the clothing, but the limbs were s.o stiff that conld^ not get the garments off, and we had to cut them. I then, observed, a,, black spot extending-

round the breast on the left side — from the arm round the breast.. The spot was getting- quite black.. Her arm was.bleeding'.. The blood was quite bright; and wherr I attempted to bind the arm, I felt that the-blood. was quite warm., I bound the arm,, but the blood came through the bandage vary quickly.- The black mark seemed, about 3 in., wide;, the appearance of the corpse was so wild, and, so different from.the several that I have seen during- the last- few years, that I did not look at the mark very .intently.. There was a little blackness, around the mouth. Portions of the body were not quite cold, but it was altogether perfectly stiff. I assisted Mrs. Lumb to dress the body ; but I was so weak that I could, not do much. I put the clothes over the body, and Mrs. Lum.b pulled them down. We did it witli great difficulty, the body was so stiff. The arms were straight down by her side, as if she had been laid out previously ; and the hands were so clenched that no human strength,- could have opened them. The body was stretched, or laid out: the legs .were warm on, the inside, but perfectly stiff. The feet were cold and stiff j they were quite straight and projecting up. The head was quite straight, and the neck was quite stiff.. I have seen four or five corpses this last four years — four of my own children, and that of a body which I laid out. For the time being there was such a- wild look about the woman's face, and the stiffness of the body was such as I had never seen before, that I remarked it particularly. The eyes were quite closed when I went in ; and the mouth . was nearly closed, that I thought it was quiteclosed. Generally after death a placid appearance comes over the face of the corpse in an hour or two ; but here the face was drawn, as if she had died in great ao-ony. I made the remark at that time to my husband, whom I called up. In cross-examination, witness said that she did not see Mrs. Lumb take a ring off deceased's figner, and did not think it could have been done without her seeing it; The following niorning there was about a pint of blood on the iioor which come during the night from the arm of deceased where it was cut to bleed. Capt. Jarvey had seemed much affected at his wife's death... Wm. Sly, the son of the previous witness, deposed to having heard Mrs. Jarvey screaming on the night of her death. He had told his father and mother of it. Dr. Worrall deposed to having been called in to deceased, and finding her dead on arrival. Captain Jarvey, on his return with Dr. Hardy, was very angry with witness for not having bled deceased. Witness was quite sober and did not consider bleeding of any use. Witness admitted that lie was in the habit of drinking, but swore positively as to his sobriety on that occasion. Dr. Hardy wa,p 'examined, and depo ed to finding deceased dead on his arrival in company "with Capt. Jarvey. Captain Jarvey insisted on bleeding her, and was going to do it himself with a penknife when witness did it, but as she was quite dead he did not close the wound. He did not observe anything unnatural, about the body, but did not examine it closely. After seeing the Coroner and telling him all about it, he gave the certificate that deceased died from fits, lie forgot whether he stated apopletic or epileptic. The prisoner | went first to witness house for and then to. the Theatre to get him that night. At the time he considered that deceased died of puerperal convulsions. The witness underwent a very, long cross-examina-tion as to the various forms of Hysteria in women, and the symptoms of poisoning b}' - strychnine and those of various forms of Tetanus and. ; Hysteria,., and the resemblance, borne- to those symptoms by the symptoms described in. Mrs. Jarvey's case. Dr. Hardy appeared to be ot opinion that all, or nearly all, the symptoms spoken ol by Miss. Jarvey as having been shown in her mother's case,, were recon? cilahle with death from natural causes. | James Hachers, sexton, deposed to having buried Mrs. Jarvey, and subsequently disinterred her. Detective Weal was examined as to the model of the house,, and stated that b} r experiment he knew that the noise of .stirring a glass could be heard from the kitchen in : the • bedrooms. . Bernard Isaacs, a, partner in. the firm of Luke & Co., Chemists, was exarnined.and stated, that on the2oth Septeniber,he sold Captain Jarvey two quinine powders^, a

cough mixture fbr his own use, and a drachm of crude opium. He stated that the cough mixture was for his own use, and the quinine for Mrs. Jarvey, who. was subject to fits, to whom he intended giving one as a preventative. On the 23rd he sold to the Captain a drachm of pure strychnine.. He had previously sold him some corrosive sublimate and strychnine mixed, to poison rats on board the Titania, Captain Jarvey said this did not answer,. and he then got the pure strychnine. Witness got it from, Younghusband and Co., and prisoner came back for it. At the time Captain Jarvey got the strychnine he also got a cough mixture and some cold cream which were entered to his account. He said in. a hurried manner, 'don't enter that strychnine,. I'll pay for it, it's for the use of the ship !' The strychnine was labelled on each. side in red letters ' Poison.' A clerk of Messrs Young-husband proved having sold an ounce of pure strychnine in its original packet to Messrs Luke and Co. Mr Robinson the,) owner of the Titania was next examined to prove that Captain Jarvey had never complained to him of ruts on board the steamer or said anything about getting poiscn for them, or charged the ship with any sum fbr that purpose. The Steward and Engineer of the Titania were also examined and proved that except a jacket belonging to the Engineer was nibbled they never knew of tlie vessel being infested with. rats.. They had never seen any on board or heard anything of poison being laid for them.