The Timaru Poisoning Case

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 53, 14 October 1886, Page 2

The Timaru Poisoning Case

[PEE UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.] I Cheisichu'kch, October 11. f The nurse continued her evidence ; as follows : — During Mrs Hall's ill- j ness, prisoners dined together ; when. .■ Mrs Hall was able she dined with them; when not able, Miss Houston generally, and Hall sometimes, took Mrs Hall's dinner to her bedroom. . Medical consultations were held on : July 24th between Macintyre and , Drew ; July 28, Macintyre and Stackpole; August 12, Lovegrpve, Macintyre, and Drew. Mrs Hall was a little better after the consultations. She took nothing by mouth but icewater ; she was veiy thirsty ; witness prepared the ice-waterdna jug,' Miss Houston brought someice to her room on muslin and placed it over a cup. On tlie evening of the day before the arrest Mrs Hall drank from this ; during.the night she was very sick! Hall came to the room early in the morning, and witness left him alone with Mrs Hall. >he came back just after and heard Mrs Hall say : "I have drunk ice-water, and it made me very sick— goodness knows what's in it, I don't." "Witness drank abeut^ teaspoonful, arid it made her very sick; she put some aside in a clean cup, and afterwards gave it to Dr. Macintyre in a bottle. Hall tasted the ice-water, and said he. could not account for it. He must hare made a mistake in pouring some water out of the jug. Miss Houston heard this, and came just then and said : "If it does taste nasty you shan't have it to drink." She took s cup of the original water put of the room, and came back with the same cup with another clean piece of muslin with ice on it. Witness searched but could not find the first piece of muslin. The exhibits, which numbered 42, from the lower court, and increased to over 60 by deeds,&c, put in since the trial began, were prominently brought into notice, for a first time. During nurse Ellison's evidence Mr Joynt insisted that she should select the various bottles she referred to herself, and that they should not be handed to her by the detective. She readily picked out the exhibits she wanted. One of these was a brandy bottle which Hall gave her about one-third full, saying it was to be used for Mrs Hall's injections. The nurse gave this to the constable. The witness gave fresh evidence affecting Miss Houston, who, she said, was touching the medicine bottle one day, when she remonstrated with her. Miss Houston retorted that Dr Stackpple told her to give the medicine to Mrs ; Hall. Mrs Ellison replied that when she was not fit for her position, she" would give it up to Miss Houston. She did not recognise Dr. Stackpoole as the family doctor, but recognised Dr Macintyre as such, / Miss Houston said, "Oh ! Dr. Macintyre is a fool." The witness evidence occupied a long, time in delivery, and an equally long cross-examination followed.. The point the defence elicited in favour was that Mrs Hall, when she came back from a drive, was very sick, and she told Mrs Ellison that she had not taken any of the brandy that Miss Houston had taken with her in the carriage with the intention of giving it to her if she was sick. The cross-examina-tion lasted two hours. October 13Dr. Macintyre was the first witness called this morning, when the hearing of the poisoning case was resumed. The Attorney-General examined. He described the symptoms of Mrs Hall's illness subsequent to her confinement, and her gradual sinking till she was in a state of collapse en August. 15th. He denied that Hall had suggested any consultations with other doctors. His evidence in chief was largely a repetition of that given in the lower court. . The bottles containing the evacuations, from Mrs Hall at various dates since the arrest, were identified by Dr. Macintyre. The Attorney-General explained that these were produced in order to show at a later period that the quantity of antimony in Mrs Hall s system had greatly decreased since the arrest of the prisoners. Dr Macintyre said Hall knew that tests were made for albumen or sugar,, in order to see if Mrs Hall was suffering from kidney disease or diabetes in July last. Mr Joynt, in cross-examinatiion,-brought out the fact that Bismuth, belladonia, and digitalis had been given to Mrs Hall in small doses, also chloral for a cough on one occasion, j The learned counsel seemed to lay great stress on the digitalis, and quoted from "Taylor on Poisons" to j show that it was a poison acting as an emetic, and similar in its effects to "antimony, but Dr. Macintyre said that was only when large doses were administered. Mr Hay, on behalf of Miss Houston, .remarked that the outset was singular. The doctor had not once mentioned Miss Houston's name in his evidence, and yet he had laid an information against her. > This Day. Inspector Brohnm was placed in the witness box when the, hearing of the Hall-Houston ca->e was resumed this morning. He detailed the circumstances of the arrest and Hall's endeavour to throw away the phial containing ihe trtar emetic solution; the struggle and Miss Houston's intervention;, the finding of a packet of tartar emetic upon Hall and. some grains on the dining r oni floor where the struggle had taken place. Hall at first said he u>ed antimony in a preparation for cigarettes ; later on be said— 'anything in connection with this matter Broham I did alone, there was no second person conci'rned." Wit" ness identified all the articles above named; also the book (Taylor on Poisons); the bottle of colchium, wine, and other things found in Hall's bedroom. A deal of time was occupied in hearing details with reference to the numerous, articles sent to Professor Black for analysis. The witness gare his evidence with great oare. - Mr Joynt elicited a new fact that Hall had a small .-leather case covering: th? phial , in his hand when Brbharn first saw him. Kail «aid this was morphia, , and showed Broham' where lie injected it into the Teius of his legs. ■'■