Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright.

Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Pathological researches on death from suffocation and from syncope, and on vital and post-mortem burning : suggested by the case of the alleged Bridgnorth matricide / by Samuel Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    trial of Mercy Catherine Newton, the alleged Bridgnorth matricide, observes, that it is perhaps the most extraordinary of its kind in the annals of English judicature. » In that opinion, all who are intimate with the details of this remarkable case, will no doubt fully concur. It happened to myself, in conjunction with my colleague, Mr. Bolton, to be summoned on the part of the Crown, to give testimony based upon the evidence of the surgeons who. had examined the body of the woman supposed to have been murdered. The internal appearances of any note, were stated to be—marked congestion of the brain; excessive congestion of the lungs, which were unusually dark, and spumous wherever incised; and complete engorgement of the right cavities of the heart with black semi-coagulated blood. Externally, there were signs of burning, variously severe, over a considerable portion of the trunk, limbs, and face: in some places, these were simply scorched brown; in others, burnt to blackness; but in no part whatever, could the least trace of redness be A 2