MEDICAL MISPRISION OF POISONING.
IN the recent poisoning eases, the medical men appear to be at fault. It is scarcely speaking too strongly to say that they are at fault, not through the imperfectness of the medical science, nor, we presume, through their own ignorance and imperfect training, but through some other defect. Their error, it appears to us, is a culpable negligence, followed by such consequences as we see in the recent cases of poisoning. At the inquest on the body of Ann Palmer, Mr. Bamford and Dr. Knight stated that the symptoms were those of " English cholera." Mr. Bamford treated. his pa- tient for that disease, and Dr. Knight concurred. Yet, when the body is examined by Dr. Taylor, the condition of its digestive organs is found totally incompatible with the idea of cholera ; and there are glaring evidences that the deceased had taken anti- mony, in doses so small as to avoid immediate reaction, but so continued as to lodge in every part of the body great quantities of antimony—so to " saturate" it as to render its condition incom- patible with life. In other words, the two medical men who at- tended Mrs. Palmer pronounced her disease to be one quite in- compatible with its actual condition ; and they failed to detect an excessive and a really typical form of the malady from which she died—the artificially inflicted malady of saturation by antimony. No sooner did Dr. Knight hear the report by Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees upon the chemical state of the body, than his opinion was entirely altered. " I now believe," said Dr. Knight on Saturday, " that the true cause of death was that assigned by Doctors Taylor and Rees. I believe I was mis- taken yesterday as to the circumstances stated to me on my visit to the de-
ceased Ann Palmer I did not suspect antimony when I saw Mrs. Palmer. I took the statements made to me from Mr. Palmer's own mouth. My judgment was taken entirely from Mr. Palmer's statement, as the de- ceased was so much exhausted I could obtain no information from her own mouth. Having heard the symptoms of poisoning by antimony as given by Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees, and referring to the appearances I saw, I think the deceased was suffering from poisoning by antimony. I did not suspect antimony then, but what I saw was the state of exhaustion which might be produced by vomiting superinduced by antimony."
Dr. Knight, in fact, appears to have come in, to have looked at Mrs. Palmer, to have taken Mr. Palmer's report, with perhaps some contribution by the nurse, and to have adopted their opinion as his own.
The case is the more remarkable since Dr. Knight was not only called in to see Mrs. Palmer professionally, but he was her guardian.
When Walter Palmer died, he was in the professional care of Mr. Henry Day,. surgeon of Stafford ; who prescribed for him, the prescriptions being made up by Mr. Marson, a druggist at Stafford. William Palmer made Mr. Day take payment for the attend- ance, on the score of the trouble and expense that it would occasion, because Walter was addicted to drink largely. On one occasion, Walter, complained that the pills which Mr. Day had sent to him were "twisters." Mr. Day had sent no pills ; but Walter Palmer's habitual intoxication naturally made his visitor m little attention to the words. " I did think it strange that his brother should have given him pills but I did not place any dependence upon what he said." Yet Mr. Day thought proper to make inquiry on the point, of Marson, the chemist. On one oc-
casion Day suffered William Palmerl to intercept him in his visit: William represented that his brother was asleep, and it Was " useless " to visit him. Mr. Day was not invited to the post-mortem examination, though it is usual to invite the medical attendant to such an inquiry. He certified the cause of death to
beIn Ap aPoPlexrilY.
last both the Palmers were perfect strangers to Mr. Day: it is to be supposed that Walter, who drank from one to two-and-a-half bottles ofgin in a night, should exhibit symp- toms of habitael intoxication ; and in fact he did so—his flesh was puffy, his eyes were blood-shot, and his manner must have been peculiar : yet in filling up the form of the Universal Litt Insurance-office, Mr. Day concluded with the words—" From a careful examination of the life of Mr. Walter Palmer, I am of opinion that his life is one on which it is perfectly safe to effect an insurance." Now this man died three months later : he then proved to be suffering under organic disease ; he had suffered from clelirium tremens, enlargement of the liver, and a bad cough ac- companied by expectoration. In the certificate, Mr. Day stated that the habits of Walter Palmer were " temperate." " How could you state that," asked a lawyer at the inquest, "when you never knew anything of him ?' " The only means I had of knowing," replied Mr. Day, " was from his own and his brother's representations."
We have already surveyed the eases of John Parsons Cook and Mrs. Wooler, with very similar laxity on the part of the medical men. In Mrs. Woolen's ease, we have the whole of their beha- viour before us. One point, however, has been imperfectly touched upon. It is part of Dr. Haslewood's defence that he was not told of the symptom of tingling in the hands until a Trticu- lar day. The medical men, however, had actually been looking for the symptoms of poisoning by arsenic ; and yet Dr. Hasle- wood waited until the poisoned woman made her husband state it in her presence ; and did not extract it from her, as he might have done, four or five days sooner, by inquiry.
We have now four cases of persons who appear to have died from the effects of poison. In all the cases, several of the medical men employed took their reports at second-hand, from interested parties or ignorant parties. In more than one of the cases, medi- cal men certified the cause of death without being absolutely cer- tain of it. In some, they filled up the forms of insurance-offices, again on the report of interested parties. These four cases occur in different towns ; the medical men belonged to different circles ; they are unconnected with each other. We are not to suppose that the medical men at B,ugeley, Stafford, Shrewsbury, and Dar- lington, are more ignorant, more careless, or more indolent than their class. The conduct of these men, however, appears like a practical confession as to the manner in which Medical men con- duct their business in the most serious oases. We feel that some defence is required for the profession; some authorized statement, either that those instances of gross laxity are exceptional, or that henceforward a stricter performance of duty will be adopted as the rule of the profession.
Dr. Taylor states that more than a hundred cases of poisoning have come under his notice within the year : were they all " hushed up," or did they pass unnoticed by favour of inattention on the part of the medical attendants ?
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