witness, was ushered first into the room, and accommodated with a seat
by the coroner. Aubrey was then called, merely to identify the body. It
was that, of Mrs Petre his aunt. The last time he had seen her she was
in good health. Her money matters were arranged by Mrs Danton, of whom
she intended soon to get rid. And a host of other information quivered
on his lips, when the coroner dismissed him.
'Then came the housemaid, Margaret Penn, who stated she was in Mrs
Petre's service partly as nurse partly as housemaid. She knew Mrs
Petre had bought the laudanum to rub her rheumatic limbs with. She had
noticed Mrs Petre had taken a small quantity on the preceding night,
and fearing danger, had carried the bottle down to Mrs Danton, who,
uncorking and tasting it, had said: "Take it back and place it where
you found it, so that Mrs Petre may not miss it;" accordingly she did
so. She verified Mrs Danton's first statement to the constable, that
soon after Janet's departure Mrs Petre's bell had rung twice; that on
answering it, however, Mrs Petre had exhibited nothing unusual beyond
a demand for "Danton." Danton had gone up, and soon afterwards called
Margaret, telling her Mrs Petre had accidentally taken some laudanum,
and desired her to go for the doctor. That was all she knew.
'The doctor's evidence was the next taken. He had merely attended Mrs
Petre for a slight cold. He knew she had got some laudanum to rub her
limbs with. She was an old lady, suffering from considerable depression
of mind, and somewhat feeble in body. He had been called in to see her,
having received a message to say she had taken an overdose of laudanum.
He took the stomach-pump and applied it; but she was too far gone. No
emetics had been administered previous to his arrival. The amount she
had taken was not sufficient to act as its own emetic. She was slightly
conscious when he saw her, and gave him to understand that she had
herself taken the dose. He did all he could for her; he considered she
had died from narcotic poisoning.
'Then came--not the person from whom Mrs Petre was supposed to have
bought the laudanum--but the partner in the establishment, who, strange
to say, read his evidence from a paper he produced; eliciting thereby
a disapproving remark from several of the jurymen, who truly said where
only truth was to be told, there was no occasion for written papers.
It was merely to state that Mrs Petre, or a lady whom he understood to
be Mrs Petre, bought the laudanum in two separate quantities at his
establishment.
'Then came a surgeon who had made a postmortem examination. The
deceased had died of narcotic poisoning. He went into various medical
details of no interest, as the cause of death was clear; but one remark
seemed to startle the jurymen, who listened with the most praiseworthy
attention. The hands of the deceased were bruised and discoloured, and
the little finger of the right hand blackened. This he accounted for by
their having been "flecked" with a towel to try to keep deceased awake.
'Janet Heath was next called. Nothing in the world could have been
more convincing or more conclusive than her evidence--the clear and
artless manner in which she gave it--her open, honest grieved face, as
she described her last interview with her mistress--detailing her own
horror at hearing of the death, and depicting Mrs Petre's position with
Danton; her penniless state; the neglect and unhappiness she suffered
from, but how at length Mrs Petre seemed to have summoned up courage
to dismiss her custodian, whose presence was anything but conducive to
her comfort. She dwelt upon her last visit; upon Mrs Petre's remarks
regarding Major Dumaresque's return; on her kindly mention of Mr and
Mrs Aubrey Stanmore; in fact, nothing seemed wanting.
'Janet Heath was dismissed; and then came the witness, Mrs Selina
Danton. A suppressed murmur ran round the room as she entered, ghastly
pale, her great black eyes seeming almost to be starting out of her
head; but she advanced boldly enough to the table--kissing the Holy
Book audibly--took the oath, and amidst the profoundest silence,
gave her evidence. She was a cousin of the deceased. She managed her
affairs. Deceased was subject to fits of great depression. She was
not quite unable to manage her money matters, but preferred deputing
her to do so. Her will was in favour of Major Dumaresque. She had
asked her for some money to buy the laudanum. She had given her three
shillings. Margaret had mentioned she had touched the bottle; and she,
the witness, had--never dreaming of the consequences--desired her to
replace it.
"Did the witness think deceased had taken it accidentally, or did she
think she had deliberately meant to destroy herself?"
'The witness answered that she most unhesitatingly, and before the
corpse itself--a most unnecessary addition--could swear that deceased
had deliberately taken the fatal draught, meaning to commit suicide.
She then proceeded to state, that when deceased had first sent for
her, she had said: "Danton, look here; I have taken all this;"
pointing to the empty bottle. "_This_ will tell you why."--"Here is
my proof," concluded Mrs Danton, as with a theatrical gesture she
waved in her hand a letter, which she began to read, and which was to
the effect that the writer, Mrs Petre, was dying; that her life had
been a most unhappy one. A few sentences, a signature and date, with
superscription--"The Last Words of Mrs Petre."
"Is that Mrs Petre's handwriting?" asked the coroner. "Can you
identify it?" holding it towards Mr Stanmore.
"I think it is--I believe it is," he answered, gazing earnestly at it.
"You _know_ it is," almost shrieked Mrs Danton, glaring at him with the
ferocity of a tigress.
"Silence--silence!" from the coroner.
'Aubrey's identification was enough for the coroner, who instantly,
without any hesitation, proceeded to sum up for the jury, entirely
in favour of Mrs Danton. The coroner's own mind was quite clear, and
his bias equally obvious: the letter left not a shadow of doubt. The
deliberation of the jury was brief, their verdict being, "Suicide
whilst of unsound mind;" but they wished to be appended to their
verdict a strong and severe censure upon Mrs Danton for not having
removed the laudanum when she ought to have done it. The coroner,
however, refused to append the censure, upon the plea that to do so
would be equal to a criminal charge; and the proceedings terminated.
* * * * *
'Of course,' continued Mr Langley, 'none of us was satisfied; and the
conviction is clear upon my mind that Mrs Petre was simply murdered. If
the coroner had summoned his constable, and asked him what account, in
the first instance, Mrs Danton had given of the death, the discrepancy
would have instantly suggested itself to an intelligent jury; but
it appears to me that an inquest is merely to discover the cause of
death, not the motives and circumstances surrounding it, which a police
investigation would inevitably elicit.'
'Then what is the use of a coroner's inquest?' I asked, rather
bewildered.
'That is a question you must excuse my answering,' he replied. 'Until
they are differently conducted, I consider them a mere farce; for in
this instance, those few lines, which no one saw Mrs Petre write, might
have been written by her or might not; no one knew. They did not allude
to self-destruction; her own horror of death, and her anticipations
of Major Dumaresque's return, combated the probability of her having
voluntarily taken the dose. It is a mystery, and a mystery it is likely
to remain; nor will it be the last, unless such occurrences are more
closely inquired into.'
'And was the will wholly in Major Dumaresque's favour?' I asked. 'Did
Danton benefit in no way pecuniarily by the death?'
'We thought not at first, for the will was wholly in Major Dumaresque's
favour; but I had the curiosity to go and pay my shilling to see the
document at Somerset House. It was written by Mrs Danton herself, and
contained merely a vague bequeathment of all to the major, not stating
any particulars. Mrs Danton had appointed herself co-executor with the
major; it was witnessed by two servants; and the misspelt composition
most tremulously signed by the poor old lady, whose pitiable condition
at the time left her in no condition to be properly cognisant of
her actions. My impression after reading it was, that there was far
more than met the eye under Mrs Petre's death; but I know the Aubrey
Stanmores did not gain much for their trouble, beyond the approbation
of their conscience; for they found that right is not always might, and
that justice is not always done, even when matters are investigated by
the aid of a coroner's inquiry.
'And what has become of Mrs Danton?'
'As you may imagine, she soon left the neighbourhood; and Hilton Lodge
has not had another tenant since the mystery of Mrs Petre's death,
which no one considered solved or satisfactorily accounted for by the
Coroner's Inquest.'
THE MONTH:
SCIENCE AND ARTS.
Why should London have a monopoly of the museums carried on at the
public expense? is a question which has been frequently asked; and
at a meeting held in Birmingham it was recently repeated with good
show of argument by the mayors of some of our chief provincial towns.
The importance of galleries and museums for educational purposes is
admitted. Much of science and of the arts may be learned through the
eyes. There is in the British Museum and other establishments in
London, a surplus of articles that could be turned to good uses in
museums in country towns; and so application is to be made to the
Commissioners of the Exhibition of 1851, for portions of the large
balance--seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds remaining in their
hands. The whole of the kingdom contributed towards the success of that
Exhibition, and may therefore claim to participate in the available
profits. There is a good show of reason in this argument, which it is
to be hoped will have due consideration. An additional point is, that
a museum when once started has a tendency to grow; for there are many
people possessed of objects of nature or art who are disposed to give
or bequeath them to an institution where they will be taken care of and
appreciated.
In looking back on the weather that darkened the closing weeks of
last year and the opening weeks of the present year, the rainfall is
seen as the conspicuous phenomenon. As is shewn by observations made
at Greenwich Observatory and other places, eleven inches of rain fell
in about eight weeks. The annual rainfall in eastern England is about
26 inches: thus nearly half the quantity that should have been spread
over twelve months was poured down in two. Taking the month of December
by itself, the rainfall was the greatest for any month during twenty
years. In London the quantity registered was 6.25 inches; at Selborne
(White's Selborne) it was 9.77 inches; at Skipton (Yorkshire), 10.53
inches; at Bodmin (Cornwall), 12.69 inches; and at Seathwaite, in the
Lake country, a notoriously rainy district, the December rainfall was
18.31 inches. The reader may well exclaim 'Prodigious!'
But it is well to remember that in the first nine months of 1876 there
was a large deficiency of rain; the quantity as measured at Greenwich
Observatory was not more than 13¾ inches, being 4½ inches less than
the average extending over a period of sixty-one years. The time of
greatest deficiency was from April to August: hence it may be said that
there were large arrears to make up; and the means have been supplied
by an unusual, and as yet inexplicable, flow of warm water and warm air
towards our coasts from the Atlantic.
The floods, though wide-spread and distressing, were not so deep as
the floods of 1875. But in this particular there appears to be a want
of accurate measures; and a proposition has been made that a combined
system of flood-marks for the whole country should be established. With
these once in place, each bearing its proper date, there would be no
difficulty in comparing the height of successive inundations. Perhaps
this and other questions may be left to the Meteorological Office,
which in all probability will be much increased in efficiency during
the present session of parliament. The Committee appointed to inquire
into the working of that useful office have reported in favour of an
extension of its usefulness, including the scientific as well as the
economical aspects of the question.
According to Dr Gilbert, the amount of ammonia that comes down with
rain and 'minor aqueous deposits' varies from six and a half to ten
pounds per acre in Western Europe. If the amount is in proportion to
the rainfall the coming season should be fruitful. In connection with
all this it is worth remark that, so far as the returns are made up,
the health of the nation was good in 1876. In the first quarter the
death-rate was, omitting decimals, twenty-three per thousand, twenty in
the second quarter, and nineteen in the third.
The Natural History Society of Montreal have published further
particulars of the plague of locusts which in 1874 afflicted
Manitoba and the North-west Territories. In that year the hungry
swarms destroyed five million bushels of grain; in other words, they
devoured the green plants that would have produced that quantity.
This fact alone justifies the hostility with which the creatures
are treated wherever they alight, and the endeavours made for their
total extinction. According to Mr Dawson, a scientific observer,
they consist of but a single species, _Caloptenus spretus_, having
numerous parasitic enemies, besides birds, which devour them greedily.
Their breeding-grounds are the vast unpeopled tracts between the one
hundred and fourth and one hundred and eleventh meridians, and the
forty-ninth to fifty-third parallels. Mr Dawson states that being on
the high plains near White Mud River, he saw swarms of locusts on
the wing 'at all altitudes, following no determinate direction, but
sailing in circles, and crossing each other in flight. The greater
number were hovering over the swamps or spots of luxuriant grass, or
resting on the prairie. A slight breath of wind would induce them all
to take wing, causing a noise like that of the distant sound of surf,
or a gentle breeze among pine-trees. They appeared ill at ease, as if
anxiously awaiting a favourable wind.' Their migration is not flight,
for they have no intrinsic power of directing their course, but like
a sailing-vessel, must depend on the wind for propulsion. Their fixed
determination to travel in a certain direction, and the wonderful
instinct which leads them to wait for a favourable wind, are pointed
out by Mr Dawson as worthy of special remark. The favourable wind is
of course that which blows towards the settlements and lands under
cultivation. There is evidence that the young broods at times migrate
from the settlements to the breeding-grounds of their parents: on which
Mr Dawson says: 'It would be a fact surpassing in interest the journeys
of birds of passage, if it should be found that the locust requires
two generations to complete the normal cycle of its migration.'
Evidently extirpation to be effectual must be on a great scale. One of
the plans proposed is to prevent the burning of the prairies in the
autumn, and to set them on fire in the spring, when the young locusts
are hatched. Another plan is to suddenly burn a broad belt of country
when it is known that swarms are approaching; but this applies only
to the unsettled districts. Another is by planting of trees to create
a rainfall and infuse damp into the climate: moisture being fatal to
locust life. Coniferous trees especially appear to exert a protective
effect. One of the districts of Manitoba has never been ravaged by
locusts. It is separated by a belt of fir forest, which they have never
been known to cross.
From a paper read before the Helvetic Society of Science at Basel we
learn that the fever districts of Switzerland are the valley of the
Rhone in its middle course between Martigny and Brieg, and some parts
of the canton Tessin. Owing to the large extent of marshes in these
districts, malaria and intermittent fevers and neuralgia prevail in the
summer and autumn. The effect of town-life in promoting consumption
is made evident by the fact that in Zurich the deaths from pulmonary
phthisis are one hundred and four to the thousand, while in Zug
they are not more than seventeen. Tillers of the ground have thus
an important advantage over those who work in shops and factories.
Consumption disappears with altitude, and dwellers on the mountains or
in the upper valleys are free from it; but on the other hand they are
very liable to inflammation of the respiratory organs. Deaf and dumb
persons, in proportion to the population, are more numerous than in any
other country of Europe. And lastly, we gather that 'alcoholism' is on
the increase in Switzerland as well as elsewhere.
A communication to the Société de Médecine at Caen makes known that
the natives in some parts of Egypt cure hydrophobia by administering a
certain insect called _Darnah_. The insect is a species of _Mylabris_.
To facilitate the swallowing, it is given to the patient inclosed in a
ripe date.
A doctor in Paris has invented an apparatus which he calls a
spirophore, to be employed for the relief of persons suffering from
asphyxia or suffocation. It may be described as a chamber constructed
of zinc: in this chamber the patient is placed, but his head remains
outside. Air is then drawn from the chamber by a pump; the patient's
lungs expand: air is then pumped into the cylinder, and the lungs
contract; and this operation is continued at intervals until the
patient recovers.
The account of an experiment with ozone may be interesting to
non-professional readers: 'A piece of fresh beef was cut into
two equal parts, one of which was placed in a stoppered bottle
containing ordinary air, and the other in a similar bottle containing
ozonised air. In five days the meat in the first bottle was in full
putrefaction, while that in the second bottle containing ozonised air,
was as fresh as when put in, nor was any change manifested on the tenth
day, when the bottle was opened to see if the meat had any offensive
odour. Although the stopper was then quickly replaced, putrefaction had
commenced on the following day. Milk was kept in ozonised oxygen for
eight days without undergoing any change.'
Professor O. Rood of New York states that in certain conditions of the
eye, such as are produced by prolonged excitation, nervous derangement,
or by effects of fever, the nerves which convey impressions of colour
fail to act, and give rise to 'temporary green colour-blindness.' This
is a fact which should be borne in mind by persons whose occupation
requires them to distinguish colours.
The question of the effect of sun-spots on climate has been often
discussed, but so many considerations are involved therein that many
years must pass before it will be settled. In a paper published in
the _Monthly Notices_ of the Astronomical Society, Professor Langley
of Allegheny Observatory, Pennsylvania, after shewing the different
points from which the question must be approached, states, as the
result of his own investigations, that 'sun-spots do exercise a direct
and real influence on terrestrial climates, by decreasing the mean
temperature of this planet at their maximum. This decrease is, however,
so minute, that it is doubtful whether it has been directly observed
or discriminated from other changes. The whole effect is represented
by a change in the mean temperature of our globe in eleven years not
exceeding three-tenths, and not less than one-twentieth, of one degree
of the Centigrade thermometer.'
Captain Watkin, R.A., has invented a range-finder, under different
forms, for use in military and naval training and in time of war. If
a hostile ship is approaching our coast or working her way into a
harbour, it is important to know her exact distance, so that she may
be hit by the heavy shot of the defensive battery. The range-finder,
which is a combination of a telescope and a spirit-level, requires not
more than eight seconds to indicate the distance in yards on a scale,
and the guns can then be brought to bear with unerring accuracy. Should
the ship be hidden by smoke, observers with an electric position-finder
are stationed some way off, and make known her movements by telegraph,
whereby the gunners can keep up their fire although they cannot see the
enemy. This seems incredible; but the explanation is, that by means of
charts ruled in squares, the position of a ship in any square or any
part of a square can be identified, and aim taken accordingly. Another
form of range-finder, of very simple construction, is intended for use
on land. It is a japanned metal box ten inches by four, with a few
holes in two sides, and one half of the top free to open by a hinge.
Inside is an arrangement of mirrors, and a boxwood scale of yards from
six hundred to four thousand. With this instrument and three staves,
used in determining a base, one man by himself can ascertain the range
of an object--a battery, a wood, a river, or a body of men, in three
minutes; with two men it can be accomplished in one minute. Truly we
may say that the art of killing becomes more and more scientific.
The Geological Survey Department in New Zealand has published a Report
on the climate of that country extending over a series of years, and
brought down to 1873. From this we gather that the rainfall of New
Zealand presents some analogy with the rainfall of England in the
difference of amount between the eastern and western coast. Taranaki,
for example, on the west coast of the North Island, has an annual
rainfall of more than sixty inches; while Napier, on the east coast,
has about thirty inches. In the South Island, the yearly fall at
Hokitika, on the west, is a hundred and twenty inches; while at Dunedin
and Christchurch it is not more than one quarter or one-third of that
quantity. The climate of Nelson is described as the 'most pleasant and
finest in New Zealand, on account of its calm winter, the protection of
its chains of mountains, and its clear sky, which is but rarely covered
with clouds.' Yet Nelson is a rainy place: more than nine inches of
rain have fallen there in a single day.
Owing to the peculiarities of climate, the glaciers on the west side of
the New Zealand Alps descend very low, down to about seven hundred feet
only above the level of the sea; and this is in the same geographical
latitude as Leghorn. But different from the glaciers of Europe, the
lower part of the New Zealand glaciers are decorated by pines, beeches,
tree-ferns, and fuchsias in luxuriant growth.
From an accompanying Report on the minerals of the colony, we learn
that more specimens of coal had been analysed than in any previous
year, and that they 'represent an immense quantity of workable coal of
excellent quality.' A splendid industrial prospect this for New Zealand.
The system of telegraph weather-signals has been adopted by the
government of Canada; and storm warnings and other meteorological
particulars are now regularly despatched to and from a number of
stations in the Dominion three times a day. The central office is
at Toronto, and thence the signals are telegraphed to Washington.
A noonday time-gun is fired every day by electricity at Quebec,
and for the benefit of ship-masters accurate time-signals are sent
to the provincial outports: from all of which we see that Canada
is co-operating praiseworthily in the grand meteorological and
astronomical telegraph scheme.