To Love and Perish

Author:Ernest Dudley [Dudley, Ernest]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: courtroom, legal, thriller, crime, British, Mystery
ISBN: 9781846176395
Publisher: Ulverscroft Large Print Books Ltd
Published: 1962-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The first witness next morning, Wednesday, 17th October, 1956, was Sergeant Parry, giving evidence of having been in charge of the specimen-jar which he had taken to Cardiff police laboratory; and this formality completed, Dr. Griffiths took Parry’s place.

He had been in practice some twenty-five years. He had attended Mrs. Merrill at irregular intervals for three years for rheumatic complaints of varying intensity.

He came to 22nd December, 1955, when he was sent for by Merrill. ‘I found Mrs. Merrill with a pulse of 120. A normal pulse would be about 80. She told me she had been vomiting, and she complained of pain in her stomach. She told me she was subject to these bilious attacks. There was a cyanosed condition round the lips; that indicates a failure of circulation. The skin of her abdomen was sallow.’

‘Having regard to what you know now, is that an important matter?’

‘It is an important matter,’ Dr. Griffiths said.

‘When did you next see Mrs. Merrill?’

‘I continued to see her; her condition continued to deteriorate. Then on 11th January, 1956, she complained to me of curious feelings in her feet. She described them as springs pressing her up from the ground. I took her arm and tried to get her to walk naturally round the room. She was unable to do so.’

‘What conclusion did you draw from this condition?’

‘I was familiar with the high-stepping walk as being a symptom of multiple neuritis,’ Dr. Griffiths said. ‘I helped her upstairs. When she was in bed I examined her. I tested her knee-jerks. The knee-jerks were totally absent. Absence of knee-jerks occurs in some diseases, notably multiple neuritis. I also noticed the grip of her hands. It was diminished.’

‘When did you next examine Mrs. Merrill?’

Dr. Griffiths referred to his notes. ‘The next time I visited her was on 16th January. When I arrived, she was in bed. Mr. Merrill told me she had been vomiting. She complained of pain over the abdomen. I examined the abdomen. There was no distention; it was rather retracted; no acute abdominal condition in the sense of appendicitis or peritonitis. There was no enlargement of the liver, and I examined her heart, and there was a mitral systolic-murmur there; its action was rapid, and her pulse was 120. Her lips were cyanosed, blue, and it was now that I noticed the discoloration of the skin. I examined her urine, and I found there was albumen in it, which indicated some disturbance of the function of the kidneys. I made up a bottle of medicine for her, useful in certain forms of bilious vomiting.’

‘From anything she said to you,’ the judge said, ‘or from anything said to you by anybody else, or anything you observed, did you suspect that she might take her own life?’

Dr. Griffiths looked at him as if he hadn’t heard the question properly, then he said: ‘I did not.’

‘When did you next see Mrs. Merrill?’ Ainger asked.

‘On 17th January at three p.m., and again at 10:30 p.m. She

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