The reed on which he had leaned as on a staff broke in his hands. Not only were Mrs. Dove's symptoms those of strychnia poisoning, but each of five different chemical tests applied to the contents of her stomach and intestines yielded unmistakable evi dence of the presence of the same subtle and fatal agent. The strychnia extracted from her body was administered to mice and rabbits. They died with tetanic convul sions. Moreover a spaniel dog, which licked up a small clot of her blood that had fallen on the floor at the postmortem examination, died within an hour from the tetanus of strychnia. Dove was tried before Mr. Baron Bramwell at York on the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th of July, 1856. The only possible de fence was insanity, and insanity of that peculiar type which is known as homicidal monomania. The evidence in support of it may shortly be summarized as follows : The prisoner's nurse deposed that " he would keep her in his bedroom with his back to the door, grinning and screaming; and would lock a lighted candle up in a basket in the closet." He was sent to school but could not be taught. As an apprentice to a farmer, a Mr. Prankish, he rubbed sul phuric acid upon some cows and calves, blinded two cats and put phosphorus upon others. After leaving Mr. Frankish he went to America for two years, and the same accounts of him arrived as had been before received. His very father looked upon him as a fool, and left him £90 a year to be paid by trustees in weekly allowances. The prisoner then took a farm, in the manage ment of which he was guilty of a variety of extravagances. He would chain a bull-dog to a table, plant apple trees the one day and pull them up the next, mutter to himself, rise at midnight and go to Leeds, tell absurd tales of what he was worth, and complain of noises in the house. At one time the prisoner was found with a pistol threatening to shoot his father. At other times he went
about with a carving knife and a bottle of laudanum, menacing the life of Mrs. Dove. He would give his servants notice to quit by an attorney's letter. A schoolmaster who knew him found him one day lying across the ruts of the road. He had been weeping and would neither answer nor rise. Again, he is seen galloping about followed by a troop of boys at Oxford. On another oc casion, having seen another man reaping his corn, which was ripe, he went and reaped his own, which was green, because, he said, he would not be behindhand. Finally, while Dove was in York Castle gaol, a report came to the Governor's ears that he had a knife about him, and he was therefore searched. In that search there was found concealed, sewed up in his clothes, a letter written in blood, to the devil, to whom he thought rtiat he had sold his soul. It was in the following terms : — "Dear Devil : If you will get me clear at the assizes and let me have the enjoyment of life, health, wealth, tobacco here, more food and better, and my wishes granted till I am 60, come to me to-night. I remain, your faithful subject, William Dove." Prima facie this was a strong case. But it weakened considerably in the proving. In the first place there was no doubt that Dove both intended to commit, and knew that he was in fact committing murder; again he was afraid of punishment, and only went on with his criminal designs because he believed punishment to be avoidable. In the next place, the letter to the devil, which was the strongest proof of insanity, was ex post facto, and might well be fictitious evi dence. Once more, none of the witnesses for the prosecution, who were about Dove during the critical period, were cross-ex amined as to his mental state. Finally, we live in a world of insane people, and it is of the utmost moment that the restraints which the sanctions of the law impose upon them should not be lightly shaken or removed.
