Free Medical Detectives by Robin Odell Page B

had retired to Surrey in the same community as his mother-in-law, Violet Sydney, a barrister’s widow who lived with her unmarried daughter, Vera. Fifty-nine-year-old Duff died at his home on 27 April 1928 after a brief illness. The family doctor was puzzled by his symptoms but suspected food poisoning. At the post-mortem, Dr Robert Bronte took samples of the body organs for analysis but found no evidence of poisoning. Death from natural causes was duly confirmed.
    In February 1929, Vera Sydney was taken ill with severe vomiting and died within forty-eight hours; gastric influenza was diagnosed. Three weeks later, her mother, Violet Sydney, still grieving the loss of her daughter, was herself taken ill with similar symptoms. The family doctor diagnosed food poisoning. Mrs Sydney’s son, Thomas, who also lived in Croydon, perhaps anxious about his own well-being, sought further medical advice. Bacteriological tests on the dead women proved inconclusive and the family did not feel inclined to pursue the matter any further. Yet the occurrence of two sudden deaths in the same household within such a short period excited attention in official circles and the Home Office ordered an enquiry.
    The bodies of Vera and Violet Sydney were exhumed from their graves at Croydon Cemetery on 22 March 1929 and Spilsbury carried out the post-mortem examinations. The most notable and immediate observation was one that had echoes of the Armstrong case. After six weeks’ burial, the body of Vera Sydney appeared to be remarkably well-preserved. Inflammation of the stomach and urinary tract in both sets of remains, considered in light of the symptoms the women had experienced, suggested arsenical poisoning.
    Confirmation of this tentative diagnosis came from analyses carried out by Dr John Ryffel, one of the Home Office analysts. He found 1.48 grains of arsenic in Vera Sydney’s body and 3.48 grains in that of Violet Sydney. Arsenic present in her hair and nails indicated that the older woman had been ingesting the poison over a considerable period. Traces of arsenic found in the tonic medicine prescribed by her family doctor indicated the vehicle by which she had probably been poisoned.
    Attention now focused on Edmund Duff whose remains had been interred for just over a year. Despite the fact that analyses carried out at the time had proved negative for traces of poison, an exhumation order was granted. On 18 May 1929, notebook in hand, Spilsbury appeared at the graveside at Queen’s Road Cemetery and was soon joined by Dr Gerald Roche Lynch, Senior Official Analyst at the Home Office. Spilsbury carried out the post-mortem in the presence of the analysts, Dr Bronte and the Duff family’s doctor. The experts made their reports and, after high-level legal consultation, a second inquest was ordered in respect of the death of Edmund Duff. Meanwhile, the inquest on Vera Sydney was still proceeding. The inquests on the three deceased members of the Duff and Sydney families were held separately and, with various adjournments, dragged on for five months. The coroner, who declined to accept advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions to hold the inquests together, was heavily criticised for creating confusion. And, when it came to the inquest on Duff, confusion indeed reigned supreme.
    Spilsbury related the facts of the post-mortem examination that he had carried out, noting that the body bore the marks of the incisions made during the first such examination. He also pointed out that most of the organs were missing. The inflamed condition of the intestines left in the body suggested some form of gastro-intestinal irritation and this was consistent with the symptoms suffered by the patient during his illness. The well-preserved condition of the body was also remarked on. Dr Roche Lynch then gave the results of the analyses he had carried out on the organ and tissue samples which Spilsbury had removed from the corpse. He had calculated there was a