Kansas Physician Confirms Howard Report

[TradeName]

A book about induction coils included a discussion of producing light using variously shaped vacuum tubes. The frontispiece shows the gear needed to do this. Conveniently, the book also includes a catalog which offers many of the items discussed in the book.

The Inductorium, Or, Induction Coil: Being a Popular Explanation (London: John Churchill, 1868, 3rd edition), link
by Henry Minchin Noad



Pages 96-97

[Neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of your room would have been improved by this patriotic lighting display.]




Page 121

Catalogue of Optical, Mathematical and Philosophical Instruments
Manufactured and Sold by William Ladd

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Mr. Ladd's obit:

The Electrician, Volume 14, April 25, 1885, Page 495

THE LATE MR. WILLIAM LADD, F.R.A.S.

We regret to announce the death of Mr. William Ladd, F.R.A.S., at his residence, Burnt Ash Hill, on Thursday, the 16th inst., at the age of 70. Mr. Ladd was well known in scientific and commercial circles for his efforts in the field of electrical research, for during the decade extending from 1860 to 1870 he took a very prominent part in introducing into practical utility the then comparatively obscure science of electricity, which is now deservedly receiving marked attention as the leading science of the day. Nor was his interest in this line confined merely to any particular branch of the science, for we find him at one time in correspondence with Prof. Reis, who may be said to have made the earliest efforts towards recording the sound of the human voice transmitted over long distances. A letter is still extant in which Prof. Reis explains to Mr. Ladd his views upon this question, and the partial success that attended his efforts. Mr. Ladd was well known as the inventor and constructor of some of the largest induction coils and electrical apparatus, manufactured under his supervision at his premises in Beak-street, Regent-street.

In 1867 Mr. Ladd brought forward a dynamo machine, which in many respects showed a marked improvement on the previous dynainos of Siemens, Varley, and Wilde, and whereby many of the then existing difficulties in the way of constructing dynamos for practical and commercial use were removed. Somewhat later, in the year 1878, Mr. Ladd was instrumental in introducing into this country the Wallace-Farmer system of electric lighting from America, where it had met with considerable success. The dynamos and arc lamps employed on this system underwent considerable improvement at Mr. Ladd's hands ; and one of the earliest installations of electric lighting afforded to the public was made under Mr. Ladd’s supervision on the above system at the Liverpool-street Terminus of the Great Eastern Railway.

Mr. Ladd was from the time of its formation a director of the Anglo-American Brush Electric Light Corporation (Limited), and also of the Electrical Power Storage Company, and he took an active interest in the administration of these companies until almost the day of his death.

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From the Ladd catalog I learned that the name rendered as "Dubosque" in a Kahn museum ad and as "Dubosc" i some references should be spelled "Duboscq." Here's a bio:


Biography: Or, Third Division of "The English Encyclopedia" (London: Bradbury, Evans, Co., 1872), Pages 482-483
edited by Charles Knight

DUBOSCQ, JULES, bom in 1817, served on apprenticeship to a relative, M. Soleil, an optical instrument maker, to whom he went in 1830. Under him he studied the planning and construction of apparatus for the diffraction and polarisation of light. In 1849 he succeeded Soleil in his business, and afterwards invented many new kinds of photogenic apparatus. One was an electric lamp, especially adapted for use in mines. He was among the first to apply the stereoscope successfully to pairs of photographs. His various instruments won for him the Council Medal of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the first-class medals of the New York Exhibition of 1853 and the Paris Exhibition of 1855, and the Gold Medal of the Society d' Encouragement in 1866. After the International Exhibition of 1862, he was decorated with the legion of honour. At the Paris Exhibition in 1867, Duboscq displayed apparatus for the study of optics. He has contributed to the 'Comptes Rendus' a 'Note sur une regulateur electrique,' 1850; 'Note sur le Collodion sec,' 1850; 'Note sur un Nouveau Compensateur pour la Saccharimfetre' (with Soleil), 1850.

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An article about the system used by Duboscq to create lighting effects for the then new Paris Opera House:

Nature, March 11, 1875, Pages 369-371

Science at the New Paris Opera, Part II

All branches of Physics are represented in the New Opera; Heat, Light, Optics, Electricity, Acoustics play their different parts. So far as acoustic instruments are concerned, we may refer to an organ constructed by M. Cavaillé-Coll, and formed of eighteen registers, distributed over two key-boards, and a complete foot-board. This organ is worked by four pedals, vibrating the air contained in 1,032 pipes, of which some are more than five metres in height, and above 30 metre in diameter, But it is the electric light which has most interest for us.

After giving a brief account of the invention and history of the voltaic pile, M. Tissandier proceeds to describe the battery connected with the New Opera, which has been organised by M. Duboscq.

The electric light may be thrown upon the magnificent stage by means of a Bunsen battery of 360 elements, which is established in a room on the ground floor, the length of which is not less than seven metres. M. Duboscq has here arranged six tables of 2.75 metres long by .75 metre broad, which each support a Bunsen battery of sixty elements (Fig. 5). This battery is placed upon the table which is made of very thick unpolished glass that cannot be injured by the acids. The elements are arranged in four rows of fifteen each. The table is provided underneath with a board which supports a large rectangular basin, in which plates are placed after they have been used. The jars of the battery, filled with nitric acid, are, after being used, placed in a tub containing the acid and closed with a wooden lid.

In order to work a battery of such power under favourable comditions, M. Dubosq has had to make special arrangemnets for the preparation of the sulphuric acid liquid as well as for the zinc amalgams ncessary to put the system of batteries in action.

At the right corner of the electric room is a large reservoir, of the capacity of about one cubic metre, where water mixed with one-tenth of sulphuric acid can be stored. A spigot permits this liquid to run into a vertical siphon formed of a large tube, into which an areometer is plunged to ascertain its quality, and make sure that the preparation has been made in the proper proportions. The reservoir is furnished at its lower part with an earthenware pipe which is conducted along the walls of the room, opposite the six battery tables. Beside each table an earthenware spigot enables the operators to run the liquid into earthenware jugs, from which they fill the battery jars with the liquid.

By an excellent precaution M. Duboscq has obviated the dangerous action of the nitrous vapours, by placing here and there upon the piles saucers containing ammonia, which condenses them.

Each table, as we have said, forms a battery of sixty elements. The electric wires are conducted along the wall at the bottom of the room, where they traverse six galvanometers (Fig. 6). Each of these galvanometers indicates, by means of the needle with which it is provided, the condition of the battery to which it corresponds. The six isolating wires, after leaving the six galvanometers, pass along the walls to the stage, where the currents which they carry may be utilised either singly or by twos or threes, according to the degree of intensity which it is wished to give to the light. The distance which the current runs from the electric room to the most distant point of the stage is about 122 metres;; the total length of all the wires is about 1,200 metres.

M. Duboscq, imitating the systems of telegraphic wires, makes use of the earth as a return current; one of the poles of each battery is in communication with the iron of the building. Without this arrangement it would have been necessary to double the length of the wires.

In most instances M. Duboscq places his electric lamp on one of the wooden galleries which run along the higher regions of the scenery above the stage. It is from this artificial sky that he, a new Phoebus, darts upon the nymphs of the ballet the rays of his electric sun. It is from here, decomposing the light by means of the vapour of water, he throws upon the stage a veritable rainbow, as in Moses; again, it is thus that he causes the light from the painted windows to fall upon the flags of the church where Margaret is in the clutches of remorse. Sometimes the electric apparatus is placed on a level with the stage, when it is sought to produce certain special effects, such as that of the fountain of wine in Gounod's opera. The lime-light is also used to produce certain brilliant effects in the New Opera.

It will thus be seen that the electrical arrangements in the New Opera leave little to be desired. There is an electric battery of extraordinary power, which might be profitably used for certain experiments of high interest, requiring an electric power of great intensity. , M. Tissandier makes the very happy suggestion that this powerful battery might be utilised for the purpose of scientific research, and we hope that those who have the management of the Opera will take his hint; they ought to remember how much their art owes to the researches of science. He also very appropriately suggests that the Government which has made such a lavish expenditure, forty million francs, on a place of amusement, might also benefit the country even more by doing something to restore to efficiency the buildings in which the work of science is carried on. At all events it will be seen that in this magnificent building Science occupies a place of no mean importance.

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[Mayerling]

Thanks, Jeff. Here's the description from Twenty Thousand Leagues:

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (New York: Butler Brothers, 1887), Pages 492-493
by Jules Verne

"I have no further objections to make,"I answered; "I will only ask you one thing. Captain—-how can you light your road at the bottom of the sea?"

""With the Ruhmkorff apparatus, M. Aronnax; one is carried on the back, the other is fastened to the waist. It is composed of a Bunsen pile, which I do not work with bichromate of potash, but with sodium. A wire is introduced which collects the electricity produced, and directs it towards a particularly made lantern. In this lantern is a spiral glass which contains a small quantity of carbonic gas. When the apparatus is at work, this gas becomes luminous, giving out a white and continuous light. Thus provided, I can breathe and I can see."

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Perhaps Verne was inspired by the work of Gassiot:

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Volume 10 (London: 1860), Page 432

IV. "On the Application of Electrical Discharges from the Induction Coil to the purposes of Illumination." by J.P. GAssiot, Esq., F.R.S. Received March 29, 1860.

[ATTACH]16853[/ATTACH]

The subjoined figure represents a carbonic acid vacuum-tube of about 1/16 of an inch internal diameter, wound in the form of a flattened spiral. The wider ends of the tube, in which the platinum wires are sealed, are 2 inches in length and about 1/2 an inch in diameter, and are shown by the dotted lines; they are enclosed in a wooden case (indicated by the surrounding entire line), so as to permit only the spiral to be exposed.

When the discharge from a Ruhmkorff's induction apparatus is passed through the vacuum-tube, the spiral becomes intensely luminous, exhibiting a brilliant white light. Mr. Gassiot, who exhibited the experiment at the meeting of the Society, caused the discharge from the induction coil to pass through two miles of copper wire; with the same coil excited so as to give a spark through air of one inch in length, he ascertained that the luminosity in the spiral was not reduced when the discharge passed through 14 miles of No 32 copper wire.

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Could such a device be used to illuminate impromptu surgery performed in a dark alley?

Sorry Trade, if anyone performing impromptu surgery in dark alleyways used this, it would prove somewhat cumbersome when trying to flee the scene.

Jeff

[TradeName]

You're probably right, Jeff.

Here's a bit on the military applications of the Ruhmkorff coil:

Papers on Subjects Connected with the Duties of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Volume 7 (Woolwich: 1858), Pages 139-148
by Great Britain. Army. Royal Engineers

PAPER XXI.

Remarks On The Application Of Electricity To The Explosion Of Mines

By Dr. LOUIS FIGUIER,

Translated By CAPT. AKERS, Royal Engineers,

Accompanied By Notes On The Subject

By M. Du Moncel And Major Von Ebner,

Translated By Lieut.-Col. Bainbrigge, R.E.

Page 144

In 1853, M.Verdu [a Colonel of the Spanish Enigneers] and M. Buhmkorff made, for the first time, some very interesting experiments on the practical applications of the phenomena of induced electricity, which had hitherto been confined to the laboratory. These experiments, made at La Villette, in the workshops of M. Jules Erckman, a telegraphic wire maker, were extremely satisfactory, especially as to the distance to which the electric fluid could travel. Powder was ignited at a distance of 27,000 yards by Ruhmkorfs's ordinary coll, an easily inflammable substance being placed between the ends of the conducting wires; and it appears certain that the Russians made use of one of Ruhmkorff's machines, arranged as described, for the explosion of their mines at Sebastopol.

Page 148

If we appear to have dwelt too long on the subject of the last-named electrical machines, it is because we are convinced that they will one day be extensively applied. Their employment indeed for the explosion of mines is only one of many applications of Ruhmkorff's coil. This instrument might be employed, for instance, with perfect certainty by the Artillery, under various circumstances. A battery of several gnns might he simultaneously discharged by it; fire-ships may be ignited at a distance; sunken ships destroyed, such as the Russian fleet in the harbour of Sebastopol, and sub-marine mines exploded. Under all circumstances the employment of the machine we have just described would be of inestimable advantage, from the security it affords to those employed on any of these various duties.

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The above article refers readers to the chapter on Galvanism in the following work, a sort of encyclopedia edited by the Royal Engineers :

Aide-mémoire to the Military Sciences, Volume 2 (London: Lockwood & Co., 1860), Pages 88-89, link to front


The other two volumes:

Aide-mémoire to the Military Sciences, Volume 1 (London: John Weale, 1853), link

Aide-mémoire to the Military Sciences, Volume 3 (London: Lockwood & Co., 1862), link

[TradeName]

I was curious if there was any sort of portable electric light available circa 1888 and found the following items:

The Telegraphist, November 1, 1886, Page 164

A Portable Electric Lamp.—-By W. H. Preece, F.R.S.—-The demand for a new safety lamp in mines has directed many minds to the application of electricity to this purpose. Some have proposed to use primary batteries; others utilise secondary batteries or accumulators. One of the most portable, compact, and convenient forms is that of Mr. Pitkin. It occupies a cubical space of 59 cubic inches for two cells, and 86 1/2 cubic inches for three cells, weighing 5 lb. 8 oz. and 7 lb. 3 oz. respectively. The three-cell battery gives a light equal to 2.5 candles immediately after removal from the charging source, and lasts for nine or ten hours. I have also used it for other purposes. It is a most convenient portable lamp for going into a wine-cellar or visiting our greenhouses, and it makes a very convenient reading-lamp for railway travelling. I carry such a battery in my dressing-bag, and by means of a flexible cord carrying two copper conductors I suspend by a hook to my waistcoat front a small candle-power Edison-Swan lamp that concentrates upon my book or my paper all the light I want. The lamp is fixed in the focus of a reflector whose surface is enamelled dead white, instead of being bright polished. The light is thus much more equable and uniformly distributed. It is, moreover, soft, absolutely steady, and free from smell or annoyance to my fellow passengers. It is lighted instantly without any match, and it can be rapidly replaced by a small coil of fine platinum wire, which, being raised to incandescence, enables me to light my cigarette.

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Cassell's Family Magazine, 1886, Page 576

The Gatherer: An Illustrated Record of Invention and Discovery

An Electric Railway Reading Lamp.




The Lancet, December 29, 1888, Page 1313

London Volunteer Medical Staff Corps.—

On the 15th instant, a parade of some interest took place on Hampstead Heath. The night was dark, and a dense fog hung over the heath. The corps mustered sufficient men to form a complete bearer company and dressing station party, the whole being under the command of the surgeon commandant. The general idea was that an action had been fought, ending with the daylight, and that it was necessary to go out in the darkness to search for, attend, and bring into safety the wounded lying on the field. The dressing and collecting stations being formed and ambulances posted, the bearer company advanced to the field and searched for the wounded. These were represented by the band sent out in advance and hidden. Electric lamps were used, and rendered the search far easier than it usually is (in the army oil lamps are used for this purpose), lighting up the field and enabling the bearer to see quite thirty yards ahead in a dense fog. The light was visible for over a quarter of a mile. The electric lamps were kindly lent to the adjutant by Messrs. Watson, of the Haymarket.

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Cassell's Family Magazine, 1889, Pages 319-320

The Gatherer: An Illustrated Record of Invention, Discovery, Literature, and Science

The Electric Light and Ambulances



Some interesting experiments were recently made on Hampstead Heath by the officers and men of the London Division of the Volunteer Medical Staff Corps, an organisation which consists largely of medical students. The corps, under Surgeon-Commandant Norton, accompanied by ambulance waggons, halted on one of the Heath roads at night in a thick mist. and, after establishing a field hospital in a sheltered part of the ground, sent out searching parties, provided with small electric handlamps of the kind manufactured now by a number of makers, such as Swan, Pitkin, and others. The object was to discover wounded men in the darkness, and not only did they succeed in finding those who played this part, but they found that preliminary bandaging could be performed by means of the electric light. An advantage of this light is that it can be held very close to the thing under examination without difficulty. The electric lamp seems well adapted for ambulance purposes. Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate two recent forms of these electric hand-lamps. In the case of Fig. I the lamp itself is detached from the battery, which is contained in the box beside it. two insulated wires twisted together conveying the current to the incandescent lamp. The latter is seen in the face of the box, which has a hook on the back to catch in the buttonhole, if necessary. Fig. 2 shows the incandescent lamp and its filament still better. In the former case the light is started by pressing the button seen on the side of the box, and in the latter case by simply turning the box and battery upside-down.



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The Electrical Journal, Volume 19, November 4, 1887, Page 542

PITKIN'S PORTABLE LAMP.

We have been favoured with the following description of the Pitkin Portable Lamp, which is illustrated in the adjoining figure:—-"These lamps are intended for use in coal mines and other places where explosions may be apprehended. They are the invention and manufacture of Mr. James Pitkin, of 56, Red Lion-street, Clerkenwell, who has spent some years in perfecting the details of their construction. Each lamp is of the form shown in the engraving, and weighs approximately 7 lb.; they are, however, easily carried by means of a strong leather handle passing across the top from front to back. When the cells are fully charged the lamp, which is of four candle-power, will burn from twelve to eighteen hours, according to the degree of incandescence at which the lamp is burned. This can be conveniently regulated by means of a switch (shown upon the front of the box), which not only turns the light on and off, but by sliding over a platenoid wire of small diameter inserts more or less resistance in the circuit. The glow lamps are of the Swan type, and are suspended from above by means of a spiral spring, secured to a metal loop, fused into the glass globe forming the lamp. They are further held in position by means of the screws passing through the case and hooked to the under side, these also form the connection between the lamp and the cells. Each cell has eight small lead plates with a projecting edge forming a trough, and projections or pins of lead at regular distances, which hold the storage material firmly to the surface of the plates. The whole arrangement is well designed and substantially made."



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Bio of Preece who wrote the first piece:

Who's Who, 1897 (London: Adam and Charles Black: 1897), Page 546

PREECE, William Henry C.B., F.R.S.; V.P.Inst.C.E. ; Engineer-in-Chief, G.P.O. ; Consulting Engineer to the Colonies; b. Wales, 15 Feb. 1834; e. s. of R. M. Preece, Bryn Helen, Carnarvon. Educ.: King’s College, London. Entered office late Mr. Edwin Clark, M. Inst. C.E., 1852; appointed to Electric and International Telegraph Co., 1853; Superintendent of that Company’s Southern District, 1856; L. and S.W.R., 1860; was Engineer to Channel Islands Telegraph Co.; transferred to the Post Office as Divisional Engineer, 1870; appointed Electrician 1877; Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician, 1892. Publications: joint-author with Mr. (now Sir James) Sivewright of a Text-book of Telegraphy; with Dr. Maier of The Telephone; with Mr. Stubbs of a Manual of Telephony. Recreations: yachting, cycling. Address: Gothic Lodge, Wimbledon; Peurhos, Carnarvon. Clubs : Whitehall, Arts, Savage.

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[Mayerling]

Hi Trade,

It's a little beyond the date of 1888, but there was a famous burglary murder case in 1896, the "Muswell Hill Murder" that involved the discovery of an important clue in finding the two murderers, Milsom and Fowler. When the police looked over the residence of Henry Smyth, the retired engineer who was killed during the burglary, they found a small lamp - actually a child's toy lamp - that turned out to belong to the brother-in-law (a boy) of one of the two perpetrators. It had been converted into a kind of flashlight like device. I believe the item still exists at the "Black Museum" of Scotland Yard.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Thanks for the information on the Muswell Hill case, Jeff. I hadn't heard of it before.

Here's an artifact of George Sexton's pre-Kahn career as a lecturer with a secularist bent:

The Benefits and Beauties of Science (London: 1847), link
by George Sexton

AN EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED IN THE PHOENIX HALL, WHITECHAPEL, LONDON,
0n Wednesday Evening, April 7th, 1847,
Before the East London
MENTAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY.

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In the 1870's Sexton became an advocate for Spiritualism.

Alfred Russel Wallace, the naturalist best know for this association with Charles Darwin, cited Sexton's conversion in an effort to justify Wallace's own Spiritualist beliefs.

On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism: Three Essays (London: James Burns, 1875), Pages 170-174
by Alfred Russel Wallace

Our next example is one of the most recent, but at the same time, one of the most useful converts to the truths of Spiritualism. Dr. George Sexton, M.D., M.A., LL.D., was for many years the coadjutor of Mr. Bradlaugh, and one of the most earnest and energetic of the secularist teachers. The celebrated Kobert Owen first called his attention to the subject of Spiritualism about twenty years ago. He read books; he saw a good deal of the ordinary physical manifestations, but he always "suspected that the mediums played tricks, and that the whole affair was nothing but clever conjuring by means of concealed machinery." He gave several lectures against Spiritualism in the usual style of non-believers, dwelling much on the absurdity and triviality of the phenomena, and ridiculing the idea that they were the work of spirits. Then came another old friend and fellow-secularist, Mr. Turley, who, after investigating the subject for the purpose of exposing it, became a firm believer. Dr. Sexton laughed at this conversion, yet it made a deep impression on his mind. Ten years passed away, and his next important investigation was with the Davenport brothers; and it will be well for those who sneer at these much-abused young men to take note of the following account of Dr. Sexton's proceedings with them, and especially of the fact that they cheerfully submitted to every test the doctor suggested. He tells us (in his lecture, "How I became a Spiritualist,") that he visited them again and again, trying in vain to find out the trick. Then, he says,—--

"My partner—-Dr. Barker—-and I invited the Brothers to our houses, and, in order to guard against anything like trickery, we requested them not to bring any ropes, instruments, or other apparatus; all these we ourselves had determined to supply. Moreover, as there were four of them, viz., the two Brothers Davenport, Mr. Fay, and Dr. Ferguson, we suspected that the two who were not tied might really do all that was done. We therefore requested only two to come. They unhesitatingly complied with all these requests. We formed a circle, consisting entirely of members of our own families and a few private friends, with the one bare exception of Mrs. Fay. In the circle we all joined hands, and as Mrs. Fay sat at one end she had one of her hands free, while I had hold of the other. Thinking that she might be able to assist with the hand that was thus free, I asked as a favour that I might be allowed to hold both her hands—-a proposition which she at once agreed to. Now, without entering here at all into what took place, suffice it to say that we bound the mediums with our own ropes, placed their feet upon sheets of writing paper and drew lines around their boots, so that if they moved their feet it should be impossible for them to place them again in the same position; we laid pence on their toes, sealed the ropes, and in every way took precautions against their moving. On the occasion to which I now refer, Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. Charles Watts were present; and when Mr. Fay's coat had "been taken off, the ropes still remaining on his hands, Mr. Bradlaugh requested that his coat might be placed on Mr. Fay, which was immediately done, the ropes still remaining fastened. We got on this occasion all the phenomena that usually occurred in the presence of these extraordinary men, particulars of which I shall probably give on another occasion. Dr. Barker became a believer in Spiritualism from the time that the Brothers visited at his house. I did not see that any proof had been given that disembodied spirits had any hand in producing the phenomena; but I was convinced that no tricks had been played, and that therefore these extraordinary physical manifestations were the result of some occult force in nature which I had no means of explaining in the present state of my knowledge. All the physical phenomena that I had seen now became clear to me; they were not accomplished by trickery, as I had formerly supposed, but were the result of some undiscovered law of nature which it was the business of the man of science to use his utmost endeavours to discover."

While he was maintaining this ground, Spiritualists often asked him how he explained the intelligence that was manifested; and he invariably replied that he had not yet seen proofs of any intelligence other than what might be that of the medium or of some other persons present in the circle, adding, that as soon as he did see proofs of such intelligence he should become a Spiritualist. In this position he stood for many years, till he naturally believed he should never see cause to change his opinion. He continued the inquiry, however, and in 1865 began to hold seances at home; but it was years before any mental phenomena occurred which were absolutely conclusive, although they were often of so startling a nature as would have satisfied any one less sceptical. At length, after fifteen years of enlightened scepticism—-a scepticism not founded upon ignorance, but which refused to go one step beyond what the facts so diligently pursued, absolutely demonstrated—the needful evidence came:

"The proofs that I did ultimately receive are, many of them, of a character that I cannot describe minutely to a public audience, nor, indeed, have I time to do so. Suffice it to say, that I got in my own house, in the absence of all mediums other than members of my own family and intimate private friends in whom mediumistic powers became developed, evidence of an irresistible character that the communications came from deceased friends and relatives. Intelligence was again and again displayed which could not possibly have had any other origin than that which it professed to have. Facts were named known to no one in the circle, and left to be verified afterwards. The identity of the spirits communicating was proved in a hundred different ways. Our dear departed ones made themselves palpable both to feeling and to sight; and the doctrine of spirit-communion was proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. I soon found myself in the position of Dr. Fenwick in Lord Lytton's 'Strange Story.' 'Do you believe,' asked the female attendant of Margrave, 'in that which you seek?' 'I have no belief,' was the answer. 'True science has none; true science questions all things, and takes nothing on credit. It knows but three states of mind—-denial, conviction, and the vast interval between the two, which is not belief, but the suspension of judgment.' This describes exactly the phases through which my mind has passed."

Since Dr. Sexton has become a Spiritualist he has been as energetic an advocate for its truths as he had been before for the negations of secularism. His experience and ability as a lecturer, with his long schooling in every form of manifestation render him one of the most valuable promulgators of its teachings. He has also done excellent service in exposing the pretensions of those conjurers who profess to expose Spiritualism. This he does in the most practical way, not only by explaining how the professed imitations of spiritual manifestations are performed, but by actually performing them before his audience; and at the same time pointing out the important differences between what these people do and what occurs at good seances. Any one who wishes to comprehend how Dr. Lynn, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and Herr Dobler perform some of their most curious feats have only to read his lecture, entitled, "Spirit Mediums and Conjurers," before going to witness their entertainments. We can hardly believe that the man who does this, and who during fifteen years of observation and experiment held out against the spiritual theory, is one of those who, as Lord Amberley tells us, "fall a victim to the most patent frauds, and are imposed upon by jugglery of the most vulger order:" or who, as viewed by Professor Tyndall's high scientific standpoint, are in a frame of mind before which science is utterly powerless—" dupes beyond the reach of proof, who like to believe and do not like to be undeceived." These be brave words; but we leave our readers to judge whether they come with a very good grace from men who have the most slender and inadequate knowledge of the subject they are criticising, and no knowledge at all of the long-continued and conscientious investigations of many who are included in their wholesale animadversions.

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Sexton's pamphlet on conjurors mentioned by Wallace:

Spirit-mediums and Conjurors (London: J. Burns, 1973), link
by George Sexton


A Sexton tract on his conversion that is NOT the one mentioned by Wallace:

Seed Corn.--No 6. Dr. Sexton's Conversion to Spiritualism (London: J. Burns, 1872?), link



Sexton was mentioned in the confessions of a man who sold bogus diplomas.

American Journal of Dental Science, Volume 14, April 18, 1881, Page 554

Philadelphia Bogus Diplomas

'Rev. George Sexton, of London, who was prominent in the British Medical Reform Association, to whom I sold diplomas in 1874, is a European agent of Fields'. Sexton commenced his career as a missionary, then became a lecturer for Kahn, and now is the agent for the Anthropological University of St. Louis.'

Anthropological University of St. Louis.—-Fields, Sexton, Alford and Thrasher have an organization as perfect as the Catholic Church. They have penetrated every city of America and Great Briton with their agencies. The Eclectic is not popular and does not sell well, but the University of Anthropology goes off like hot cakes. I have understood I could buy 500 of its diplomas in bulk at any time. They deal largely. Alford and Sturnam have approached me, but I never answered their communications.

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The Spiritual Magazine, March, 1877, Page 137

GEORGE SEXTON, D.D.

The American Anthropological University, St. Louis, has just conferred upon Dr. George Sexton the degree of "Doctor of Sacred Theology," honoris causa. This honour was quite unexpected by Dr. Sexton, and the arrival of the diploma, accompanied with a letter from the President, the Kev. Dr. Alford, full of the warmest praise of the Doctor's talents and learning, and the mode in which he is now employing them, was the first intimation that he received of this addition to his titles.

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Somehow, Sexton seems to have ended up as a Presbyterian minister in Canada.

Ministerial Directory of the Ministers in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Oxford, Ohio: Ministerial Directory Company, 1898), Page 474
by Edgar Sutton Robinson


Sexton, George, St. catharines, Ont.,
Can.--Born Hainford, England; U. C., London,
Eng.; Wm. and Charing Cross Med. C.,
London, Giessen, Ger. M. A. and Ph. D.,
1857; Giessen, M. D., '58; Phil. Med. C.,
L.L.D., '77; Giessen T. S., Ger., '54; Ord. '55,
Episcopal Ch., Eng.; Rec. by Pby. of Buffalo,
'89; P. Ch. of the Lord, London, Eng.,
'75-76; P. St. Augustines Ch., London, Eng.,
'82-; P. 1st Pbn. Ch., Dunkirk, N. Y., '89-
90; Author, "Baseless fabric of Scientific
Scepticism" (Smart, London, Eng, 5s), '79;
"Theistic Problems" (Hodder & Stoughton,
London, 3s, 6d.), '82; "Fallacies of Secularism"
(Smart, London, 2s, 6d.), '81;
"Biblical Difficulties Dispelled, Briggs" ($1), '96'
Elected F. R. G. S., Eng., '53, F. E. S., Eng.,
'54, F. Z. Z., Eng., '63, F. A. S., Eng., '75
F. S. Sc., Eng., '79, Gold Medalist, '85,
Memb. Acd. dei Quiviti, Rome; '82, F. R. S.,
Italy, '82.

---end

On of the books listed in the bio above:

Theistic Problems, Essays on the Existence of God and His Relationship to Man (Lodnon: Hodder and Stoughton, 1880), link
by George Sexton


A magazine edited by Sexton:

The Shield of Faith (1881), link
by George Sexton, M.A., LL.D

[TradeName]

Returning to Charles Montague Clarke, who brought suit against a Hackney tobacconist for reporting him to Scotland Yard as a JtR suspect, and who was later convicted in the literary fraud case, here are excerpts from an 1874 advertisement which features a testimonial letter purportedly from Clarke. Clarke, apparently, was excited to invest his money by letting some guys, "Lloyd and Nicholson," bet it on horse races.


Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin, Ireland), Friday, April 17, 1874

[Advertisement:]

OPTIONAL
SYSTEMATIC INVESTMENTS

THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL METHOD OF BACKING HORSES

[...]

Loss of Deposit Stake guarnteed against, winning literally
being a certainty.

OPTIONAL SYSTEMATIC INVESTMENTS,
Devised and promoted by
Messrs. LLOYD and NICHOLSON
Proprietors of the North British Turf Commission Agency,
and of the Private Racing Advice Guide:
(Members of the London West-End and City Clubs,
Newmarket and Doncaster Subscription Rooms,
&c., &c.)
Actual and responsible Proprietors and Conductors

CHIEF OFFICES
23 Jamaica-street, Glasgow
N.B.

BANKERS
The Bank of Scotland
and its Branches

[..]

LEADING FEATURES
1.--Absolute and guaranteed security of capital invested.
2.--Weekly Rendition of amount won during the week,
less only 5 per cent. commission.
3.--Return of capital invested, free of all deductions, at
24 hours notice.
4.--Winnings remitted to Investors on the Monday following
the Race Meeting at which the "The Optional Systematic
Investments" have been in operation.

OBJECTS
Established with a view of providing a safe and profitable
medium for realising money by Investments on the Turf
without the possibility of a loss being entailed by the
Investor, thereby rendering the "Optional Systematic Turf
Investments" the most successful class of Turf sepculations
extant. During their fourteen years' experience the
Proprietors have specially studied to reduce Turf Investments,
by systematic speculation, to a certainly of winning without
the chance of a loss arising, and so thoroughly have they
revised, improved, and matured the working of "The
Optional Systematic Investments" (of which they are the originators)
that if before they had not attained the height of
perfection, they have done so now and in the ensuing season
they can safely promise to positively excel the brilliant
successes of 1873.

DEPOSIT AMOUNTS
Received for investment in this infallible and unerringly
success method of Turf Speculation:-
£5, £10, £25, £50, £100, or £500.
5 PER CENT. COMMISSION DEDUCTED FROM ALL WINNINGS

[...]

EXTRACTS FROM TESTIMONIALS

[...]

FROM C. H. MONTAGUE CLARKE, A.M., LL.D.
13 Paternoster-row, London,
13th March, 1874

GENTLEMEN--Please invest the enclosed amount by means
of your "Optional Systematic Investment" at the Bristol
Meeting held next week. I was not aware that you would
have commenced operations at Aylesbury, or would have
forwarded enclosed earlier.

Once more thanking you for the careful attention you have
shown to my interests in the past, expressing my high
appreciation of your upright and legitimate dealing and hoping
the same success may this season attend my investments as
did last,

Believe me to remain,
Yours truly,
C.H. MONTAGUE CLARKE A.M., LL.D.

[...]

---end

On the same page there is another ad in a similar vein from a rival firm called "Adamson and Read." At the 1877 Scotland Yard Turf Scandal trial in 1877 prosecution witness William Kurr testified that he was "Adamson."

JOHN MEIKLEJOHN, NATHANIEL DRUSCOVICH, WILLIAM PALMER, GEORGE CLARKE, EDWARD FROGATT, Miscellaneous > perverting justice, 22nd October 1877.

Reference Number: t18771022-805
Offence: Miscellaneous > perverting justice
Verdict: Guilty > no_subcategory; Guilty > with recommendation; Not Guilty > unknown
Punishment: Imprisonment > no_subcategory

805. JOHN MEIKLEJOHN (38), NATHANIEL DRUSCOVICH (37), WILLIAM PALMER (43), GEORGE CLARKE (60), and EDWARD FROGATT (35), were indicted for Unlawfully conspiring with William Kurr, Harry Benson, and others to obstruct, defeat, and pervert the due course of public justice. Other counts varying the manner of stating the charge.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, THE SOLICITOR GENERAL, MR. GORST, Q.C., MR. COWIE, and MR. BOWEN conducted the Prosecution.

MR. MONTAGU WILLIAMS , with MR. WALTER BALLANTINE, appeared for Meiklejohn; MR. STRAIGHT for Druscovitch; MR. BESLEY, with MR. J. P. GRAIN, for Palmer; MR. EDWARD CLARKE, with MR. CHARLES MATHEWSM, for Clarke; and MR. COLLINS, Q.C., with MR. HORACE AVORY and MR. HENRY KISCH for Froggatt.

[...]

WILLIAM KURR . [...]in the month of June, 1874, I paid Meiklejohn 200l. in all; 100l. was sent by post, and the other I took to him—-the first 100l. was sent on the 13th. and the other I gave him on the 17th—-that was for giving me information while I was in Glasgow, where I had opened a spurious betting agency in the name of Adamson—-it was called "The Discretionary Investment Society"—-Meiklejohn was to let me know when they received any complaints at Scotland Yard—-that society lasted about three months[.]


[...]

MEIKLEJOHN, DRUSCOVICH, PALMER, and FROGGATT— GUILTY . Druscovich and Palmer were strongly recommended to mercy by the Jury on account of their long service. — Two Years' Imprisonment each.

CLARKE— NOT GUILTY .

Before Robert Malcolm Kerr, Esq.

---end

The 1874 ad says the Adamson firm was called "Adamson's Systematic Investments," not the "Discretionary Investment Society."

[Mayerling]

The trial of Druscovitch, Meikeljohn, Palmer, etc. was the infamous 1877 "Trial of the Detectives" that left Scotland Yard with a black eye for many years (Nat Druscovitch, Meikeljohn, and William Palmer (not the "Doctor from Rugeley" hanged in 1856) were leading detectives - Druscovitch was the Yard's big linguist, speaking six or seven languages, and sent on foreign trips for the Yard to the continent). They had been taking bribes from William Kurr and his partner (and the brains of the operation, con-man Harry Benson) covering up for Benson's scheme that defrauded foreign gamblers, including the French Countess de Goncourt. This was called the de Goncourt/"Turf Fraud" Scandal.

After spending seven years (rather than fourteen) in a British prison because he was cooperating - like Kurr - in testifying at the 1877 trial, Benson was released, and left to the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere. He continued his con games, and was arrested in New York City for one, but was going to be extradited to Mexico for fraudulently collecting money for the "tour" of Madame Adelina Patti (Benson said he was her agent). Not wishing to spend years in a Mexican prison (which was worse than an American or British one), Benson flung himself over a balustrade at the New York Tombs prison and killed himself in 1888.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Thanks for the summary, Jeff.

The 1874 "systematic investment" advertisements mentioned above seem to have been inspired by the "discretionary investment" ads run in 1871 by the firm of Walter and Balliee of Glasgow.

This book quotes from these 1871 ads:

A History of Advertising (London: Chatto and Windus, 1875), Pages 332-343
by Henry Sampson

The book has a summary of Walter's career.

Kingsclere (1896), link
Author: Porter, John, b. 1838; Webber, Byron
Subject: Horse-racing -- Great Britain; Horses
Publisher: London : Chatto & Windus, Piccadilly

Pages 322-323

It is due to the late Dr. Shorthouse [editor of the Sporting Times] to state that he
was the first to publicly prick the Kingsclere Discretionary
Investment bubble and to place the blower in the pillory
—-that, too, when journals which were paid large sums for
advertising Walter's nefarious scheme were investing
him with undeserved respectability by means of favourable
'opinions of the press.' In a reply to a letter which Mr.
Walter wrote 'to clear myself from the stigmas cast upon
me,' Dr. Shorthouse not only exhibited the swindler and
his fraudulent undertaking in their true light, but defied
him to take proceedings. He said, 'Mr. Walter's letter
was accompanied by one from a solicitor who demanded
an apology for a "scurrilous, slanderous, and libellous
attack, which had injured that gentleman in his good name
and character, and also in his business ;" and demanding
an "apology which shall be deemed by Mr. Walter sufficient,"
or in default threatening all sorts of pains and
penalties. We tell Mr. Walter frankly and most decisively
that he will get no apology from us. He may take his
case into any court he pleases, criminal or civil-—and the
former is delicately hinted at-—and we shall be happy to
meet him there ; and if he brings his decoy duck, Mr.
Beaumont, of Poultney Street, Bath, with him, we shall
be all the more pleased. We are especially desirous to
see that individual. Mr. Walter advertises a letter he
alleges he received from Mr. Beaumont, testifying to Mr.
Walter's "discretionary system," and we wrote to Mr. Beaumont
at the address given. Our letter was returned
through the dead letter office, endorsed "not known." '
There was no action.

His frauds exposed as 'Walter and Balliee,' Walter
continued his nefarious operations as 'Holland and Raine,'
'Wills and May,' 'Norton and Glover,' and under other
aliases. In August 1871, William Walter, of 6 Myrtle
Terrace, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, was brought
before Sir Thomas Henry, on a warrant obtained by the
Treasury, charged with keeping a betting office, and fined
100l., or in default 'six months.' He said he thought he
should be able to pay the fine. We then hear of him
decamping from La Marche, 'after winning a race valued
1,300 fr. and several thousands of francs in bets, with his
horses, not forgetting, however, to collect all moneys due
to him, but taking good care not to pass near Chantilly, to
settle the debts he had incurred there.' Even at that time
he was carrying on the old Discretionary Investment game
in Scotland under new aliases. In May 1875, at the
Central Criminal Court, an application was made to Mr.
Justice Archibald to admit to bail until next sessions the
two prisoners, William Henry Walter and Edward [Edwin?] Murray,
charged with conspiring together, with others not in
custody, to obtain large sums of money from persons
residing abroad by means of alleged assurances against
Turf losses. Bail was granted, Walter 4,000l., his own
recognisances and two sureties of 1,000l. each or four of
500l each ; Murray 500l., his own recognisances of 300l.
and two sureties of 100l each. On June 9, at the next
ensuing sessions, the two prisoners were called upon but
failed to appear. Their recognisances were estreated, and
a Bench warrant granted for their apprehension. After
evading the police for no less than five years, Walter was
arrested on another charge, under the name of Lewis, and
tried by Mr. Justice Denman. He was described as
William Henry Walter, 'labourer,' well dressed, and 29
years of age, and was charged with forging, altering, and
uttering a cheque for 905l., with forging and uttering other
cheques for smaller sums, and money orders. Mr. Justice
Denman, in passing sentence, addressed the prisoner at
great length, and stated that the facts disclosed a deliberate
and long-continued system of accomplished and wholesale
fraud. Walter was sentenced to penal servitude for a term
of twenty years.

---end

The case where Walter jumped bail is the case involving the Turf Scandal figures Kurr and Benson.

HARRY BENSON, WILLIAM KURR, CHARLES BALE, FREDERICK KURR, EDWIN MURRAY, Deception > forgery, 9th April 1877.

Reference Number: t18770409-391
Offence: Deception > forgery
Verdict: Guilty > with recommendation; Guilty > with recommendation
Punishment: Imprisonment > penal servitude; Imprisonment > penal servitude; Imprisonment > no_subcategory; Miscellaneous > no_subcategory

391. HARRY BENSON (29), alias Yonge, alias Brooks, alias Morton, dx ; WILLIAM KURR (25), alias Gifford; CHARLES BALE (30), alias Jackson, alias Gregory; FREDERICK KURR (23), alias Collings, alias Alfred Montgomery ; and EDWIN MURRAY (32), alias Wells, alias Monroe , were indicted for feloniously forging a warrant or order for the payment of 10,000l., with intent to defraud. Second Count—for uttering the same with the like intent.

MR. SOLICITOR-GENERAL. with MESSRS. BOWEN and MCCONNELL, conducted the Prosecution; MR. WILLIS, Q.C., with MR. HORACE AVORY, appeared for Benson; MR. SERGEANT PARRY, with MR. J. P. GRAIN, for William Kurr; MR. STRAIGHT for Bale, MR. BESLEY for Frederick Kurr, and MR. MONTAGU WILLIAMS for Murray.

[...]

BENSON, WILLIAM KURR, BALE, and FREDERICK KURR— GUILTY on the forgery counts.

MURRAY— GUILTY as accessory after the fact.

Benson also PLEADED GUILTY to having been previously convicted at this Court in July, 1872.

The prosecutrix recommended the prisoners to mercy.

BENSON— Fifteen Years' Penal Servitude.

WILLIAM KURR, BALE, and FREDERICK KURR— Ten Years' Penal Servitude; MURRAY— Eighteen Months' Imprisonment.

The costs of the prosecution, after being taxed, to be paid by the prisoners.


---end

In this case, and in the trail of the detectives, Walter is referred to as "Walters."

A notice of Walter's 1880 arrest.

Truth, Volume 7, February 19, 1880, Page 324

Walters, who absconded from his bail four years ago
when charged with a Turf fraud, has now been arrested on
a charge of forgery under another name. It was a matter
of notoriety, at the time of the trial of Druscovitch and
Meiklejohn at the Old Bailey, that Walters could often be
seen parading Fleet-street, and it was believed that the police
had good reasons for not arresting him. I hope that the
matter will be inquired into, and that, if any collusion can be
proved against the police, there will be a rigid prosecution.

---end

WILLIAM HENRY WALTER, Deception > fraud, Deception > forgery, 22nd March 1880.

Reference Number: t18800322-317
Offences: Deception > fraud; Deception > forgery
Verdicts: Guilty > pleaded guilty; Guilty > pleaded guilty
Punishments: Imprisonment > penal servitude

317. WILLIAM HENRY WALTER (29) PLEADED GUILTY to feloniously uttering an order for the payment of 905l. with intent to defraud.

He also PLEADED GUILTY to uttering two other orders for 40l. and 90l. 10s. also to forging and uttering four other orders for 10l., 9l. 16s. 10d., 10l. and 9l. 16s.— Twenty Years Penal Servitude

---end

I don't know if Lloyd and Nicholson ads, which featured an endorsement from C. H. Montague Clarke, were connected to Walter or were from someone acting in imitation of Walter.

[TradeName]

A curious addendum to the story of Cooke's School of Anatomy. Don't know that this piece is 100% accurate on all points.

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), Saturday, 13 June 1925, Page 14

AT DR, COOKE'S SCHOOL

(By Chevron.)

Doctor Thomas Cooke was a great authority on anatomy. He was considered by many the best in England, and on founding the Cooke School, as he did in 1870, even well-known doctors turned to him for some additional instruction. As a result of his great knowledge and his method of imparting it he eventually came to have something like three hundred students, and no doubt was in a great way financially. But he died suddenly in 1899 when lecturing, and when it was found that there was not another to take his place, the School declined. From 1899 to now is, say, a quarter of a century, and much can happen in that time. As thintgs stood at the opening of the year the Cooke School was more or less of a memory, but the place was there, or at least enough of it to provide a stage for the scene to conclude things.

In this way we get to Granville Harley Egerton Cooke, son of the gentleman just mentioned, and a French "Countess." And at the same time as we do this we get to an entireley [sic] different person. Dr. G. H. E. Cooke, as he called himself, and may have been, was an anatomist, too, and revelled in certain of the Cooke relics, as portions of the human body, and many of them, preserved by what means only science could say. But the one portion of the human body he liked best would not be of such at all, but only the pocket of a living one, and that pocket the one containing the money. And to get this Dr. G. H. E. Cooke would go to rather extreme lengths, and sometimes did. Some times it was by copying the signature of the man owning the pocket, as on two occasions he did it well enough to get five years with each, but not necessarily to serve them in full. Then he was an inventor, was for ever inventing, but whether the inventions were of any use or not cannot be said. Apparently they were not, as it is not on record that he ever made any money out of them. And again he was a poet, and good enough in this capacity to turn out rhymes to bring solace to the afflicted. His masterpiece was his composition in aid of St. Donstain's Hostel for the Blind, which appears to have won the admiration of Queen Alexandra, and her approval, and brought a cheque. With the assistance of the Royal commendation, Dr. G. H. E. Cooke sold this poem here and there to some advantage, but the Blind got nothing--the Doctor took it all, and did eighteen months in gaol as a consequence. To complete, he was a man of moods. The nicest fellow in the world when it suited him, he could turn himself into a fury on the least provocation. He once engaged an assistant, and it was his pleasure to show him all the parts of the human body he had preserved, and then a box which he said contained enough germs of a malignant character to kill half London, and so 3,500,000 persons. And then, still owing him his wages, he took up something or other to throw at his head, and the assistant wisely forgot his wages and left. We say wisely became he did not know at the time that Dr. G. H. E. Cooke had once been flogged in gaol for a violent assault.

A great friend of the Doctor's was Mr. John Selwyn Foster. Mr. Foster was fond of hut one thing--gamnbling, and when his relatives failed him he went in for thieving, takintg whatever he could get. He gambled for his pleasure, and marched the country up and down for the money for it between his terms of imprisonment, and it would seem that he was at Dr. G. Hf. E. Cooke's for the last time in connection vith a little business. He had expectations from his mother, and was willing to hypothecate them, and whatever the consideration the doctor managed to get from him. a power of attorney of such all-convincing character, and apparently with something in it to make it irrevocable, that it came to pass that it was the doctor who had the expectations, and not Mr. Foster at all.

This is why, when the last English mail left, the police were wondering just how Mr. Foster died, as when they found himn at the School of Anatomy he vas stretched on the floor, and two hings seemed certain--that he had taken something, and in the process of dying had tumbled out of bed and dragged the bedclothes with him. It was of no use appealing to Dr. G. H. E. Cooke. Certainly that gentleman was there, but he was doubled up in a strangely unanatomical position, and when examined was seen to be like, the other, and that is dead. And the manner of his death provided a further mystery, as while the gas was turned on all round it was not enough for harm, as a jet was burning, and the doctor had not inured himself by any other means. The one peculiar thing about him was the colour of his face--it was more or less [????]. The riddle of the two dead men at the Cooke School of Anatomy is yet another of those things that occur from time to time in a great city.

---end

Three stories in one column about the finding of the bodies and the background of Cooke and Foster.

Northern Advocate, 3 April 1925, Page 5

DEEP MYSTERY




A school listing for Granville Cooke and his brother.

Merchant Taylors' School Register, 1871-1900 (London: 1907), Page 247
by London (England). Merchant Taylors' School

Cooke, Granville Hawley Egerton, b. 18 Jan. 1872, s. of
Thomas and Comtesse, Surgeon, Woburn Place.
Left 1888.

Cooke. Francis Gerrard Hamilton, h. 19 April 1875, s. of the same.
Left 1891.

---end

An article raising questions about the ownership ofr Granville Cooke's tire patents, and a response.

The Statist: A Journal of Practical Finance and Trade, Volume 38, December 5, 1896, Page 868

TWICE SOLD.

The prospectus of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company, Limited, which invites subscription of its capital of £130,000, states that the Company is formed to acquire (1) "the goodwill and business of the Cooke Detachable Tyre Company, Limited"; (2) the inventions of G. H. E. Cooke and Thos. Cooke for improvements, &c.; and (3) "a license granted to the Cooke Detachable Tyre Company, Limited, to use the Welch-Dunlop patents for the purpose of manufacturing and selling their tyre. This license also covers all foreign countries where the Welch-Dunlop rights exist." The Non-Collapsible Company is also to acquire (4) the invention of Thomas Duffell Bell for improved means for closing punctures; (5) the goodwill and business of the Automatic Puncture-Closing Band Company, Limited, and (6) the undertaking and assets, free from all liabilities, of the Midland India Rubber Company, Birmingham. The purchase price has been fixed by the Automatic Puncture Company, which appears to be boMi buyer and seller, and is selling at a profit, at £110,000. And the prospectus goes on to state that the orders received "include one from the Scott's Standard Tyre Company for 20,000 non-collapsible tubes."

But the prospectus of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company, Limited, does not refer to the fact, to which we invite the especial attention of the directors, that the prospectus, dated May 1896, of Scott's Standard Pneumatic Tyre Company, Limited, stated that in addition to the business of Robert Scott, Limited, the Standard Tyre Company, Limited, and the Speed Tyre Company, Limited, the new Scott's Standard Pneumatic Tyre Company, Limited, "will likewise acquire the assignable license granted to Cooke's Detachable Tyre Company, Limited, subject to that Company's arrangements with the Midland India Rubber Company, and the valuable patent rights in the Cooke Tyre for Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man, Belgium and Austro-Hungary." Now what does this mean! If the Cooke's Detachable Tyre Company, by a contract dated May 14,1896, quoted in the prospectus of the Scott's Standard Company, sold the assignable license and the patent rights for Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere to the Scott's Standard Tyre Company, how can the license which covers all foreign countries be now again sold to the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company? In a supplementary agreement entered into by the directors of the Scott's Standard Company and the promoter, Mr. Cormick, on October 5 last, when the capital subscribed was £25,341, instead of the £190,000 offered, it was expressly provided that Mr. Cormick, instead of £90,000 in cash as part of his purchase price of £200,000, should be paid at once £11,000 in cash, further £4,000 in cash on the transfer of the Cooke Tyre undertaking, and the remainder of his purchase money in shares, subject to an abatement of £250 for certain patents which had lapsed. This seems clearly to indicate that up to a few weeks ago it was considered that the Cooke Tyre undertaking was to be transferred to the Scott's Standard Company in accordance with the contract of May 14, 1896. The sum of £4,000 kept in hand until completion of the transfer appears also to show that the Cooke's Tyre undertaking was at least of equal importance with any of the other three, for of the nominal capital of £3,000 of the original Standard Company, Limited (registered November 5, 1894), only £351 had been subscribed up to February 17, 1896; and Robert Scott, Limited (registered February 26, 1896), with a nominal capital of £3,000, was agreed to be wound up voluntarily on June 26. The other Company, the Speed Tyre Company, Limited (registered November 7, 1895), with a nominal capital of £5,000, to buy from Jones and Dring the business of Taylor and Co., of Saffron Hill, had up to January 14 last allotted £3,007, of which Jones and Dring held £3,000, as "agreed to be considered as fully paid up." If the Cooke's Tyre undertaking Ls not worth more than the £4,000 held in reserve, it seems to have, at any rate, represented fully one-fourth of the assets which were to be acquired by the Scott's Standard Tyre Company for £200,000 upon the basis of an estimated gross profit of £63,960 from orders certified to be in hand on May 15 last for 162,002 tyres and 21,000 tyre-covers. Yet the prospectus of the Non-Collapsible Tube Company, Limited, which estimates a profit of £52,876 from orders in hand for 100,000 tyres and 100,000 bands or tubes, states that "the orders above referred to include one from the Scott's Standard Tyre Company for 20,000 non-collapsible tubes."

It seems to us to be now of urgent importance that the directors of the Scott's Standard Company and the directors of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company should explain distinctly to which Company, if to either, the undertaking of the Cooke's Detachable Tyre has reallv been sold. Although only £25,341, instead of£190,0(0, were subscribed by the public to the Scott's Standard Company, the shareholders are more than 250 in number, the majority of whom seem to be persons of snail means, who could ill afford to lose their little investment of £100, or £50, or even £25. The applicants, if sny, for ehares in the Non-Collapsible Company will probably be of the same class. The Companies Acts, as at present interpreted, afford to such persons little or no protection. They can rarely be brought together for their own protection, and are thus often left until too latj altogether in ignorance of the real state of affairs with the adventures in which they have been induced to risk their money. In the case of the Scott's Standard and NonCollapsible Tyre Companies it is to be hoped that the required explanations will be immediately forthcoming.

The tangle of this perplexing series of companies is as remarkable as the exceedingly small substratum of capital which hitherto the vendor companies have possessed. Thus, Cooke's Detachable Tyre Company was registered on January 3, 1893, with a nominal capital of £2,000, to buy the Cooke patent for £1,000, and the purchase price was afterwards reduced to £rt00. Up to January 13 last £800 of the capital had been paid up and £1,200 issued, as "agreed to be considered as paid up." The shareholder were Thomas Cooke, of 40 Brunswick Square, surgeon, £150; Mrs. Aglae Helene Edine Cooke, £971: J. R. Starley, £250; Edward Allday, Edgbaston, £75; Raoul de Manin, £75; Edward Knight, Brunswick Square, £100, and Gustave de Manin, £200. The Automatic Puncture Closing Band Company was not registered until October 6 last, and the agreement provides that the capital of the Company shall not exceed £1,000, which was the price to be paid to Mr. Thos. Duffell Bell if he prepared forthwith a complete specification of his invention and if and when he obtained Letters Patent thereof.


December 12, 1896, Page 906

We have received the following communication from the secretary of the Non-Collapsible Tyre Company, Limited, in response to our suggestion last week of an explanation:—-

"The Scott Company entered into an agreement in May last for the purchase of the Cooke license and patents—-for protective purposes only—-proceedings being threatened by the Dunlop Company in relation to the Scott license. The directors of the Scott Company, believing that their rights under the Scott license were unassailable, in October last agreed to transfer for a very large sum of money the benefit of the Cooke license and patents to the Non-Collapsible Company, and the purchase has this day [December 10] been completed.

"The Cooke license and patents are now, therefore, the absolute property of the Non-Collapsible Company, which, however, has no connection with the Scott Company. The situation, then, is: The Scott Company retains Us Scott rights, and, not longer requiring the Cooke rights, it has sold them to my Company. The order given by the Scott Company for 20,000 inner Non-Collapsible tubes formed no part of the bargain for the sale of the license and patents."

---end

An American patent granted to Granville Cooke.

Publication number US535978 A
Publication type Grant
Publication date Mar 19, 1895
Filing date Dec 11, 1894
Inventors Granville H. E. Cooke
Export Citation BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
Referenced by (2), Classifications (1)

One of Cooke's criminal convictions.

GRANVILLE HAWLEY EGERTON COOKE, Deception > fraud, 25th April 1898.

Reference Number: t18980425-332
Offence: Deception > fraud
Verdict: Guilty > pleaded guilty
Punishment: Imprisonment > hard labour
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332. GRANVILLE HAWLEY EGERTON COOKE (26) , Unlawfully obtaining from Caroline Galloway and others postal orders for £5 5s. and other sums, by false pretences. Other Counts.—For obtaining credit by false pretences, having been convicted at this Court on July 12th, 1896.

MESSRS. BODKIN, BIRON, and PERCIVAL CLARKE Prosecuted, and MR. RANDOLPH Defended.

The prisoner withdrew his plea, and PLEADED GUILTY to the Counts for obtaining credit by false pretences, upon which the JURY found him GUILTY .*—He received a good character since his conviction at this Court.— Twelve Months' Hard Labour;

---end

A case in which Cooke was a victim and a prosecution witness, but the defendant testified that Cooke was part of a scheme to get quick information about the results of a horse race and then place a bet with a bookie.

ARTHUR SMYTHE, Deception > fraud, 8th March 1910.

Reference Number: t19100308-39
Offence: Deception > fraud
Verdict: Guilty > no_subcategory
Punishment: Imprisonment > no_subcategory
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SMYTHE, Arthur (48, billiard instructor), was indicted for that he did unlawfully conspire, combine, confederate and agree with certain persons giving the names W. Johnson, George Vane and J. Lees respectively by divers false pretences and subtle devices to obtain from Granville Hawley Egerton Cooke certain of his moneys with intent to cheat and defraud him thereof, and in pursuance of such conspiracy did unlawfully by false pretences obtain from the said Granville Hawley Egerton Cooke divers sums of money to the amount of £120 with intent to defraud, between January 18 and 25, 1910, in the City of London; and with a man giving the name of McGwin by divers false pretences and subtle devices to obtain from William Londesborough Towers certain of his moneys with intent to cheat and defraud him thereof, and in pursuance of such conspiracy did unlawfully by false pretences obtain from the said William Londesborough Towers divers sums of money and valuable securities to the amount of £500 and upwards with intent to defraud between April 27 and May 12, 1904; unlawfully by false pretences obtaining from the said Granville Hawley Egerton Cooke the sum of £15 on January 18, 1910, the sum of £50 on January 21, 1910, the sum of £25 on January 22, 1910, and the sum of £25 on January 25, 1910, and from the said William Londesborough Towers certain valuable securities, to wit, a banker's cheque for £100 on April 27, 1904, a banker's cheque for £50 on April 29, 1904, a banker's cheque for £20 on May 4, 1904, a banker's cheque for £128 2s. 6d. on May 10, 1904, and a banker's cheque for £150 on May 12, 1904, and from William Henry Thwaites 30s. on December 11, 1909, in each case with intent to defraud.

[...]

Verdict, Guilty.

Sentence, Four months' imprisonment, second division.

[TradeName]

The claim in the sketch of Granville Cooke by "Chevron" that Cooke had once shown an assistant "a box which he said contained enough germs of a malignant character to kill half London" calls to mind a short story by H. G. Wells called "The Stolen Bacillus."


The Stolen Bacillus: And Other Incidents (London: Macmillan, 1904), link
by Herbert George Wells


An account of the inquest on the deaths of Cooke and Foster.

The Bathurst Times (NSW : 1909 - 1925), Tuesday 16 June 1925, Page 1

House of Death
MYSTERY OF TWO DEAD MEN.

New light on the mystery, of- two dead men in a cottage attached to Cooke's School of Anatomy, Handel-street, Bloomsbury. (Eng.), was shed at the inquest recently.

Dr. Fairlie, who made a post-mortem examination, said there was a caked amorphous powder on the lips and chin of John Selwyn Foster, one of the victims.

A police witness stated that there were two cups of water in the death chamber, one containing some dirty soda water and the other a greasy substance. In a glass was some clear liquid like water.

Mrs. Bertha Cook, widow of Granville Cooke, said that she received a letter-—a long, rambling letter-—which she could not understand, a few days before the1 tragedy. It did not contain any suggestion about taking his life. He had never mentioned Foster to her.

Continuing, she said her husband was not always careful with regard to gas, and on many occasions she had found it turned on.

The Coroner: Was his sense of sine)] good?-—As far as I know, he had no sense of smell. Some years ago he had some trouble with his nose, and was operated on for it.

Replying to Inspector Grosse, Mrs. Cooke said her husband often turned on the gas witsout lighting it.

Police Constable Walter Amos said he found Foster lying on his back on the floor and Cooke was in a stooping position in a corner.

The Coroner: Did you see anything to suggest any struggle?-—None what ever.

Foster was only half-dressed. There was "some white frothy stuff" round his mouth.

There was a cup on the window sill, and it contained some dirty soda water. Another cup near by contained a greasy sort of substance and a glass "some clear sort of liquid like water."

ESTATE REVERSION SOLD.

Mrs. Emily Foster, of Crown-place, Scarborough, the mother of the dead man, said her son could have obtained money by selling his reversionary interest in his father's estate,
which she found he had done.

The Coroner: Was his mental condition quite good?—-I cannot say as to that. He had loss of memory aboat three years ago.

Mrs. Foster added that her son wrote to her about money, and she told him she could do nothing more for him. She understood that he wrote to the family solicitor, acquainting him with the fact that he was disposing of the reversionary rights.

Was he a young man who took life rather casually?—-Yes, rather. He was a very dutiful boy in the home, but when he got away he seemed to forget it. He was easily led by others.

Mrs. Foster added that her son was not insured, and, as far as she knew, he left no will.

Dr. W. Fairlie, the Divisional Police Surgeon, said there was nothing to indicate a struggle.

He was not yet completely satisfied as to the cause of Foster's death, though he had carried out a post-mortem examination.

There was a ctfked amorphous powder adherent to the lips and1 chin, but there was no odor of poison or evidence of corrosion. Ho thought that death was due to carbon monoxide (gas) poison, but in view of the powdered condition of the mouth 'there might have been some other factor bearing on it.

Before expressing a definite opinion he would like to have the result of an analysis. Cooke smelt strongly of gas. A post-mortem examination showed positively that death was duo to carbon monoxide poisoning.

[TradeName]

Some musings on the Whitechapel murders from Labouchere's Truth:

Truth, Volume 24, 1888, link

October 4, 1888, Pages 581-582

It is full time that Sir Charles Warren should go. He may be the right man somewhere, but it is not assuredly as chief of the Metropolitan Police. It is an open secret that Mr. Mathews was personally opposed to breaking up the meetings in Trafalgar-square, as he perceived that they were dying a natural death, and that Sir Charles Warren only got his way by appealing to Lord Salisbury. Sir Charles got whatever reputation he has by organising savage countries, and he appears to have deemed London a barbarian capital which it was his mission to keep down vi et armis. He has done his best to convert the Police Force into a military body, and he has worried his men with drills, regarding it as a matter of minor importance that individuals should be murdered with impunity. He entertains very strong religious views, and he has sought to inculcate these views upon his subordinates. Promotion is believed in the Force to be dependent upon the fervour with which each policeman embraces these views. This, of course, engenders hypocrisy, for many very poor policemen are quite sharp enough to tread the road which Sir Charles tells them leads to salvation in the next world, and which they believe leads to promotion in this world. Mr. Monro was a very able head of the detective force. He enjoyed the confidence of Mr. Mathews, but not of Sir Charles, and he was sacrificed. Thanks to the follies that have been committed, and that are still being committed, the Force is utterly disorganised. This cannot be allowed to continue, and if Sir Charles Warren does not resign he must be shelved.

But, although the police have been demoralised, disorganised, and rendered inefficient to cope with anything beyond a public meeting, owing to the follies and vagaries of Sir Charles Warren, I do not join in the abuse that is lavished on them by the newspapers for not having hindered the Whitechapel murders or laid hands on their perpetrator. From the choice that he makes of his victims, they become his partners in the endeavour to escape the notice of the police, and even if this were not so, it would be a very difficult thing to catch him by any pre-arranged plan, for London at night has a vast number of nooks and crannies which cannot all be under the eye of the police, even if their number were increased tenfold. Detection will take place (if it does take place) either by the murderer being caught red-handed whilst perpetrating a murder, or by the suspicions of neighbours of the villain being awakened, for he must live somewhere. This is why the utmost publicity should be given to all indications, and why it is right that a large reward for discovery should be offered. The suggestions made by correspondents in the newspapers have been so silly that I am loath to add to their number; still, I think that it might be well that the police who are on the look-out should wear india-rubber over-shoes. This they have done in New York during the night-time for the last thirty years. What strikes me as the most remarkable feature connected with the murders is that the murderer sticks to one locality. Whether a lunatic or simply a miscreant, his object is to kill for killing's sake. Why, then, should he increase the risks that he runs by always selecting the very place where his former murders have put people specially on their guard against him? It may be said that he knows the locality better than any other, but this explanation hardly holds water, for in a week or two he might make himself equally well acquainted with some other part.

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The epidemic of false "confessions" which is usually consequent upon the commission of any unussually atrocious crime seems to have set in in the case of these Whitechapel murders. The man Fitzgerald who "confessed" to the crimes, was found to be a morbid liar, and was consequently discharged. People of this kind give a great deal of trouble, and hinder the police, and they ought to be punished for so doing. It is quite conceivable that many a criminal gets some pal to give himself up in order that he may have the more time for escape. The “pal,” of course, risks nothing. This is an additional reason for making a false confession a punishable offence, and I will wager that were a few. Fitzgeralds sentenced to a month's hard labour for their freaks, the false confession nuisance would speedily be abated.

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Of all the ludicrous theories of the murders, the theory of the Coroner is assuredly the most grotesque. I am glad to see that the medical opinion of Sir Risdon Bennett coincides with this conclusion, to which my purely lay mind instantaneously sprung when I read the astounding summing-up. I don’t know whether there is any way of getting rid of a Comic Coroner. But if any machinery does exist for the purpose, it ought, without a moment's delay, to be put in force. Unless this excellent man can be retired summarily and quickly, he will probably, in a day or two, ventilate a theory that there is a “demand,” a “market” for, say, “hob-nailed livers,” and then gentlemen who have been to pleasant parties overnight, and who know that their morning faces show it, will be afraid to walk across Pall Mall to their club for their devilled kidney or red herring. They will tremble at every rough-looking customer they meet, feeling sure that he is in search of a “hob-nailed liver” to be preserved in glycerine and issued with each number of some temperance publication.

---------------------------------

Heaven forbid that I should, without good reason, say a word which might hurt the feelings of an esteemed contemporary. Still, there are moments when plain speaking is a public duty, and I cannot help suggesting that at the present moment the police authorities in charge of the East-end mystery might do worse than pay a visit to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph and try and find out what he knows about it. At any rate, it is a very curious coincidence that this good gentleman should on Saturday morning have closed the “Marriage” controversy, which has provided him with two or three columns of matter per diem for months past, and then have had two brand-new, unprecedentedly-horrible murders ready to fill up half-a-dozen columns on Monday. Of course, it may be a mere coincidence. I hope it is.

October 11, 1888, Pages 630-631

"It is an ill wind," &c., and the Whitechapel horrors have proved a perfect godsend to the daily papers, occuring, as they have done, during the dead sesaon. But what a fearful amount of trash has been written about them! No sooner was a letter signed "Jack the Ripper" published, than hundreds of ghastly jokers at once addressed similar letters to the authorities, whilst "constant readers" wrote to their favourite organs to prove that the writer of the silly letter must have been the murderer.

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Occasions like these bring home to us what a vast number of fools there are amongst us—-creatures who live to parade their folly, and who believe it is wisdom. Mr. A. writes solemnly to explain how some self-obvious fact has occurred to him. Mr. B. makes some utterly absurd suggestion. Mr. C. improves the occasion by communicating to the world at large a few platitudes that he has culled from a copy-book; and they all actually sign their real names to these lucubrations ! I can imagine the dull, solemn, pretentious authors of these letters. I can see them pestering all their acquaintances with allusions to their effusions, and being seriously regarded by their wives, their daughters, and their housemaids as almost as important factors in the atrocities as the murderer himself.

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That there should be a plentiful supply of scribbling asses is not surprising. What astonishes me, however, is that the newspapers should publish their letters. Surely, if the epistolary is deemed the most telling mode of getting copy out of the horrors, some smart young man in the office might be turned on to throw off a series of communications from “constant readers,” “fathers,” “ratepayers,” &c., &c., with some glimmer of common-sense in them.

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Naturally, the spiritualists have come to the fore, and we are asked, to believe that the spirits of the victims have been visiting the “parlours” in which professional mediums sit awaiting dupes. No sooner was it stated that the murderer had on a black coat than the spirits also announced the fact. Spiritualism is the most debasing and contemptible form ever assumed by superstition. There has never been one single case of “spirit communication” which has stood the test of independent investigation. If the spirits of the victims really do hold communication with mediums, why don’t they describe in plain language the appearance of the man who murdered them, and give particulars of all that took place previous to the murder? This might be of some use.

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On the doctrine of probabilities, it is long odds against the murderer having written the "Jack the Ripper" letters. He may have, and so may thousands of others. But there is a coincidence in repsect to these letters to which attention has not yet been drawn. The handwriting is remarkably like that of the forgeries which the Times published, and which they ascribed to Mr. Parnell and to Mr. Egan. I do not go so far as to suggest that the Times forger is the Whitechapel murderer, although this, of course, is possible; but it may be that the forger takes pride in his work, and wishes to keep his hand in.

----------------------------------

The following story, which appears in a West-country paper, is worth reproducing at the present moment. I see the best authorities consider that, from lack of practice and training, the bloodhound's keenness of scent has so degenerated that he is no longer of any practical value as a man-hunter. I should think, however, that it is well worth the consideration of our active and intelligent police authorities whether it might not pay to cultivate the dog's powers again, and keep him for such emergencies as the present. There is a difference, of course, between country roads and London streets; but, where every other method is at fault, I should certainly say, give the dogs a chance:--

Captain Norway was murdered on the turnpike road between Bodmin and Wadebridge one night, nearly fifty years ago. Next morning two bloodhounds belonging to Sir William Molesworth were brought from Pencarrow to the scene of the murder, and they followed on the scent of the murderers to the estuary of the River Camel, where they were checked by the high tide. The tide had been low when the murderers waded across. The dogs were ferried over the river and recovered the scent, which they stuck to, until it brought them and the constables to a cottage in which were found two brothers named Lightfoot. These men were tried for the murder at Bodmin Assizes, and duly hung.

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Telegraph clerks, I am aware, are expected to regard themselves as mere machines for the reception and transmission of messages, and to have neither minds nor memory for the contents of the messages entrusted to them. They certainly act up to this idea very well, and I suppose it is for the public interest that they should. When, however, as happened in Commercial-road last week, an individual walks into a telegraph-office and hands in what purports to be a telegram from the Whitechapel murderer to Sir Charles Warren, I certainly think that the intelligent operators might have allowed themselves to look at the message as something different from an invitation to dinner or an order for coals. I do not for a moment suppose that the man who handed in this telegram was the Whitechapel murderer, but he was, at least, one of those practical jokers who are much in need of a lesson just now, and it is a pity that Post Office red-tapeism prevented his being stopped and handed over to the police.

Page 633

Sir Charles Dilke's announcement that he is now able to look forward to a return to public life at an earlier date than he until lately contemplated is very welcome intelligence. For my part, I have never been able to understand what has kept him so long out of public life. The famous verdict in the Crawford case was scarcely a week old, before nine out of every ten educated men of all parties had come clearly to the conclusion that a more astounding and incomprehensible miscarriage of justice had never taken place. What may be the precise value of the fresh evidence which Sir Charles's friends have now collected I am not in a position to state. But the truth is there is not much need of fresh evidence. The lady's story was illogical and inconsistent; whilst good evidence in confirmation of it seemed to me to be wanting. At most it was word against word.

-----------------------------------

It would be curious if Sir Charles Dilke's return to public life should coincide with what I myself should regard as an almost equally great miscarriage of justice—-viz., the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and ultimate execution of Mr. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette, for the Whitechapel murders. Yet this very possibly may be an event difficult to avoid, if public opinion continues to run in its present groove, and persists in imputing to the Whitechapel fiend a philanthropic motive. Even I (who am almost as well assured of Mr. Stead's innocence as of my own), while the identification of the lost victim was still in doubt, could not always restrain a shudder of apprehension lest possibly she might turn out to be Eliza Armstrong, No doubt there is a superficial resemblance between Eliza's famous case and these Whitechapel cases. But really it is only superficial. “Purity of motive,” “desire to amend the criminal law,” may very possibly have been factors present in both instances.

October 18, 1888, Page 672

A very interesting fact has come to my knowledge respecting the telegram which the Whitechapel murderer, or some one personating him, sent to Sir Charles Warren last week. This telegram was not handed in at a post-office in the usual way, but was stamped and deposited in a letter-box, whence it was taken in the ordinary course when the box was cleared to the nearest telegraph office and dispatched. Now, it is not everyone, even among the educated classes, who is aware that a telegram can be sent in this manner. Among working men, or among the Jewish or foreign population at the East-end, I should not expect to find one man in a thousand who knows it. On the other hand, it does not look likely that a mere practical joker would have recourse to such a roundabout procedure. To my mind this is one more indication that the Whitechapel assassin is more likely to belong to “the classes” than “the masses.”

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The bloodhound cry, like most other cries which originally had a grain of sense in them, is being carried too far. Before we determine to rely exclusively upon bloodhounds for the detection of murderers, I would suggest the following experiment:—-Let a sheep be tethered in the middle of a field over night. In the morning let a butcher entering the field from the east go up to that sheep and kill it, and, leaving the carcass on the ground, depart due north. Then half-an-hour afterwards let a policeman (a respectable married man, but with no family, that thus the susceptibilities of Northumberland-street may be unruffled), acting upon “information received,” enter the field from the west, and find the slaughtered sheep, and depart due south. Now comes the bloodhound upon the scene, and obviously there are five courses open to the intelligent animal:—-1. He may elect to follow backwards the track of the butcher entering the field, for obviously the foot of a butcher smells just the same, whether you begin to smell it at the toe or the heel. 2. He may go the way the butcher went when leaving the field. 3. He may go on the reverse track of the entering policeman. Or (4) on the line taken by the retreating constable. 5. He may lie down on the top of that sheep and eat as much mutton as he can. If the dog is hungry this last is undoubtedly the course which he will adopt. If, on the other hand, he is not hungry, but intelligent (and also, like Balaam's ass, inspired), he will distinguish, not merely between the tracks of the butcher and policeman, but also between the two tracks of the butcher, and, following the right one, will find that worthy in his favourite public-house. Then murder will cease upon the earth, for no criminal would be so mad as to court certain detection, and the golden age will return. In the meantime, it is, of course, obvious that the bloodhounds should be supplied to Sir James Hannen and Justices Day and Smith to enable them to find out who forged the “Parnell letters.”

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae1HAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA672#v=onepage&q&f=false

November 15, 1888, Pages 859-860

Exit Jonah! And now he is free to write as many articles as he likes in denunciation of public meetings and in praise of himself. Mr. Matthews was, I believe, opposed to the action of the police against the Trafalgar-square meetings, last year, for he rightly thought that if he left them severely alone, they would soon come to an end. But Jonah thought otherwise, and appealed to Lord Salisbury, who sided with him against the Home Office. Mr. Monro was an exceptionally able head of the Criminal Investigation Department: and naturally he objected to a hot-headed, bungling soldier disorganising the department, and he resigned. But Mr. Matthews continued to consult Mr. Monro in regard to reorganisation, which must have been gall and wormwood to the soldier. So he has been pitched overboard, and none too soon. I do not regard him as responsible for the Whitechapel murderer not having been discovered. But obviously the chances of his being discovered, and thus hindered from committing further atrocities, was minimised by Sir Charles Warren being permitted to meddle in the detective department, and to muddle everything.

I should fancy myself that Mr. Munro would make an excellent head of the police, but if he be not selected I do hope that we shall have a man who has given proof of his fitness for the performance of the duties required. Such a man might be found amongst the Chief Constables of the counties and of the boroughs.

[...]

-----------------------

Trashy, very trashy, are the confidences which various inhabitants of the locality where the recent murders have taken place vouchsafe to newspaper reporters. In most cases they are lies; in the few that are not absolutely untrue, they are exaggerated and worthless. An "inhabitant" able to impart information becomes an important personage, besides getting numerous tips. "Inhabitants" who have known the vixtim for years have variously described her as short and tall, fair and dark; whilst as for the murderer, if "inhabitants" are to be credited, he has vainly sought to be arrested by indiscreet acts and observations.

------------------------


It is unprofitable work theorising about the murderer; but, while everybody is offering the police suggestions, there is one consideration which should not be lost sight of. That is the possibility—-in my opinion, almost a probability—-that the man makes the acquaintance of his victims long before he commits the crime, disarms any suspicions they might entertain, and waits for, or possibly arranges with the women themselves, the opportunity for the crime. There are one or two circumstances about the last butchery which strongly suggest this conclusion. So there were about the Mitre-square case. I should not be surprised to learn that in each of those instances the murderer was well known to the woman before the crime, or that—-in the Mitre-square case, at any rate—-the poor creature was waiting by appointment in the spot where she was butchered.

-------------------------

What I would, therefore, press on the police is that they should direct their attention less to mysterious strangers with black bags, and sinister individuals who frighten girls in dark corners, than to the habitual and consequently trusted associates of women of this class. The streets are sure to breed all sorts of myths at times like this, First, it was a mysterious monster with a leather apron. Now, it is a respectable gentleman with a black bag. I must say the black bag strikes me as difficult to swallow. The Whitechapel assassin, whoever he is, understands the conditions of secrecy. I can't, therefore, quite believe in his promenading Whitechapel in the dead of night ear-marked to all beholders by a black bag—and a black bag the opening of which must mean certain detection!

-------------------------

Of course, we have the usual crop of self-advertisers, who rush to the front when one of these murders takes place, with theories and suggestions. Mr. Forbes Winslow calls attention to the fact that he has patented the idea that the murderer is a lunatic, generally lucid, when he forgets what he had done when insane, but occasionally mad. This may be the fact, but, of course, it cannot be known until the man is discovered, unless we are to lay down, as a law of universal application, that whenever a series of murders, accompanied by outrages, is committed, the perpetrator must be mad. That he killed a woman this time in a room looks, however, as though he had not forgotten his former exploits, and was fully aware of the precautions that had been taken to prevent their renewal.

November 22, 1888, Page 903

There really appear to be no bounds to the aberrations and fantasticalities of the Anglican clergy of the present day. I heard last week of a reverend parson in a western diocese who had astounded his congregation by exhorting them, before he commenced his sermon, to pray fervently for the early discovery of the Whitechapel murderer! It is ordered in the Rubric that “nothing shall be proclaimed or published in the church, during the time of divine service, but by the minister; nor by him anything but what is prescribed by the rules of this book (the Prayer Book), or enjoined by the Queen, or by the Ordinary of the place.” I am quite sure that neither Queen nor Ordinary has “enjoined” country clergymen to twaddle in this strange way to their unfortunate hearers about these sensational murders; but there are too many “ministers” who are only too ready to drag in their own muddling opinions upon any current topic, however unseemly or irrelevant. One usually finds that such irregularities occur during the sermon, when the preacher is practically beyond control.

[Mayerling]

[QUOTE=TradeName;350138]

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Occasions like these bring home to us what a vast number of fools there are amongst us—-creatures who live to parade their folly, and who believe it is wisdom. Mr. A. writes solemnly to explain how some self-obvious fact has occurred to him. Mr. B. makes some utterly absurd suggestion. Mr. C. improves the occasion by communicating to the world at large a few platitudes that he has culled from a copy-book; and they all actually sign their real names to these lucubrations ! I can imagine the dull, solemn, pretentious authors of these letters. I can see them pestering all their acquaintances with allusions to their effusions, and being seriously regarded by their wives, their daughters, and their housemaids as almost as important factors in the atrocities as the murderer himself.

----------------------------------

That there should be a plentiful supply of scribbling asses is not surprising. What astonishes me, however, is that the newspapers should publish their letters. Surely, if the epistolary is deemed the most telling mode of getting copy out of the horrors, some smart young man in the office might be turned on to throw off a series of communications from “constant readers,” “fathers,” “ratepayers,” &c., &c., with some glimmer of common-sense in them.

----------------------------------



----------------------------------



Captain Norway was murdered on the turnpike road between Bodmin and Wadebridge one night, nearly fifty years ago. Next morning two bloodhounds belonging to Sir William Molesworth were brought from Pencarrow to the scene of the murder, and they followed on the scent of the murderers to the estuary of the River Camel, where they were checked by the high tide. The tide had been low when the murderers waded across. The dogs were ferried over the river and recovered the scent, which they stuck to, until it brought them and the constables to a cottage in which were found two brothers named Lightfoot. These men were tried for the murder at Bodmin Assizes, and duly hung.

-----------------------------------





Sir Charles Dilke's announcement that he is now able to look forward to a return to public life at an earlier date than he until lately contemplated is very welcome intelligence. For my part, I have never been able to understand what has kept him so long out of public life. The famous verdict in the Crawford case was scarcely a week old, before nine out of every ten educated men of all parties had come clearly to the conclusion that a more astounding and incomprehensible miscarriage of justice had never taken place. What may be the precise value of the fresh evidence which Sir Charles's friends have now collected I am not in a position to state. But the truth is there is not much need of fresh evidence. The lady's story was illogical and inconsistent; whilst good evidence in confirmation of it seemed to me to be wanting. At most it was word against word.

-----------------------------------

It would be curious if Sir Charles Dilke's return to public life should coincide with what I myself should regard as an almost equally great miscarriage of justice—-viz., the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and ultimate execution of Mr. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette, for the Whitechapel murders. Yet this very possibly may be an event difficult to avoid, if public opinion continues to run in its present groove, and persists in imputing to the Whitechapel fiend a philanthropic motive. Even I (who am almost as well assured of Mr. Stead's innocence as of my own), while the identification of the lost victim was still in doubt, could not always restrain a shudder of apprehension lest possibly she might turn out to be Eliza Armstrong, No doubt there is a superficial resemblance between Eliza's famous case and these Whitechapel cases. But really it is only superficial. “Purity of motive,” “desire to amend the criminal law,” may very possibly have been factors present in both instances.

October 18, 1888, Page 672

A very interesting fact has come to my knowledge respecting the telegram which the Whitechapel murderer, or some one personating him, sent to Sir Charles Warren last week. This telegram was not handed in at a post-office in the usual way, but was stamped and deposited in a letter-box, whence it was taken in the ordinary course when the box was cleared to the nearest telegraph office and dispatched. Now, it is not everyone, even among the educated classes, who is aware that a telegram can be sent in this manner. Among working men, or among the Jewish or foreign population at the East-end, I should not expect to find one man in a thousand who knows it. On the other hand, it does not look likely that a mere practical joker would have recourse to such a roundabout procedure. To my mind this is one more indication that the Whitechapel assassin is more likely to belong to “the classes” than “the masses.”

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A really great deal of meaty material from "Truth". Interesting that Labouchere attacks anyone with the temerity of writing a letter giving an opinion of any sort he thinks is stupid to the newspapers (which he feels is 100% of them). He is free to vent opinions on the case - but then he is a wise and wealthy (??) and honest (???) newspaper editor and member of Parliament. He was a Liberal - hence his support of Sir Charles Dilke and his fall from influence due to the Crawford Divorce Case, of 1884-85. He also was a fan of William Stead, hence his support here for the "Maiden Tribute of Babylon" Case in which Stead got a few months in prison for buying a young girl (Stead was trying to prove a point about white slavery in London - it was easily accomplished). However he also supported Stead in his support of the anti-homosexual law that would plague that group in England until the 1960s.

The references to Parnell and Egan were referring to the Parnell Commission looking into the "Parnellism and Crime" articles in the Times of London, and the eventual proof that the letters involved were forgeries by Richard Pigott (1889).

Interesting too is (when talking about how the careful use of bloodhounds in crimes) Labouchere touches upon the death of Mr. Nevil Norway on February 8, 1840 in Cornwall, England. The reason that murder is interesting is (of all things) a weird supernatural aspect that Labouchere doesn't mention - that runs counter to his attack on spiritualists supposedly getting odd messages from the dead prostitutes. Mr. Norway's brother, Captain Edward Norway, was on board his ship off St. Helena (in the same longitude, I believe as the murder site was) when the killing occurred. The Captain was sleeping and dreamed that his brother was killed by two men. He woke up and an account of it written down by another ship officer, and when he got home it was discovered that his dream occurred exactly at the same time as the murder did. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would discuss this killing in his book, "On the Edge of the Unknown" in 1930.

I am not sure of this but the author of "On the Beach", and "A Town Named Alice" was Nevil Shute, but that is his pen name. His full name was Nevil Shute Norway, and perhaps (I say perhaps) he was a relative.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Thanks, Jeff. Here are some accounts of the Norway murder.

Early Years and Late Reflections, Volume 2 (London: Whittacker & Co., 1856), Pages 289-293
by Clement Carlyon

On the evening of the 8th of February, 1840, Mr. Nevell Norway, a Cornish gentleman, was cruelly murdered, by two brothers of the name of Lightfoot, on his way from Bodmin to Wadebridge, the place of his residence.

At that time, his brother, Mr. Edmund Norway, was in the command of a merchant vessel, the "Orient," on her voyage from Manilla to Cadiz; and the following is his own account of a dream which he had on the night when his brother was murdered:—-

"Ship 'Orient,' from Manilla to Cadiz,
"February 8,1840.

"About 7. 30 P.m. the island of St. Helena N.N.W. distant about seven miles, shortened sail and rounded to, with the ship's head to the eastward; at eight, set the watch and went below—-wrote a letter to my brother, Nevell Norway. About twenty minutes or a quarter before ten o'clock went to bed-—fell asleep, and dreamt I saw two men attack my brother and murder him. One caught the horse by the bridle, and snapped a pistol twice, but I heard no report; he then struck him a blow, and he fell off the horse. They struck him several blows, and dragged him by the shoulders across the road and left him. In my dream, there was a house on the left hand side of the road. At four o'clock I was called, and went on deck to take charge of the ship. I told the second officer, Mr. Henry Wren, that I had had a dreadful dream, and dreamt that my brother Nevell was murdered by two men, on the road from St. Columb to Wadebridge; but I was sure it could not be there, as the house there would have been on the right hand side of the road, but it must have been somewhere else. He replied, 'Don't think anything about it; you west-country people are so superstitious; you will make yourself miserable the remainder of the passage.' He then left the general orders and went below. It was one continued dream from the time I fell asleep until I was called, at four o'clock in the morning.

"Edmund Norway,
"Chief Officer, ship 'Orient.'"

So much for the dream—-now for the confession of William Lightfoot, one of the assassins, who was executed, together with his brother, at Bodmin, on Monday, April 13, 1840:—-

"I went to Bodmin last Saturday week, the 8th instant (February 8, 1840), and in returning, I met my brother James, at the head of Dunmeer Hill. It was dim like. We came on the turnpike road all the way till we came to the house near the spot where the murder was committed. We did not go into the house, but hid ourselves in a field. My brother knocked Mr. Norway down; he snapped a pistol at him twice, and it did not go off. He then knocked him down with the pistol. I was there along with him. Mr. Norway was struck while on horseback. It was on the turnpike road, between Pencarrow Mill and the directing-post towards Wadebridge. I cannot say at what time of the night it was. We left the body in the water, on the left side of the road coming to Wadebridge. We took some money in a purse, but I did not know how much. My brother drew the body across the road to the watering."

At the trial, Mr. Abraham Hambly deposed that he left Bodmin ten minutes before ten, and was overtaken by Mr. Norway about a quarter of a mile out of Bodmin. They rode together for about two miles from Bodmin, where their roads separated.

Mr. John Hick, a farmer of St. Minver, left Bodmin at a quarter past ten, on the Wadebridge road. When he got to within a mile of Wadebridge, he saw Mr. Norway's horse galloping on before him, without a rider. The clock struck eleven just before he entered Wadebridge.

Thomas Gregory, Mr. Norway's wagoner, was called by Mr. Hick about eleven o'clock, and, going to the stable, found his master's horse standing at the gate. Two spots of fresh blood were on the saddle. He took the pony and rode out on the road. Edward Cavell went with him. They came to a place called North Hill. There is a lone cottage there, by the right hand side of the road going to Bodmin, which is unoccupied. On the Wadebridge side of the cottage, there is a small orchard belonging to it, and near the orchard, a little stream of water coming down into the road. They found the body of Mr. Norway in the water.

The evidence of the surgeon, Mr. Tickell, showed that the head was dreadfully beaten and fractured.

It will be seen, that Mr. Edmund Norway, in relating his dream the following morning to his shipmate, observed, that the murder could not have been committed on the St. Columb road, because the house in going from thence to Wadebridge is on the right hand, whereas the house was in his dream (and in reality is) on the left. Now, this circumstance, however apparently trivial, tends somewhat to enhance the interest of the dream, without in the least impugning its fidelity; for such fissures are characteristic of these sensorial impressions, which are altogether involuntary, and bear a much nearer relation to the productions of the Daguerreotype than to those of the portrait painter, whose lines are at his own command.

I asked Mr. Edmund Norway whether, supposing that he had not written a letter to his brother, Mr. N. Norway, on the evening of the 8th of February, and had nevertheless dreamt the dream in question, the impression made by it would have been such as to have prevented his writing to him subsequently. To which he replied, that it might not have had that effect, but he could not say with any precision whether it would or not.

At all events, the dream must be considered remarkable, from its unquestionable authenticity, and its perfect coincidence in time and circumstances with a most horrible murder.

----end

Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World (London: Trubner, 1860), Pages 120-124
by Robert Dale Owen



Some cold water from the Society for Psychical Research:

Phantasms of the Living, Volume 1 (London: Trubner & Co., 1886), Page 161
by Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, Frank Podmore

First-hand evidence, where the witness cannot be cross-questioned, is at once invalidated by any doubt as to the case that may have been felt by persons who were more immediately cognisant of it. The well-known Norway story is an instance. In Early Years and Late Reflections, by Clement Carlyon, M.D., there is a signed account by Mr. Edmund Norway of a vision of his brother's murder that he had while in command of the Orient, on a voyage from Manilla to Cadiz. Mr. Arthur S. Norway, son of the murdered man and nephew of Mr. Edmund Norway, tells us that the account was taken down by Dr. Carlyon from his uncle, at the latter's house; he himself also has heard it from his uncle's own lips. It describes with some detail how in a vision, on the night of February 8th, 1840, Mr. Edmund Norway saw his brother set upon and killed by two assailants at a particular spot on the road between St. Columb and Wadebridge: and how he immediately mentioned the vision to the second officer, Mr. Henry Wren. The brother was actually murdered by two men at that spot, on that night, and the details—-as given in the confession of one of the murderers, William Lightfoot—-agree with those of the vision. But Mr. Arthur Norway further tells us that another of his uncles and the late Sir William Molesworth "investigated the dream at the time. Both were clever men, and they were at that time searching deeply and experimenting in mesmerism—be that they were well fitted to form an opinion. They arrived at the conclusion that the dream was imagined." Mr. Arthur Norway has also heard Mr. Wren speak of the voyage, but without any allusion to the dream. This is just a case, therefore, where we may justly suspect that detail and precision have been retrospectively introduced into the percipient s experience.

It almost goes without saying, in a case like this, that sooner or later we shall be told that the vision was inscribed in the ship's log; and Mr. Dale Owen duly tells us so. Mr. Arthur Norway expressly contradicts the fact.

---end

This account mentions the bloodhounds but says they were of no use.

Chambers's Journal, Volume 85, August 8, 1908, Pages 561-563

The Dream of Edmund Norway
by S. Baring-Gould

Edmund Noway, Captain of the merchant-vessel Orient on her voyage from Manila to Cadiz, wrote in the log, which is still extant:

'SHIP Orient, Feb. 8, 1840.

'About seven-thirty P.M. the island of St Helena N.N.W., distant about seven miles; shortened sail, and rounded to, with the ship's head to the eastward ; at eight set watch and went below, with a letter to my brother, Nevill Norway. About twenty minutes or a quarter before ten o'clock went to bed, fell asleep, and dreamt I saw two men attack my brother and murder him. One caught the horse by the bridle and snapped a pistol twice ; but I heard no report. He then struck him a blow, and he fell off the horse. They struck him several blows, and dragged him by the shoulders across the road and left him. In my dream there was a house on the left-hand side of the road. At five o'clock I was called, and went on deck to take charge of the ship. I told the second officer, Mr Henry Wren, that I had had a dreadful dream, and dreamt that my brother Nevill was murdered by two men on the road from St Columb to Wadebridge; but I was sure it could not be there, as the house there would have been on the right-hand side of the road, but it must have been somewhere else. He replied, "Don't think anything about it. You West Country people are superstitious; you will make yourself miserable the remainder of the passage." He then left the general orders, and went below. It was one continued dream from the time I fell asleep until I was called, which was five o'clock in the morning.

Edmund Norway,
Chief Officer, Ship Orient.'

After this, in the log-book, follow the several entries of the rest of the voyage.

From the Cape of Good Hope to St Helena the course would be N.N.W., and with a fair wind the ship would cover about eighty or ninety miles in eight hours. So that at the noon of the day 8th February she would be about a hundred miles S.S.E. of St Helena—that is, in about five degrees west longitude, as nearly as possible. The ship's clock would then be set, and they would keep that time for letter-writing purposes, meals, shiproutine, &c.

Ship, long..........5° 0' 0" W.

Bodmin, long......4° 40' 0" W.

........................0° 20' 0" W.

The difference would be twenty minutes of longitude, and the difference between the two places, where were Edmund Norway and his brother Nevill Norway one degree apart, would be four minutes. Reduce this to seconds : 4X60X20÷60 = 80 seconds-—that is, one minute twenty seconds. Therefore, if the murder as dreamt had taken place it must have occurred at 10:30 P.m.

Now, concerning this entry in the log-book, there can exist no doubt whatever.

Mr Nevill Norway, a timber and general merchant, residing at Wadebridge, was at Bodmin, in Cornwall, on the 8th February 1840, on horseback. About four o'clock in the afternoon he was transacting some business in the market-place, and had his purse in his hand, and opened it, and turned out some gold and silver, and from the silver picked out the sum that he required and paid the man with whom he was transacting business. Standing close by, and watching him, was a young man named William Lightfoot, who lived at Burlorn in Egloshayle, and whom he knew well enough at sight, and to whom, in charity, he had given the coat this fellow then wore.

Mr Norway did not leave Bodmin till shortly before ten o'clock, and he had got about six miles' ride before him ere he reached home. The road was lonely, and led past the Dunmeer woods. He was riding a gray horse, and he had with him a companion, who accompanied him along the road for three miles, and then took his leave and branched off in another direction.

A farmer returning from market somewhat later to Wadebridge saw a gray horse on the road, saddled and bridled, but without a rider. He tried at first to overtake it; but the horse struck into a gallop, and he gave up the chase. His curiosity was, however, excited, and upon his meeting some men on the road and making inquiry, they told him that they thought that the gray horse that had gone by them belonged to Mr Norway. This induced him to call at the house of that gentleman, and he found the gray steed standing at the stable-door. The servants were called out, and spots of blood were found upon the saddle. A surgeon was immediately summoned, and two of the domestics sallied forth on the Bodmin road in quest of their master. They made their way for about two miles, when one of them perceived something white in the little stream of water that runs beside the highway and enters the river Allen at Pendavy Bridge. They examined it, and found the body of their unfortunate master, lying on his back in the stream, with his feet towards the road ; and what they had seen glimmering in the uncertain light was his shirt-frill. He was quite dead.

The body was at once placed on the horse and conveyed home, when the surgeon, named Tickell, proceeded to examine it. He found that the deceased had received injuries about the face and head, produced by heavy and repeated blows from some blunt instrument, which had undoubtedly been the cause of his death. A wound was discovered under the chin, into which it appeared as if some powder had been carried; and the bones of the nose, the forehead, the left side of the head, and the back of the skull were frightfully fractured.

An immediate examination of the spot where the body had been found ensued, and on the lefthand side of the road was seen a pool of blood, from which to the rivulet opposite was a track produced by the drawing of a heavy body across the way, and footsteps were observed as of more than one person in the mud; and it was further noticed that the boots that made the impress must have been heavy. There had apparently been a desperate scuffle before Mr Norway had been killed. There was further evidence. Two sets of footprints of men could be traced as if pacing up and down behind a hedge, in an orchard attached to an uninhabited house hard by; as it appeared, those of men on the watch for their intended victim. At a short distance from the pool of blood was found the hammer of a pistol that had been but recently broken off. Upon the pockets of the deceased being examined it became evident that robbery had been the object of the attack made upon him, for his purse and a tablet and bunch of keys had been carried off.

Every exertion was made to discover the perpetrators of the crime. Sir William Molesworth of Pencarrow sent his bloodhounds to track the murderers; but as they ran in a direction opposed to that which the superior wisdom of the searchers supposed they ought to have taken, they were called off.

Jackson, a constable from London, was sent for, and mainly by his exertions the murderers were tracked down. A man named Harris, a shoemaker, deposed that he had seen the two brothers James and William Lightfoot, of Burlorn in Egloshayle, loitering about the deserted cottage late at night after the Bodmin fair; and a man named Ayres, who lived next door to James Lightfoot, stated that he had heard him enter his cottage at a very late hour on the night of the murder, and say something to his wife and child, whereupon they began to weep. What he had said Ayres could not tell, though the partition between the cottages was thin.

This led to the examination of the house of James Lightfoot on 14th February, when a pistol was found, without a lock, concealed in a hole in a beam that ran across the ceiling. As the manner of Lightfoot was suspicious, he was taken into custody. On the 17th his brother William was arrested in consequence of a remark he made to a man named Vercoe, that he was in it as well as James. He was examined before a magistrate, and made the following confession:

'I went to Bodmin last Saturday week, the 8th instant, and in returning I met my brother James just at the head of the Dunmeer Hill. It was just come dim-like. My brother had been to Egloshayle, Burlorn, to buy potatoes. Something had been said about meeting; but I was not certain about that. My brother was not in Bodmin on that day. Mr Vercoe overtook us between Mount Charles turnpike gate at the top of Dunmeer Hill and a place called Lane-end. We came on the turnpike road all the way till we came to the house near the spot where the murder was committed. We did not go into the house, but hid ourselves in a field. My brother knocked Mr Norway down; he snapped a pistol at him first, but it did not go off. Then he knocked him down with the pistol. He was struck whilst on horseback. It was on the turnpike road between Pencarrow Mill and the directing-post towards Wadebridge. I cannot say at what time of the night it was. We left the body in the water on the left side of the road coming from Wadebridge. We took money in the purse, but I do not know how much it was. It was a brownish purse. There were some pipers which my brother took and pitched away in a field, on the left side of the road, into some browse or furze. The purse was hid by me in my garden, and afterwards I threw it over the Pendavy Bridge. My brother drew the body across the road to the water. We did not know whom we stopped till, when my brother snapped the pistol at him, Mr Norway said, "I know what you are about. I see you." We went home across the fields. We were not disturbed by any one. The pistol belonged to my brother. I don't know whether it was broken. I never saw it afterwards, and I do not know what became of it. I don't know whether it was soiled with blood. I did not see any blood on my brother's clothes. We returned together, crossing the river at Pendavy Bridge. My brother then went to his home, and I to mine. I think it was nearly about eleven o'clock.'

The prisoner upon this was remanded to Bodmin Jail, where his brother was already confined. Eventually the two wretched men were tried at Bodmin on 30th March 1840, and were sentenced to death, and both were executed on 13th April.

Now, the curious feature of the story is this : that Edmund Norway thought that there must have been nothing in his dream because in it he saw the ruined cottage on the right-hand side of the road, and as he remembered the highway it ought to have been on the left hand. But he was not aware that since he had left the neighbourhood the road had been remade, and had been carried to the side of the cottage, leaving it on the right hand.

This is a well-authenticated and most curious story of a dream, and I do not see how it can be accounted for by thought-waves.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

---end

An earlier account with no dream and no bloodhounds.

he Chronicles of Crime; or, The New Newgate Calendar (London: 1841), Pages 551-556
by Camden Pelham (pseud.)

James Lightfoot and William Lightfoot

[Mayerling]

Norway Murder

Good research job TradeName. Because it is nearly 2:30 A.M. here in NYC I will not do what I will do tomorrow night - I intend to copy out the full chapter in Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould's book, "Cornish Characters and Strange Events" (London, John Lane The Bodley Head Ltd., 1908, 1915) regarding Nevil Norway's murder (p. 117 - 125) which contains what you put down and some additional information. The book also has a picture of the unfortunate victim, Mr. Norway.

I still would like to know if Nevil Shute (as he is Nevil Shute Norway) is a descendant or relative of the murder victim.

Jeff