ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the almost universal preoccupation with the details of crime provided one line of public access to notions about the theory and practice of medicine. The comprehensive newspaper coverage of the set-piece poisoning cases carried with it a view of medicine and medical science which was far from clear-cut. Secret poisoning had been high on the agenda of the generalist newspapers since the 1840s and over time the elements of poison and forensic medicine came into equilibrium. The comprehensive newspaper coverage of the set-piece poisoning cases carried with it a view of medicine and medical science which was far from clear-cut. The interactions of crime, medicine and the newspaper in mid-Victorian England were complex and layered. Running through all sections of the press and moving across the components of individual publications, notions of health and medicine formed part of the continuous interchange between producers and readers.
