Catherine Cashin

1806–1830 · Irish

role:Dublin woman of independent means; died from the wound raised by St John Long's liniment, treating her preventively though she was healthy, precipitating his manslaughter conviction

nationality:Irish

connection:Catherine Cashin's mother, described in the Newgate Calendar as a Dublin widow 'of great respectability and considerable fortune,' brought Catherine and her younger, consumptive sister to London in August 1830 to seek John St John Long's help for the younger sister. Long judged the younger sister beyond treatment but persuaded the mother to let him treat the entirely healthy Catherine preventively; the Newgate Calendar records she was 'twenty-four years of age and in the full enjoyment of health' when he began. His liniment raised a large, severely infected wound; the surgeon Benjamin Brodie was called in only over Long's objections, and Catherine died the following morning. A coroner's inquest returned a manslaughter verdict, and Long was convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey on 23 October 1830 and fined £250.

confirmed:yes

APPEARS IN CASES

st-john-long-liniment-1827-1834 patient

NOTES

Catherine Cashin (born around 1806, based on the Newgate Calendar’s report that she was twenty-four years old at her death in August 1830; died August 1830, London) was a healthy young Dublin woman whom John St John Long treated preventively at her mother’s request, after her younger sister was judged too consumptive for his method to help. Long’s liniment produced a wound that grew severely infected; he refused to alter the treatment or admit outside help, prescribing only mulled port wine, which she could not keep down. The surgeon Benjamin Brodie was finally called in against Long’s wishes, but Catherine died the next morning. Brodie testified at the coroner’s inquest and at Long’s subsequent Old Bailey trial that he could see no way such a wound could cure or prevent consumption; the jury returned a manslaughter verdict, and Long was fined £250. Her death is the best-documented fatal case in the archive’s record of Long’s practice.