what happened??

When I lost it was with the "mesmer"/hypnotizing thread... she was hypnotized at first no?

Yes, at first she was.

and then taken advantage of?

Yes indeedy!

And what was the role of the doctor and preacher?

The doctor came into the picture when Oliver became ill.
The preacher was a friend of the family's, who befriended Victoria after learning of common interests. And vice versa.

What happened when she put him in a trance?

She would hypnotize Oliver, and then have him drink small amounts of chloroform.

what was she poisoning him with?

Chloroform.

and why did they not find traces in the autopsy?

They did find traces, and it was brought up in the hearing. The doctor states that upon the start of the autopsy, he immediately smelled an abhorrent amount of chloroform reeking from his insides.

heard about the chloroform, but that was it... can you poison someone with it over time or just knock them out?

A little breathed in will knock you out, though it is still quite toxic taken that way, since chloroform is a hazardous chemical. Ingesting it and repeatedly, in relatively large quantities (considering what it is!) is extremely toxic & lethal.

I guess preacher collaborated (shown he was not so honourable with the maori maid leaving his house) in the hypnotism

The preacher had only showed her HOW to hypnotize because she showed so much interest in such things, and he, being a preacher, was pretty much alone in his hobby before that. Victoria was young and pretty and obviously unhappily married. I'm sure he fancied her a bit, and was quite eager to spend time with her. He didn't teach her with the knowledge she would use it to poison her husband, however, and he was never present when she did so. And as far as I could tell, he had no knowledge of her doing it, either. Only until Oliver became deathly ill and Victoria put on trial did he draw his own conclusion that she was somehow responsible, utilizing the skills he taught her. But he would be implicating himself if he testified, so instead, he left the area.

but what of the doc?

The doctor, at a loss over what was causing Oliver's condition to worsen rather than improve, began to have suspicions of Victoria. Of course, at the time, and just by looking at her, it seemed almost unbelievable. But he couldn't explain or reason why Oliver was ill and because Victoria was the only one close to him all the time, it clearly crossed his mind that she could possibly be doing SOMEthing to Oliver, though the doctor had no idea what it might be.

However, the doctor also sympathized with Victoria. Young, beautiful, unhappy, yet appeared to be trying her best to be a dutiful wife, nursing her ailing husband, showing concern.

and did he not realize about the poisoning?

He had suspicions that Oliver was being made to be sick, though he didn't know what with or how or by whom. Once Oliver died, Victoria came to him and told him that she was giving Oliver small amounts of chloroform to help him sleep, that she hadn't intended to poison him. (Though of course she did).

I think at that point the doctor was 50/50 on whether or not Victoria was as naive & innocent as one would expect her to be. The doctor was a good, decent, kind man who cared about and for others. And with her life on the line, he gave her the benefit of the doubt, and trusted her, that she hadn't meant any harm, that it was an accident.
But because Victoria, even IF accidentally, HAD indeed killed her husband, she could still have been hanged for it. Even hinting that Victoria was the cause to that jury & judge would have signed her death certificate. So he allowed the nearly empty bottle of chloroform to slip through his fingers when she handed it to him so that the bottle and the small remainder of it's contents would be destroyed, leaving no evidence of Victoria's wrong-doing.

and did he lie at the end?

Depends. He told the truth to the best of his knowledge. He admitted how he believed Oliver to have died. By chloroform poisoning. And he also told the truth; that the bottle of chloroform had been broken (the utter convenience of which brought much amusement to the courtroom).
He half spoke when he verified/stated that, basically, there was no foul play and that Oliver had most likely overdosed accidentally by his own hand.

By his knowledge, the overdose of chloroform WAS an accident. And by his knowledge, Oliver was willing to drink it. In which case, it might stand to reason that Oliver was the one asking for it. (He had no inkling that Victoria ever hypnotized Oliver, or that she even could). And without hypnosis, there's no conceivable way a small female could make a grown man ingest chloroform against his will. Therefore, for all intents and purposes, Oliver did die accidentally, and by his own hand.
The doctor had no proof or evidence to state otherwise. It was the most likely conclusion that he, as a doctor, with so little information, could reach.

If anyone has the time to enlighten me that would be great!

Hope it's not too late for you! & Hope it helped


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"Stop brynning the dog!"©