Paternity, potency and venereal disease in the Dublin Probate Court – this video deals with Bagot v Bagot, a case relating to the will of Gold Rush millionaire and serial womaniser Christopher Neville Bagot, who excluded from his will his new wife Alice and her child born three months after their wedding, apparently under the belief – argued by Alice to be an insane delusion – that the child was not his.

The medical evidence in the case transfixed Dublin.

Who knew that phosphorus injections were given to assist tertiary syphilis patients in achieving potency? And did Christopher’s condition lead to Alice’s later early death?

Full report of the trial available to read here: https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalo…