,,science ,,and ,,the ,,criminal ,,uniform ,,with ,,this ,,book ,,hypnotism ,,and ,,suggestion ,by ,,bernard ,,hollander1 ,m4,d4 ,it is the work of a man of established reputation1 who has devoted himself for years to the subject1 and whose aim it is to tell what ,hypnotism really is1 what it can do1 and to what conclusions it seems to point4--,globe4 ,illustration3 ,,trial ,,of ,,caroline ,,rudd ,frontispiece ,,science ,,and ,,the ,,criminal ,,by ,c4 ,,ainsworth ,,mitchell ,,boston ,,little1 ,,brown1 ,,and ,,company #aiaa ,,to ,,mark ,,hanbury ,,beaufoy1 ,,esq41 ,j4,p4 ,,as ,a ,,mark ,,of ,,regard ,,and ,,esteem ,,preface ,in the following pages ,i have endeavoured to give some account of the ways in which scientific discovery has been utilised in the struggle between society and the criminal4 ,i have tried to describe the principles upon which different kinds of scientific evidence are based1 and at the same time to bring human interest into what would otherwise tend to be dry detail by giving an outline of trials in which such evidence has been given4 ,it is1 perhaps1 hardly necessary to mention that in many of these illustrative trials the accused persons were proved innocent of the charges brought against them1 and that although their cases were tried in the criminal courts the title of the book in no way applies to them4 ,for the accounts of the older trials ,i have drawn freely upon ,cobbett's ,state ,trials1 ,paris and ,fonblanque's ,medical ,jurisprudence1 and the first edition of ,taylor's ,medical ,jurisprudence1 while ,i must also acknowledge my indebtedness to the ,circumstantial ,evidence of ,mr4 ,justice ,wills and the recent excellent lectures on ,forensic ,chemistry1 by ,mr4 ,jago4 ,in the later cases ,i have mainly relied upon contemporary accounts and upon my own impressions of some of the trials at which ,i have been present4 ,my best thanks are due to all those who have given me valuable and ungrudging assistance4 ,in particular ,i would mention ,major ,richardson1 who has kindly given me a photograph of one of his trained bloodhounds and has allowed me to quote the description of an actual man hunt with bloodhounds1 from his book1 ,war1 ,police1 and ,watch ,dogs2 and ,mademoiselle ,arlette ,clary 7and the ,daily ,mirror7 who have supplied me with a photograph of a ,paris police dog4 ,i am further indebted to the late ,sir ,francis ,galton and his publishers1 ,messrs4 ,macmillan ,co41 who gave me permission to reproduce illustrations from his book on ,finger ,prints2 and to ,mr4 ,thorne ,baker and the ,daily ,mirror for photographs illustrating the use of telegraphy in transmitting portraits4 ,the excellent drawings of the hairs of different animals were made by my friend ,mr4 ,r4 ,m4 ,prideaux1 and are reproduced here by the kind permission of ,messrs4 ,scott ,greenwood ,co4 ,finally1 ,i would thank the proprietors of ,knowledge and the ,editor1 ,mr4 ,wilfred ,mark ,webb1 for the loan of various blocks and for permitting me to make use of material from several articles of mine on handwriting1 which have appeared in that journal4 ,c4 ,a4 ,m4 ,white ,cottage1 ,amersham ,common1 ,buckinghamshire4 ,,contents ,,page ,,chapter ,i ,,introduction ,conflict between the ,law-maker and the ,law-breaker-- ,illustrations of ,deductive ,reasoning in ,criminal ,cases-- ,scientific ,evidence--,scientific ,assistance for the ,accused--,instances of ,advantages of ,conflict of ,scientific ,evidence--,scientific ,partisanship #a ,,chapter ,,ii ,,detection ,,and ,,capture ,,of ,,the ,,criminal ,contrasts between ,eighteenth1 ,nineteenth and ,twentieth ,centuries--,margaret ,catchpole--,tawell--,crippen--,portrait s and the ,press--,charlesworth ,case--,bloodhounds--,police ,dogs--,circumstantial ,detection #bb ,,chapter ,,iii ,,personal ,,identification ,mc,keever's ,experiment on ,fallibility of ,eye-witnesses-- ,gorse ,hall ,murder--,cases of ,mistaken ,identity--,gun-flash ,recognition--,self-deception--,tichborn e ,case #cg ,,chapter ,,iv ,,systems ,,of ,,identification ,photography--,anthropometry--,finger-pr ints and their ,uses #dh ,,chapter ,v ,,identification ,,and ,,handwriting ,heredity--,emotional ,influences--,effects of ,disease on ,handwriting #gj ,,chapter ,,vi ,,evidence ,,as ,,to ,,handwriting ,illustrative ,cases--,handwriting ,experts #he ,,chapter ,,vii ,,forged ,,documents ,use of ,microscope--,erasures--,photographic ,methods-- ,typewritten ,matter--,examinations of ,charred ,fragments-- ,forgery of ,bank ,notes #ic ,,chapter ,,viii ,,distinguishing ,,inks ,,in ,,handwriting ,elizabethan ,ink--,milton's ,bible--,age of ,inks--,carbon ,inks--,herculaneum ,,mss4--,forgery of ,ancient ,documents #aje ,,chapter ,,ix ,,two ,,notable ,,trials ,trial of ,brinkley--,trial of ,robert ,wood #aaf ,,chapter ,x ,,sympathetic ,,inks #acj ,,chapter ,,xi ,,remarkable ,,forgery ,,trials ,trials--,william ,hale--,the ,perreaus--,caroline ,rudd--,dr4 ,dodd--,whalley ,will ,case--,pilcher1 etc4 #ace ,,chapter ,,xii ,,identification ,,of ,,human ,,blood ,,and ,,human ,,hair ,structure of ,blood--,human ,blood--,blood of ,animals--,blood ,crystals--,libellers of ,sir ,e4 ,godfrey--,trial of ,nation in #aheg--,physiological ,tests--,precipitines--,first ,trial in ,france--,gorse ,hall ,trials--,human ,hair--,hairs of ,animals #aed ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,early ,,poisoning ,,trials ,murder of ,sir ,t4 ,overbury--,mary ,blandy--,katharine ,nairn1 etc4 #aga ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,notable ,,poisoning ,,trials ,use of ,poisons--,arsenic and ,antimony--,chapman ,case-- ,strychnine in ,palmer ,trial--,physiological ,tests--,case of ,freeman--,error from ,quantitative ,deductions--,poisonous ,food ,given to ,animals--,mary ,higgins--,negative ,result of ,physiological ,tests--,hyoscyamus ,poisons--,crippen ,case-- ,experiment on ,cats--,time ,limit for ,action of ,arsenic-- ,french ,case #aij ,,chapter ,,xv ,,the ,,maybrick ,,case #bjf ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,adulteration ,,of ,,food ,national ,loss from ,adulteration--,adulterated ,electricity--,the ,beer ,conner--,conflict of ,evidence--,the ,notice ,dodge--,preservatives--,standards for ,food--,court of ,reference--,administration of the ,law #bad ,,index #bci ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,page ,,trial ,,of ,,caroline ,,rudd ,frontispiece ,,war ,,plan ,,sent ,,by ,,wireless ,,telegraphy #bd ,,photo ,,sent ,,by ,,telegraphy ,,from ,,paris #bf ,,portrait ,,sent ,,by ,,wireless #bh ,,major ,,richardson',s ,,man-,,tracker ,,pathan #cj ,,french ,,police ,,dog #cb ,,purkenje',s ,,standard ,,finger-,,prints #fd ,,types ,,of ,,finger-,,prints #ff ,,heredity ,,in ,,handwriting #ga ,,influence ,,of ,,training ,,on ,,handwriting #gd ,,signatures ,,of ,,napoleon ,,at ,,different ,,periods ,,of ,,his ,,career #gg ,,writers' ,,cramp #gh ,,specimen ,,of ,,agraphia #gh ,,writing ,,of ,,lenau1 ,,before ,,and ,,during ,,insanity #gi ,,writing ,,of ,h,,lderlin1 ,,before ,,and ,,during ,,insanity #gi ,,mirror ,,writing ,,in ,,paralysis #hj ,,hypnotic ,,handwriting #hb ,,garibaldi',s ,,signature #hc ,,detection ,,of ,,forgery ,,by ,,means ,,of ,,camera ,,and ,,microscope #ajj ,,further ,,specimens ,,of ,,detection ,,of ,,forgery1 ,,and ,,tests ,,to ,,distinguish ,,old ,,from ,,new ,,inks #ajb ,,elizabethan ,,domestic ,,recipe ,,for ,,ink #ajg ,,the ,,tintometer #aji ,,goat',s ,,and ,,cow',s ,,hair #afb ,,kangaroo',s ,,and ,,human ,,hair1 ,,and ,,the ,,hair ,,of ,a ,,cat ,,and ,a ,,dog #afd ,,fibres ,,of ,,chinese ,,silk #afd ,,rabbit',s ,,and ,,horse-,,hair #aff ,,wool ,,fibres ,,from ,,different ,,breeds ,,of ,,sheep #afh ,,cotton ,,and ,,flax ,,fibres #agj ,,anne ,,turner #agb ,science and the ,criminal ,,chapter ,i ,,introduction ,conflict between the ,law-maker and the ,law-breaker--,illustrations of ,deductive ,reasoning in ,criminal ,cases--,scientific ,evidence--,scientific ,assistance for the ,accused--,instances of ,advantages of ,conflict of ,scientific ,evidence--,scientific ,partisanship4 ,in the constant state of warfare between the law-maker and the law-breaker1 which began when mankind first organised itself into communities and has existed ever since1 every new invention or practical application of scientific discovery has supplied each side with new weapons frequently of much greater precision4 ,the advantage thus conferred tends to be on the side of the law-maker but not invariably so2 for in spite of all the facilities of investigation now available it is surprising how many crimes remain undetected1 or how frequently in suspicious cases it is impossible to discover the truth4 ,the law-breaker's primitive weapon of natural cunning has thus often proved more than a match for all the weapons at the disposal1 of his opponent4 ,there is much to be said1 therefore1 for the suggestion which has recently been put forward on many sides that a department specially trained for the work of criminal investigation should be created4 ,under the present conditions the rank and file of the detective force1 recruited as it is from the best of the uniformed policemen1 contains many men of acute intellect and reasoning capacity1 but it cannot be doubted but that in many cases their efficiency would have been enormously increased by a scientific training4 ,the present system somewhat recalls that under which doctors acquired their knowledge of medicine in the early part of last century4 ,their mistakes taught them what not to do1 but in the meantime the patient sometimes died4 ,methods of scientific reasoning so as to draw deductions from observed facts cannot be acquired by solitary night watches upon a beat1 nor does the facility for breaking up a tangle in traffic which the constable acquires as the outcome of his daily duties1 necessarily render him more capable of extricating from a mass of confused details the essential facts upon which stress should be laid4 ,in some of the unsolved mysteries that have occurred during the last few years the presence of a highly trained intellect at the first hour of the investigation might conceivably have led to the detection of the criminal4 ,as a rule1 it is only after the first examination is over and the case appears likely to be a difficult one1 that the best brains of the department are brought to bear upon the facts1 and it may then be too late for effective action4 ,it should be made possible for a man who possesses a facility for this type of work to join the criminal investigation department without having to go through the routine work of a police constable1 which will probably add nothing to his powers of following up a clue2 but1 on the other hand1 this period of probation should be occupied by practical training in scientific methods of working4 ,the present conditions both of payment and of status are not of the kind that will attract the highest type of brain to the work of criminal investigation1 and yet there is no reason why it should not be made to offer the advantages of other branches of professional work4 ,an apt illustration of the use of acute observation and deduction in solving a mystery is afforded by the strange story of a shooting accident1 that1 according to a writer in one of the leading morning papers1 took place many years ago4 ,a country gentleman was found lying dead upon a sofa1 with the whole of the charge of a sporting gun in his body4 ,the discharged gun was hanging in its usual place upon the wall1 and there were no indications of any struggle having taken place4 ,all the circumstances apparently pointed to the man having been murdered in his sleep1 for it was impossible for him to have shot himself and have then replaced the gun upon the wall1 and strong suspicion fell upon one of the servants in the house4 ,this man was arrested1 and would probably have been convicted had it not been for the detective noticing that the dead man's watch1 which had been smashed by some of the shot1 had been stopped early in the afternoon1 and that at exactly the same moment the sun was focussed through a bottle of water that was standing upon the table in such a way that the ray fell upon the nipple of the gun upon the wall4 ,accordingly he loaded the gun again1 hung it in the same spot1 and placed a dummy figure upon the sofa1 and as soon as the sun's rays passed through this unintended burning-glass and were focussed upon the gun1 an explosion occurred and the contents were discharged into the figure4 ,the writer has been unable to trace the date of this occurrence1 but even if it is not founded upon fact it is not impossible1 for there are undoubtedly cases where papers have been set on fire by the rays of the sun being concentrated upon them1 through a bottle of water4 ,an instance of the way in which one small fact may give conclusive proof that a crime has been committed is afforded by the trial of ,swan and ,jefferies in the early part of last century4 ,the prisoners1 who were indoor servants1 had committed a murder and then raised an alarm with the object of throwing the suspicion upon burglars1 who they alleged had broken into the house4 ,but an examination of the grass outside the house showed that although dew had fallen heavily through the night there were no indications of its having been disturbed by footsteps4 ,this piece of circumstantial evidence led to their arrest1 and they were subsequently convicted and executed4 ,equally convincing were the clues that led to the arrest of ,courvoisier in #ahdj1 for the murder of ,lord ,william ,russell1 who was then seventy-five years of age4 ,the prisoner had only been in the service of the murdered man for a short time4 ,he stated that on the night before the murder he had left his master reading in bed1 as was his frequent custom1 and a fact in support of this was that the candle had burned down to the socket4 ,early in the morning the housemaid found the silver plate scattered about the room1 and various articles of value tied up in bundles1 as though burglars had broken into the house and had been interrupted in their work4 ,she called ,courvoisier1 and he appeared almost immediately1 fully dressed1 and going into the room of ,lord ,william ,russell found him with his throat cut4 ,on a door were marks which indicated that it had been broken in by the supposed burglars1 but closer examination showed that the damage had been done from the inside4 ,in addition to this1 any burglars entering the house through this door must have passed over a wall1 and this was found to be thickly coated with dust which had not been disturbed4 ,for a long time no trace of the missing valuables were discovered1 but finally after a thorough search of the premises1 some of the money was found hidden behind the skirting in the pantry of the accused1 while later on the stolen plate was discovered in the keeping of a man with whom ,courvoisier had formerly lived4 ,mainly on the circumstantial evidence of these facts the prisoner was convicted2 afterwards he made a full confession of the crime4 ,clever deductive reasoning was also shown in the following case1 in which the author of a shooting outrage that occurred in #ahca at ,ayr was discovered in a singular manner4 ,someone had maliciously fired a gun into a church1 and had hoped to escape detection4 ,it was noticed1 however1 that some of the bullets1 after having passed through the windows1 had left a mark upon the wall opposite4 ,by drawing a straight line between these marks and the holes in the windows1 and extending the line outside the church1 the other end was found in a window on the other side of the street4 ,subsequently other proof was obtained that the gun had been fired from this window4 ,numerous cases might also be quoted where the trained observation of a doctor has called attention to some slight point which would otherwise have been overlooked1 but which has furnished the clue to the detection of a crime4 ,in the year #ahjf a man named ,blight was shot with a pistol at ,deptford by someone unknown1 and died from the wound4 ,sir ,astley ,cooper1 who was called in to attend to the victim1 carefully noted the relationship of the body to other objects in the room1 and from the position of the wound concluded that the shot had been fired by a left-handed person4 ,this inference drew suspicion upon a gentleman named ,patch who was the only left-handed person who had been seen with ,mr4 ,blight4 ,he was a close personal friend of the latter1 and no one had dreamed of suspecting him of the crime4 ,the results of further inquiries proved that this man had fired the shot1 and after his conviction he confessed that he had been guilty of the murder4 ,the fact that a weapon is tightly held in the hand of a person who has been shot is strong presumptive evidence that it is a case of suicide1 since it is improbable that the hand of a dead man could subsequently be made to grasp a pistol4 ,there is a remarkable case on record1 however1 in which the fact that a pistol was found clenched in the hand of a dead man was at first regarded as evidence of a murder4 ,a son of the deceased1 who had slept in the same room was accused of having killed him and of then placing the discharged pistol in his hand to give the suggestion of suicide4 ,experiments were made in which the hand holding the pistol was lifted into the position in which it must have been held if it had been a case of suicide1 and in each instance the hand1 when allowed to fall1 did not retain the pistol4 ,for the defence medical evidence was given that the spasmodic contraction of the muscles after death would account for the pistol being still clenched in the hand1 while the inability of the hand to grasp it afterwards did not prove anything4 ,evidence as to the presence of a motive was given1 but the scientific evidence was regarded as decisive and the prisoner was discharged4 ,the question whether a person who has apparently committed suicide could possibly have made use of the degree of force to which circumstances pointed has frequently arisen4 ,the most notable instance of the kind was in reference to the ,earl of ,essex who was found dead in the ,tower in ,july1 #afhc1 his throat having been cut4 ,a razor was lying by his side with its blade notched1 and public opinion was strongly divided as to whether he had committed suicide or had been murdered4 ,the medical men who supported the former view explained the notches upon the razor blade as the result of its having been drawn backwards and forwards across the neck bone1 although for a suicide to have done this would have been an impossibility4 ,occasions have arisen where a chemical expert has been asked to state whether a gun or pistol found lying near a body has or has not been recently discharged4 ,even in the case of firearms that had been loaded with black powder no very definite answer can usually be given to this question4 ,taylor suggested that the presence of potassium sulphide 7formed from the powder7 adhering to the barrel would indicate that the gun had recently been fired1 whereas after a short time this sulphide would become oxidised1 and no longer give the reactions of a sulphide4 ,after a longer time traces of iron oxide formed from the iron of the barrel might be expected4 ,it would not be safe to lay stress upon conclusions based upon such data as these1 and at best they could only afford corroborative evidence4 ,an amusing instance within the present writer's experience affords another example of the way in which a trifling point being overlooked may be strong presumptive evidence of attempted fraud4 ,a family of the name of1 say1 ,abendessig1 effected an insurance against burglary with a company which may be described as the ,safeguard ,assurance ,co4 ,it was not long before they were the unhappy victims of a burglary in which ,miss ,abendessig lost several valuable pieces of jewellery including a watch1 a diamond ring1 and several brooches4 ,in proof of her claim she produced receipts from the jeweller from whom she stated she had bought these articles1 the total value of which was given at #aej4 ,there were three receipts in all1 dated at intervals of two or three months1 the first being made out to ,miss ,abendessig and the last to ,mrs4 ,lab1 she having been married in the interval1 and the second to her father1 ,simeon ,abendessig4 ,the ,safeguard ,assurance ,co4 had a suspicion that the jeweller1 who had an address but no shop1 was in league with the ,abendessigs1 and that the first and third receipts had been written at the same time4 ,the present writer was therefore asked to examine these documents to see whether any evidence of the date of writing could be obtained4 ,they were both written in blue ink upon common billheads1 but the fact that the ink and paper were of the same kind was no proof that they were not genuine receipts4 ,when1 however1 the receipt stamps were examined under the microscope it was obvious that the right-hand side of one stamp corresponded with the left-hand side of the other stamp4 ,that is to say1 the little projections of paper left when two stamps are torn apart across the perforation exactly coincided in every instance1 a long projection on one being matched by a short projection on the other1 and so on4 ,the exact coincidence of seventeen points could not have been the result of chance1 and the stamps on the two receipts must therefore originally have been attached to one another in the sheet4 ,the further inference was that the jeweller must either have torn them apart and put one on the earlier receipt and the other on the later one at the same time1 or he must have had the second stamp put aside for three months and then affixed it to the later receipt4 ,a much more obvious slip than this was made some years ago in a bogus claim upon a fire insurance company1 the story of which is related in ,lord ,brampton's ,reminiscences4 ,the fire broke out on the premises of a firm of tailors1 and it was claimed by them that the whole of their stock1 including many hundred pairs of trousers1 had been destroyed4 ,the insurance company1 after examining the burnt-out building1 instructed a number of their agents to sift carefully the whole of the ashes4 ,at the hearing of the case the counsel for the company remarked that it was strange that in a fire in which so many pairs of trousers had been burned the metal buttons upon them should not have been found4 ,on the next day the tailors appeared with a whole bucketful of buttons1 but their production was too late to be convincing1 for the ashes had been thoroughly sifted before the claimants attempted to make good their oversight1 and only a very few trouser buttons had been discovered4 ,on the other hand1 the danger of jumping to a sudden conclusion from circumstances has been frequently demonstrated4 ,thus1 a very extraordinary case in which some facts that clearly pointed to the guilt of a prisoner were found to have misled many witnesses1 was tried in #ahac at the assizes at ,bury ,st4 ,edmunds4 ,a farmer who owned upwards of #a1bjj acres was accused of burglary1 and as evidence against him it was positively stated that certain articles in his possession had been stolen from the house4 ,the witnesses swore that they had identified some sheets by stains upon them and a cask by the fact of its being marked with the letters ,p4,c4 #hd in a circle4 ,for the defence1 witnesses stated that the prisoner was in possession of sheets stained in exactly the same way1 and that the cask was one of those in which he had received cranberries from ,norwich1 all of which casks were marked in the same manner4 ,the prisoner was acquitted4 ,scientific testimony is another form of the so-called circumstantial evidence1 and as such is sometimes looked upon with suspicion4 ,yet in how few cases is it possible to produce the man who can say1 ,i saw the deed done1 and even in such cases1 what errors of identification may occur6 ,in far the greater number of crimes the proof must depend to a large extent upon the evidence of circumstances4 ,but these must be so convincing that it is impossible in reason to draw any other conclusion from them4 ,in this country it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the guilt1 and unless that is done in such a way as to leave no shadow of doubt in the minds of the jury1 a prisoner is entitled to be acquitted4 ,there must be no speculation upon a man's guilt4 ,a man is regarded as innocent so long as it is impossible to connect to him the last link in a long chain of circumstantial evidence4 ,in the brief accounts of various celebrated trials in the following pages an attempt has been made to give an outline of the scientific circumstantial evidence that has led to the conviction or acquittal of the prisoners4 ,in some of these trials proof of guilt has been overwhelming1 although the testimony of an eye-witness has been lacking1 but in others the ,scotch verdict of ,not proven 7a curious equivalent of which1 however1 was once given in the trial of ,mrs4 ,rudd7 would be a more fitting deduction from the evidence1 than the alternative of ,guilty or ,not guilty1 which is all that is allowed by the ,english law4 ,a good illustration of the value of scientific proof was seen1 in #ahhd1 at the trial of a woman named ,gibbons on the charge of having shot her husband4 ,for the defence it was urged that the man had committed suicide4 ,there were four bullet wounds from a revolver in the body1 and the medical evidence went to prove that although any one of the wounds might have been inflicted by the man himself1 it was extremely improbable that all of them had been4 ,moreover1 some of them were in such a position that they could only have been self-inflicted if the revolver had been held in the left hand1 whereas witnesses testified that the deceased was not left-handed4 ,the prisoner was found guilty4 ,attempts have frequently been made by defending counsel to obtain permission for a scientific man to be present on behalf of a prisoner at any examination made before a trial1 but all such requests are invariably refused4 ,it is quite a common occurrence1 however1 for the evidence given by scientific witnesses for the prosecution to be controverted by scientific witnesses for the defence1 and the most recent instance of the kind at the trial of ,crippen will be fresh in the memory of everyone4 ,where there is any possibility of doubt it should be possible for every prisoner to obtain scientific assistance4 ,an accused person who lacks the means to procure legal assistance in his defence has assigned to him by the ,court a barrister who will represent his interests and see that they do not suffer from ignorance of legal technicalities4 ,this principle might well be extended so as to cover the ground of scientific evidence4 ,under the present conditions the prosecution has unlimited facilities for applying every description of test1 but it has not always been easy for the representatives of the accused person to obtain scientific help in criticising the nature of this evidence4 ,scientific evidence should be1 and usually is1 quite impartial1 but the everyday conflict of honest opinion in civil actions illustrates the possibility of mistakes occurring or of certain points that would tell in favour of the accused being overlooked4 ,for instance1 suppose a stain on the clothes of a person accused of murder were examined by a chemist for the prosecution and found to consist of blood4 ,the fact would tell against the accused1 even though the witness 7as in a recent case7 could express no opinion whether it was human blood1 or the blood of an animal4 ,assuming in this hypothetical trial that the blood stain was really due to rabbit's blood1 another chemist representing the prisoner might be acquainted with the comparatively recent physiological methods of distinguishing between the blood of different animals1 and thus be able to prove the real nature of the blood stain and break one of the links in the chain of evidence4 ,in most of the important criminal trials the scientific evidence is given by more than one witness1 and the possibility of mistake is thus greatly reduced1 but this is not invariably the rule4 ,scientific criticism derived from a first-hand examination of the material would be of much more value than the criticism of the statement of the results1 and might have considerable weight upon the conclusions of the jury4 ,a defending counsel cross-examining a scientific witness is usually dealing with an unfamiliar subject1 and lacks the specialised knowledge that would enable him to point out the weak points in the evidence4 ,when a wealthy person is on trial1 however1 the counsel has the advantage of getting the best expert advice upon the scientific matters put forward in evidence1 and is thus able to lay stress on all that will help his client1 but a poor prisoner lacks this advantage1 and therefore runs a greater chance of being convicted4 ,an early trial in which the prisoner owed his acquittal to a conflict of scientific evidence was that of ,spencer ,cowper1 the grandfather of ,cowper1 the poet1 who was tried at the ,hertford ,assizes in #afii for the murder of a young gentlewoman named ,sarah ,stout4 ,with ,cowper were also tried several of his friends1 whose remarks having been overheard had suggested that they were aware of what had happened to the girl4 ,cowper1 who was a barrister1 defended himself and incidentally his companions4 ,the story told by the prosecution was that at the previous ,assizes the prisoner had stayed for a night at the house of ,mrs4 ,stout1 the mother of ,sarah ,stout4 ,the servant-maid stated that she had been told to prepare ,mr4 ,cowper's bed1 and that when she came downstairs again1 it then being about eleven o'clock in the evening1 he had gone out1 presumably with ,sarah ,stout1 who was never again seen alive4 ,the next day her dead body was found floating upon the river4 ,the condition of the body was1 it was asserted1 conclusive proof that she had been strangled and then thrown into the water2 for1 to quote the words of the counsel for the prosecution1 when her body came to be viewed it was very much wondered at2 for in the first place it is contrary to nature that any persons that drown themselves should float upon the water4 ,we have sufficient evidence that it is a thing that never was2 if persons come alive into the water1 then they sink2 if dead1 then they swim4 ,at first it was thought that such an accident might happen though they could not imagine any cause for this woman to do so1 who had so great prosperity1 had so good an estate1 and had no occasion to do an action upon herself so wicked and so barbarous4 ,upon view of the body1 it did appear there had been violence used to the woman2 there was a crease round her neck1 she was bruised about her ear2 so that it did seem as if she had been strangled either by hands or a rope4 ,the evidence brought forward to support the theory that ,sarah ,stout had been killed1 before being thrown into the water1 included that of several local doctors who had examined the body1 and also that of several ,london doctors who were called in as expert witnesses4 ,these all gave as their opinion that the body of a person who had been drowned must contain water in the thorax1 and that since no water was present in the body1 death must have been caused in some other way4 ,two seamen of the ,royal ,navy were also put into the box1 and both were emphatic in their opinion that the body of a person who had been drowned would sink1 while a dead body thrown into the water would float4 ,spencer ,cowper1 who1 as has been stated1 conducted his own defence1 cross-examined the medical witnesses and made them admit that they had no knowledge of the way in which the body of a person who had drowned himself would behave4 ,he entered a strong protest against the body having been examined after the coroner's inquest 7at which a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind had been found7 by medical men acting in the interests of the relations of the dead woman1 with the intention of becoming prosecutors4 ,if1 said he1 they intended to have prosecuted me or any other gentleman upon this evidence1 they ought to have given us notice1 that we might have had some surgeons among them to superintend their proceeding4 ,my ,lord1 with submission1 this ought not to be given in evidence4 ,the judge overruled this objection1 saying that supposing an ill thing had been done in taking up the body without some order1 that was no reason why the evidence should not be heard4 ,in further cross-examination ,mr4 ,cowper succeeded in throwing doubt upon the statements of witnesses1 who alleged that they had seen marks of strangling1 and produced witnesses to prove that any marks upon the body had been the result of contact with stakes in the bed of the river4 ,then he brought forward his own expert medical evidence1 which was given by ten of the leading doctors of the day1 including ,sir ,hans ,sloane and the celebrated surgeon ,william ,cowper4 ,these held a different view from that of the doctors called for the prosecution1 and gave their reasons for concluding that the appearance of the body was quite consistent with death by drowning4 ,some described experiments they had made upon animals1 which proved that when killed and thrown into the water the body sank at first and then rose to the surface1 and also that drowning could take place without much water being swallowed4 ,as proof of the dead woman having been of a melancholy disposition and not of sound mind1 letters of hers were read to the jury1 but these her mother and brother would not admit were in her handwriting1 since1 they asserted1 it did not suit her character4 7,see p4 #he47 ,the judge1 ,sir ,henry ,hatsell1 in summing up confessed that he was very much puzzled1 and that he perceived that doctors do differ in their notions about these things4 ,the conclusion of his remarks is worthy of quotation3 ,i am sensible ,i have omitted many things2 but ,i am a little faint1 and cannot remember any more of the evidence4 ,it is not surprising that1 soon after ,queen ,anne came to the throne1 he was removed from the bench4 ,the jury believed the medical witnesses for the defence1 and after a short discussion found ,spencer ,cowper and the other prisoners ,not guilty4 ,to come to more modern times1 the advantage of a conflict of scientific opinion to the accused was seen in the celebrated ,maybrick poisoning case4 ,at the trial evidence was given by ,professor ,tidy to the effect that the symptoms and appearances were not those of arsenical poisoning and that the amounts of arsenic found in the body were not greater than those present in cases where arsenical medicines had been taken months before death1 and where there was no suspicion of poisoning4 ,although the prisoner was convicted and sentenced to death1 there can be little doubt but that this evidence had an important influence in determining the subsequent alteration of the sentence to penal servitude4 ,there is no necessity for such scientific assistance given to the defence to degenerate into partisanship1 such as was shown at the trial of ,palmer for poisoning in #ahef4 ,that case was characterised by many remarkable features1 the suspected person1 for instance1 being allowed access to the bottle in which had been placed the material taken from the body for analysis1 and also being given the opportunity of attempting to destroy it4 ,prior to the trial1 ,taylor1 the chemist who was to give evidence as to the presence of poison in the body1 communicated with the papers1 while ,herapath1 one of the witnesses called for the defence1 publicly accused ,taylor of incompetence4 ,so acrid were the statements of the scientific witnesses for the defence at the trial that the judge commented in vigorous terms upon their evidence as having been given with the object of obtaining an acquittal at all costs4 ,it is indispensable1 he said1 to the administration of justice that a witness should not be turned into an advocate1 nor an advocate into a witness4 ,in another poisoning trial which took place three years later1 the chemical evidence brought forward by the defence resulted in the prisoner being set free1 after having been sentenced to death4 ,in this case a doctor named ,smethurst was accused of poisoning a young woman named ,isabella ,banks4 ,dr4 ,taylor1 who was the chief chemical witness called for the prosecution1 had found arsenic in material from the body1 although he could not detect any remaining in the tissues4 ,on the other hand1 ,dr4 ,b4 ,w4 ,richardson1 who was called as a witness for the defence1 stated that arsenic was a cumulative poison1 and that if it had been given for a long period1 as alleged1 traces must inevitably have been present4 ,hence in his opinion the absence of arsenic in the tissues was conclusive proof that death was not the result of slow arsenical poisoning4 ,the medical evidence called by the defence1 also left room for some doubt as to whether death might not have been the result of dysentery1 the symptoms and appearance1 it was alleged1 being as consistent with that cause as with arsenical poisoning4 ,the scientific witnesses for the defence did not succeed in convincing the jury1 but after sentence of death had been passed the judge forwarded the papers to the ,home ,secretary1 and advised that the opinion of an independent scientific authority should be taken4 ,accordingly the whole of the chemical and medical evidence was studied by ,sir ,b4 ,brodie1 whose report was that there were six reasons which led to the conclusion that ,smethurst was guilty1 and eight reasons which pointed in the opposite direction2 and that1 therefore1 the impression left upon his mind1 was that the proof of ,smethurst's guilt was not absolutely convincing4 ,the ,home ,secretary1 on receiving this statement of opinion from his scientific referee1 immediately granted a free pardon4 ,in this case1 but for the conflict of scientific opinion upon the medical and chemical evidence the prisoner would have been hanged4 ,instances such as these might be largely multiplied1 but the above are sufficient to show that a scientific defence may succeed in breaking down the scientific evidence brought by the prosecution in criminal cases2 or1 failing that1 may 7as in the ,maybrick case7 help to bring about a commutation of the sentence4 ,there is thus abundant justification for the plea that the poor prisoner should have the same advantages as regards scientific assistance as he now possesses in legal matters1 and thus be placed on an equality with a wealthy prisoner4 ,it ought not to be a difficult matter to draw up a list of men of recognised standing in chemistry and medicine1 who would be willing to serve in this capacity when selected by the judge in a trial4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,detection ,,and ,,capture ,,of ,,the ,,criminal ,contrasts between ,eighteenth1 ,nineteenth and ,twentieth ,centuries--,margaret ,catchpole--,tawell--,crippen--,portrait s and the ,press--,charlesworth ,case--,bloodhounds--,police ,dogs--,circumstantial ,detection4 ,in the days of the stage-coach a fugitive had a better chance of escaping than in the present age of steam power on land and sea4 ,for then1 slow as were the ways of escape1 the ways of advertising the crime were slower still1 and once on board a ship a runaway was comparatively safe from arrest4 ,the story of ,margaret ,catchpole1 which has now become almost classic1 may be cited as a good illustration of the way in which the pursuers were handicapped1 when the fugitive had had a few hours' start4 ,it was in #agig that ,margaret ,catchpole1 a servant-maid at ,ipswich1 stole a horse from the stable of her master1 in order to join her lover1 and disguised as a lad rode all the way to ,london in eight and a half hours1 with only a single stop at ,marks ,tey1 in ,essex4 ,a few hours later the horse was missed1 and handbills describing it and offering a reward for the capture of the thief were hurriedly printed and sent out of ,ipswich by every vehicle that left the town4 ,two men were also despatched in pursuit along the ,london road1 but being falsely directed were about to turn off in the direction of ,maldon1 when they chanced to meet a man who had seen ,margaret riding to ,london4 ,but for this chance meeting ,margaret would probably have escaped capture4 ,as it was1 the pursuers reached ,london the following day and ,margaret was arrested just as she had concluded a sale of the horse with a dealer4 ,she was tried at the ,bury ,assizes and sentenced to death1 but through the influence of her former master the sentence was commuted to a term of imprisonment4 ,three years later her lover1 ,laud1 who was a smuggler1 assisted her to escape from ,ipswich gaol1 and again handbills for her arrest were issued4 ,she was captured on the beach while in the act of embarking in ,laud's boat1 and ,laud himself was killed in the fight4 ,for the second time she was sentenced to death1 and was once more reprieved1 her sentence now being transportation to ,botany ,bay4 ,there she married1 and died many years later4 ,the introduction of the railway did not materially change the relative position of pursuer and pursued2 for although the fugitive could travel more rapidly than before1 and thus when chance favoured him could get to the coast and on board a ship about to sail1 he had against him the more speedy notification of the crime in all directions1 which was also rendered possible by the railway4 ,it was not until a means of communication infinitely more rapid than the steam engine had been discovered1 that the balance turned decisively against the man endeavouring to elude the grasp of the law4 ,it is strange to reflect that it was not until it had been employed in the capture of a criminal that it was recognised in how many directions the electric telegraph might be of service to mankind4 ,prior to that time the invention had been little better than a failure from a commercial point of view1 for1 although the railway companies had some time before this realised the advantages of the new system of communication1 the ,government had refused to have anything to say to it4 ,it was thus little short of a revelation to the public when1 in #ahde1 the news was made known that a suspected murderer had been arrested through the agency of the telegraph4 ,a woman had been brutally murdered not far from ,slough1 and a neighbour1 who had heard her screams1 rushed to the spot with a lighted candle in her hand just in time to see a man in ,quaker garb hurrying away4 ,this man1 ,john ,tawell by name1 a former member of the ,society of ,friends1 succeeded in escaping unchallenged to the station and in catching a train to ,london1 and had it been two years earlier would probably have managed to get out of ,england2 for news still travelled slowly in those times1 and the train service to ,london was very infrequent4 ,but the police bethought them of the telegraph1 which had not long been established on the ,great ,western ,railway1 and a description of the wanted man was sent over the wires to ,london4 ,although ,tawell had had a good start1 the message arrived long before him1 and detectives were awaiting the arrival of the train at ,paddington4 ,he was followed from the station to the ,bank1 and from there to an eating-house1 where he had a meal1 and finally to a lodging-house in ,cannon ,street1 where he meant to pass the night4 ,here1 much to his amazement1 he was quietly arrested4 ,his trial followed in due course1 and he was convicted and executed4 ,illustration3 ,,war ,,plan ,,sent ,,by ,,wireless ,,telegraphy ,by kind permission of ,mr4 ,thorne-,baker and ,the ,daily ,mirror ,there were several points of scientific interest in his trial1 which are described on another page4 ,last year1 sixty-five years after the sensational capture of ,tawell1 the attention of the whole world was rivetted upon an ,atlantic steamer on its way from ,antwerp to ,canada4 ,it had on board a man and a woman1 who disguised as a ,quebec merchant and his son1 were expecting to reach ,canada without detection4 ,for a week previously search had been made for them in every corner of ,europe1 and once on board a ship sailing from a foreign port they might reasonably have anticipated that they were safe4 ,but their portraits had been so widely circulated by the newspapers that their faces were familiar wherever ,english papers were read1 and the ship was only a few miles on its journey when their disguise was penetrated by the captain4 ,the vessel was fitted with a wireless installation1 and now for the first time since its invention wireless telegraphy played the leading part in the capture of fugitives from the land4 ,the police in ,london were thus immediately acquainted with the whereabouts of the wanted pair1 and an officer was sent off by a swifter steamer to greet them on their reaching ,canada4 ,day by day1 with almost feverish excitement1 the progress of the ,montrose across the ocean was followed1 and the chief topic of public interest was the race between the police officer on one steamer and the fugitives upon the other4 ,the inspector won easily1 and was ready waiting to arrest ,crippen and his companion at the first approach of the ,montrose to the ,canadian shore4 ,the trial that followed had many features of scientific interest to which reference is made in another place4 ,the recent advances in the methods of telegraphing a facsimile of a specimen of handwriting or a sketch1 or of reproducing a photograph at a distance have greatly increased the difficulties of criminals escaping detection1 and the telectrograph1 as it is termed1 will prove a powerful weapon in the hands of the detective4 ,the selenium machines of ,professor ,korn were employed by the ,daily ,mirror in transmitting the portraits of the chief actors in the ,steinheil case1 and one of these photographs1 which was received in ,london while the ,court was still sitting in ,paris1 is shown in the accompanying picture4 ,a still more practical telectrograph is that invented by ,mr4 ,thorne ,baker1 which weighs only about twenty-four pounds4 ,this has been simplified to such an extent that the photograph may be printed upon a flexible plate with a backing of lead foil1 and by attaching this to the transmitting cylinder the thousands of minute points which go to make up the image will be exactly reproduced upon a receiving cylinder at the other end of a telephone wire4 ,the instrument may also be used with wireless installations for the transmission of simple pictures or diagrams1 and by its means it would be easy for a ship at sea to send or receive portraits of an individual under suspicion4 ,illustration3 ,,photo ,,sent ,,by ,,telegraph ,,from ,,paris ,by kind permission of ,the ,daily ,mirror ,the accompanying illustrations1 which are reproduced here by the permission of ,mr4 ,thorne ,baker and the ,daily ,mirror1 show a portrait of ,king ,edward ,,vii and an outline war map which were thus transmitted by wireless telegraphy4 ,mr4 ,thorne ,baker states that the use of his instrument renders tapping impossible1 since by merely making a slight alteration in the speed of running the machines1 in accordance with a signal arranged beforehand1 the pictures would be so distorted as to be unrecognisable4 ,as an early instance of the use made by the police of a portrait in identifying a suspected individual the case of ,arden1 who was executed for murder at the beginning of last century1 may be mentioned4 ,arden had given a drawing of himself to a youth1 and this was handed to the police who were thus able to identify the accused in ,london a month later4 ,the general use of photography in the press has frequently come to the aid of the police1 and instances of photographs of a wanted individual being employed for this purpose will occur to everyone4 ,at any police station may now be seen reproductions of photographs of missing individuals1 and these being circulated all over the world1 reduce to a small compass the limits within which a suspect may go without detection4 ,reference may be made to two recent cases by way of illustration4 ,a nurse had kidnapped a child and all traces of her whereabouts were lost for some days4 ,her portrait was published in all the leading papers1 and being seen by the proprietor of an hotel in the ,midlands was recognised as that of one of his guests4 ,acting on this information a police inspector suddenly accosted the suspected woman and addressed her in her real name1 and she1 taken off her guard1 answered his remarks naturally1 and was at once arrested4 ,in ,january of #aijh1 ,miss ,violet ,charlesworth succeeded in filling pages of every ,english paper by suddenly vanishing from her creditors1 under circumstances intended to suggest that she had been killed4 ,she arranged a motor-car accident upon the cliffs at ,penmaenbach1 and ostensibly was flung through the glass screen of the car into the sea4 ,as no trace of the body could be found it was soon suspected that there had been no accident1 and that before long the victim would come to life again4 ,her portraits were published in hundreds of papers1 and were posted at police stations all over the ,united ,kingdom1 and amateur detectives by the score endeavoured to discover her whereabouts4 ,she was recognised from the portraits in half a dozen parts of the country at the same time1 but it was not until a fortnight later that she was positively identified at ,oban4 ,the anti-climax of the farce was reached1 when1 a few days later1 she paid a visit to the ,london office of her solicitor1 and was attended from the station by a string of motor-cars each containing the special representative of a ,london paper4 ,illustration3 ,,portrait ,,sent ,,by ,,wireless ,,telegraphy ,by kind permission of ,mr4 ,thorne-,baker and ,the ,daily ,mirror ,two years later she was found guilty of having defrauded a poor landlady of a large sum of money at the time when everyone had accepted her great expectations at her own valuation4 ,there have been frequent failures in the use of bloodhounds to detect a criminal1 but this must be attributed1 in part at all events1 to the circumstance that the dogs have often not been employed until every other means has failed4 ,in the ,luard case1 for instance1 in #aijh1 bloodhounds were set upon the track of the supposed assailant of the murdered woman1 but the trial was not made immediately after the discovery of the crime4 ,the scent had become faint1 and it was therefore not surprising that the dogs1 after starting hotly upon the trail1 soon lost it again4 ,the writer is indebted to ,major ,richardson for the accompanying photograph of his trained bloodhound1 ,pathan1 and for his kind permission to quote the graphic description of actual man hunts from his fascinating book upon the subject4#a #a ,war1 ,police1 and ,watch ,dogs1 by ,major ,e4 ,richardson 7,blackwood and ,sons74 ,on one occasion1 when searching for the body of a woman1 ,i used two collies and a bloodhound4 ,it was summer1 and the police1 after patrolling the entire countryside1 had narrowed the search down to a mountain covered with a dense wood and undergrowth of rhododendron bushes4 ,it happened in mid-summer1 and the day was very hot4 ,the collies worked industriously for almost two hours1 keeping well ahead1 but after that time they began to flag1 and soon refused to leave my heel4 ,the bloodhound1 on the contrary1 continued persistently to search ahead of me all through the hottest part of the day1 until the woman's body was found on the top of the mountain4 ,as further illustrating the persistency of the bloodhound when on the trail1 ,i may mention the case of a murder to which ,i was called in to assist the police in ,scotland4 ,as ,i and my hounds were in ,england at the time1 it was seventeen hours after the murder when we reached the scene4 ,not only this1 but severe frost had intervened during the night1 rendering the ground very unfavourable for scenting purposes4 ,the murder had taken place in a town1 but evidences were found that the criminal had been at a certain spot outside the town on the cliffs where he had discarded certain belongings4 ,i took my hounds to this spot and laid them on the trail1 first giving them the scent from the discarded articles4 ,they went clear away for some distance1 and leaving the main road crossed some fields through a wood to a cottage4 ,here they seemed to be at fault1 and ran about whimpering4 ,on inquiry at the cottage it appeared that a man had shortly after the murder called there for some water4 ,feeling the hounds were right so far ,i cast them round about in hopes of their picking up the trail again4 ,after working persistently for a little time one of them1 ',solferino1' opened to a line beyond the wood1 and went off at a steady rate followed by the other hound1 ',waterloo1' who also found the line himself4 ,they held to this for a while until checked by a main road4 ,illustration3 ,,major ,,richardson',s ,,man-,,tracker ,,pathan ,by kind permission of ,major ,richardson ,the murderer had evidently walked along the road some distance1 until1 perhaps1 scared by a pedestrian or vehicle1 and he then evidently took to the fields again4 ,although checked by the road1 where the trail became obliterated1 the hounds1 nothing daunted1 kept steadily onwards1 casting all the time on each side1 until they found it again in the fields4 ,by steadily working in this manner they led us for four miles1 partly across country1 and partly on the road1 to a populous town1 and to the vicinity of a railway station4 ,here the trail was completely obliterated1 and it was evident that by this time the murderer had got clear away1 probably by train1 and was not hiding in the neighbourhood4 ,the chief constable testified to the excellent work of the hounds on this occasion1 and there is not the slightest doubt1 that had this town been supplied with a bloodhound which could have been put on the trail immediately on the discovery of the murder1 the murderer would have been quite easily run to earth4 ,in ,moscow a bloodhound is systematically used by the police to discover stolen property1 and some of his finds have been recorded in all the ,european papers4 ,in the early part of ,march of last year this police dog1 ,tref1 recovered a number of bank-notes and a quantity of silver plate that had been taken from the house of a ,moscow gentleman4 ,tref1 having been put upon the scent1 followed the trail through several streets until he came to a night-shelter4 ,here he made for a coat that belonged to a house-painter1 and in the pockets of this were found the missing notes4 ,he then left the shelter and followed the trail to the shop of a dealer in old silver1 and here the stolen plate was discovered4 ,in addition to their occasional use as detectives1 dogs are now being systematically employed as scouts to accompany the police on their rounds and to aid in the capture of evil-doers4 ,the ,paris dogs1 which are specially trained for the police by ,mademoiselle ,arlette ,clary1 are cross-bred hounds described as wolf-shepherd hounds1 and brindled mastiff bulls4 ,they are powerful beasts weighing upwards of twelve stone1 and can easily overthrow and master a man4 ,when attacking1 they at once make for the right arm1 so as to guard against a pistol bullet1 and they are also trained to refuse food except from the hands of those they know1 so as to safeguard them against poisoning4 ,as a proof of their efficiency1 ,mademoiselle ,clary informed the writer that one of her police dogs had captured nine apaches in one night4 ,last year a demonstration was given in ,london before the most eminent representatives of the ,metropolitan police force1 the apache being represented by a man thickly padded to protect him from the teeth of the dogs4 ,when the man attempted to escape over a screen representing a wall the great hound1 ,max1 promptly caught him and dragged him down again1 as is shown in the accompanying photograph which is here reproduced by permission of ,mdlle4 ,clary and the ,daily ,mirror4 ,the dog also easily cleared this wall1 which was #h ft4 #aj in4 high1 in one bound1 and captured a padded apache as he climbed down on the other side4 ,illustration3 ,,french ,,police ,,dog ,by kind permission of ,mdlle4 ,clary and ,the ,daily ,mirror ,police dogs trained on these lines have for some time past been used to assist the police in ,glasgow1 and within the last few months ,nottingham has strengthened its police force by the addition of dogs4 ,the dogs used in this country are powerful cross-bred animals of the ,airedale terrier type1 specially reared and trained by ,major ,richardson4 ,the first dog used for the purpose in this country was given to the ,berkshire ,constabulary1 and its duties are to accompany a policeman on his rounds at ,windsor1 to protect him from attack1 and1 if necessary1 to capture escaping criminals4 ,from two to three months are required to train the dogs for this purpose4 ,in what may be described as circumstantial detection a very faint clue has sometimes resulted in the discovery of a criminal4 ,one of the most striking examples of the kind was seen in #ahfd1 when a gentleman named ,briggs was murdered on the ,north ,london railway1 for the sake of his watch and money4 ,the murderer succeeded in escaping without having been noticed by anyone1 and the crime would probably have made another in the long list of unsolved mysteries1 but for several slips that were made by him4 ,he had changed hats with his victim and his soft felt hat1 which was found upon ,mr4 ,briggs1 was one of the chief factors in his subsequent identification4 ,hats of this particular shape1 by the way1 were for many years afterwards popularly known as ,mllers4 ,the watch and chain of the murdered man were soon traced to the shop of a ,london jeweller1 who stated that he had given another watch and chain in exchange for them4 ,he remembered the man and was able to give a description of his appearance1 although he had no knowledge of his name or whereabouts4 ,at this point all further signs of the trail were lost1 for all efforts to discover the jeweller's customer proved fruitless4 ,some time afterwards1 however1 a man called at ,scotland ,yard with a jeweller's small cardboard box1 which1 he said1 a man who had recently been lodging at his house had given to his little girl4 ,on this box was stamped the jeweller's name1 which1 ominously enough1 was ,death1 and this man was the very jeweller to whom ,mr4 ,briggs' watch had been taken4 ,thanks to this clue ,mller was tracked first to ,liverpool and then to ,new ,york1 where he was arrested and extradited4 ,at the trial the changed hat found upon the victim helped to prove his identity with the murderer1 and he was convicted and hanged at ,newgate4 ,no more extraordinary instance of a single circumstance leading to the detection of a criminal can be offered than in what was known as the ,yarmouth ,murder4 ,on ,september #bcrd1 #aijj1 a woman was found lying dead upon the beach at ,yarmouth1 and from the appearance of the body she had evidently been strangled4 ,on her fingers were some rings1 but with the exception of the laundry mark upon her clothes1 there was no clue by which she could possibly be identified4 ,she had been staying for some days in lodgings in the town1 and was known to her landlady as ,mrs4 ,hood4 ,while she was there letters bearing a ,woolwich postmark had come addressed to her by that name4 ,only a day or two before her death she had had her photograph taken upon the beach4 ,all investigation to discover who the woman really was or to trace her murderer proved unavailing1 and at the coroner's inquest a verdict was brought in of wilful murder against some person unknown4 ,subsequently it was discovered that the laundry mark upon the dead woman's clothes1 #eii1 was that put by a laundry upon the clothes sent to them from a particular house in ,bexley ,heath4 ,further inquiry showed that a woman named ,bennett had formerly lived there1 and she was identified as the original of the photograph that had been taken at ,yarmouth4 ,this led1 early in ,november1 to the arrest of the dead woman's husband1 ,bennett1 who was a workman in ,woolwich ,arsenal1 and he was committed for trial on the charge of murder4 ,he denied all knowledge of the crime1 and asserted that he had never been to ,yarmouth4 ,this was disproved1 however1 by collateral evidence1 and many facts were brought forward connecting the prisoner with the murder4 ,the motive alleged for the crime was that ,bennett might be free to marry another woman4 ,the date of the wedding had been fixed1 and it was shown that his behaviour after the night of the murder pointed to his having a knowledge of his wife's death4 ,so convincing was the whole of the circumstantial evidence1 that after a short deliberation the jury brought in a verdict of ,guilty1 and ,bennett was executed4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,personal ,,identification ,mc,keever's ,experiment on ,fallibility of ,eye-witnesses--,gorse ,hall ,murder--,cases of ,mistaken ,identity--,gun-flash ,recognition--,self-deception--,tichborn e ,case4 ,the untrustworthiness of the eye-witness as to detail was recently demonstrated by ,professor ,mc,keever at the ,kansas ,state ,college in the following manner4#b ,he asked twenty-five students at the college to witness a short drama1 and immediately afterwards to write a detailed description of the characters and incidents4 #b ,daily ,mirror report4 ,this little drama1 which was supposed to take place in one of the class-rooms1 ran as follows3-- ,jones1 a tall man1 wearing a hat and a black mask over his eyes1 nose and mouth1 and dressed in a grey rain-coat rushed in carrying a salt bag half full of nails in his left hand and a small wrench in his right hand4 ,across his left cheek was a streak of red paint4 ,when just inside the door he turned and pointing the wrench at some pursuers1 shouted ,stand back1 or ,i'll shoot4 ,he then ran across the room1 fell on his knees1 and dropped the bag1 saying1 ,there it is1 take it2 after which he got up and rushed from the room4 ,smith dashed into the room after ,jones1 crying ,give it up1 you scoundrel1 and picked up the bag which ,jones had dropped4 ,white1 short and stout1 dressed in a blue serge coat and cap1 and carrying a revolver with its cylinder removed1 came in last4 ,he called out to ,smith1 ,take it from ,eddie1 he won't hurt you6 ,he then went out after ,jones but before ,smith4 ,the professor pretending to be alarmed jumped up from his chair and exclaimed1 ,men1 what are you up to here8 ,these were the actual facts1 and the manner in which the accounts of the twenty-five witnesses disagreed may be shown by a few examples of the different particulars described3-- ,jones' appearance3 7#a7 ,black coat1 light mask4 7#b7 ,red mask1 cheeks painted red4 7#c7 ,black coat1 mouth painted red4 7#d7 ,carried pistol4 7#e7 ,cheeks more than natural redness2 club in his hand2 dark suit4 7#f7 ,dark suit4 7#g7 ,black clothes4 7#h7 ,red mask on2 black clothes4 7#i7 ,hatless4 ,smith's appearance3 7#a7 ,wore a grey suit4 7#b7 ,six-footer4 7#c7 ,dark grey suit4 7#d7 ,bareheaded4 7#e7 ,blue suit4 ,white's appearance3 7#a7 ,dark suit and raincoat4 7#b7 ,bareheaded4 7#c7 ,hardly noticed him 7nearly everyone said this74 ,smith's conduct3 7#a7 ,carried pistol and snapped it several times4 7#b7 ,came in last2 went out second2 said ,get out of here4 7#c7 ,carried pistol1 snapped it several times1 and cried ,stop or ,i'll shoot1 aiming at ,jones4 7#d7 ,dropped umbrella on floor4 7#e7 ,came in last1 stayed behind2 yelled ,catch that man6 ,professor's conduct3 7#a7 ,said3 ,what's all this8 7#b7 ,said3 ,what does all this mean8 7#c7 ,said3 ,here4 7#d7 ,said3 ,hullo1 what's going on here8 7#e7 ,said3 ,who are these men8 ,these discrepancies illustrate how difficult it is for the eye and ear to record accurately the impressions received in a rapid succession of events1 one of which may focus the attention to such an extent that events simultaneously occurring are only imperfectly or partially observed4 ,the fallibility of identification by eye-witnesses was strikingly demonstrated at the trial of ,benjamin ,bates and ,john ,green at the ,old ,bailey in #aggf1 on the charge of burglary4 ,the house of ,james ,penleage had been broken into1 and plate to the value of four or five hundred pounds had been stolen4 ,mrs4 ,penleage swore that four men had entered her bedroom1 one of whom carried a dark lantern2 that two of these men came1 one on each side of the bed1 and held pistols to her head1 and that of these men of whom she had a perfect view1 she recognised one as ,green and the other as ,bates4 ,her husband testified as to the house having been entered1 and as to his loss1 but stated that as he was near-sighted he would not swear to the men1 though he believed ,bates had presented a pistol to his head4 ,evidence was also given by a servant and by another woman1 and notwithstanding the good character given to the prisoners by a number of witnesses1 the jury brought in a verdict of ,guilty4 ,the newspapers of the day called attention to the inconclusive evidence of identification1 and as a result the prisoners were respited from month to month4 ,at last another man1 who was executed in the country1 confessed that he had also been the author of this burglary at the house of ,penleage1 and that the two men who had been convicted had had nothing to do with it4 ,in consequence of this ,bates and ,green received a free pardon1 but not until they had been in prison for many months4 ,a contemporary comment upon this trial richly warrants quotation3--,on this occasion ,britons have cause to triumph in the ,,liberty ,,of ,,the ,,press4 ,if newspapers had not been printed in this country1 the lives of two honest men would have been sacrificed to the rigour of the laws1 yet no party concerned have been the least to blame4 ,the ways of ,providence are mysterious2 casual circumstances frequently produce great effects2 and a life may be saved or lost by an accident apparently beneath the notice of a common observer4 ,another very curious instance of mistaken identity was that brought out in a trial for robbery in #aghd4 ,a barrister had been attacked and robbed in broad daylight1 and he positively swore that he had recognised two men named ,wood and ,brown as his assailants4 ,fortunately for them the prisoners were able to prove an alibi1 which showed beyond all doubt that they were far from the spot at the time1 and they were accordingly acquitted4 ,subsequently the real robbers were discovered and found in possession of the missing property4 ,in this case there was a man of trained observation1 being absolutely certain of the identity of two men1 who had never been near the place4 ,the case of the ,perreaus1 related in a subsequent page1 was another example of the kind4 ,the two brothers1 who were twins1 were so exactly alike that a money scrivener who had drawn up bonds by order of one or the other of them hesitated to fix upon either4 ,at last1 when pressed to make a positive declaration1 he fixed upon ,daniel as the brother who had come to him in connection with the forged bond4 ,in #agig a mistake as to identity resulted in the death of two men4 ,martin ,church1 a bookseller1 and ,james ,mackley1 a printer1 were tried that year at the ,old ,bailey on the charge of murdering ,sydney ,fryer1 at the back of ,islington workhouse4 ,miss ,anne ,fryer1 who was with her cousin at the time he was attacked1 swore positively that the two prisoners were the assailants4 ,some years later ,burton ,wood1 who was executed at ,kennington ,common1 and ,timmins1 who was hanged at ,reading1 confessed separately that they had done the deed for which the other men had suffered4 ,in modern times the case of ,adolph ,beck1 who was twice wrongfully convicted through his unfortunate resemblance to another man is notorious1 and has been the subject of a special report4 ,the most recent and strangest instances of wrong identification arose out of the mysterious crime which became known as the ,gorse ,hall murder4 ,in ,november1 #aiji1 ,mr4 ,storrs1 a wealthy mill-owner1 who lived at ,gorse ,hall1 in a lonely district in ,cheshire1 was attacked by a man who had forced his way into the house4 ,a desperate struggle followed1 in the course of which ,mr4 ,storrs was repeatedly stabbed with a knife and fatally wounded4 ,his assailant also attempted to shoot him with a revolver1 but this was snatched from him by ,mrs4 ,storrs4 ,a relation of ,mr4 ,storrs1 named ,howard1 who was an ex-soldier1 was arrested and charged with the murder4 ,at the trial that took place at the ,chester ,assizes in ,march1 #aiaj1 he was positively identified by the widow of the murdered man1 who swore that she recognised him by the look in his eyes4 ,he was also identified by some of the servants at the ,hall as the assailant of ,mr4 ,storrs4 ,fortunately ,howard was able to prove conclusively that he was somewhere else at the time of the murder4 ,some time later1 another ex-soldier named ,mark ,wilde was arrested upon the same charge1 and once more evidence of identification was given by the same witnesses as in the previous trial1 though they were now less positive in their assertions4 ,the two men1 ,howard and ,wilde1 bore a singular resemblance to each other1 and evidence was given that at the time of the murder ,wilde was dressed in dark clothes1 dark cap and muffler1 which was the description of the clothes of ,mr4 ,storrs' assailant given by witnesses at the first trial4 ,stains upon the prisoner's clothing were identified as human blood by the serum test4 ,the revolver which ,mrs4 ,storrs had snatched from the murderer was also identified as having belonged to ,wilde1 for it was recognised by two ex-soldiers who had1 they alleged1 frequently seen it in his hands1 by its broken spring and marks upon its barrel4 ,for the defence1 however1 witnesses were called to prove that the revolver taken from the murderer was not identical with that of ,wilde1 and that the blood upon his clothes was the result of a fight he had had upon the night of the crime4 ,no motive could be alleged1 and the jury distrusting the evidence of identification1 found the prisoner ,not guilty4 ,the murder was thus unique in the fact that two innocent men were in succession identified as the assailant and acquitted4 ,with regard to the amount of light needed for the recognition of a person1 curious scientific evidence has been given in trials1 and several cases are on record where witnesses have claimed to identify a person by a momentary flash4 ,a notable instance of this kind was seen at the trial of ,joseph ,brook for burglary at the ,york ,assizes in #ahac4 ,the prisoner1 it was alleged1 had broken into the house of a farmer named ,strickland at ,kirk ,heaton4 ,anne ,armitage1 a niece of the farmer1 deposed that he had struck upon the stone floor with something she took for a sword to intimidate her1 that it produced a flash1 and gave a light by which she could see his face4 ,she swore that she had seen enough by the momentary flash to recognise him again4 ,she had also heard his voice1 and knew it again when she heard it later1 and thought she could undertake to say that it was the voice of the accused man4 ,the prisoner set up an alibi1 and the jury1 although as they stated subsequently1 not believing in this alibi1 returned a verdict of ,not guilty4 ,the question of the possibility of a person firing a gun or pistol being identified by the light of the flash was submitted to a committee of scientific men in ,paris1 in #ahji1 and their conclusion was that such identification was not possible4 ,on the other hand1 the evidence in a case that was tried shortly afterwards in ,france indicated that under favourable conditions the face of the person who had fired a gun might be recognised4 ,a man had fired at another at night1 and a woman who was near at the time1 swore at the trial that the flash had plainly shown her the face of the assailant4 ,similar evidence was also given by the man who had been wounded4 ,experiments to determine this point were made by ,desgranges1 at ,lyons1 and from the results of these he concluded that there was a possibility of such identification at a short distance from the flash of the gun1 provided that the night was very dark and that there was no other source of light to interfere with the gun-flash2 but that if the flash was very pronounced1 or much smoke was produced it was not possible to recognise the person firing the gun4 ,juries have always been reluctant to convict a prisoner upon evidence of this kind4 ,for instance1 at the trial of a man named ,white at ,croydon in #ahci1 the prisoner was accused of firing at a gentleman while he was driving home in an open trap1 and his intended victim1 who was shot in the elbow1 swore positively that the flash of the gun showed so clearly the features of his assailant that he was absolutely certain that he was the prisoner4 ,the defendant denied the charge and1 notwithstanding the positive statement of the principal witness1 was acquitted4 ,there are other instances1 however1 where convictions have resulted from such momentary glimpses4 ,thus1 at the trial of some highwaymen in #agii1 which is quoted by ,paris and ,fonblanque 7#ahbc71 it was stated by a ,bow ,street officer that he1 together with some of his companions1 had been fired at by the prisoners upon a dark night1 upon ,hounslow ,heath4 ,he swore that the flash of the pistol enabled him to see that one of the assailants1 a man named ,haines1 who had come up to the side of the coach1 was riding upon a dark brown horse which had certain peculiarities about its head and shoulders1 and that the rider was wearing a rough brown coat4 ,afterwards1 said the witness1 he had seen the same horse in a stable in ,long ,acre1 in ,london1 and had recognised it as the one upon which the man was riding by its curious square head and thick shoulders4 ,the jury believed the evidence of this witness1 and the prisoner was convicted4 ,a case within the experience of a former ,recorder of ,birmingham 7,hill7 is mentioned in ,wills' ,circumstantial ,evidence4 ,a man was committed for trial at the ,assizes at ,derby1 in #ahdj1 on the charge of shooting at a young woman4 ,she was prepared to swear that she had recognised him by the momentary flash of the gun4 ,experiments were made to determine to what extent reliance could be placed upon such identification1 and the conclusion drawn from these was that all stories of recognition from the flash of a gun or pistol must be founded on a fallacy4 ,in addition to these1 several instances1 collected from different sources1 are referred to in ,taylor's ,medical ,jurisprudence1 where the general conclusion is drawn that occasionally it may be possible to identify an assailant in this way4 ,from the same source comes the amusing story of a man who swore that he recognised an assailant who attacked him in the dark1 by the flash produced by a blow upon his eye6 ,the absurdity of the claim is self-evident1 for the flashes due to a blow do not emit light1 and can therefore never cause any external object to be visible4 ,a curious factor influencing the value of evidence of personal identification is the readiness with which credulous humanity will accept any story however improbable4 ,but for this the notorious ,tichborne case1 which dragged on for years1 would have been settled in a few days4 ,it is difficult now1 recalling the facts1 to understand how anyone could have believed in the identity of the butcher1 ,arthur ,orton1 with the missing heir to the estates1 ,roger ,tichborne4 ,the latter was of a slim build1 while the claimant was a couple of inches taller and weighed twenty-five stones4 ,the real ,roger had had the education of a gentleman1 while the claimant could neither write nor speak correctly4 ,yet1 notwithstanding the enormous dissimilarity in appearance and manners of the two men1 the mother of ,roger ,tichborne recognised ,orton as the son whom she and everyone else had believed to have been drowned when the ship was wrecked4 ,when he came to ,england to see her he had thought it prudent to feign illness4 ,lady ,tichborne1 therefore1 went to see him1 and he got on the bed1 and turned his face to the wall4 ,his adopted mother1 however1 recognised him by his ears so like his uncle's4 ,this must have been an instance of self-deception1 for there was evidence that the lobes of the ears of the two men were absolutely different4 ,it was this recognition1 however1 that encouraged ,orton to persevere with his claim to the estates1 and assisted in aiding the recollection of other people1 who swore that he was ,roger4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,systems ,,of ,,identification ,photography--,anthropometry--,finger-pr ints and their ,uses4 ,the discovery of photography was welcomed by the police authorities of civilised countries as affording a certain means of registering criminals for subsequent identification4 ,but the promise that the photographic method held out was not fulfilled2 for with the accumulation of photographs there was a corresponding increase in the difficulties and uncertainties attending the identification of the originals4 ,apart from difficulties due to the effects of the changes produced by time or by intentional disguise1 it was no light task to search through many thousands of prints to see whether a particular individual had been photographed ten years previously1 and physical weariness of the searchers must frequently have set an obstacle in the way of the identification4 ,on the other hand1 it is a matter of common knowledge1 that two photographs of the same person1 taken under different conditions of lighting or with different lenses may readily be thought to be the portraits of two distinct individuals1 or that a photograph of one person may unduly emphasise a momentary expression differing from the normal one1 with the result that the portrait may be mistaken for a likeness of someone else4 ,these considerations fully explain the numerous instances of mistaken identification1 some of which are cited below1 where the police based their recognition upon old photographs4 ,prior to the introduction of the anthropometric and finger-print systems1 the insufficiency of the photographic records kept by the police in this country for the identification of criminals was repeatedly proved4 ,the advisability of introducing the ,french anthropometric system into ,england was raised in ,parliament on several occasions in #ahhg and #ahhh1 but each time the ,home ,secretary defended the system of photographic registration as being sufficiently satisfactory1 while he considered it doubtful whether the ,french system would be any better4 ,a sufficient answer to this official defence was afforded by the number of cases of mistaken recognition from photographs1 that shortly afterwards were brought before both ,houses of ,parliament4 ,in #ahhh1 the ,lord ,chief ,justice 7,coleridge7 mentioned an instance that had come under his notice at the ,gloucester ,assizes4 ,after a man had been convicted of some small offence police evidence was given that the prisoner was a man who had been convicted before4 ,this was subsequently proved to be a mistake4 ,again1 in ,july1 #ahhi1 after the conviction of a prisoner1 evidence was given by a warder that the man was one who had been sentenced to seven years' penal servitude and seven years' police supervision4 ,it was found afterwards1 however1 that this man had been previously convicted in #ahhb and therefore could not possibly have been the person alleged4 ,the remarkable feature about this mistake was that both men had been under the police control at the same time4 ,the failure to identify a criminal from the photographic records had a tragic result in #ahhh1 when a man named ,jackson was given a light sentence as a first offender4 ,although he had been previously convicted of numerous crimes1 and was at the time wanted by the police for housebreaking and other offences he escaped recognition1 and was able to take advantage of the lenient treatment he received by murdering a warder in the prison at ,manchester4 ,in #ahid a ,special ,committee was appointed to examine and report upon the different systems of identifying criminals1 and they recommended that the anthropometric system was the most satisfactory for preliminary classification1 but that for further grouping the finger-print method gave the best results4 ,accordingly a system including both methods was adopted in this country and was in use until #aija1 when1 as is mentioned below1 the present system of finger-print identification was introduced4 ,the success of ,m4 ,bertillon's system in ,france speedily led to its adoption in other countries4 ,early in #ahib it was introduced into ,india1 and within six years upwards of a quarter of a million of classified cards had been collected4 ,the chief difficulty was found to be in the classification of the measurements for reference1 and a committee was accordingly appointed by the ,indian ,government to report upon the system4 ,their report stated that the finger-print method was preferable to the anthropometric system in simplicity1 rapidity and certainty4 ,since that time 7,june1 #ahig7 the finger-print method has been in use in ,india for the identification of criminals4 ,the system of identification by bodily measurements1 which has now come to be known as bertillonage1 was first introduced as a method of police registration in ,paris in #ahhb4 ,during the first year of its employment it detected forty-nine criminals giving false names1 while in the following year the number rose to #bda4 ,in #ahhi ,m4 ,bertillon stated that there had not been a single case of mistaken identity since the system had been introduced1 and that in the previous year #ca1hdi prisoners had been measured in ,paris1 #fae of whom were in this way recognised as former convicts1 while fourteen were subsequently recognised in prison4 ,of the latter1 ten had never previously been examined1 so that the failures were only four in #cb1jjj1 or one in #h1jjj4 ,the system1 as described by ,m4 ,bertillon himself in a pamphlet on ,the ,identification of the ,criminal ,classes1 consists in taking the measurements of the body structure of each individual4 ,although such measurements might be indefinitely extended1 the number is usually restricted to twelve1 including the height1 length and width of the head1 length of the middle finger1 of the foot1 etc4 ,these measurements are rapidly taken with standard instruments by a special staff1 and are recorded upon a card upon which are pasted full face and profile photographs of the prisoner4 ,the data obtained enable the photographs to be classified into different groups of short1 medium1 and tall men1 and these1 again1 may be subdivided into groups of short1 medium1 and long heads1 while further subdivisions are afforded by the width of the head1 width of the arms outstretched at an angle of the body and so on4 ,the colour of the eyes affords the means for a further subdivision1 while special birthmarks or peculiarities differentiate the individuals still further4 ,in this way alone1 ,m4 ,bertillon claims that #ajj1jjj persons can be classified into groups of ten each1 the portraits in which would offer no difficulty in examination4 ,m4 ,bertillon undoubtedly puts the position too favourably here1 in assuming division into equal groups2 for out of his hypothetical #ajj1jjj individuals1 seventy-five per cent4 might conceivably be tall men1 and seventy-five per cent4 of these1 again have long heads1 so that the final groups would in some cases have no representatives1 while in the other groups there might be #a1jjj individuals4 ,in recording the colour of the eyes a special table is used1 the scale of which is based upon the intensity of the pigment of the iris4 ,a number corresponding to one of the following groups is then assigned3--7#a7 ,iris1 azure blue1 with areola pale but free from yellow pigment2 7#b7 ,iris blue or slate1 with light yellow areola2 7#c7 ,same shade1 with larger areola approaching orange2 7#d7 ,iris1 greenish reflection2 hazel areola2 7#e7 ,same shade with dark hazel areola2 7#f7 ,hazel distributed over surface of iris2 7#g7 ,eye entirely hazel4 ,when first the system was introduced into ,paris it was a common practice for the old offenders to change their names and try to escape identification1 but1 according to ,m4 ,bertillon1 after a few years this was only done by those who had been away from ,paris for a long period1 or had some very special reason for attempting to slip through the examination unrecognised4 ,a similar method is employed in the ,united ,states ,army for recognising deserters4 ,each man on joining is measured1 and an outline figure card showing the measurements of the front and back surfaces1 which are divided into areas by means of dotted lines1 is filed in the ,medical ,department of the ,war ,office4 ,when a man deserts or is dismissed his card is placed in a separate file1 and the new cards of recruits are compared with those in this particular file4 ,a special register1 ruled into columns corresponding to the areas on the cards1 and giving the measurements and any peculiarities such as scars1 tattoo marks1 etc41 is used to facilitate the search1 and when1 on reference to this1 there appears to be a probability of a recruit being identical with a deserter1 the original card is used for the comparison4 ,during the first five months after the system was instituted 7#ahia7 sixty-two men were suspected of concealing their identity1 and in sixty-one of these cases the suspicion was justified and the identity acknowledged4 ,a drawback of the ,bertillon system of identification is that much depends upon the accuracy of the person who takes the measurements1 and that1 therefore1 a permissible error must be admitted4 ,in the ,united ,states ,army an error of one inch in either direction is allowed1 for the recorded height4 ,in addition to this1 some degree of natural variation will take place in the course of years1 and due allowance must also be made for this influence upon the measurements4 ,striking as has been the success of ,m4 ,bertillon's system of anthropometrical measurements as a means of identification1 it has been altogether surpassed in certainty by the methods of recording the impressions of the fingers4 ,from time to time in the past use has been made of a finger or thumb impression as a seal or to give a personal mark of authenticity to a document4 ,one of the earliest examples extant of the use of the manual seal is to be seen on one of the ,assyrian clay tablets in the ,british ,museum4 ,this is imprinted in cuneiform characters1 and contains a notice of the sale of a field1 which concludes with the imprint of a finger nail1 and the statement that this had been made by the seller of the field as his nail mark4 ,similar imprints of nails are to be seen upon ,chinese coins1 as has been pointed out by ,sir ,francis ,galton1 and a tradition has it that they were first put there as a compliment to an early ,chinese ,empress who had accidentally pressed her finger nail into the wax model of a coin that had been submitted for her approval4 ,the ancient ,egyptians caused criminals to seal their confessions with finger nails4 ,there are also numerous instances in which impressions of finger-tips are found upon documents1 but these do not seem to have been put there with any idea of identification1 but rather to have been of the nature of a ceremonial observance comparable with the legal survival of putting a finger upon the seal of a document1 and delivering it as my act and deed4 ,the first attempt by ,europeans to make use of the characteristic ridges of the fingers to record the identity of individuals appears to have been that of ,sir ,william ,herschel1 who introduced a method officially into ,bengal4 ,his system arose out of the difficulty of checking forgeries by the natives in ,india1 and his having made two of them record their finger impressions upon contracts1 so that he might be able to frighten them should they subsequently deny their signatures4 ,this was in #aheh1 and the device proved so unexpectedly successful that for several years ,sir ,william ,herschel made a study of the use of finger-prints in identification1 and finally found them so satisfactory that1 in #ahgg1 he gave instructions for their systematic use in the ,hooghly4 ,a description of the advantages that were thereby reaped is given in ,nature 7#ahhj1 ,vol4 ,,xxiii1 #bc74 ,the frequent attempts previously made by the natives to deny their own signatures were completely frustrated1 and documents thus stamped with a finger-print could not afterwards be disputed4 ,the use of finger-prints was also invaluable as a means of preventing the fraudulent claims of pensions by persons who were not entitled to them4 ,then as the system was found to work so well in these cases it was introduced into the prisons1 each new-comer being made to sign the register with the finger4 ,the official visitors had thus the means of satisfying themselves as to the identity of each inmate of the prison4 ,although ,sir ,william ,herschel tried to obtain permission to extend the use of the finger-print identification still further1 his attempts did not meet with success4 ,about the same time that ,sir ,william ,herschel published the account of his system a suggestion was made to register the ,chinese in ,california by a similar process1 but nothing was done in the matter4 ,there have also been occasional applications of the method to prevent forgery1 as1 for instance1 in #ahhb in the payment orders signed by ,mr4 ,thomson of the ,american ,geological ,survey1 upon which1 as a safeguard1 he made the imprint of his own finger4 ,it is to ,sir ,william ,herschel1 however1 that the credit is due of having established the first modern systematic process of registration of individuals by means of finger impressions4 ,according to ,dr4 ,faulds1 the ,chinese from time immemorial have caused their convicted criminals to make impressions of their finger-tips as a record1 but he gives no details of their system of classifying the prints1 if such exists4 ,the curious markings upon which are based these systems of identification are not confined to the human race1 but are also shown by monkeys and to a less pronounced extent by other animals4 ,the pattern upon the surface of the skin upon the palms of the hand and soles of the feet is formed by the arrangement of what is known as the papillary ridges4 ,it is readily recorded by carefully coating the finger-tips with a fine layer of printing or ordinary ink and pressing them upon paper so as to leave an imprint of the markings upon the finger4 ,the uses of these ridges is to assist the delicacy of touch1 and also to excrete perspiration through the minute pores with which they are covered4 ,the effect of rough work upon the ridges is to increase their height1 and eventually they may become covered up by the horny accretions known as callosities4 ,on the other hand1 the ridges upon the palms of people who do very little manual labour are much less apparent1 and when the skin is thin are very low4 ,hence1 in the hands of bedridden invalids there is only a slight development of the ridges4 ,several circumstances may lead to a temporary obliteration of the ridges1 such as1 for instance1 the constant puncturing of the skin by the head of a needle in sewing1 and the imprint of the forefinger of a tailor will therefore often present a very characteristic mottled appearance4 ,more permanent alterations are produced by cuts or by wounds that have healed and left a white scar4 ,an instance of this is seen in ,d in the plate 7p4 #ff71 which represents a print of the left-hand thumb of the present writer4 ,running across the ridges1 and breaking their continuity is a line which marks the place where twenty years ago the slip of a knife nearly severed a piece from the thumb4 ,the effect of this cut has been to add a fresh feature of identity to those furnished by the original ridges1 without interfering with the identification of the latter4 ,in the case of jagged cuts or of scars formed in the healing of an ulcer the ridges may be so distorted as to be practically indistinguishable in that place1 or they may even be entirely obliterated4 ,old age has also an obliterating effect upon the ridges1 so much so that the finger-prints of an old man frequently exhibit transverse white markings1 indicating signs of the surface disintegration of the skin4 ,a most important point in the application of finger-prints to the identification of the individual is the persistence of the main details throughout life1 since otherwise much of the value of the method would be lost4 ,the observations made by ,sir ,william ,herschel in ,india showed that after the lapse of twenty years there was so little change in the finger-prints of a large number of persons that they could still readily be identified in this way4 ,sir ,francis ,galton has also proved the persistence of the general peculiarities in the prints for periods of over thirty years4 ,he points out that an exact correspondence as to the minuti is not always to be expected1 since what appears to be a ridge in one print may be really the result of imperfect printing of an enclosure4 ,apart from possible imperfections in the method1 there is also a possibility of variation due to the effect of age rendering the ridges less continuous4 ,in one of the examples given by him finger-prints were taken of a child of two and a half in #ahgg1 and again thirteen years later4 ,between two of the prints there were forty-two points of resemblance and only one point of difference4 ,this was a small forked ridge which appeared in the print of the baby1 but had been filled up in the print from the boy4 ,this instance is mentioned as unique1 for in every other case examined by ,sir ,francis ,galton1 comparing prints of the boy with the man1 and the man with the old man there was perfect correspondence between the selected points4 ,he therefore concludes that we are justified in inferring that between birth and death there is absolutely no change in1 say1 #fii out of #gjj of the numerous characteristics in the markings of the same person such as can be impressed by them whenever it is desirable to do so4 ,an interesting series of photographs was recently exhibited by the ,chief ,commissioner of the ,police4 ,these included the portraits of three men who so closely resembled one another that they would readily have been mistaken for one another in photographs4 ,their finger-prints1 however1 were quite distinct4 ,so persistent are these distinctive markings that they last as long as the skin itself1 and may be clearly seen upon the fingers of ,egyptian mummies4 ,however much the general dimensions of the pattern of the prints may be changed by the advance of age or the effect of disease1 the number of the pattern will still remain4 ,to use the apt illustration of ,sir ,francis ,galton1 the changes to be expected are comparable with those seen in a piece of lace4 ,the material may be stretched in one or the other direction or shrunken to half its former dimensions1 but the individual loops and knots may be identified with those in the original fabric4 ,as is the case with all the other measurements of the human body alterations will occur in the size of the markings2 for the pattern as a whole increases with the growth of the finger1 but this growth does not affect the arrangement of the loops and ridges that make up the markings upon the skin4 ,in no other way than a study of the finger-prints is it possible to find over a thousand points of comparison upon which to establish the identity of an individual4 ,in estimating the value of finger-prints as evidence of identity1 ,sir ,francis ,galton found that out of #a1jjj thumb-prints the collection could be classified into #ajj groups each containing prints with a more or less close resemblance to one another4 ,he further found that on the average it was impossible to put great reliance upon the general resemblance between two given prints as a proof that they were produced by the same finger1 though obvious difference was a proof that they were produced by different fingers4 ,but on studying the minuti of the patterns1 and calculating the chances that the print of a single finger should agree in all particulars with the print of another finger1 he concluded that it was as one is to about sixty-four millions2 so that the chance of two persons giving similar prints from a single finger would be less than one in four4 ,if the comparisons were extended to two fingers the improbability of agreement in all details would be squared1 reaching a figure altogether beyond the range of imagination4 ,the general conclusion drawn from these numerical results was that even after making all allowance for ambiguities and for possible alterations caused by accident or disease1 a complete1 or nearly complete1 agreement between two prints of one finger and infinitely more so between two or more fingers1 afforded evidence1 which did not stand in need of corroboration1 that the prints were derived from the fingers of one and the same person4 ,in finger-prints1 therefore1 we have the only means of proving the identity of an individual beyond all question4 ,in the prehistoric flint-holes at ,brandon1 in ,suffolk1 there was found some years ago a pick made from the horn of an extinct elk4 ,this had been used by some flint-digger of the stone age to hew out of the chalk the rough flints which were subsequently made into scrapers and arrow-heads4 ,upon the dark handle of this instrument were the finger-prints in chalk of the workman1 who1 thousands of years ago1 flung it down for the last time4 ,it is strange to reflect that in these perishable impressions he had left a far more permanent record of his identity than he could have done by any other conceivable means4 ,a striking feature in the scriptural account of the death of ,jezebel is that her body was devoured by the dogs1 which left nothing but the skull and the palms of her hands and soles of her feet1 so that no man might say this is ,jezebel4 ,yet1 as ,sir ,francis ,galton pointed out1 it was upon those parts that the dogs had spared that ,jezebel carried the only certain proofs of her identity4 ,the question of heredity in finger-prints is not only interesting but might also conceivably be a point of some importance in a criminal trial4 ,dr4 ,faulds concluded that heredity played a great part in the particular form of the markings4 ,the dominancy of heredity in these patterns is sometimes very striking4 ,i have found unique patterns in a parent repeated with marvellous accuracy in his child4 ,he suggested that there might thus possibly be an ,orton type of pattern and a ,tichborne type1 to one or other of which experts might have referred the finger impressions of the claimant in the celebrated case4 ,while there is unquestionably a general tendency for a particular type of finger-prints to be inherited just as any other bodily peculiarities are liable to be passed on from the parents to the children1 there is by no means that definite relationship that ,dr4 ,faulds hoped to establish4 ,the observations made by ,sir ,francis ,galton upon this point1 and the mathematical considerations based upon them render it impossible to doubt that the average resemblance between the finger-prints of two brothers or of a brother and sister is greater than in those of two persons selected at random4 ,the general similarities in the finger-prints in rows ,a and ,b in the plate 7p4 #ff71 which are those of two sisters1 are obvious4 ,the case of twins is particularly interesting1 for it is well known that when of the same sex they frequently show remarkable physical and mental resemblances or the reverse4 ,here1 too1 it was found by ,sir ,francis ,galton that the finger-prints exhibited a strong tendency to similarity1 although in no case were the resemblances so close that the prints of one twin could be mistaken for those of the other4 ,for instance1 the resemblance may lie in the pattern being made up of loops or whorls in both1 but the smaller details1 such as the number of the ridges or their minute peculiarities 7e4g41 dividing and then reuniting to form a small island71 will not be shared4 ,the results of other observations tended to show that the influence of the mother upon the type of finger-print is more pronounced than that of the father4 ,the existence of racial peculiarities in finger-prints1 which ,dr4 ,faulds believed that he had discovered in the case of the ,japanese1 has not been borne out by the experience of others4 ,the observations of ,sir ,francis ,galton upon numbers of prints representative of pure ,english1 pure ,welsh1 ,hebrew and ,negro proved unquestionably that there was no pattern peculiar to any of these races4 ,the only suggestion of any difference was that the width of the ridges appeared to be more uniform and their direction more parallel in the finger-prints of negroes than in those of the other races4 ,the same conclusions were drawn from the observations upon the finger-prints of different classes of individuals1 those of art students being compared with those of science students1 of field labourers1 and of idiots4 ,in each instance it was possible to match the type of patterns in one class with those in any of the others4 ,the patterns of the finger-impression of a statesman1 for instance1 could be matched by those of an idiot4 ,the first attempt to classify the various patterns formed by the ridges was that of ,purkenje1 a doctor of medicine who1 in #ahbc1 delivered a thesis upon the subject at the ,university of ,breslau4 ,he concluded that all the varieties of curves might be grouped under nine main heads or standard types1 which he described as follows3-- 7#a7 ,transverse curves4 7#b7 ,central longitudinal stria4 7#c7 ,oblique stria4 7#d7 ,oblique sinus4 7#e7 ,almond4 7#f7 ,spiral4 7#g7 ,ellipse or elliptical whorl4 7#h7 ,circle or circular whorl2 and 7#i7 ,double whorl4 ,the differences between these different types are best shown by diagrams1 and the accompanying figure1 reproduced by permission of ,sir ,francis ,galton1 represents the cores of the nine standard patterns4 ,this classification1 resting as it does upon merely superficial appearances1 does not afford a certain means of separating the types1 since factors1 such as the depth of printing1 the size of the patterns1 and the prominence of secondary details may have an undue influence in the placing of a particular print in one or the other group4 ,after numerous futile attempts to make use of ,purkenje's system1 ,sir ,francis ,galton discarded it in favour of a system in which the triangular space or spaces found in the majority of finger impressions was made the basis of classification4 ,starting upon the two divergent ridges from these spaces an outline was then drawn as far as it could be traced1 the course of each ridge being followed with minute fidelity4 ,in this way a series of sharply-defined outline figures were obtained4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,standard ,,patterns ,,of ,,purkenje ,illustration3 ,,cores ,,of ,,the ,,above ,,patterns #a4 ,transverse flexures #b4 ,central longitudinal stria #c4 ,oblique stria #d4 ,oblique sinus #e4 ,almond #f4 ,spiral #g4 ,ellipse #h4 ,circle #i4 ,double ,whorl ,by kind permission of ,messrs4 ,macmillan ,co41 ,ltd4 ,the various patterns may1 as a rule1 be classified into the three main groups of arches1 loops and whorls1 while some of the transitional forms may be grouped under more than one of these heads4 ,other patterns1 again1 which are of rare occurrence1 are not suitable for inclusion in any of the three groups4 ,a system of indexing based upon this method of classification was also devised in which letters represented the varieties of patterns4 ,thus a1 a1 a indicate that the outline upon the fore1 middle and ring fingers consists of arches1 while a1 w1 l indicate an arch upon the forefinger1 a whorl upon the middle finger1 and a loop upon the ring finger4 ,the letters i and o are also used1 the former indicating a loop with an inward slope and the latter one with an outer slope upon the forefinger4 ,the possible variations in such a classification of the impressions of the three fingers of the right hand cannot exceed thirty-six1 and a thousand prints may therefore be indexed into one of these thirty-six groups4 ,subdivisions of these main groups may then be based upon the characteristics of the prints of the fingers of the other hand and of the thumbs1 while differences in the cores of the patterns afford a means of forming smaller divisions of the loop patterns4 ,from observations of the #e1jjj prints of #ejj individuals ,sir ,francis ,galton found that arches were present in #fe per cent42 loops in #fge per cent42 and whorls in #bfj per cent4 ,each digit and hand1 however1 had its own peculiarities1 and the variations in the percentage of arches upon different digits ranged from #a to #ag2 that of the loops from #ec to #ij2 and that of the whorls from #ac to #de4 ,loops occurred with most frequency upon the little finger and then upon the middle finger1 while whorls were rarely met with upon these fingers1 but were of common occurrence upon the thumb and ring finger4 ,the classification employed by the ,english police was devised by ,sir ,edward ,henry and is a modification of that of ,sir ,francis ,galton1 from which it differs in making use of four types instead of three4 ,the impressions are grouped into arches1 loops1 whorls1 and composites4 ,the last group includes patterns made up of combinations of the other three1 or those which might be classified either as loops or whorls4 ,there are also numerous subdivisions of the group into patterns with characteristics in common such as central pockets and accidentals1 and further differentiation is effected by counting the number of ridges between two fixed points in the patterns4 ,examples of these four groups are shown in the plate facing p4 #ff4 ,dr4 ,faulds1 who1 while at a hospital in ,japan1 made an exhaustive study of the finger impressions of the ,japanese1 appears to have been the first to suggest the possibility of tracing a criminal by the imprints of his fingers upon external objects4 ,he mentions two instances where the method had afforded valuable evidence1 and these are worth recording as early examples of the use of the system in detective work4 ,illustration3 ,,types ,,of ,,finger ,,prints ,in one case some rectified spirit had been drunk1 and the greasy marks of the fingers upon the bottle plainly showed who was the culprit1 for their pattern was identical with that of an imprint in ,dr4 ,fauld's collection4 ,on another occasion someone had been suspected of breaking into a house1 but the sooty imprints of fingers left upon the wall proved beyond all doubt that this was not the person4 ,the finger-print system of identification was adopted by the police in this country in ,july1 #aija1 and the numbers of identifications made since then by the police at ,scotland ,yard are very remarkable4 ,up to the end of #aija there were #ic identifications1 which rose in the succeeding years to the following numbers3 ,in #aijb1 #a1gbb2 in #aijc1 #c1fdb2 in #aijd1 #e1aee2 in #aije1 #f1ahf2 in #aijf1 #f1ggf2 in #aijg1 #g1gja2 in #aijh1 #i1ddj2 and in #aiji1 #i1ifj4 ,there have been some very striking instances of the detection of criminals by means of their finger-prints1 a few of which may be quoted by way of illustration4 ,on ,march #bj1 #aijh1 a man named ,chadwick was tried at the ,birmingham ,assizes on the charge of housebreaking and stealing at ,edgbaston4 ,he had left finger-prints upon a champagne bottle1 and when these were made clear by the application of powdered blacklead they were found to correspond exactly with the finger-prints of the prisoner4 ,inspector ,collins1 in giving evidence on this point1 stated that there were a million and a quarter classified finger-prints at ,scotland ,yard1 and that these could all be distinguished from one another4 ,he pointed out that there were twelve ridges which were characteristic and identical in the two prints4 ,similar identifications in cases of burglary have been made by means of the impressions left on a wax candle1 on windows1 on paper1 such as a cheque1 or on the metallic surface of a cash-box1 etc4 ,on ,march #aath of last year1 a labourer named ,george ,lane was put on trial at ,birmingham on the charge of breaking into the house of a bootmaker and stealing several articles4 ,he had left a thumb-nail mark upon a glove-box1 and evidence was given as to the identity of this with his own thumb-print4 ,for the defence it was urged that he was in ,nottingham at the time1 and that he could call as a witness a tall dark man working in a bar4 ,the judge offered to postpone the trial for the attendance of this witness1 but warned the prisoner that if his statement were found to be untrue he would be prosecuted for perjury in addition to the present charge4 ,the prisoner thereupon said he preferred the trial not to be delayed4 ,he was found guilty1 and after evidence of previous convictions had been given he was sentenced to three years' penal servitude4 ,in ,april of last year an equally convincing proof was offered of the value of the finger-print system1 when it proved the identity of a dead man4 ,the scattered remains of this man were found upon the railway line near ,slough1 and there was no clue whatever as to his identity4 ,upon the off-chance of the victim's finger-prints being known at ,scotland ,yard impressions from his fingers were taken by the local superintendent of the police and forwarded to headquarters1 where on reference to the index of finger-prints they were immediately recognised4 ,they were those of a man twenty-four years of age1 who had been living at ,deal4 ,this was noteworthy as being the first occasion upon which the method has been used to discover the identity of anyone after death4 ,a striking proof of the value of finger-prints in the identification of an individual by the ,french police was afforded last year in ,paris4 ,a man named ,lemarque1 one of a notorious gang of thieves1 known as ,chaffeurs de la ,drome1 had escaped when three of his companions had been captured4 ,they were tried at the ,assize ,court of the ,drome ,department in ,july1 #aiji1 on the charges of murder and robbery and were condemned to death1 while ,lemarque was sentenced by default4 ,all attempts to discover the missing man proved fruitless1 until in ,march1 #aiaj1 a man was arrested for theft at ,nmes4 ,he gave the name of ,charles ,garnier1 but the police suspecting that the description he gave of himself was false1 took impressions of his finger-prints1 and forwarded these1 together with the man's description and photograph1 to the ,anthropometrical ,department of the ,prefecture of ,police in ,paris4 ,the finger-prints were immediately recognised by ,m4 ,bertillon1 and ,charles ,garnier was identified as ,lemarque1 the man who had so long been wanted4 ,,chapter ,v ,,identification ,,and ,,handwriting ,heredity--,emotional ,influences--,effects of ,disease on ,handwriting4 ,the identification of an individual solely by means of his handwriting is always liable to lead to a miscarriage of justice1 for even in the cases of the closest resemblance between two writings there can be no certainty on this point4 ,in the following pages ,i have attempted to point out under what varying conditions handwriting may show alterations and thus lead to wrong conclusions4 ,in the making of handwriting heredity plays a very important part1 just as it does in the characteristic gait and the little mannerisms which are peculiar to each individual4 ,in addition to this1 the writing may be modified by the results of training and other external influences4 ,it is obviously not possible to determine from which ancestors all the features in one's handwriting are inherited1 just as it is impossible to trace the origin of certain obviously inherited traits of character4 ,at the same time1 instances in which close resemblances may be noticed between the handwriting of a man and that of his father and grandfather will occur to everyone4 ,thus a particular slope in the direction of the writing or a mode of looping the letters or of forming certain words may be passed on from generation to generation4 ,illustration3 ,,heredity ,,in ,,handwriting ,a remarkable fact in this connection is that there is frequently a tendency for a son to inherit certain characteristics in the father's writing and for the daughters' writing to resemble more closely that of their mother than that of their father4 ,the examples shown in the figure illustrate this tendency4 ,the words were all written by members of one family1 the first two lines being those of the father and the mother4 ,the third1 fifth1 eighth and ninth lines were written by their daughters1 and the fourth1 sixth and seventh lines by their sons4 ,it will be noticed among other points of resemblance that the bold characteristic looping of the letter ,l in the mother's handwriting is reproduced more or less closely in the writing of all the daughters1 while the sons form the same letter with a small loop1 as in the word written by their father4 ,the angles at which the different words are written also show the effect of this parallel heredity1 as it might be termed4 ,while possessing such points of resemblance obviously inherited from the parents' handwriting1 the writing of each of the children also shows characteristics of its own that distinguish it from the writings of the others--characteristics partly inherited from other ancestors and partly the result of environment4 ,so close1 however1 is the resemblance between the handwriting of the father and of the eldest son that on more than one occasion one has been mistaken for the other by other members of the family4 ,the normal handwriting of every individual is affected by very many external influences1 the term normal being used here to describe writing that is done when the thoughts of the writer are being concentrated upon what is being written and without a mental side-glance at the form of the writing itself4 ,in the latter case various psychological influences cause the writing to vary more or less4 ,for instance1 the handwriting of an artist may show marked variations at different periods1 especially in the form of the capital letters2 for the artist usually keeps before his eye the decorative effect of his letters and words1 and is constantly making experimental changes in his writing4 ,in like manner1 handwriting is often influenced to a considerable extent by sub-conscious memories of the writing of other people1 especially of those whom the writer tries to imitate in other respects4 ,in some individuals this unintentional imitation of other handwriting is so pronounced that they are unable to answer any letter without its characters having some effect upon their own writing4 ,conscious imitation is a still more frequent influence upon the form of writing and some of its effects may become fixed characteristics4 ,instances of this are to be seen in the good writing of the old-fashioned writing-master1 whose ideal was the copper-plate engraving of the visiting card with its thick down-stroke and thin up-stroke and absolute regularity of letter2 in the pointed ,italian writing1 taught generally in mid-,victorian ladies' schools2 in the ,civil ,service hand set as a standard for securing marks in examination2 and in modern commercial handwriting now rapidly giving place to the typewriter4 ,an instance which illustrates the manner in which a writing-school will turn out hundreds of pupils all writing in the same manner is shown in the accompanying figure1 for which ,i am indebted to ,mr4 ,w4 ,j4 ,kinsley1 of ,new ,york4 ,the members of a class in the ,packhard ,business ,school at ,new ,york1 numbering about forty young men and girls ranging from sixteen to twenty years of age1 were all told to write the same words3 ,this is a specimen of my writing1 without any directions being given them and without knowing for what purpose it was wanted4 ,the results obtained1 some of which are here shown1 were published in a paper in ,new ,york4 ,the striking resemblance among them all is obvious at the first glance1 and when these specimens first appeared a lawyer wrote to the editor complaining that an attempt had been made to pass off the handwriting of one person as having been done by several4 ,illustration3 ,influence of training on handwriting ,each of these lines was written by a different person ,the writing of the writing school is no more the real writing of the individual than laborious printing in capitals would be4 ,even when what must be regarded as the vicious style of the writing school has been so thoroughly acquired that the writer ceases to be conscious that he is copying a model1 the writing not infrequently reverts to a normal state and will then tend to show indications of inherited traits4 ,under ordinary conditions1 where there has been no prolonged attention given to the form of the writing1 as in conscious imitation or experimental alteration1 and but little unconscious imitation1 certain distinctive features may persist for a very long period4 ,thus the angle at which the writing slopes may remain practically the same for years1 or the form of a particular slope beneath a signature will repeat itself almost exactly time after time1 and even the absence of a flourish may become a significant characteristic4 ,emotional influences often have an effect upon handwriting1 though the alterations thus produced are frequently only slight and temporary4 ,thus a man weighed down by overwhelming grief will often write in smaller characters than usual1 while violent anger will find its expression in more vigorous cross strokes to the t's1 heavier dotting of the i's1 and the thickness of a flourish to a signature4 ,on the other hand1 slight changes caused by long-continued depression may leave permanent traces upon the handwriting4 ,a deeply interesting historical instance of this tendency of handwriting to vary with the mood of the writer is to be seen in the signatures of ,napoleon at various periods of his career4 ,several of these written on occasions calling forth widely differing emotions are here reproduced1 and it is not difficult to discern in some of them the effect of emotional influence4 ,very striking1 for instance1 is the difference between the orderly signature written after the victory at ,austerlitz and the blotted scrawl dashed off after the defeat at ,leipzig4 ,nor will it escape notice that nearly all the signatures written at moments of depression or failure have a downward slant1 whereas that of the victor of ,austerlitz runs upwards4 ,a great contrast1 too1 is shown between the general features of the first three signatures penned in moments of triumph or success1 with that written on the retreat from ,russia and the still less assertive signature of the prisoner of ,st4 ,helena4 ,instances of the effects of passing emotions upon writing might be multiplied indefinitely1 but what has been said above is sufficient to show that this factor is of importance in drawing any conclusions as to the identity of an individual from his handwriting4 ,illustration3 ,,signatures ,,of ,,napoleon ,,at ,,different ,,periods ,,of ,,his ,,career #ahjd4 ,after being crowned ,emperor4 #ahje1 ,dec4 #b4 ,signature on proclamation after the victory at ,austerlitz4 #ahjf4 ,after the campaign of #ahjf4 #ahab1 ,sept4 #ba4 ,after entrance into burning ,moscow4 #ahab1 ,oct4 ,on the retreat from ,russia4 #ahac1 ,oct4 #bc4 ,signature to a document signed at ,erfurt4 ,after the defeat at ,leipzig4 #ahad1 ,april #d4 ,fontainebleau1 prior to abdication4 ,at ,st4 ,helena4 ,if passing emotions can have so great an influence upon handwriting1 how much greater must be the effect when the centre or centres in the brain that control the writing mechanism are affected or destroyed by disease6 ,among the disturbances of handwriting due to defective control of the muscles we may include the so-called tremor-writing1 which is common in old age1 and the writing of people suffering from writers' cramp1 an example of which is shown in the figure4 ,illustration3 ,writers' ,cramp ,other forms of defective writing may be the result of a paralytic stroke affecting the writing centre of the brain1 which causes the patient either to form only parts of letters or endlessly to repeat the same letter under the impression that sentences are being formed1 while in extreme cases there may be merely a succession of meaningless strokes in place of written characters4 ,illustration3 ,specimen of ,agraphia ,the writing of insane people almost invariably shows the effect of mental disturbance4 ,in some cases the form of the letters is changed1 but they are still used in their right places4 ,an illustration of this is given in the accompanying figure1 which represents the signatures of the poet ,lenau before and during his insanity4 ,illustration3 ,writing of ,lenau1 the poet1 before and during insanity ,in other instances there is both alteration in the form of the writing and paragraphia1 or the use of the wrong letters4 ,thus ,hlderlin1 the ,german poet1 who became harmlessly insane in #ahjf at the age of thirty-six1 ever afterwards misspelled his name in the manner here shown4 ,illustration3 ,signature of ,hlderlin before and during insanity ,a very interesting derangement of writing1 which is probably due to the writing centre in one hemisphere of the brain becoming adapted to do the work of that in the other1 is that commonly known as mirror writing4 ,an example of this which came under the writer's observation is shown below4 ,this shows the ordinary handwriting of a working woman of about sixty-six1 who for the last three years has been paralysed in the right arm1 and since then has produced mirror writing with her left hand4 ,illustration3 ,mirror writing in paralysis ,the most remarkable instance of mirror writing on record is to be seen in the last manuscript of ,leonardo da ,vinci1 known as the ,codex ,atlanticus1 in the library at ,milan4 ,various speculations have been made as to why backward writing should have been employed here1 but the obvious explanation may be deduced from the letter of a monk1 ,antonio de ,beatis1 who1 after visiting ,leonardo in his retirement at ,amboise1 wrote that the artist would never paint again1 as his right arm was paralysed4 ,the manuscript was in all probability1 therefore1 written with the left hand1 and1 as frequently happens in such cases of paralysis1 the other hypothetical writing centre was brought into action and mirror writing was produced4 ,of all the temporary influences tending to modify handwriting none is more remarkable1 or affords a better proof of the way in which written characters vary with the condition of the mind than the effect of hypnotic suggestion4 ,the experiments of ,professors ,lombroso and ,richet have proved that a suggested change of personality is accompanied by an appropriate style in the handwriting of the subject4 ,thus1 a young hysterical girl when hypnotised under the suggestion that she was a child wrote in childish characters4 ,still more striking were their experiments upon a young ,austrian student1 ,chiarloni ,clementino1 who within little more than an hour was made to assume successively the characters of a child1 of ,napoleon1 of ,garibaldi1 of a clerk1 and of an old man of ninety4 ,he was made to write some words on each of his assumed characters1 and the writings not only differed to a marked extent from his normal handwriting1 but also had characteristics suggestive of the type of individual he was temporarily personating4 ,illustration ,the results of some of these experiments1 which the present writer had the permission of the late ,professor ,lombroso to reproduce1 are shown in the accompanying figures4 ,the normal writing of the student is represented below1 while ,fig4 ,a 7p4 #hb7 shows words written under the suggestion that he was ,napoleon1 ,fig4 ,b1 his writing as the old man of ninety1 and ,fig4 ,c that done as ,garibaldi4 ,illustration3 ,,hypnotic ,,handwriting ,a4 ,as ,napoleon ,b4 ,as an old man ,c4 ,as ,garibaldi4 ,the handwritings of the suggested ,napoleon and ,garibaldi were quite different from the writing of the real individuals1 although it is interesting to note that there is some attempt to form the letters of ,garibaldi's signature in the same manner as in the genuine signature here shown4 ,illustration ,in a private letter to the present writer ,lombroso mentioned that it was quite possible for the hypnotised student to have been familiar with the signature of ,garibaldi4 ,or1 again1 the hypnotisers may have had their thoughts upon the form of the genuine signature while the student was writing the suggested version of it4 ,it has been observed by ,dr4 ,preyer that certain individuals1 when under hypnotic influence1 write in a better handwriting than when they are in their normal condition1 whereas in the case of other subjects the letters are childish and badly formed4 ,it is even possible to make them omit by suggestion particular letters from each word they write1 ,europe1 for instance1 becoming ,urop1 and so on1 while by further suggestion they may be induced to make use again of the missing letters4 ,the fact that handwriting may be completely altered under the influence of hypnotism is not only of great scientific interest1 but may also have an important bearing on the results of legal cases in which handwriting is concerned4 ,it was pointed out some years ago by ,dr4 ,bianchi that hysterical women are particularly prone to write anonymous letters1 and it is well known that such women are readily responsive to hypnotic suggestion4 ,facts such as these suggest how necessary it may often be to take into account the possibility of hypnotic influence before deciding upon the authorship of a given piece of writing4 ,the extent to which a man should be held responsible for what has been written as the result of hypnotic suggestion from another person will obviously depend upon whether he was the dupe or the willing instrument of the hypnotiser4 ,in any case it may not be easy to prove that the writing is his1 for it will probably be very different from his ordinary handwriting4 ,hitherto no case of criminal libel involving such delicate questions as these appears to have come before the courts1 but it is one that might conceivably occur at any time1 and a jury would then have to decide upon the responsibility of the writer4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,evidence ,,as ,,to ,,handwriting ,illustrative ,cases--,handwriting ,experts ,at one time the only evidence that was allowed to be given as to handwriting was that of the writer himself1 or of someone who had seen the writing done1 or was well acquainted with the handwriting in question4 ,examples of evidence of this kind are numerous and occur in many of the cases mentioned in other parts of this book1 such as the trial of ,spencer ,cowper in #afii1 or of that of the ,perreaus in #agge4 ,in the trial of ,spencer ,cowper 7#afii7 an important part of the defence was that the girl had drowned herself in a fit of depression1 and letters written by her were put forward to prove this view4 ,a gentleman named ,marshall produced letters that he had received from her1 and a man named ,beale gave evidence that he believed it to be in her handwriting1 having seen her write and holding a receipt of hers4 ,the jury declared they were satisfied with the evidence1 but the judge 7,baron ,hatsell7 remarked that they might ask the mother to say whether it was her daughter's handwriting4 ,sarah ,stout's brother was also questioned4 ,mrs4 ,stout4--,how should ,i know6 ,i know she was no such person2 her hand may be counterfeited4 ,the ,judge4--,but if it were written in her more sober style1 what would you say then8 ,mrs4 ,stout4--,i shan't say it to be her hand unless ,i saw her write it4 ,mr4 ,stout4--,it is like my sister's hand4 ,the ,judge4--,do you believe it to be her hand8 ,mr4 ,stout4--,no1 ,i don't believe it2 because it don't suit her character4 ,the judge in his summing up remarked that if the jury believed that the letters were in the handwriting of ,sarah ,stout there was evidence to show that although she was a virtuous woman a distemper might have turned her brains1 and discomposed her mind4 ,the history of the admission of expert evidence on handwriting in this country is a curious one1 and shows that opinion has long been divided as to its value4 ,in a trial that took place in #ahcf a bank inspector was put in the box to give an opinion as to the genuineness of a signature and the judge refused to admit this as evidence4 ,the point was carried to the ,court of ,appeal1 but was still left unsettled1 an equal number of judges being for and against the admissibility of such evidence4 ,mr4 ,justice ,wills1 in his standard work on ,circumstantial ,evidence1 relates that ,lord ,denman pronounced that evidence as to handwriting might be regarded as an expunged chapter in the book of evidence4 ,in spite of this dictum1 however1 the evidence of the handwriting expert was made legal in ,civil ,cases in #ahed1 and eleven years later it was also legalised in ,criminal law4 ,long before a witness was permitted in this country to give his opinion upon writing which he had not actually seen written1 or with the author of which he was unacquainted1 expert evidence of this kind was admitted in the laws of different countries in ,europe and in many of the ,american ,states4 ,,handwriting ,,experts4 ,a good deal has been heard of late of the shortcomings of the handwriting expert1 and owing to a mistaken idea as to the nature of his evidence1 the view has been strongly expressed that such evidence should no longer be admissible4 ,the present feeling against evidence on handwriting is partly due to an exaggerated importance having frequently been attached to the conclusions of the expert1 so that as soon as it could be shown that he had made a mistake1 no further trust was to be placed in his opinion2 and partly to the dogmatic attitude of certain experts in the past4 ,as ,lord ,brampton pointed out in his ,reminiscences1 the judges in mid-,victorian days were afraid to trust their own judgment in matters of handwriting1 and powers almost occult were ascribed to the expert1 who1 after all1 only uses ordinary scientific methods4 ,the true function of the handwriting expert is to act as a sign-post to the jury4 ,his observation has been trained to notice minute points of resemblance and difference1 and he is thus in a position to point out in what respect and to what extent two handwritings resemble one another or differ1 and it is then for the jury to draw their own conclusions from the facts laid before them4 ,it is now no uncommon occurrence for a judge in summing up a case to the jury to emphasise the point that the evidence of the expert is only a matter of opinion1 and that the real decision rests with them4 ,in this way it is possible for the judge to correct the too decided statement of opinion which the expert is sometimes1 under stress of cross-examination1 forced to give4 ,netherclift1 who was the chief expert in the days when ,lord ,brampton was at the bar1 had such faith in his methods that finally he came to believe that he could never make a mistake4 ,this belief received an amusing check in a case in which he was under cross-examination by ,lord ,brampton 7then ,mr4 ,hawkins74 ,netherclift had claimed that his system gave infallible results1 and had further stated that his son1 whom he had trained1 made use of the same system4 ,then1 said the wily advocate1 your son working on your system is as good as you are8 ,yes1 replied the father with some pride in his voice1 he is4 ,that is to say1 he1 too1 is infallible8 ,yes1 again replied the witness4 ,well1 now1 ,mr4 ,netherclift1 was there ever a case in which you and your son appeared on opposite sides8 ,netherclift tried to evade the question1 which1 he complained1 was an unfair one1 but on being pressed was forced to admit that on a certain occasion he had given evidence on one side and his son upon the other4 ,swift came the unanswerable retort1 ,how comes it then that two infallibles appeared on opposite sides8 ,netherclift's dogmatic manner rendered him peculiarly liable to fall into traps like this1 and many were the occasions on which he was found tripping4 ,readers of ,lord ,brampton's book will recall another amusing instance in which the expert was put in a hole by his opponent1 who tells the story in these words3 ,when ,i rose to examine ,i handed to the expert six slips of paper1 each of which was written in a different kind of handwriting4 ,netherclift took out his large pair of spectacles1 magnifiers1 which he always carried4 ,then he began to polish them with a great deal of care1 saying as he performed that operation1 ',i see1 ,mr4 ,hawkins1 what you are going to try to do--you want to put me in a hole4' ',i do1 ,mr4 ,netherclift1 and if you are ready for the hole1 tell me--were those six pieces of paper written by one hand about the same time8' ,he examined them carefully1 and after a considerable time1 answered3 ',no2 they were written at different times1 and by different hands4' ',by different persons1 do you say8' ',yes1 certainly4' ',now1 ,mr4 ,netherclift1 you are in the hole6 ,i wrote them myself this morning at this desk4' ,the feeling of distrust with which the evidence of the expert in handwriting is often regarded by the legal profession is illustrated by a capital story that was told recently by ,sir ,edward ,carson in a letter to the ,times4 ,an ,irish counsel in a now forgotten case began his cross-examination of a handwriting expert with the curious question--,where's the dog8 ,what dog8 said the bewildered witness4 ,the dog which the judge at the last assizes said he would not hang upon your evidence4 ,how closely two distinct handwritings may resemble one another was shown in a celebrated case in which handwriting experts were proved to be utterly mistaken4 ,this was the trial of ,sir ,francis ,truscott1 a former ,lord ,mayor of ,london1 at the ,old ,bailey in #ahgi4 ,it was asserted that the defendant had sent a post card to a friend named ,john ,kearns1 who had at one time served with him upon the ,city ,council1 accusing him of a criminal offence and warning him that he was being watched by the police4 ,at the trial evidence was given in the most positive manner by a lady who was acquainted with ,sir ,francis ,truscott to the effect that the moment she had been shown the card she had recognised the writing as his4 ,this opinion was supported by ,charles ,chabot1 an expert in handwriting1 who stated in the witness-box that he was certain that the writing on the post card had been done by the same individual who had written certain letters of the defendant which he had examined4 ,the similarities between the two writings were1 he asserted1 too close not to have been the work of one individual4 ,evidence of the same character was then given by ,netherclift1 who swore that from a minute comparison of the libellous post card with letters in the admitted writing of the accused there could be no doubt but that they were written by the same person4 ,the defence was opened by a witness named ,smith being put in the box4 ,he stated that he knew both ,mr4 ,kearns and ,sir ,francis ,truscott1 and was aware that the friendship between them had ceased4 ,he was then shown the post card and asked whose was the handwriting upon it4 ,i wrote the post card1 he said4 ,it is my own writing4 ,answering further questions1 this witness stated that he had been abroad when the charge was brought against ,sir ,francis ,truscott1 and that as soon as he learned what had happened he had made an affidavit that the writing was his4 ,the father of this witness produced post cards written by his son and stated that the libellous post card was in the handwriting of his son and not in that of ,sir ,francis4 ,evidence was also given by another witness who knew both ,sir ,francis and ,mr4 ,smith1 and who had no doubt but that the post card was in the handwriting of the latter4 ,at this stage the jury intimated that they had heard sufficient1 and brought in a verdict of ,not guilty4 ,mr4 ,justice ,wills records a case in which a bank clerk being shown a forged signature swore positively that he had written it1 while he was doubtful as to the authenticity of signatures that were undoubtedly his4 ,another instance of the way in which writing may be so skilfully imitated as to deceive even the man whose writing it purports to be is afforded by the trial of a solicitor named ,shaw at the ,derby ,assizes in #ahfa4 ,he was accused of having forged a mortgage1 and at the trial a client of his named ,abel went into the witness-box and in all good faith swore that his genuine signature upon a document was not his1 while he recognised the forged signature as his genuine writing4 ,it was proved conclusively1 however1 at a subsequent action that was brought three years later1 in connection with the forged deed1 that ,abel's signature upon it had been forged1 and the convicted solicitor was brought into court to give evidence that he had himself signed the document4 ,another curious example1 also cited by ,wills1 of the uncertainty of evidence as to writing was that of a trial in which a deed that was produced bore the signature of ,lord ,eldon4 ,the solicitor in the case had no doubt as to this being a genuine document1 and yet it was positively stated by ,lord ,eldon that he had never witnessed any document in his life4 ,the cases of wrong conclusions as to handwriting have been as numerous as those of mistaken identity of person1 and have had as tragic consequences4 ,the notorious case of ,beck will occur to everyone as an instance of a man being not only wrongly identified1 but of being also the unfortunate possessor of a handwriting that had a close resemblance to the writing of someone else4 ,the two false identifications combined were sufficient to send an innocent man to prison1 and it was long before it was established that the witnesses upon whose evidence he had been convicted had been utterly mistaken both with regard to his identity and his handwriting4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,forged ,,documents ,use of ,microscope--,erasures--,photographic ,methods--,typewritten ,matter--,examinations of ,charred ,fragments--,forgery of ,bank ,notes4 ,the most valuable methods of detecting forgery have been based upon the use of the microscope1 which will frequently reveal alterations that are quite invisible to the naked eye4 ,for instance1 a letter may have been so carefully erased as to defy detection by ordinary examination1 but a microscopical examination will show the slightly roughened surface of the paper1 where the fibres have been disturbed in the process of erasure4 ,a notable example of this was seen in the ,whalley will case1 an account of which is given on a later page1 and numerous instances of the same kind have come under the direct observation of the present writer4 ,in one of these cases1 which was settled before it reached the courts1 a letter which was to be put in evidence in a dispute as to some property had originally contained the words your house1 but the y had been skilfully erased1 so that the words read our house4 ,when the paper was held to the light it showed an almost imperceptible thinness at that place1 but under the microscope the ruffled fibres on the surface of the paper where the sizing had been scratched off1 were very noticeable4 ,skilful forgers guard against this obvious sign of alteration by treating the erased place with a solution of rosin in spirit1 which leaves a fine shiny layer upon the paper similar to that of the original sizing4 ,a treatment first with hot water and then with alcohol will remove this coating of glue or rosin1 and when the paper has been dried again it will be found that this part1 which will now be free from its protective layer1 will absorb a drop of water more rapidly than the rest of the surface4 ,another simple test to reveal erasure is the use of iodine vapour1 which will often cause a blue coloration 7due to starch7 upon the moistened surface from which sizing has been removed1 but will only colour the remainder of the paper brown4 ,this test gave a very pronounced result in the examination of the letter to which reference has been made1 in which erasure of the letter y had been suspected from the general appearance and microscopical examination of the surface of the paper4 ,the course of the tests described above should be followed under the microscope1 although in some instances the fraud is so extensive as not to require any magnification4 ,as a rule1 however1 it is preferable to use only one drop of a reagent1 and to follow closely under a low power of the microscope1 its action1 both upon the material of paper and upon the ink of any writing1 which it may render visible4 ,the detection of mechanical erasure1 which as was mentioned above1 is frequently indicated by the paper being thinner and more transparent at that place1 is often rendered more certain by photography4 ,thus if the document on which was the suspected erasure is placed between a strong light and the camera1 the negative will show a darker area corresponding to the place where more light was transmitted through the paper4 ,a photograph taken in direct light would probably in such a case show nothing1 but in a negative taken with the light falling obliquely upon the paper1 the fibres that had been roughened by the erasure would be visible1 unless a subsequent treatment with glue or rosin had been used to conceal the injury to the surface4 ,ink applied to the surface of paper from which the sizing has been removed will show more or less tendency to spread1 as upon blotting paper1 and although this may be so slight as to escape the notice of the naked eye1 it will be plainly visible under the microscope1 and on a photographic enlargement the rough edges of the marks will be very pronounced4 ,every little fault or attempt at touching up will be brought into prominence1 and in cases where writing has been removed by the use of chemical reagents the slight yellow stain which is frequently formed upon the paper--a stain so trifling that it would not ordinarily attract notice--will appear as a dark blotch upon a photographic reproduction4 ,it has frequently been claimed that it is possible to distinguish between different kinds of ink by means of photography4 ,since inks contain provisional colouring matters which cause the dried pigment upon the paper while apparently black to be in reality red-black1 blue-black1 etc41 it was asserted that such differences would be made manifest in photographs taken on an ordinary plate1 and still more by the use of colour-sensitive plates4 ,the present writer1 however1 has been unable to confirm these statements4 ,it is true that differences in intensity appear upon the negative1 but these are not any more pronounced than the differences obvious to the eye in the writing1 and the use of special plates and screens does not give any more satisfactory results4 ,the chief use of the photographic methods is to distinguish differences in form rather than in colour1 and to record them for purposes of demonstration4 ,one direction in which photography is particularly useful is in deciphering the words in faded ink upon old documents1 for the yellow colour of the ancient vellum is due to the formation of iron oxide4 ,of recent years photography has supplied another valuable means of detecting alterations in documents1 and it has been found particularly useful for demonstrating to a judge and jury the results of a microscopical examination4 ,photographic reproduction and enlargement has the advantage over chemical methods of not producing any alteration in the ink or paper1 and in some instances is just as effective as the latter4 ,in the examination of wills1 for instance1 it is necessary to obtain the express permission of the ,president of the ,probate ,court1 before any chemical tests may be applied to the document1 and except under special circumstances such permission would certainly be refused4 ,all the details of the writing and of the texture of the paper may be recorded by the camera1 and a photographic enlargement may then be made to any required extent1 so as to obtain what practically amounts to a record of the microscopical appearance4 ,and the process has the additional advantage over microscopical examination that a large portion of the magnified surface may be examined at the same time1 whereas in studying a document under the microscope1 the view is restricted to a very minute portion of the surface4 ,with the more general use of the typewriter it became possible to write libellous letters with much less risk of detection than in the case of letters written in ordinary pen and ink1 for the machine eliminates the personal characteristics of the writer4 ,the differences between various makes of typing ink are also less pronounced than the differences between different kinds of writing ink1 and the proof of the identical character of two inks has1 therefore1 usually less significance4 ,there are1 however1 certain typewriting inks1 which are characteristic from the fact that they contain finely-divided carbon1 and are1 therefore1 unlike most typing inks1 exceedingly permanent1 and it is also possible to distinguish between the more common violet aniline inks by the different degrees of resistance that they offer to bleaching reagents4 ,although it is not possible to identify the writer of a typed document by a study of the typing it is frequently not a difficult matter with the aid of the microscope to identify the machine upon which it was written4 ,the principle underlying such identification is that the letters upon a new typewriter are arranged at very nearly equal spaces from each other and produce a fully horizontal line of writing4 ,but after being in use for a very short period some of the letters are certain to get out of alignment1 and to give faults in their relative position1 which are usually reproduced every time those letters are struck4 ,thus1 for instance1 an a may be a little above the line and an r fall too much to the right1 and these peculiarities will almost invariably recur throughout every scrap of writing done upon that machine1 until the alignment has been adjusted4 ,in no two machines are exactly the same variations in the relative positions of the different letters likely to occur4 ,the chances of this happening is exceedingly remote1 for there are some seventy letters and signs upon a typewriter4 ,a practical illustration of the value of the evidence thus afforded1 was seen in a case that occurred about a year ago4 ,it was suspected that a letter had been written in collusion with a clerk in a certain office1 and proof of this was thought likely to have considerable influence upon the issue of the trial4 ,when this letter1 which was in typewriting1 was compared with another letter that had unquestionably been written in that office it was found that the faults of alignment in both were identical4 ,wherever a letter1 or combination of letters1 in the one fell above or below the line1 the same thing occurred in the other1 and wherever there was unequal spacing between two letters the distances were invariably equal in both cases4 ,in addition to this1 the ink1 which was of the violet type1 contained the same pigment1 and the watermarks on the two sheets of paper were the same4 ,there could1 therefore1 be no reasonable doubt as to the two letters having been written upon the same machine4 ,as a matter of fact1 this proof of collusion did not carry the weight that had been expected1 for the case was decided upon issues that were not affected by such proof4 ,with the aid of a measuring-scale upon the eyepiece of the microscope it is possible to measure the thickness of strokes of writing only ten thousands of an inch across1 and in some cases to prove in this way that a certain part of a document was written at a different time or with a different pen than the remainder of the writing4 ,in attempting to reproduce a signature a forger will probably make a preliminary outline with a blacklead pencil and then go over this with ink4 ,the imperfect removal of the pencil marks may then betray the fraud1 as in the ,whalley will case described on another page4 ,in some instances the particles of the graphite may be seen with the aid of the microscope to project beyond the upper layer of ink4 ,additions and alterations made to the letters in writing are clearly visible when magnified1 and may be demonstrated in court by means of a photographic enlargement4 ,any irregularities in the edges of the letters or any break between one part of a letter and another appear much more pronounced when examined in this way1 for all faults are enormously intensified4 ,thus the figure #j might be altered into #i by the addition of a stroke1 or a #c turned into an #h1 but it would be practically impossible to do this in such a manner as not to show when slightly magnified4 ,the accompanying illustrations1 for which the writer is indebted to ,mr4 ,a4 ,s4 ,osborn and the proprietors of ,knowledge1 will make these points clearer4 ,in ,fig4 ,a is shown the result of an attempt to change the number #aa into #ag by the addition of a stroke to the top of the second #a4 ,the small inset represents the appearance of the fraudulent alteration1 while beneath it is seen the microscopical enlargement1 in which the joining of the added portion is plainly visible4 ,occasionally it happens in fraudulent alteration of writing that a stroke or part of a letter may touch some of the original writing1 and betray itself by being above instead of below the older letter4 ,thus in ,fig4 ,b the words in full to date were added to the receipt after the signature had been put1 and it will be noticed in the enlargement of the cross stroke of the t in date and the top of the capital ,c in the signature 7,fig4 ,c71 that the alleged older writing comes uppermost4 ,the point at issue in this dispute was whether the receipt referred to a whole sum or only to a payment on account4 ,the writer in the course of his experience has seen many similar fraudulent alterations1 but has never met with a case like that described by ,mr4 ,osborn1 where the perforations which are in common use as a means of preventing fraud had been carefully filled in1 and new perforations made4 ,fig4 ,d shows that a fraud of this kind may be detected with certainty by the aid of the microscope1 the edges of the original perforations appearing as rings of a lighter hue4 ,illustration3 ,,altered ,,number ,illustration3 ,,altered ,,perforation ,detection of ,forgery by means of the ,camera and the ,microscope ,by kind permission of ,knowledge ,the subsequent addition of writing to a document was in one instance detected by the fact that the paper had been folded before the later writing was introduced1 and in the crease thus formed the sizing on the surface of the paper had become worn1 leaving the fibres more porous4 ,here the ink had shown a tendency to become diffused1 and the blurred edges of the lines thus produced were very manifest4 ,even where paper has been so completely charred that no signs of writing remain visible1 it is frequently possible to render the characters visible once more by continuing the incineration until only a white structure of ash remains4 ,when the writing was originally in ink the characters will usually appear in reddish-brown marks 7due to the iron in the ink7 upon the white background of ash4 ,in the case of inks that do not contain iron1 or when the writing was in carbon or aniline typing ink1 this method of incineration will prove unsuccessful4 ,writing that has been done with an ordinary lead pencil can usually be rendered visible by carefully regulating the heat during the incineration1 so as not to burn away the graphite4 ,marks done with a red pencil are1 as a rule1 burned away with the paper1 but blue pencil marks usually persist owing to the presence of an iron compound in the pigment4 ,in the case of printing inks it is rarely possible to render the characters visible again1 except when1 as in blue printing ink1 some iron pigment was present4 ,the limits of this method of reading writing upon charred paper have recently been investigated by ,habermann1 who finds that a main essential for the successful working of the process is that the paper itself shall yield a coherent white ash4 ,in the case of common varieties of paper1 especially printing paper1 which are loaded with china clay and other mineral matter1 this condition is admirably fulfilled4 ,with pure rag papers1 however1 the ash is much less coherent and is too small in quantity to leave a background4 ,even in such cases it is possible to increase the amount and coherence of the ash by painting the reverse side of the charred paper with a solution of a mineral fixative agent1 such as aluminium acetate4 ,on now drying the paper and continuing the ignition the added substance leaves its own white ash which binds together the ash of the paper4 ,the fragments of white ash upon which writing has been made visible will obviously be extremely fragile1 but they may be rendered firm enough to handle by applying a solution of collodion to the reverse side1 which on evaporation leaves a layer of nitro-cellulose similar to that with which incandescent gas mantles are coated4 ,any shrinkage or distortion of the letters in the writing caused by the contraction of the ash of the paper during the incineration is obviated or minimised by burning the carbonised paper very slowly4 ,a record of the revivified writing may also be made by means of photography4 ,the one pound notes issued by the ,bank of ,england until as late as #ahbf1 appear to have afforded peculiar temptations to forgery1 judging by the number of persons convicted of the offence4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,forged ,,receipt ,illustration3 ,,portion ,,of ,,the ,,same ,by kind permission of ,knowledge ,illustration3 ,,tests ,,to ,,distinguish ,,old ,,from ,,new ,,inks 7,,see ,,page #aaj7 ,the statistics on this point are very remarkable4 ,between the years #agig and #ahaa1 #dga people were convicted of uttering the notes or having them in their possession4 ,in #ahad1 the number of fraudulent one pound notes detected was #aj1cdb2 in #ahae1 #ad1jhe2 in #ahaf1 #ba1hfj2 in #ahag1 #ba1bda2 and during the first three months of #ahah1 #h1icg4 ,the ease with which the notes could be imitated1 and the readiness with which they could be circulated1 caused hundreds of people to take up the trade of forgery1 until at length whole days were occupied at the ,old ,bailey with the endless trials and convictions4 ,much indignation was expressed in the newspapers that the ,bank had not issued notes which could not be imitated1 and as a result of this outcry1 a committee of scientific men was appointed to examine and report upon the best means of checking the evil4 ,their report stated that they had examined many specimens of engraving1 but none that had been submitted to them was proof against skilful imitation4 ,most of the forged notes had been clumsily imitated1 and from this it appeared that the public were quite ready to be deceived by them4 ,it was commonly believed1 though without foundation1 that the ,bank placed a private mark upon their notes by which they could subsequently be identified4 ,the general dissatisfaction with the behaviour of the ,bank authorities was intensified by the amount of public money that was spent in the prosecution of the forgers1 and the view was freely expressed that the ,bank had no right to assume the office of prosecutor4 ,in the year #ahah1 for instance1 there were #bdb prosecutions1 the cost of which was #cd1ceg4 ,so pronounced became public opinion upon the subject that the ,bank was forced to allow the culprits to plead guilty to a minor charge1 the penalty for which was transportation instead of death4 ,this became almost a necessity1 since there were frequently batches of twenty or thirty convicted forgers awaiting execution1 though the death penalty was only exacted in a relatively small proportion of the cases4 ,during the seven years ending #ahbe there were #gh1iah males and #ad1hjj females tried on the charge of forging these notes4 ,of these prisoners1 #ag1hgd were acquitted1 while out of the remaining #ge1hdd sentence of death was passed upon #g1ggj1 though not more than #egi of these were executed4 ,even this small proportion gave the terrible yearly average of eighty-three executions4 ,as it was at that time impossible to stop these wholesale forgeries the abolition of the issue of one pound notes1 which took place in #ahbf1 was obviously the only solution of the difficulty4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,distinguishing ,,inks ,,in ,,handrwriting ,elizabethan ,ink--,milton's ,bible--,age of ,inks--,carbon ,inks--,herculaneum ,,mss4--,forgery of ,ancient ,documents4 ,in order to make clear the principles upon which are based the methods of distinguishing between different kinds of ink in handwriting it is necessary to give some account of the nature of ink4 ,ordinary writing ink is essentially a mixture of a decoction of galls 7or other substances containing tannin7 with a solution of copperas1 or as it is now termed1 ferrous sulphate4 ,these substances combine with one another to form a tannate of iron1 which gradually changes on exposure to the air into another iron tannate1 which is insoluble and constitutes the black pigment of writing4 ,characters written with a pure freshly-prepared iron gall ink are very faint in colour when first applied to the paper1 and it is only after the air has acted upon them that they gradually become dark blue and finally black4 ,in the old type of iron-gall ink1 that which was universally employed down to the early part of last century1 inks were exposed to the air or were boiled in order that the insoluble black pigment might form within the liquid1 and thus give some colour to the ink when it was first put upon paper4 ,the objection to this is that ink thus prepared is liable to clog the pen and not to penetrate properly into the fibres of the paper4 ,in the modern type of inks1 therefore1 which are commonly known as blue-black inks1 this method of partial oxidation is not employed1 but a colouring matter is added instead1 so that the writing has some colour immediately1 pending the formation of the black pigment within the fibres of the paper4 ,the nature of this provisional colouring matter varies in different inks1 and no two manufacturers appear to use the same substance for this purpose4 ,in some inks indigo is employed1 in others logwood1 while the introduction of aniline dyestuffs placed an abundant choice of colouring matters at the disposal of the manufacturer4 ,in the case of old inks it would only have been possible to distinguish between writings done with different kinds where some mistake had been made in the preparation of the ink1 and a large excess of iron or of galls had been used4 ,the possibility of such mistakes occurring1 however1 will be readily understood when it is remembered that ink-making was formerly as much a part of the duties of the housewife as the baking of bread or the making of cordials4 ,as writing was a polite accomplishment restricted to the educated people of leisure the ink-manufacturer could not have existed1 for there would have been no customers1 and recipes for the making of ink were therefore handed down for generations4 ,a particularly interesting example of an early domestic recipe for making ink is shown in the accompanying figure which ,mr4 ,g4 ,weddell has kindly allowed to be reproduced4 ,this was taken from a collection of old family recipes dating back to the early part of the sixteenth century1 and including among its odd assortment of items directions for making everything needed for the household1 from apple pasties to cures for the king's evil4 ,this particular recipe1 which was one of several for making ink1 was probably written towards the close of the sixteenth century4 ,it gives directions for soaking the galls in rain water 7or claret1 or red vinegar7 and boiling the liquid1 after standing for a few days1 with copperas and gum4 ,the whole collection of these recipes1 which suggest many a picture of the life in an ,english household in the sixteenth century1 has been published in facsimile 7,arcana ,fairfaxiana ,manuscripta1 #ahij74 ,illustration3 ,elizabethan domestic recipe for ink ,ink made by the rule of thumb methods of the housewife must have often been very poor stuff1 and it is to this cause that we must attribute the want of permanency of the ink in some of the relatively modern writing as compared with that upon manuscripts centuries earlier4 ,no more interesting illustration of the effect of the composition of old inks upon the permanency of writing can be found than in the various names written in ,milton's family ,bible1 to be seen in the ,british ,museum4 ,it will be noticed that all the entries of the births of himself and the members of his family are in the handwriting of ,milton1 and that with one exception all the inks are of a good dark tone4 ,the exception is seen in the entry relating to the birth of his daughter ,deborah on the #bnd of ,may1 being ,sunday1 somewhat before three of the clock in the morning1 #afeb4 ,here the ink has faded to a faint brown tint4 ,considerable variations are possible in the proportions of galls and iron that may be used without interfering with the blackness of the pigment1 but a deficiency of tannin outside those limits will cause the writing to turn brown4 ,a lack of tannin to combine with the excess of iron present is probably the explanation of this faded entry in ,milton's ,bible4 ,it is very probable1 too1 that tests applied to the freshly-written entries would have shown that the ink in this entry was of different composition from that of the inks in the other entries4 ,lovibond's tintometer1 an instrument which enables slight differences of colour to be distinguished more accurately than is possible with the naked eye1 has been used in matching the colour obtained in chemical reactions with those given by the colour scales prepared from known or suspected inks4 ,for recording colour1 strips of glass graduated so as to form a series of colour scales are employed in this instrument1 and in this way a note can be taken of any given tint4 ,illustration3 ,the ,tintometer ,the first occasion upon which this instrument was employed in criminal work was in the ,brinkley poisoning case1 in which the colours of the different inks upon the will and other documents were examined by its means4 ,the problem of determining the age of an ink in writing is much more difficult than that of deciding whether two writings are in the same or in a different kind of ink4 ,it is1 as a rule1 possible to distinguish1 with the aid of the microscope and tintometer1 between freshly-written and old writing up to about the sixth day1 after which the black pigment has attained sufficient intensity to prevent further differentiation until after the lapse of two or three years or more1 when the provisional pigment will have faded or have become fixed by the iron tannate4 ,in most cases the provisional pigments used offer greater resistance to the action of chemicals1 but are infinitely less stable than the iron tannate when exposed to the action of light and air1 and eloquent testimony to this difference is given by the comparison of certain manuscripts of the seventh and eighth centuries with typewritten matter in aniline ink1 which has been put aside for a few years4 ,thus it happens that when characters written in blue-black ink are kept1 the blue pigment will gradually fade out1 leaving the black pigment2 and when this stage is reached the ink in old writing is readily distinguished from ink that has been freshly put upon paper4 ,prior to this1 however1 the blue provisional colouring matter appears to become enveloped in the particles of iron tannate so that it no longer reacts rapidly with chemical reagents4 ,thus1 if writing done within the last year or two be treated with acetic acid there is an immediate diffusion of the blue pigment1 whereas in the older writing1 diffusion1 if it occurs at all1 is very slow and limited in extent4 ,a still more useful reagent for this purpose is a saturated solution of oxalic acid1 which causes the pigment of relatively fresh writing to give an immediate smudge1 but has very little1 if any1 effect on writing six or eight years old4 ,the differences in the behaviour of old and relatively recent writing are seen in the tests here illustrated1 in which the old writing of #ahih was hardly affected by the reagents1 whereas the writing done in #aijh gave the results shown4 ,both writings were in the same kind of ink and the tests were applied simultaneously4 ,speaking generally1 a writing done with blue-black ink ceases to show such diffusion after five to six years4 ,when slight diffusion occurs in an older ink it is seen under the microscope to differ in character and only to affect the surface of the letters1 whereas the diffusion in an ink written within the last two or three years affects the whole of the pigment in the letters4 ,the first occasion on which chemical evidence as to the age of blue-black ink has been given in the law courts was in the recent forgery case1 in which ,colonel ,pilcher was accused of forging his cousin's will4 ,this will was alleged to have been written in #ahih2 and assuming this to have been the case1 the ink should only have reacted very slowly with the different reagents2 there should have been little or no diffusion with oxalic acid3 and if any slight diffusion occurred it should only have been upon the surface of the letters4 ,the ink upon the will1 however1 gave an immediate reaction with the different reagents1 the blue pigment diffused at once with oxalic acid1 and the diffusion extended throughout the whole of the letters4 ,there was thus no doubt but that the ink upon the will had been written within the last year or two--certainly within the last six years4 ,cheques written by the deceased lady during the last thirteen years were also subjected simultaneously to the same tests1 and while those written quite recently gave an immediate diffusion1 the ink upon those written in #aijc showed only the slightest diffusion in the heaviest writing1 and no diffusion at all was obtained upon the cheques written in #aija4 ,the general adoption of blue-black ink for the old iron-gall ink has made it a simple matter to distinguish between old and new writing1 for it is easy to differentiate the two kinds of ink by tests which show the presence of the blue pigment4 ,the test has been found useful of late in checking the statements of certain claimants of old-age pensions1 who1 as a proof of their age1 have pointed to the entries of date of their birth in old family ,bibles4 ,in more than one instance the results of a scientific examination of the inks have failed to support the claim1 for they have proved conclusively that the ink was of recent origin4 ,it is a simple matter to distinguish between the ancient types of ink that were in use during the early centuries of the ,christian era until they were gradually replaced by iron-gall inks and modern writing inks4 ,for the basis of all these ancient inks is lampblack1 or some other form of carbon1 which is very resistant to the action of reagents4 ,it is for this reason that printing ink1 the pigment of which is carbon1 is so much more stable than any ordinary writing ink can be4 ,in fact1 in order to increase the permanence of writing inks it has frequently been recommended to add a small amount of some carbon ink4 ,the most easily obtained preparation of the kind is the commercial ,indian or ,chinese ink1 which consists essentially of a mixture of glue with lampblack in the finest possible state of division4 ,in order to distinguish between a carbon ink of this nature and an ordinary writing ink all that is necessary is to apply a dilute bleaching agent4 ,the blue-black pigment of the writing ink will then gradually disappear1 whereas the fine particles of carbon in the other ink will show little1 if any alteration1 and may still be discerned under the microscope as minute black granules resting upon the fibres of the paper4 ,it was by a method similar to this that ,sir ,humphrey ,davy proved that the writing upon papyri found in the ruins of ,herculaneum1 which was destroyed in ,a4,d4 #gi1 had been done with a carbon ink1 of the same nature as that used by the ancient ,egyptians and by the ,chinese and ,japanese at the present day4 ,on none of the ,herculaneum ,,mss4 could any trace of iron ink be detected4 ,the same tests may be applied to determine whether the writing upon a document has been lithographed or has been written with ordinary ink4 ,an amusing instance of the kind came within the present writer's experience4 ,a sheet of paper upon which was some writing that was believed to have been written by ,nelson had been handed down in a family for several generations as an heirloom1 and had always been looked upon as a genuine document4 ,the ink had the faded yellow tone of old iron ink1 and there was nothing to show that the writing was not what it professed to be4 ,its present owner1 however1 happened to notice in a museum what appeared to be a duplicate of the manuscript in his possession1 and when a chemical test was applied to the ink upon the latter the pigment was quite unaffected4 ,hence there could be no doubt as to its being a copy of the original reproduced by lithography4 ,cases in which it is necessary to distinguish between iron-gall writing inks and printing or other carbon inks occur from time to time in criminal investigations4 ,as a recent example a case that was tried a few months ago may be mentioned4 ,the chief clerk of a firm of merchants had for a considerable time been defrauding his employers1 and when suspicion at length fell upon him1 endeavoured to conceal his doings by falsifying the entries of previous years in the ledger4 ,in order to do this it was necessary to abstract certain pages in a particular part of the ledger and to substitute the necessary alterations4 ,then1 finding that the ink of the writing would appear too new1 and thus invite inquiry1 he added a small amount of ,indian ink to an ordinary writing ink1 and thus obtained a mixture1 which gave an immediate effect of age to the writing4 ,to the naked eye there was nothing to show that these pages had not been written on the dates mentioned on them1 three or four years previously1 but on applying a weak bleaching agent the fraud was at once made obvious4 ,the iron-gall part of the pigment faded away1 but the particles of carbon that had formed the basis of the ,indian ink were left1 and their nature could easily be recognised under the microscope4 ,the entries on the other pages in the ledger1 which had been written in ordinary writing were completely bleached in the test4 ,a very curious illustration of the difficulties that beset the forger of ancient documents was afforded by the trial of ,humphreys in #ahci in ,edinburgh4 ,the prisoner was the claimant to the earldom of ,stirling1 and in support of his claim had produced a number of documents supposed to date back to the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries4 ,one of these purported to be a portion of a charter granted by ,king ,charles ,i to the first ,earl of ,stirling in #afci1 permitting the succession to the earldom to descend through the daughters of the house4 ,as witness to this there was appended the signature of ,archbishop ,spottiswood described as our ,chancellor1 whereas as a matter of history the seal had been handed to the ,marquis of ,hamilton a year prior to the date of the pretended charter4 ,there were also various other anachronisms in the document1 such as margins in red ink1 which were not used before #aghj4 ,scientific evidence was also given that the ink upon the pretended charter was not old ink1 but ink that had been treated in such a manner as to appear old4 ,similar inconsistencies were shown in the other pieces of documentary evidence1 and scientific proof was given that the date upon an engraved map1 upon the back of which were memoranda supporting the claimant's case1 had been added at a later period4 ,the jury unanimously found the prisoner guilty of forgery4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,two ,,notable ,,trials ,trial of ,brinkley--,trial of ,robert ,wood ,the first occasion upon which scientific evidence as to the difference of blue-black inks upon a document was given in a court of law in this country was at the trial of ,richard ,brinkley at the ,guildford ,assizes in ,july1 #aijg1 for the murder of ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,beck4 ,brinkley1 at the time of his trial1 was about fifty years of age4 ,he was a carpenter by trade1 but in the course of his life had turned his hand to many occupations1 and for many months had been living upon the proceeds of the property which he claimed to have inherited4 ,for some time prior to her death he had made himself indispensable to an old lady named ,blume1 and when1 early in #aijf1 she died1 he produced a will in which she had left him her house and money4 ,on the strength of this will1 which he proved in the usual way1 ,brinkley took possession of ,mrs4 ,blume's house1 much to the disgust of her daughter and granddaughter1 who had always resented his influence over the old lady4 ,they had no knowledge that anything was wrong with the will1 but they determined to test its validity1 and accordingly a caveat was entered against it4 ,brinkley had not anticipated that he would have to prove that it was a genuine document1 or that he would have to depend upon the testimony of the men whose signatures as witnesses were present upon the will4 ,he knew that he could rely upon one of his witnesses1 a man named ,hird1 who had drawn up the will2 but the other witness1 ,parker1 refused to perjure himself for ,brinkley's benefit4 ,he owned that he had signed a paper when he had been out with ,brinkley1 but denied that he had ever seen or signed a will4 ,as ,parker's refusal to appear in court meant that the will would be declared a forgery1 ,brinkley decided that he must be cleared from his path4 ,he therefore obtained some prussic acid from a man who described himself as a friend of our dumb fellow-creatures1 alleging that he needed it to kill a dog1 and this poison he introduced into a bottle of oatmeal stout1 which he took round to ,parker's lodgings in ,croydon1 and placed in his sitting-room4 ,before ,parker came home his landlady1 ,mrs4 ,beck1 went into his room and seeing the bottle of stout called her husband and daughter1 and they all drank the poisoned beer that had never been intended for them4 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,beck died the same night1 and their daughter1 who had taken less of the stout1 was very ill1 though she ultimately recovered4 ,parker was immediately arrested1 but being able to prove his innocence was soon set free1 and suspicion then fell upon ,brinkley who1 after the coroner's inquest1 was committed for trial on the charge of murdering the ,becks1 the law being that if you deliberately intend to kill one person and unintentionally kill another you are none the less guilty of murder4 ,on the way to the police station1 after his arrest1 ,brinkley made the significant statement3 ,if anyone says ,i put poison in stout1 he's got to prove it4 ,up to that moment there had been no mention of poisoned stout4 ,at the police court proceedings it was proved that the ,becks had died from the effects of prussic acid1 that ,brinkley had bought that poison1 that he had bought a bottle of stout in ,west ,croydon1 and that he had been seen on the platform at ,wandsworth waiting for the ,west ,croydon train4 ,the motive of the crime was an important link in the chain of evidence1 but ,brinkley held stoutly to his story that the will was signed by both witnesses in the presence of ,mrs4 ,blume4 ,parker's version of his signature1 the authenticity of which he did not dispute1 was that while he was out with ,brinkley one evening the latter asked him to sign his name upon a paper petitioning for an outing1 and that they had thereupon turned into a public-house1 where he1 ,parker1 had written his name upon a sheet of paper1 the upper part of which was folded over4 ,in order to test the truth of ,parker's statement the bottle of ink was obtained from that public-house1 and he was told to write his name upon a sheet of paper in that ink1 and this paper and the original will were submitted to the present writer for examination4 ,by the aid of the methods described in the preceding pages it was found that the ink of ,parker's signature upon the will and that of the writing upon the piece of paper were of the same kind--an ink readily recognisable from its particularly brilliant blue pigment4 ,in addition to this1 three distinct kinds of ink were present upon the will1 the body of the document and the signature of one witness being in one kind of ink1 the signature of the testatrix in another1 and the signature of the other witness in a third4 ,when the case came on at the ,assizes at ,guildford ,mr4 ,r4 ,d4 ,muir appeared for the prosecution1 while the prisoner was very ably defended by ,mr4 ,frampton4 ,every day the judge1 counsel on both sides1 the prisoner1 and many of the witnesses went down to ,guildford by a train in the morning and returned to ,london again in the evening4 ,each morning the prisoner when he entered the court appeared quite unconcerned1 and chatted with the warders4 ,as is so often the case1 he did not seem to realise the gravity of his position4 ,it was shown in the evidence that he had some knowledge of poisons1 and that he had selected one that would disappear more or less rapidly from the body after death4 ,the chemical evidence as to the presence of prussic acid in the bodies was given by ,dr4 ,stevenson and ,mr4 ,bodmer1 and was not called in question by the defence4 ,evidence was also given by the writer with regard to the inks upon the will1 and this1 too1 was not disputed4 ,in fact1 ,brinkley1 who went into the witness-box1 when asked how he explained the fact of three kinds of ink being on the will replied that ,mrs4 ,blume had three different sorts in the house4 ,he was then asked what had become of two of them1 since only one bottle of ink was discovered when the house was searched1 and to this his answer was that he had given these to a little girl4 ,throughout the trial ,brinkley's explanations of damning facts were never supported by any evidence1 while for every statement of ,parker there was abundant corroboration4 ,the scene in court on the opening day of the trial will probably never be forgotten by anyone present4 ,a heavy thunderstorm passed over ,guildford1 and for some minutes such blackness filled the interior of the hall where the ,assizes were held that it was barely possible to distinguish the faces of those who were trying a man for his life1 excepting when they were lit up by the vivid flashes of lightning4 ,throughout the storm ,mr4 ,muir continued1 in clear incisive tones1 which could be plainly heard across the noise of the thunder1 to marshal the array of deadly facts1 from which there could be no escape for the prisoner sitting motionless in the dock4 ,to the journalist nothing that means copy is sacred1 and the representative of one leading ,london paper whispered to another sitting just behind the writer1 ,what a pity this couldn't happen while the sentence of death was being passed6 ,mr4 ,frampton in his speech for the defence dwelt principally upon other possible explanations of evidence1 which1 as he urged1 was entirely circumstantial in character1 but he was unable to produce any witnesses to support the assertions of ,brinkley4 ,after a trial which lasted four days1 the judge 7,sir ,john ,bigham7 summed up1 and the jury1 after a short retirement1 found the prisoner guilty4 ,until the end he protested his innocence4 ,the most sensational trial that has taken place in this country for many years was that of ,robert ,wood1 a young artist1 in #aijg1 on the charge of murdering a woman4 ,the story of the crime itself is a particularly sordid one1 but the behaviour of the prisoner in court1 and the excited state of public feeling upon the subject gave a profound psychological interest to the trial4 ,a woman had been found brutally murdered in her lodgings in a small house in ,camden ,town1 and no trace could be found of the murderer4 ,in the fire-grate1 however1 had been found some charred fragments of a letter1 while in the chest of drawers a post card that had escaped notice had been discovered4 ,a reproduction of this post card was posted up at the police-stations and published in the papers1 and was soon recognised by several people as being in the handwriting of ,robert ,wood4 ,in the meantime1 ,wood1 finding that suspicion was likely to attach to him1 persuaded a girl of his acquaintance1 named ,ruby ,young1 to promise to support his statement that he had been with her upon the evening when the murder took place4 ,a day or two later ,ruby ,young became uneasy as to the effect her promise was likely to produce1 and asked the advice of a journalist as to what would be the best thing to do1 putting the case as a hypothetical one4 ,the man1 however1 at once saw to what she alluded1 and immediately telephoned to the police1 and this led to the arrest of ,robert ,wood4 ,at the police court proceedings an expert opinion was given that the fragments of charred paper found in the grate of the dead woman1 were in the handwriting of ,wood1 and evidence was also given by the present writer that the pigment in which the characters were written was identical with that of a marking-ink pencil found upon the prisoner4 ,for a long time ,wood denied that he had had anything to do with these fragments4 ,subsequently1 at the beginning of the trial at the ,old ,bailey1 he admitted that he had written them1 though to the end he strenuously refused to admit that the words had the meaning which they appeared to suggest4 ,he denied that they referred to any appointment made with the dead woman for the day upon which she was murdered4 ,the proof of the fact that these bits of charred paper had really been written by ,wood brought him very close to the scene of the crime1 and his attempt to create a false alibi and to get ,ruby ,young to bear this out still further strengthened the suspicion against him4 ,the most telling evidence1 however1 was the statement of a carman1 who had1 he asserted1 seen a man leave the house of the murdered woman at five o'clock in the morning4 ,he had not seen the face of the man1 but had noticed that he had a characteristic swinging walk1 and when taken to the police station had identified the prisoner among a number of other men1 who had been made to walk round the yard1 as the man that he had seen coming down the steps of the house4 ,other evidence was given as to ,wood's having been seen in the company of the deceased woman on several occasions in the past1 although he asserted that he had only known her a few days and had seen her only once or twice4 ,the bad reputation of most of these witnesses detracted from the value of their evidence4 ,mr4 ,marshall ,hall1 who conducted ,wood's defence1 made a very brilliant speech1 in which he laid stress upon the weak points in the case for the prosecution--the evidence that had been gathered from a tainted source1 the complete absence of any motive for the crime1 and the fact that the jury were trying the prisoner for murder and not for immorality or lying4 ,he urged that the keynote in this case was that ,wood1 who had a great deal of vanity1 could not take upon himself the responsibility of admitting what would cause him to occupy a lower position in the estimation of those who had given him their undivided respect and affection4 ,what1 he asked1 was the evidence of murder8 ,the only iota of evidence that turned the scale against ,wood was that of the man ,mc,gowan1 who stated that he had seen the prisoner leaving the house1 and had afterwards recognised him by an alleged peculiarity in his gait4 ,two months after the arrest of her lover1 ,ruby ,young1 for the first time1 had said that he had a peculiar gait similar to that described by ,mc,gowan1 and so far as she was concerned this1 said counsel1 was a gross and vindictive lie4 ,the chief evidence called for the defence was that of ,wood's father and brother1 who stated that he was at home on the night of the murder1 and of a neighbour who had lived beneath them1 who had seen ,wood come home that evening4 ,a ticket collector named ,westcott1 employed at ,king's ,cross station1 stated that he lived in the same road1 and that on the early morning1 when ,wood was stated to have been seen1 he left his house at five minutes to five4 ,he was then wearing a loose overcoat4 ,westcott was a broad-shouldered man1 and a boxer1 and had a brisk swinging walk4 ,it was this man1 it was suggested1 whom ,mc,gowan had mistaken for ,wood4 ,wood1 himself1 was put into the box and gave his evidence in a low1 and at times1 nearly inaudible voice1 though he showed not a sign of nervousness4 ,he gave emphatic denials to the questions put to him in cross-examination by ,sir ,charles ,matthews1 but he admitted having lied in the matter of the false alibi that he had attempted to set up4 ,he was1 he said1 in a tight corner1 and any man would have done the same if placed in the same conditions4 ,with reference to the fragments of paper on which were words in his handwriting he denied that they were part of a letter1 and suggested that it might have been some scrap of writing taken from his pocket by the dead woman4 ,the theory of its referring to an assignation was1 he suggested1 an act of imagination upon the part of the prosecuting counsel4 ,the judge1 ,sir ,william ,grantham1 in summing up the case1 pointed out that had it not been for the conduct of ,wood himself in telling lies and keeping back what he knew1 there would have been no justification for such a lengthy trial4 ,the evidence of ,mc,gowan was1 he said1 open to a certain amount of doubt1 owing to the fact that the witness had not mentioned at once about having noticed a peculiarity in the walk of the man he saw leaving the house in ,st4 ,paul's ,road1 just before five o'clock on the morning of ,september #abth4 ,then the statements of ,ruby ,young did not bring the crime home to the prisoner at all4 ,that was a remarkable feature in the case4 ,a number of witnesses for the ,crown did not directly connect the prisoner with the crime4 ,the inference1 in view of the evidence of other witnesses1 was that ,wood in his evidence had been lying all through4 ,but the jury could not convict him because he was a liar4 ,it was mainly in consequence of ,wood's own false statements that the prosecution were bound to rely upon the evidence of the other witnesses who had come forward4 ,although1 said the judge in concluding his address to the jury1 it is my duty to do all ,i can to further the interests of justice1 it is also my duty to inform the jury that they must not find a man guilty unless no loophole is left by which he can escape4 ,in my judgment1 strong as is the suspicion in this case1 ,i don't think the prosecution have brought the case near enough home to the prisoner--with the exception of the evidence of ,mc,gowan4 ,that evidence1 if implicitly relied upon1 would justify you in finding him guilty2 but that evidence is considerably controverted4 ,i don't think the identification1 even if true1 is sufficient to justify you in finding this man guilty4 ,therefore1 although it is a matter for you alone1 it is my duty to point out the effect of the evidence1 and it is my duty to point out that unless the effect of the evidence is so conclusive that there can be no doubt in anyone's mind1 you should give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt1 and say you don't think he is guilty4 ,it was a quarter to eight in the evening when the jury retired to consider their verdict1 and before eight had struck they were back again in court1 and had pronounced their verdict of ,not guilty4 ,cheer on cheer swept through the court1 and for some minutes it was impossible for the judge and the court officers to obtain silence4 ,men and women thronged round the dock eager to grasp the hand which ,robert ,wood held out to them over the rail4 ,outside1 in the street1 the dense mob that thronged up to the very doors of the court1 took up the cry1 and yelled itself hoarse with the words ,not guilty4 ,not guilty4 ,the public had long before this decided that ,wood was innocent1 and the orgies of wild enthusiasm that followed upon the announcement of the verdict were some indication of the tense excitement that had been pent up for so many days4 ,robert ,wood had become the popular hero of the hour4 ,it is difficult now to account for this hero-worship of a man who had done nothing to justify such worship1 except upon the theory of an emotional infection that had destroyed the balance of collective judgment4 ,this want of proportion reached its limit perhaps in an article written for a ,sunday paper by one of the best known actresses4 ,after describing the emotional stress through which she had passed while waiting for the jury to give their verdict she mentioned that she had gone into the hall4 ,there she had noticed a forlorn little figure of a girl wandering listlessly up and down4 ,someone told her that this was ,ruby ,young1 and for a moment she had felt an impulse to go and speak to her1 for she pitied her from the bottom of her heart4 ,and as she looked at her1 with tears welling up in her eyes1 she thought of ,peter when he had gone out and wept bitterly6 ,it was a matter of the greatest difficulty for those connected with the case to force a way through the surging crowd that was waiting to give a boisterous welcome to the acquitted artist and his solicitor and counsel1 and to vent their disapproval upon witnesses who had dared to give evidence against him1 and particularly ,ruby ,young4 ,for hours she waited1 trembling1 within the building1 for it was not thought prudent to allow her to venture outside2 and it was quite late at night before1 disguised as a charwoman1 she was able to make her escape through a small door that had not attracted the notice of the mob4 ,this was the climax of one of the most unpleasant features of the trial1 in the course of which several of the witnesses had complained to the judge of the attempts that had been made to intimidate them from giving their evidence4 ,another memorable feature in the trial was the behaviour of the accused4 ,throughout his ordeal ,wood seemed to be more concerned about the impression he was making upon the spectators in court than about the necessity of accounting satisfactorily for many suspicious circumstances that told against him4 ,so well did he appear to be able to control his emotions that1 as he himself wrote afterwards1 he could notice whether one of the actresses who attended the trial day by day1 smiled upon him4 ,never for one moment did he lose this self-control or appear otherwise than an unconcerned witness of the events upon which his life depended4 ,this absence of nerves in the accused is what struck most people as one of the strangest features in a strange trial1 and caused ,mr4 ,hall ,caine1 who was present in the court throughout the whole time1 to write of him3 ,that he felt nothing ,i will not dare to say1 that his mental processes were not frequently stirred to such pain as comes of baffling difficulties1 but that the ordeal of his trial was a terrible one to him ,i absolutely refuse to believe4 ,robert ,wood1 innocent of the murder of ,emily ,dimmock1 is yet the most remarkable man alive4 ,in what trial upon a charge of murder has there ever been witnessed the sight of the prisoner1 whose life was hanging in the balance1 laughing and chatting with his friends1 and making sketches of the judge1 the counsel1 and the witnesses8 ,even at the most crucial moment of the trial1 when the jury had withdrawn to consider their verdict he exhibited no trace of anxiety1 but until called below sat calmly sketching1 while he waited for their return4 ,and thus ,mr4 ,hall ,caine wondered1 as he got the prisoner to sign his name upon the back of a copy of the charred fragments of the letter1 whether with all his mental alertness1 his intellectual activity1 his temperamental composure1 this was not one of those men1 the rare and mysterious men1 who lack some necessary quality on the moral side of their nature4 ,,chapter ,x ,,sympathetic ,,inks ,the so-called sympathetic inks1 by which is understood inks that give a writing that is invisible1 or nearly so1 until it has been acted upon by the air or treated with a special reagent1 have been put to many ingenious uses by the criminal4 ,some five years ago an innocent-looking individual called at the laboratory of one of the leading consulting chemists in ,london1 and asked whether he could be supplied with a writing fluid that would give writing which would fade away in a short time1 and also with another ink that would produce words that would be invisible for some time and then appear4 ,he gave as his reason for requiring these that he wanted to amuse a small boy4 ,the sequel was seen a few weeks later when the same plausible individual was arrested for swindling on the race-course4 ,he had made tempting bets on certain horses1 the names of which he had written on slips of paper1 and had handed these slips to those who had accepted his wagers4 ,in a short time the name of the horse on each slip of paper gradually faded away while the name of another horse slowly appeared in its place4 ,one man to whom one of these slips had been given1 having been warned by another victim1 hurried away to the police station1 and was in time to let the superintendent see the name of an outsider replace that of one of the favourites upon which he had laid his money4 ,this appears to have been the last detected attempt to use a sympathetic ink upon the race-course4 ,a disappearing ink frequently used for this purpose is a weak solution of starch containing a slight trace of iodine1 the effect of which is to produce a faint blue colour4 ,on exposure to the air the colour of writing done with such a fluid soon fades away4 ,fugitive dye-stuffs have also been employed as disappearing inks1 and some of these1 such as quinoline blue1 give characters that rapidly disappear when exposed to sunlight4 ,an ink that is invisible for some time is a solution of silver nitrate in ammonia1 which gradually becomes black when acted upon by air and light4 ,or certain dye-stuffs such as magenta1 that have been treated with a bleaching reagent in just sufficient quantity to decolorise them fulfil the same purpose1 the original colour gradually reappearing as the oxygen of the air acts upon the pigment4 ,the earliest inks that were rendered visible by chemical reagents were believed to act by magnetism4 ,thus in a medical book of the seventeenth century1 written by ,brossonius1 a magnetic fluid is described made from arseniated liver of sulphur1 which only became visible when looked at with the eyes of affection4 ,this appears to have been nothing more mysterious than an ink of lead acetate1 the characters written with which could be rendered visible by exposing them to the vapour of sulphuretted hydrogen4 ,inks of this kind were also mentioned1 in #affi1 by ,otto ,tachen1 who referred to them as aqu magnetice e longinquo agentes1 but pointed out that there was nothing magnetic in their action4 ,the term sympathetic ink appears to have originated with ,le ,mort1 who applied it to the lead acetate ink1 and later on the name was extended to all secret inks4 ,the best known sympathetic inks consist of solutions of cobalt salts1 the writing done with which changes on heating from a nearly invisible pink to blue4 ,this peculiarity of cobalt to form two series of salts containing different amounts of water was discovered in #agae by ,waiz4 ,other compounds that may be used as sympathetic writing fluids include tannin1 which forms ordinary ink on the addition of iron sulphate2 cobalt nitrate which becomes blue on adding oxalic acid1 and gold chloride which gives a purple colour with tin chloride4 ,some thirty years ago a patent was taken out by ,kromer for the use of a sympathetic ink in detecting any tampering with envelopes4 ,the two dried constituents of the ink1 say tannin and iron sulphate1 are separated by the adhesive gum upon the envelope1 so that should steam be applied to open the letter1 the two substances come into contact1 and form an ink1 which leaves a stain upon the paper4 ,printing inks based upon these principles are used in preparing the groundwork of cheques1 so that any attempt to remove the writing from the cheque by means of chemical agents will be betrayed by the change of colour upon the body of the paper4 ,the value of sympathetic inks in detecting an offender was strikingly shown in the recent ,sutton libel case1 in which a woman was found guilty of sending offensive cards through the post4 ,the story is a very remarkable one4 ,for many months during #aijh and the early part of #aiji1 there was an epidemic of anonymous post cards in ,sutton1 many people receiving them and no one being able to trace their origin4 ,among other people who received these cards was a ,mrs4 ,tugwell1 and in some of them it was stated that she and another woman were not fit members of a certain congregation4 ,suspicion fell upon the housekeeper of the ,roman ,catholic priest1 ,annie ,dewey1 and mainly on the evidence of a handwriting expert1 she was committed for trial at the ,assizes4 ,the writing on the libellous cards was undoubtedly extremely like that of ,miss ,dewey1 and1 as events subsequently proved1 was a very skilful imitation of it by someone who wished to throw suspicion upon her4 ,when the ,assizes came on1 no evidence was offered by the prosecution and the case was dismissed4 ,the libels still continued1 however1 and ,mrs4 ,tugwell having received more libellous cards1 her husband again took the matter up1 and ,miss ,dewey was once more committed for trial in ,march1 #aiaj4 ,the trial was a very exhaustive one1 but no convincing evidence was brought against the accused1 who was therefore acquitted4 ,in the meantime a number of suspicious circumstances pointed to the conclusion that ,mrs4 ,tugwell herself was the author of the libellous cards and letters1 and that she had also apparently written those that she had received through the post4 ,in order to obtain proof of this the police1 by arrangement with the postal authorities1 marked a large number of stamps with a sympathetic ink1 that would not become visible until it had been treated with another reagent4 ,instructions were given to the postmaster that these marked stamps were to be supplied to none but members of the ,tugwell family4 ,in ,april two more libellous post cards were sent to ,canon ,cafferata1 a ,roman ,catholic priest1 and the stamps upon these cards were two of those marked with the invisible ink4 ,the house of the ,tugwells was now watched by the police1 and one evening when ,mrs4 ,tugwell was seen coming out1 the pillar-box close at hand was immediately cleared of all its letters by an official4 ,mrs4 ,tugwell then put two letters in the box1 both of which contained foul libels4 ,one of these was addressed to a friend of hers and the other to herself4 ,the handwriting on both these letters was an imitation of that of ,miss ,dewey4 ,a warrant was now issued for the arrest of ,mrs4 ,tugwell1 and when her house was searched1 envelopes having the same watermark as that of the envelopes containing the libellous letters were discovered4 ,there were also found some ,french books containing the ,french phrases used in the letters1 and several pieces of blotting paper upon which were words and phrases occurring in libellous letters4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,remarkable ,,forgery ,,trials ,trials--,william ,hale--,the ,perreaus--,caroline ,rudd--,dr4 ,dodd--,whalley ,will ,case--,pilcher1 etc4 ,the evidence given at the trial of ,william ,hale1 in #agbh1 at the ,old ,bailey has many points of interest4 ,the accused was charged with forging a promissory note for #f1djj4 ,at this time it was customary for certain privileged persons to frank letters by merely signing their names upon them and adding the word free4 ,in this case the forged promissory note bore the words for myself and partners followed by the signature1 and the ,attorney-,general pointed out in his speech for the prosecution that this had been done by erasing the two e's of free1 inserting an o between the f and r1 and then adding the additional words4 ,it was also alleged that the ink in the stroke of the beginning of the letter m in the word my was in an older kind of ink1 and probably originally formed part of one of the e's in the word free4 ,the old creases in the paper were also such as might have been produced by the folding of the cover of a letter4 ,philip ,booth denied the authenticity of the handwriting1 and was then questioned further3-- ,are they in the same ink8 ,to which he replied1 ,i take them to be of a different ink4 ,the prisoner was found guilty and condemned to stand thrice in the pillory1 to pay a heavy fine1 and to suffer five years' imprisonment4 ,he died the same year in ,newgate4 ,two celebrated trials for forgery in which evidence as to the authenticity of handwriting was given1 took place in #agge1 and the justice of the verdicts was hotly discussed for long afterwards4 ,in the first of these trials ,robert and ,daniel ,perreau1 twin brothers1 were accused of a series of frauds by means of false bonds1 while in the second trial ,caroline ,rudd1 who had given evidence for the ,crown against the ,perreaus in the first trial1 was indicted for the same offence4 ,according to the contemporary accounts ,robert ,perreau was an apothecary of great practice1 while his brother lived in the stile of a gentleman4 ,the evidence went to prove that ,robert ,perreau asked ,drummond1 the banker1 to lend him #e1jjj upon the security of a bond for #g1ejj which1 he alleged1 had been given to his brother ,daniel ,perreau by a ,mr4 ,william ,adair4 ,mr4 ,drummond questioned the authenticity of the signature upon the bond1 which he therefore retained for further examination1 promising to return it the next day or to advance the money for the loan4 ,in the meantime he showed it to the ,secretary of the ,admiralty1 who at once agreed that the signature was a forgery4 ,the next day ,perreau willingly accompanied ,drummond to ,mr4 ,william ,adair who promptly denied all knowledge of the bond4 ,the ,perreaus and ,mrs4 ,rudd now attempted to escape in a coach1 but were arrested and charged with forgery before ,sir ,john ,fielding at the ,westminster ,guildhall4 ,similar charges of obtaining money from other persons by means of bonds1 all of which had been signed with the name of ,william ,adair1 were brought1 and after ,mrs4 ,rudd had given evidence that she had forged the signatures at their instigation1 the two brothers were committed for trial at the ,old ,bailey4 ,at the trial evidence was given by ,william ,drummond that he had had an interview with ,mrs4 ,rudd1 that then she had admitted having given the bond to ,robert ,perreau1 and after confessing that she had forged it had begged them for ,god's sake to have mercy upon an innocent man4 ,robert ,drummond1 brother of the previous witness1 stated in his evidence that when ,mrs4 ,rudd acknowledged the forging of the bond he had expressed doubts whether she was speaking the truth1 seeing that the handwriting was so different from that of a woman4 ,mrs4 ,rudd had then written the words1 ,william ,adair1 upon a piece of paper in writing so like that of the signature on the bond that it had satisfied him and he had burned the paper4 ,evidence was next given by a brother of ,william ,adair and by a clerk that the handwriting upon the bond was not that of ,william ,adair4 ,john ,moody1 a livery servant of ,daniel ,perreau1 who was called for the defence1 asserted that ,mrs4 ,rudd had two different kinds of handwriting1 in one of which she wrote letters to his master as though coming from ,mr4 ,william ,adair1 this fictitious writing being absolutely different from her ordinary writing4 ,he also stated that she used different pens1 ink and paper for these forged letters1 and that the handwriting upon the bond was precisely the same as that in the fictitious letters4 ,the defence of both brothers was that they had been deceived by ,mrs4 ,rudd1 who had given them the bond as a true one and that they had presented it believing it to be genuine4 ,many distinguished persons1 including ,sir ,john ,moore1 gave testimony as to their character1 but in spite of this both were found guilty and sentenced to death4 ,after their conviction great efforts were made to secure a pardon for them1 and especially for ,robert ,perreau1 against whom the evidence was not so strong4 ,a petition was presented to the ,king1 and the newspapers were filled with letters in favour of the men1 who1 as a large section of the public believed1 had been the victims of a designing woman4 ,but all was of no avail and they were executed in ,january1 #aggf4 ,between their conviction and execution came the trial of ,caroline ,rudd for the same forgeries4 ,she pleaded that having been accepted as a witness for the ,crown she ought not to have been prosecuted as a principal4 ,this point of law was referred to the whole bench of judges1 whose decision was that the trial should proceed1 in order to determine whether the prisoner had spoken the whole truth4 ,she had charged ,robert ,perreau with soliciting her to forge the bond and his brother ,daniel with forcing her to imitate the handwriting of ,william ,adair4 ,if1 ran the judgment1 she has suppressed the truth she has no equitable claim to favour2 and if she has told the truth and the whole truth she cannot be convicted4 ,the trial therefore proceeded4 ,the principal witnesses were the wives of ,robert ,perreau and ,john ,moody4 ,mrs4 ,perreau stated that she had seen ,mrs4 ,rudd hand a bond to her husband1 ,robert ,perreau1 which was signed ,william ,adair4 ,in cross-examination she admitted that she had never before seen a bond1 and when asked how she could recall1 after three months1 the names1 amounts1 date1 and other particulars upon it replied1 ,i have the happiness to have a good memory4 ,at the same time she was unable to remember the date or sum in any other document which had been shown to her4 ,john ,moody1 ,daniel ,perreau's servant1 again gave evidence as to ,mrs4 ,rudd's using two kinds of handwriting1 and asserted that he believed that the signature of ,mr4 ,william ,adair upon the bond was in the handwriting of the prisoner4 ,in cross-examination he admitted that he had never seen ,mrs4 ,rudd sign the name of ,mr4 ,adair4 ,the defence was that there had been a conspiracy on the part of the relatives and friends of the ,perreaus against ,mrs4 ,rudd1 and ,christian ,hart1 a friend of the prisoner1 gave some evidence in support of this4 ,a short speech was then made by ,mrs4 ,rudd1 who concluded with an appeal to the jury3 ,gentlemen1 ye are honest men1 and ,i am safe in your hands4 ,after a short retirement the jury gave their verdict in the following curious form3 ,according to the evidence before us1 not guilty4 ,for many years after these trials sides were taken for and against the ,perreaus1 and an appeal even was made to ,mrs4 ,rudd to discover the secrets of a transaction concerning which public opinion has been so much divided4 ,it was plausibly suggested that a declaration of the fact if she was guilty could not then affect her since she had been acquitted by the laws of her country4 ,two years after the trial of the ,perreaus and ,mrs4 ,rudd came another notorious forgery trial1 which created a still greater sensation1 owing to the fame of the prisoner as a clergyman and an author4 ,on the #hth of ,february the ,reverend ,dr4 ,dodd1 editor of ,dodd's ,beauties of ,shakespeare1 once one of the ,king's ,chaplains1 and a preacher whom ,sunday after ,sunday fashionable ,london had flocked to hear1 was arrested on the charge of forging the signature of his former pupil1 the ,earl of ,chesterfield4 ,for years he had been attempting to live in the style which he thought his position required1 and had been in constant difficulties with his trades-people4 ,at length to satisfy some of the more importunate1 he borrowed #d1jjj in the name of ,lord ,chesterfield1 whose agent he represented himself to be1 and gave a false bond for the sum4 ,the manner in which the forgery was discovered is especially interesting1 as being one of the earliest cases in which the appearance of the ink led to the detection of a fraud4 ,the bond had been left with a ,mr4 ,manly1 who was the attorney for ,messrs4 ,fletcher and ,peach1 who had advanced the money1 and1 according to the evidence which he gave at the trial1 he observed a very remarkable blot in the first letter ,e in the word ,,seven1 which did not seem to be the effect of chance but done with design4 ,he thought it remarkable but did not suspect a forgery2 yet he showed ,mr4 ,fletcher the bond and blot1 and advised him to have a clean bond filled up1 and carried to ,lord ,chesterfield for execution4 ,when this was done ,lord ,chesterfield immediately disowned the bond1 and ,dr4 ,dodd was thereupon arrested4 ,the attorney advised him that if he returned the money it would be the only means of saving him4 ,accordingly he raised the #d1jjj1 on the understanding that the bond should be returned to him cancelled1 but the charge was not withdrawn1 and he was committed for trial at the ,old ,bailey4 ,his defence was little more than a confession of guilt and a plea for mercy1 and after an absence of only a few minutes the jury found that he was guilty1 but recommended him to the royal mercy4 ,after the conviction unexampled efforts were made to gain a reprieve4 ,in every newspaper there were letters pleading for the life of the prisoner1 and the most distinguished men of the day1 including ,dr4 ,johnson1 then the foremost ,english man of letters1 used their influence on his behalf4 ,officers of the parish1 dressed in deep mourning went from door to door1 gaining signatures for long petitions to the king1 and the names thus collected filled twenty-three rolls of parchment4 ,finally1 the ,lord ,mayor and ,council went in state to ,st4 ,james's ,palace imploring mercy for the prisoner4 ,but all was to no purpose1 for the king obstinately refused to show any favour to the divine whom he had formerly dismissed from his chaplaincy4 ,his constant reply to all these petitions was1 ,if ,i save ,dodd ,i shall have murdered the ,perreaus4 ,on the #bgth ,june1 #aggg1 ,dr4 ,dodd was taken in a cart with another condemned prisoner from ,newgate to ,tyburn and executed4 ,his bad luck attended him to the last1 for he went cheerfully to the place of execution under the impression that the executioner would be able to cut him down and hand him over to his friends before it was too late to restore him to life4 ,unfortunately for him the scheme miscarried4 ,a contemporary account thus describes the incident3 ,just before the parties were turned off ,dr4 ,dodd whispered to the executioner4 ,what he said cannot be known2 but it was observed that the man had no sooner driven away the cart than he ran immediately under the gibbet1 and took hold of the doctor's legs1 as if to steady the body2 and the unhappy man appeared to die without pain2 but the groans1 prayers and tears of thousands attended his exit4 ,that ,dr4 ,dodd was hanged at ,tyburn is unquestionable1 but it was commonly believed at the time that the plan arranged with the executioner had proved successful1 and that after being cut down1 he was handed over to his friends1 who applied restoratives1 and when he was well again smuggled him over to ,france1 where he lived quietly for many years until his death4 ,there is no reliable evidence of this rescue from the gallows1 and although a few years ago it was stated that an account appeared in a newspaper of #aghd1 of the life of ,dr4 ,dodd in ,france1 the present writer has been unable to find any mention of this in the papers of that date4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the trial popularly known as ,the ,great ,matlock ,will ,case is a good illustration of the way in which the internal evidence of documents may afford definite proof of their authorship4 ,in the year #ahef a surveyor named ,nuttall who lived at ,matlock died leaving an estate worth about #fj1jjj4 ,he had no near relatives1 and the only other occupant of his house at the time of his death was his housekeeper1 ,catherine ,marsden4 ,her sister's husband1 ,john ,else1 had been employed as a clerk for many years by ,mr4 ,nuttall1 and wrote in a handwriting so similar to the surveyor's that people were frequently at a loss to tell by which of the two their letters had been written4 ,nuttall had had his will drawn up by a solicitor1 and had made a copy of it in his own writing1 which was signed and witnessed4 ,in this copy certain additions benefiting ,else had been introduced between the lines4 ,a number of codicils to this will were subsequently discovered when ,else had become appointed successor to ,nuttall1 and these were signed and witnessed by a local farmer and a surgeon1 so that if these codicils were not genuine1 there was conspiracy to defraud and perjury on the part of these witnesses4 ,the genuine nature of the signatures was vouched for by a bank clerk1 who stated that he would have at once paid money upon cheques so signed4 ,the case was first tried before a jury at the ,derby ,assizes in #ahei1 and the codicils were pronounced genuine4 ,the ,master of the ,rolls1 not being satisfied with the verdict1 directed a second trial1 which took place in #ahfj1 and this time the jury decided that the codicils were not genuine4 ,the plaintiffs then appealed first to the ,high ,court and then to the ,house of ,lords and a new trial was ordered4 ,the final trial came on before the ,lord ,chief ,justice 7,cockburn7 in #ahfd1 and lasted for eight days4 ,the jury decided against the genuineness of the codicils1 mainly upon the characteristics of the writing and spelling4 ,both ,nuttall and ,else were bad spellers1 but their mistakes were different4 ,for instance1 throughout the will daughter was spelt correctly1 whereas in the codicil it was doughter1 and it was proved that ,else spelt the word with an o1 while ,nuttall had never done so4 ,the way in which the t was crossed was1 however1 the most convincing piece of evidence4 ,it was shown that ,nuttall's habit was usually to leave the t uncrossed1 or when he did cross it to do so completely4 ,on the other hand1 ,else generally made a half-cross to the t's4 ,in the will written by the testator there were no half-crossings1 whereas in the interlineation and the codicils the half-crossed t's predominated4 ,this difference was also brought out in a large number of the letters of the deceased and of ,else1 which were shown to the jury4 ,after the verdict had been given against them the plaintiffs attempted1 though without success1 to obtain yet another trial of the case4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one of the most remarkable trials for forgery that has taken place in this country was the outcome of the famous ,whalley will case1 which occupied the attention of the courts for three years in the early eighties4 ,james ,whalley1 whose fortune was in dispute1 died in #ahha leaving #fj1jjj4 ,he had been a reserved man with a touch of eccentricity1 and parsimonious habits1 and in spite of his wealth had lived for many years in bare lodgings in the house of a railway porter named ,thomas1 at ,leominster4 ,on several occasions he had expressed his intention of leaving his money to a man named ,priestman1 who though at the time unaware of the truth1 was in fact his natural son2 and there was convincing evidence to show that he had made a will on blue paper to that effect4 ,after his death1 however1 no such will could be found1 whereas ,thomas1 the railway porter1 produced a will on white paper1 in which the bulk of the fortune was left to him4 ,certain suspicious circumstances led ,whalley's next of kin to challenge the genuineness of the will1 and though as yet there was no suggestion of forgery1 it was urged that the signature had been obtained by some trick4 ,after some time a compromise was made1 and it was arranged that ,thomas should have #ag1jjj and that the remainder of the money should be divided between ,priestman and ,whalley's relatives4 ,the will was proved on this understanding4 ,here the matter might have ended had it not been for an act of folly upon the part of ,thomas4 ,priestman invited his solicitor and some friends to come to ,leominster to celebrate the occasion1 and on their way from the station the carriage drove past the house where ,whalley had lived4 ,as it passed by ,thomas stood at the window flourishing a piece of blue paper4 ,the solicitor1 seeing this1 jumped to the conclusion that this paper was the blue will1 which ,thomas was flourishing out of bravado1 to show that he had beaten them4 ,this led him to make further inquiries1 which finally resulted in his concluding that the white will was a forgery4 ,as the ,court of ,chancery regarded the question as one to be decided by a jury the case was tried in the ,queen's ,bench ,division1 eminent counsel being engaged on each side4 ,evidence was given by ,david ,reece1 whose name appeared upon the will as one of the witnesses4 ,he swore that he had never seen ,whalley sign a will1 but that1 together with the other witness1 ,nash1 he had put his signature above ,whalley's signature on a piece of white paper on which was some writing in pencil4 ,other evidence was then called to prove that shortly before his death ,whalley had asked ,thomas to write a letter in pencil to ,priestman1 to which he had appended his signature in ink4 ,this letter ,priestman had never received4 ,the inference1 therefore1 from this evidence was that the will had been written upon a sheet of paper from which pencil writing had been erased4 ,a minute examination of the white will disclosed the presence of traces of the pencil marks1 and words could be sufficiently deciphered to show that they had formed part of a letter4 ,the evidence of a number of expert witnesses1 including ,mr4 ,holmes1 the librarian of ,windsor ,castle1 made clear the manner in which pencil marks upon paper which had apparently been erased might reappear4 ,when india-rubber is passed over the surface of the paper it removes part of the fibres of the material but only doubles over another portion1 so that in time the latter may unroll again and uncover the writing which had for a time been concealed by it4 ,it was proved further that the words which had now reappeared upon the paper were in the handwriting of ,thomas4 ,the expert evidence that was brought fully confirmed the story of the witness ,reece1 and the white will was pronounced a forgery4 ,subsequently ,thomas was tried on this charge and was convicted and sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude4 ,it is strange to reflect that had it not been for his being unable to resist the temptation of showing his triumph over his rivals1 by flourishing a blue paper1 his ingenious fraud would in all probability never have been detected4 ,it is scarcely likely that this paper was the original blue will4 ,in any case1 the latter was never discovered1 but the ,courts held on the evidence laid before them that its intention should hold good1 and that the money should go to ,priestman4 99 99 99 99 99 ,an elaborately designed forgery was detected in #ahia by the evidence furnished by the different documents4 ,an action was brought by a man named ,howe against the executors of a ,mr4 ,ashton to recover #a1cge1 which he alleged1 had been given him in a cheque shortly before the testator's death4 ,the body of the cheque was admitted to be in the handwriting of ,howe who said that he had written it at ,ashton's request4 ,the cheque was signed ,b4 ,ashton1 whereas in the cheques 7produced by ,mr4 ,ashton's bank7 for many years previously1 the signature was invariably ,benj4 ,ashton1 and the shorter signature was only employed in letters4 ,the evidence went to show that ,howe had traced the signature from one of these letters4 ,a further discrepancy was apparent in the form of the figure seven1 ,howe invariably forming it laboriously and with a vertical stroke at the top1 whereas ,ashton had always made it in a continuous stroke4 ,in support of his statement ,howe produced some memoranda of sums due to himself1 which he asserted to be the handwriting of ,ashton4 ,in these the figure seven was invariably formed in the same way as ,howe made it1 while the figure was never made in that fashion by ,ashton4 ,to account for one sum of #bjj1 which he claimed to have lent to the deceased1 ,howe stated that he had borrowed the sum from his mother-in-law1 and in corroboration produced a promissory note which he said he had given her at the time4 ,the note was dated #ahhi1 and the date-mark to have coincided with this should have been #hi4 ,an examination of this document suggested to the judge1 ,mr4 ,justice ,wills1 that there had been some tampering with the date4 ,a hole in the paper came where the #h should have been1 the explanation offered for this being that the paper had been put upon a file4 ,the appearance of the curve of what was left of the first letter1 however1 was not like the curve of an #h1 and by carefully working at the back of the paper with an instrument1 the torn edges of the hole were pushed back into their place1 and the figures of the year #ahij were made plainly visible4 ,so carefully thought out had this fraud been that it took twelve days to unravel the whole matter4 ,after the exposures described above ,howe naturally lost his case1 and the papers were sent to the ,public ,prosecutor4 ,subsequently ,howe was tried at the ,old ,bailey for forgery and convicted4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the trial of ,frederick ,pilcher at the ,old ,bailey in ,july1 #aiaj1 on the charge of forging his cousin's will1 was notable as being the first occasion upon which chemical evidence as to the age of modern inks has been given4 ,pilcher1 who was a naval architect and colonel in the ,territorials1 in ,liverpool1 had for many years been on very friendly terms with his cousin1 ,marian ,lilian ,kerferd1 and had been entrusted by her with the management of some of her property4 ,miss ,kerferd died in ,march1 #aiji1 leaving an unsigned will in which she divided the bulk of her estate1 amounting to #bj1jjj to #cj1jjj1 between various relatives1 while only #acj a year was left to ,colonel ,pilcher1 whom she had appointed her executor4 ,shortly after her death ,pilcher produced a signed will bearing the date of #ahih1 which he stated he had found among the papers of the deceased1 and in this will he was left the whole of the property and appointed sole executor4 ,he obtained probate of this will and took possession of the estate1 dealing liberally with the members of the family mentioned in the unsigned will4 ,the relations1 however1 were not satisfied with this state of affairs1 and ,mr4 ,frank ,stokes1 as next-of-kin1 brought an action1 which ,colonel ,pilcher did not defend1 and succeeded in getting the probate set aside1 and the deceased lady was declared to have died intestate4 ,in the meantime the prisoner had succeeded in spending about #e1jjj of the estate4 ,when arrested he stoutly denied that the will was a forgery1 but after evidence had been given at ,bow ,street he was committed for trial4 ,the writing upon the will showed a close resemblance to that of ,miss ,kerferd1 but the bank manager of the deceased lady stated in the witness-box that in his opinion it was an imitation4 ,a remarkable fact was brought out in his evidence4 ,up to the year #aijc ,miss ,kerferd had invariably formed the letter with a particular loop1 and this was seen upon all the cheques1 which had been retained by the bank4 ,after that date1 however1 she made her k's in a totally different manner1 and the looping of former years never occurred in any of her writing4 ,now in the will alleged to have been written in #ahih it was significant that the k's were formed in the manner of later years1 and not as ,miss ,kerferd made them in #ahih4 ,certain mistakes of spelling in the will were also characteristic of the prisoner1 whereas ,miss ,kerferd never made such slips4 ,the names of the witnesses upon the will1 which by the way were also wrongly spelled1 were those of men who had been dead several years1 but their relatives gave evidence that these signatures were not genuine4 ,evidence was also given by the present writer as to the age of the ink upon the alleged will4 ,the body of the will and the signatures of both witnesses were all written in the same kind of ink--a fact of importance in connection with the half-confession subsequently made by the prisoner4 ,on his appearance at the ,old ,bailey1 ,pilcher was defended by ,mr4 ,marshall ,hall1 and after two days' trial1 he acted upon the advice of his counsel and agreed to plead guilty to uttering the will1 though he persisted in his denial of having forged it4 ,when the prisoner's counsel rose to make this statement there was dead silence1 for everyone in court was aware that something unusual had happened1 and there passed over the room one of those feelings of tension that make each individual in a crowd lose sight of everything except the unfolding of the drama before them4 ,after calling several witnesses to the good character of the prisoner1 ,mr4 ,marshall ,hall made a strong appeal for mercy4 ,colonel ,pilcher1 he said1 had been a very intimate friend of this lady1 who had frequently expressed the intention of leaving him her money4 ,unfortunately1 having put off signing her will from day to day1 she had died without carrying out that intention1 and unluckily for him the prisoner had found a will among her papers1 but without the signatures of the testatrix or witnesses4 ,he now owned that the signatures were not genuine1 but did not know how they had been put upon the will4 ,in uttering the will he had only been attempting to carry out the wish of the dead woman4 ,in mitigation of his offence it was pointed out that he had not spent all the money he might have done1 that he was over sixty years of age1 and that his wife who had known nothing of this unfortunate liaison of her husband freely forgave him for any pain he might have caused her4 ,before sentence was passed ,mr4 ,muir1 who conducted the case for the prosecution1 protested against the explanation of the finding of the will that had been given in this confession1 and said that in face of the evidence that the ink upon the will was not more than six years old he could not accept the view that the prisoner was not the forger of the document4 ,the judge1 in passing sentence1 said that even now the prisoner had not made a clean breast of the matter1 for they were still in the dark as to who had signed the names upon the will4 ,however1 taking into account the good character that had been given to the accused by those who had known him1 and the points urged in his favour1 he did not think that the extreme measure of penal servitude was deserved1 and the sentence would be one of three years' penal servitude4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,identification ,,of ,,human ,,blood ,,and ,,human ,,hair ,structure of ,blood--,human ,blood--,blood of ,animals--,blood ,crystals--,libellers of ,sir ,e4 ,godfrey--,trial of ,nation in #aheg--,physiological ,tests--,precipitines--,first ,trial in ,france--,gorse ,hall ,trials--,human ,hair--,hairs of ,animals4 ,in its structure blood may be described as a colourless fluid1 the plasma having in suspension small solid substances--the red and white corpuscles4 ,the plasma may be separated into a coagulated body termed fibrin and a transparent liquid called the serum4 ,when blood coagulates1 or forms clots1 it forms a solid mass in which the red corpuscles are bound up in the fibrous mass of fibrin4 ,the process of coagulation is promoted by moderate heat1 slight dilution with water1 and exposure to the air1 while it is retarded by cold1 strongly heating1 great dilution and the addition of various chemical agents4 ,the red corpuscles differ in size and shape according to the species of animal4 ,thus in human blood and in the blood of most mammalia they appear as double concave circular discs1 while in the blood of the camel and in that of birds1 reptiles and fish the red corpuscles are elliptical in form4 ,the number of corpuscles present is also subject to great variations1 the blood of amphibia and reptiles1 for instance1 containing remarkably few4 ,the following numbers in #ajj parts of the blood of different animals have been recorded3 ,horse1 #ec2 pig1 #dce2 ox1 #ce2 dog1 #ceg2 and man1 #dh corpuscles4 ,the colour of blood is due to a compound known as hmoglobin1 which constitutes about #dj per cent4 of the substance of the corpuscles4 ,in the bright red arterial blood the hmoglobin is present in the form of oxyhmoglobin1 and the latter may be separated in crystalline form by suitable treatment of the separated red blood corpuscles4 ,these crystals differ in the case of different animals both in their chemical and physical characteristics1 and have very different forms4 ,there are also similarly pronounced differences between the microscopical appearance of oxyhmoglobin crystals from human blood and from that of various animals4 ,the crystals from human blood are in the form of long rhombic needles2 those from the blood of the horse are quadrilateral prisms2 the blood of the guinea-pig1 rat1 and many birds yield rhombic tetrahedea2 while that of the squirrel gives hexagonal plates4 ,crystals of other compounds of hmoglobin1 such as hmin1 differing in the case of different species of animals may also be prepared1 and the identity of oxyhmoglobin may also be proved by its characteristic appearance in the spectroscope4 ,it is1 therefore1 under favourable conditions1 not a very difficult matter to distinguish between the fresh blood of1 say1 a man and a squirrel by means of these characteristic differences4 ,it is rarely1 however1 that the problem is presented in such a simple form in criminal work1 in which usually all that is available for the investigation is the dried stain upon some garment or the clot upon a rusty knife4 ,one of the most widely employed tests is to dissolve a little of the material in acetic acid containing a little common salt1 to apply a gentle heat to the microscope slide1 and then to notice under the microscope whether hmin crystals are formed4 ,where the stain is upon iron it is often impossible to prepare hmin crystals1 and in such cases hydrogen peroxide is used as a reagent4 ,this compound1 when brought into contact with a fragment of the material moistened with alkaline water1 gives off in the presence of blood1 bubbles of oxygen1 which gradually form a white scum4 ,experiments made by ,m4 ,cotton have shown that the blood of different animals varies in the intensity of its action upon hydrogen peroxide4 ,thus human blood liberates about twice as much oxygen as the blood of the horse or pig1 nearly four times as much as that of the ox and guinea-pig1 and about ten times as much as the blood of the sheep4 ,unfortunately other animal fluids have a similar action upon hydrogen peroxide1 and the test can therefore only be regarded as corroborative evidence of the results obtained by other tests4 ,attempts have sometimes been made by murderers to remove blood-stains by treatment with chemical agents1 so as to prevent their identification4 ,for instance1 in the trial of ,misters for murder at ,shrewsbury1 in #ahda1 a solution of alum was found in his room1 and it was supposed that he had removed the blood from his shirt by treatment with this4 ,he was convicted1 however1 upon other evidence4 ,the identification of blood-stains upon rusty weapons is a more difficult matter than in the case of stains upon linen4 ,the action of the acid salts of fruits upon the iron may produce an appearance very similar to that of a blood-stain1 the citrate of iron formed having a reddish colour which on more than one occasion has misled even a surgeon4 ,a case of this kind happened in #ahch in ,paris4 ,a man who had been accused of murdering his uncle1 whose heir he was1 was found to have a knife on the blade of which were stains1 which everyone who saw them said were blood-stains4 ,a chemical examination1 however1 which was made in the presence of the magistrate and the prisoner1 proved that they consisted of citrate of iron1 and had been produced by cutting a lemon and neglecting to wipe the blade after use4 ,it has frequently happened in the past that the opinion of policemen or witnesses without any special knowledge of the subject has been taken in criminal cases on the point whether stains upon clothes or on a weapon consisted or did not consist of blood4 ,this practice was obviously a dangerous one1 since even by the modern methods of examination it is not always a simple matter to be sure of the fact4 ,until a comparatively recent date the tests for blood-stains were based upon bringing the colouring matter of the blood into solution and applying chemical tests to establish its identity4 ,the necessity for scientific proof of the presence of blood-stains is shown by numerous cases in which stains of similar colour have at first been attributed to blood4 ,thus in a case related in ,taylor's ,forensic ,medicine a man was arrested in #ahdj on suspicion of being connected with a murder in ,islington4 ,he had in his possession a sack on which were numerous stains supposed to be dried and coagulated blood4 ,when these were examined1 however1 they were found to be due to red paint4 ,in another case1 a man who was suspected of a murder was found to have red stains on his shirt and collar1 but as these would not dissolve in water they could not have been due to blood4 ,subsequently it was found that they had been caused by the man going out in the wet with a red handkerchief round his neck4 ,an early example of the way in which the evidence of an unskilled witness has been accepted upon the subject of blood is seen in the evidence given in #afhb at the trial of ,thompson1 ,pain and ,farwell for libel4 ,the libel arose out of the earlier trial in #afgi of ,robert ,green and others for the murder of ,sir ,edmund ,godfrey1 who had been waylaid and apparently strangled4 ,this trial was one of those arising out of the so-called ,popish ,plot1 and upon the evidence of ,titus ,oates1 ,miles ,praunce and others the prisoners were convicted and executed4 ,subsequently a letter to ,mr4 ,praunce appeared in ,the ,loyal ,protestant ,intelligence1 which sought to make out that false evidence had been given at the murder trial1 and that ,sir ,edmund ,godfrey had not been strangled at all1 but had committed suicide4 ,in the words of the prosecuting counsel for the prisoners--they say that if a man or any other creature be strangled or hanged and the body cold and the blood settled in the veins 7as he must be if your evidence be true1 meaning the evidence of the said ,miles ,praunce74 ,run twenty swords through such a body not one drop of blood will come out2 but1 on the contrary1 his body when found was full of blood4 ,so that they do aver that that wound that he received by that sword must be the cause of death4 ,william ,batson1 who was one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution1 stated3 ,they showed me in a ditch where they said he lay some blood4 ,i cannot say it was his blood2 and going a little further ,i saw some more whitish blood1 and this is all ,i can swear4 ,the ,lord ,chief ,justice 7,scroggs7 then asked if the weather had been frosty1 to which the witness replied3 ,my lord1 ,i cannot tell whether it was1 but ,i will assure you the blood looked to me more like blood that was laid there than anything else4 ,after a lengthy trial1 in which the main evidence of the former trial1 which was quite unconvincing1 was repeated1 the prisoners were found guilty of traducing the justice of the nation and two of them were sentenced to stand for an hour in the pillory and pay a fine of #ajj each1 while the third escaped with the fine only4 ,where stains have been found upon the clothes or on a weapon in possession of an accused person and have been proved to consist of blood1 the defence has frequently been set up that they were caused by the blood from a sheep that had been killed or from handling game4 ,ten years ago1 prior to the discovery of the serum test1 it would not have been possible1 except in the cases where the blood corpuscles could be examined1 to prove or disprove this except by corroborative evidence4 ,there was no chemical means of determining whether an old blood stain had been caused by the blood of a man or that of an animal4 ,taylor1 writing in #ahdd upon this point1 observes3 ,some ,french medical jurists state that by mixing fresh blood with a certain portion of sulphuric acid and agitating the mixture with a glass rod a peculiar odour is evolved which differs in the blood of man and animals1 and also in the blood of the two sexes4 ,this odour1 it is said1 resembles that of the cutaneous exhalation of the animal1 the blood of which is the subject of experiment4 ,they have hereby pretended to determine whether any given specimen of blood had belonged to a man1 a woman1 a horse1 sheep1 or fish4 ,others pretend that they have been able to identify the blood of frogs and fleas6 ,as ,taylor pertinently observes of this3 ,there is probably not one individual among a thousand whose sense of smelling would be so acute as to allow him to state with undeniable certainty1 from what kind of animal the unknown blood had really been taken4 ,any evidence short of this would not be received in an ,english court of law4 ,on the first occasion upon which scientific evidence as to the difference between the blood of man and of animals was given in a criminal trial the remarks made by the judge 7,lord ,chief ,justice ,cockburn7 to the jury showed that he was sceptical as to the powers claimed by the chemical witness of distinguishing between different kinds of blood4 ,in this case1 which was tried at the ,taunton ,assizes1 in #aheg1 a man had been found with his throat cut1 and collateral evidence pointed to a man named ,nation being the murderer4 ,when he was arrested he was found to have a knife upon him on which were stains that appeared to be blood1 but the prisoner accounted for these by saying that he had recently been cutting raw beef with the knife4 ,the chemical evidence1 however1 went to prove that coagulation of the blood had not occurred until after it had come into contact with the knife1 or1 in other words1 that the blade had been plunged into living blood4 ,moreover it was stated by this witness that the blood could not have been that of an ox1 pig or sheep1 since the corpuscles were smaller than those of human blood1 whereas the corpuscles of the blood upon the knife were of the same dimensions as those of human blood4 ,the relative sizes of human corpuscles compared with those of the animals mentioned were stated to be as fifty-three to thirty-four in the case of the ox2 as fifty-two to thirty-four in sheep's blood2 and as forty-five to thirty-four in pig's blood4 ,the judge1 in his summing up1 made the following comments upon the evidence3 ,the witness had said that the blood upon the knife could not be the blood of an animal as stated by the prisoner1 and took upon himself to say it could not be the blood of a dead animal2 that it was living blood and that it was human blood2 and he had shown them the marvellous powers of the modern microscope4 ,at the same time1 admitting the great advantages of science1 they were coming to great niceties indeed1 when they speculated upon things almost beyond perception1 and he would advise the jury not to convict on this scientific speculation alone4 ,the jury found the prisoner guilty upon evidence other than this scientific speculation1 the novelty of which probably prevented the judge from accepting it as a demonstration of facts which might be verified or disproved4 ,the application of a remarkable discovery in physiological chemistry has now made it possible to determine whether a blood-stain consists of the blood of any particular kind of animal4 ,in #ahih it was discovered by ,bordet that on injecting serum of cow's milk into a small animal1 such as a rabbit1 which was then killed after a lapse of some weeks1 the serum separated from its blood would produce a precipitate in cow's milk4 ,this discovery was supplemented by ,wassermann1 who1 in #aijj1 found that it was possible in this way to distinguish between the milk of different kinds of animals1 and he suggested the name precipitines for these specific precipitating agents formed in the sera of animals4 ,then ,dr4 von ,rigler showed that the method might be employed to distinguish between the flesh of different kinds of animals4 ,illustration3 ,,goat',s ,,hair ,a4 ,apex of ,fibre4 ,b4 ,root4 ,c4 ,fibre showing central canal or medulla4 ,illustration3 ,,cow',s ,,hair ,a and ,b4 ,fibres showing central canal or medulla4 ,c4 ,apex of ,fibre4 ,by kind permission of ,messrs4 ,scott ,greenwood ,co4 ,he prepared a #bj per cent4 aqueous extract from the flesh of seven different species of animals1 and injected small proportions of these beneath the skin of rabbits at intervals of three days4 ,after a month the animals were killed1 and the serum of the blood separated in a centrifugal machine4 ,in each case the specific sera were added to the clear filtered aqueous extracts of the flesh of the respective animals1 and the tubes examined after the lapse of a specified time4 ,it was found that the sera only gave a turbidity or precipitate with the corresponding extracts4 ,thus the serum from the rabbit which had been treated with an extract of horseflesh only gave a reaction with preparations of horseflesh1 and not with those of venison1 beef1 mutton or pork4 ,in like manner1 the serum from a rabbit that had been treated with an extract of rabbit's flesh1 only reacted with extracts of rabbit's flesh1 and not with those prepared from the flesh of cats1 horses1 or other animals1 and so on4 ,in the case of mixtures the specific sera only reacted with extracts of the flesh of the two animals in question4 ,thus a rabbit treated with an extract from a mixture of the flesh of a hare1 cow1 deer1 and pig1 yielded a serum giving a precipitate with the extracts of the flesh of each of those animals1 but not with that from any other animal4 ,it was not long before the possibility of using the method to distinguish between the blood of different kinds of animals suggested itself1 and it was shown by ,dr4 de ,nobel in #aijb1 that by treating a mouse or rabbit with any fluid1 such as blood serum or saliva from a human body1 it eventually produced a serum that would give a precipitate with human blood1 but not with the blood of different species of animals4 ,reactions were also obtained with old human blood4 ,thus stains on linen from several days to two months in age1 when treated with dilute solutions of common salt gave a solution which yielded a precipitate with the prepared rabbit's serum4 ,no reaction was obtained1 however1 with the preparation from a blood-stain nine years old or with that from blood which had been dried in a high temperature4 ,it was also found that the specific sera could be evaporated in a vacuum without losing their activity1 and that the dried residues could be preserved in sealed tubes in the dark1 and mixed with water when required for use4 ,other investigators showed that it was possible to separate the active agent by adding magnesium sulphate to the serum1 and that the precipitate could be dried and kept for a long period4 ,by dissolving it in water at any time a liquid with the specific properties of the original serum could then be obtained4 ,later work has shown that this serum test is not quite so absolute as was at first believed4 ,thus1 if the blood serum to be tested be used in too concentrated a form it may give a reaction with a serum that is not specific to it1 though even in that case the precipitate will only appear slowly and its amount will be insignificant in comparison with that obtained when the two liquids correspond4 ,the error is obviated by using extremely dilute solutions for the test1 and when proper precautions are taken a solution of normal blood serum containing one part in #a1jjj invariably gives a reliable reaction with its corresponding prepared serum4 ,in more concentrated solutions there is an abundant deposit at the bottom of the tube within thirty minutes1 whereas in the case of sera1 which are not specific to the prepared serum1 the formation of precipitate does not begin until the tube has stood for an hour or more4 ,illustration3 ,,fibres ,,of ,,chinese ,,silks1 ,,showing ,,cross ,,section ,illustration3 ,,kangaroo',s ,,hair ,illustration3 ,,human ,,hair ,illustration3 ,a4 ,hair of a ,cat ,b4 ,hair of a ,dog ,by kind permission of ,messrs4 ,scott ,greenwood ,co4 ,an interesting exception to the rule is that the serum from the blood of anthropoid apes gives a pronounced reaction with serum that has been made specific for human blood1 and vice versa4 ,as it is not possible to carry out control tests with an indefinite number of animals a positive result obtained in the examination of a particular stain justifies a report that the blood was 7e4g47 probably human blood and certainly not that of any common domestic animal4 ,on the other hand1 the results of a negative test justify a much more positive statement4 ,thus on the first occasion in which evidence was given as to the results of this test1 which was in a criminal case in ,france in #aijb1 the prisoner had asserted that certain incriminating stains had been caused by the blood of a rabbit4 ,a serum specific for rabbit's blood serum was therefore prepared1 and the stains dissolved and tested as described above4 ,no sign of precipitate was obtained within thirty minutes after applying the test and evidence was therefore given that the stain certainly did not consist of rabbits' blood4 ,on the other hand1 a serum made specific for human blood gave an immediate precipitate with the solution of the stain1 which1 therefore1 in all probability consisted of human blood4 ,although this method of testing blood-stains has been used on the ,continent for several years1 it is only within the past twelve months that it has been employed in a criminal case in this country4 ,apparently the first occasion was in the recent trial of ,mark ,wilde for the murder of ,mr4 ,george ,storrs1 a mill-owner1 at ,gorse ,hall4 ,evidence was given that old stains were present upon the outside of the sleeve of the prisoner's blue serge coat1 although they were not visible to the naked eye4 ,these were found to consist of mammalian blood1 and the serum test for human blood gave a positive reaction4 ,it was1 of course1 impossible to form any idea as to the age of the stains1 and the witness1 ,dr4 ,wilcox1 refused even to give an estimate upon this point4 ,a simple method of applying the serum test has recently been discovered4 ,a small quantity of human serum is placed into a series of tubes1 and into each of these is next introduced one drop of the fresh blood of different animals diluted with salt solution1 or of the dried blood dissolved in that liquid4 ,the tubes are now allowed to stand for thirty to forty-five minutes and are then examined4 ,if in the case of the blood of unknown origin there is a faint red precipitate 7of coagulated blood7 leaving the upper liquid quite clear1 the blood is of human origin4 ,on the other hand1 the blood of other species of animals will have dissolved in the human serum1 colouring it red4 ,illustration3 ,,rabbit',s ,,hair ,illustration3 ,,horse ,,hair ,by kind permission of ,messrs4 ,scott ,greenwood ,co4 ,if the tubes are charged in the first place with the blood of the horse1 ox1 or other animal1 the corresponding blood is coagulated1 while that of any other animal dissolves4 ,in this way it is possible to apply the physiological test without the necessity of preparing a special serum by inoculation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,from time to time in criminal trials1 the latest instance being in the ,crippen case1 the question occurs whether a given specimen of hair is of human origin or has been derived from an animal4 ,thanks to the pronounced difference in appearance shown by hairs of different origin when viewed under the microscope there is no difficulty in giving a positive answer to this question4 ,human hair is characterised by being fairly uniform in diameter throughout most of its length and then tapering gradually to a fine point4 ,the hair of an infant has very few scales upon its surface1 and these stand out prominently1 but in the case of an adult the scales are very numerous and appear closely pressed against the axis of the fibre4 ,another peculiar point of difference between the hair of a young child and that of a full-grown person is that in the case of the former there are some particulars in which the hair resembles that of certain animals4 ,thus it has a jointed appearance recalling to some extent the structure of the fibres of merino wool4 ,in the hair of many animals the medulla1 or central canal1 is plainly visible under the microscope1 but such medullated fibres are apparently not formed in the case of human hair4 ,as the hair of many domestic animals might on superficial examination be mistaken for human hair1 it is essential to take note of the characteristic differences1 some of which are shown in the accompanying figures4 ,three types of hair are found upon the cow1 viz43 thick beard hairs1 showing a medulla1 soft woolly hairs1 and fine beard hairs1 both of which are without a medulla4 ,in those fibres in which it is present the medulla is very pronounced and tapers towards the apex4 ,the hair of the calf has the same structure as that of the cow4 ,horse-hair is characterised by its lustrous cylindrical appearance4 ,the commercial fibre is mainly derived from the mane and tail1 and is much thicker and stiffer than the hairs from the body1 which are those most likely to be met with in criminal investigations4 ,as a rule1 the latter are less than an inch in length1 and the medullary canal is well marked4 ,in rabbit's hair the medulla is also very pronounced and is characterised by its structure of curious quadrilateral cells1 which may either form a single row or increase to four or eight rows as the hair becomes wider4 ,on the surface of the hair are numerous scales which fit into one another after the manner of the joints in a bamboo cane4 ,the chief commercial use of the rabbit's hair1 which is usually about half an inch in length1 is the manufacture of linings for hats4 ,the hair of the cat has a superficial resemblance to that of the thinner hairs of the rabbit4 ,the medullary canal is very prominent1 and occupies more than half of the fibre4 ,it is made up of a single series of quadrilateral cells1 but unlike the cells in rabbit's hair1 these may form additional layers in the thicker parts of the hair4 ,the hair is generally a little over half an inch in length1 and tapers to a fine point4 ,illustration3 ,,wool ,,fibres ,from different breeds of ,sheep ,by kind permission of ,messrs4 ,scott ,greenwood ,co4 7,,irish ,,wether7 7,,new ,,zealand7 7,,north ,,hog7 ,,queensland ,,sheep 7,,lincoln ,,wether7 7,,argentine ,,cross ,,breed7 ,dog's hair differs from the hair of the cat both in size and appearance4 ,it is about three times as wide1 while the medullary canal only occupies about one quarter of the diameter of the fibre4 ,the surface of the hair is covered with characteristic scales1 the edges of which project1 so that the edge of the fibre has a saw-like appearance4 ,the accompanying plate shows hair taken from a ,pekin spaniel and ,persian kitten1 and drawn to the same scale of magnification 7#ajd diameters74 ,in the hair of the kangaroo the serrated edge of the fibres1 due to projecting scales1 is much more pronounced than in dog's hair4 ,the medulla is well marked1 but lacks the cellular structure to be seen in the hair of the cat and rabbit4 ,goat's hair could not possibly be mistaken for human hair under the microscope4 ,it has a root of characteristic appearance1 and shows a well-marked medulla containing a structure of narrow cells4 ,towards the middle the hair becomes very narrow1 but expands again and reaches its greatest diameter a little before the point4 ,sheep's wool is characterised by its surface structure of scales1 the arrangement of which differs in the wool from different breeds of sheep4 ,in some of the fibres the medullary canal is very manifest4 ,typical fibres of sheep's wool are shown in the figures4 ,it is often necessary to distinguish between fabrics of cotton1 linen1 silk and wool1 and in such cases the microscopical appearance of the fibres is invaluable as a preliminary test4 ,cotton is characterised by its curious corkscrew-like twists1 and linen by its jointed structure1 while silk has a long smooth cylindrical fibre1 devoid of scales and showing little sign of structural formation4 ,in criminal cases neither cotton nor silk are likely to be claimed as human hair1 although one may easily conceive the possibility of occasions arising where the composition of a peculiar material was a point of the utmost importance4 ,illustration3 ,,cotton ,,fibres ,illustration3 ,,flax ,,fibres ,by kind permission of ,messrs4 ,scott ,greenwood ,co4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,early ,,poisoning ,,trials ,murder of ,sir ,t4 ,overbury--,mary ,blandy--,katherine ,nairn ,merely to mention the word poisoner calls up a long succession of notorious crimes of the past1 not to speak of the still more frequent cases where poisoning was suspected1 though probably1 often enough1 with but little justification4 ,less than three centuries ago the fact that illness and death had come suddenly to any well-known person1 was often sufficient to raise the whisper of suspicion2 and any disease that did not yield to the favourite treatment of bleeding1 and for which the physicians were for the moment unable even to find a name1 was sure to be attributed by popular gossip to the action of poison or witchcraft1 or of both4 ,the mysterious effect of certain substances upon the animal system and the fact that a knowledge of the nature of poisonous herbs was part of the lore of the old women who dealt in love-philtres1 fully explains this association of poison with black magic4 ,in one of the earliest trials for poisoning of which we have any detailed account--that of ,richard ,weston in #afae--this belief in the miraculous power of the poisoner was present in the mind of the ,lord ,chief ,justice 7,coke7 when in his charge to the grand jury he said that ,the devil had taught divers to be cunning in poisoning so that they can poison in what distance of space they please by consuming the calidum or humidum radicale in one month1 two1 or three or more as they list2 which they four manners of ways do execute 7#a7 gustu2 7#b7 haustu2 7#c7 odore2 7#d7 contactu4 ,again1 in the trial of ,anne ,turner1 also for the murder of ,sir ,thomas ,overbury 7#afae71 evidence was given that she was in possession of parchments1 some of which contained the names of the blessed ,trinity2 others on which were written ,b ,c ,d ,e2 and another with a figure in which was inscribed the word corpus1 and to which was fastened a little piece of the skin of a man4 ,in some of these parchments were the names of devils who were conjured to torment the ,lord ,somerset and ,sir ,a4 ,mainwaring if their loves should not continue--the one to the ,countess and the other to ,mrs4 ,turner4 ,reading over the evidence of this trial one can hardly doubt but that this alleged sorcery had considerable weight in the conviction of ,anne ,turner2 for1 as will be shown presently1 there was no conclusive evidence of poison having been given at all4 ,the widespread hatred of witchcraft and the readiness with which any evidence of this description was accepted as a proof of poisoning1 must have rendered it almost impossible for an unpopular character to be acquitted when accused of poisoning anyone4 ,the belief in witchcraft was very general in the seventeenth century1 and medical men were even called in to give their expert opinion on behalf of the prosecution in the trials of those charged with being witches4 ,the most striking instance of this kind was at the trial of the ,suffolk witches in #affe1 before ,sir ,matthew ,hale1 ,baron of ,exchequer4 ,it was alleged that the two women1 ,rose ,cullender and ,amy ,duny1 of ,lowestoft1 had bewitched a number of children with whose parents they had had disputes4 ,the children1 according to the evidence of various witnesses1 had been afflicted in different ways1 being sometimes blind1 or deaf1 or lame1 and then suddenly recovering4 ,and1 in particular1 it was stated that they would go into fits and after every fit would vomit crooked pins or twopenny nails with broad heads4 ,illustration3 ,,anne ,,turner ,mr4 ,sergeant ,keeling1 who was present1 was not satisfied with this evidence and considered that it was not sufficient to convict the prisoners4 ,dr4 ,browne1 of ,norwich 7the ,sir ,thomas ,browne whose fame rests upon his ,religio ,medici71 was then asked to state what he thought of the evidence1 and said that he was clearly of opinion that the persons were bewitched4 ,he said further ,that in ,denmark there had been lately a great discovery of witches1 who used the very same way of afflicting persons by conveying pins into them1 and crooked as these pins were1 with needles and nails4 ,and his opinion was that the devil in such cases did work upon the bodies of men and women1 upon a natural foundation 7that is7 to stir up and excite such humours super-abounding in their bodies to a great excess1 whereby he did in an extraordinary manner afflict them with such distempers as their bodies were most subject to1 as particularly appeared in these children2 for he conceived that these swooning fits were natural1 and nothing else1 but only heightened to a great excess by the subtlety of the devil1 co-operating with the witches1 at whose instance he doth these villainies4 ,this evidence is quoted at length1 as showing the opinion of scientific men of that time upon the subject of witchcraft4 ,it had great weight with the jury1 and helped to make up for the lack of any real evidence against the poor women4 ,further evidence was given that at the least touch of one of these supposed witches1 ,rose ,cullender by name1 the children would shriek out1 opening their hands1 which accident would not happen by the touch of any other person4 ,a test was therefore applied in court1 and a number of those present were directed by the judge to attend one of the distempered persons in the further part of the hall1 while she was in her fits1 and then to send for one of the witches to try what would happen1 which they did accordingly3 and ,amy ,duny was conveyed from the bar and brought to the maid3 they put an apron before her eyes1 and then one other person touched her hand1 which produced the same effect as the touch of the witch did in the court4 ,whereupon the gentlemen returned openly protesting that they did believe the whole transaction of this business was a mere imposture4 ,but even this test1 which was plain proof of imposture1 was distorted into evidence against the witches1 and ,mr4 ,pacy1 the father of one of the children1 declared ,that possibly the maid might be deceived by a suspicion1 that the witch touched her when she did not1 and that she apprehended that the person who had done her this wrong was near4 ,additional evidence was afterwards brought to prove other acts of witchcraft by the prisoners4 ,the judge1 in giving his direction to the jury1 did not attempt to deal with the evidence lest by so doing he should wrong the evidence on one side or other1 but contented himself with pointing out that there were such creatures as witches1 as was shown by the ,scriptures and the laws made by all nations against such persons4 ,the jury retired1 and after deliberating for about half an hour1 found both prisoners guilty1 and the judge sentenced them to be hanged4 ,they were repeatedly urged to make a confession1 but were executed without having done so4 ,campbell writing of this trial says3 ,hale's motives were most laudable2 but he furnishes a memorable instance of the mischiefs originating from superstition4 ,he was afraid of an acquittal or a pardon1 lest countenance should be given to a disbelief in witchcraft1 which he considered tantamount to a disbelief in ,christianity4 ,the following ,sunday he wrote a ',meditation concerning the mercy of ,god in preserving us from the malice and power of ,evil ,angels' in which he refers with complacency to the trial over which he had presided at ,bury ,st4 ,edmunds4 ,towards the end of the seventeenth century the belief in witchcraft became less general1 and the last trial in this country took place in #agab at the ,hertford ,assizes1 when the prisoner was convicted but not executed4 ,it was not until #ahba1 however1 that the statute with regard to witchcraft was repealed in ,ireland4 ,after the beginning of the eighteenth century there does not appear to have been any attempt made to prove the use of the powers of witchcraft in poisoning trials1 and the evidence as to poisoning gradually became of a more convincing character than it was1 for instance1 in the series of trials of the murder of ,sir ,thomas ,overbury in #afae in the ,tower of ,london1 to which reference has already been made4 ,the prisoners in these trials included ,anne ,turner1 ,richard ,weston1 ,franklyn1 ,sir ,thomas ,elwes 7the ,lieutenant of the ,tower71 and the ,countess of ,somerset4 ,it was alleged that the ,countess of ,somerset resented the interference of ,sir ,thomas ,overbury1 then a prisoner in the ,tower1 in her matrimonial schemes1 or as ,franklyn put it in his evidence3 ,the ,countess had told him that ,sir ,thomas ,overbury would pry so far into their affairs that it would overthrow them all4 ,richard ,weston1 who had been an apothecary's man but had afterwards become under-keeper to the ,lieutenant of the ,tower1 was arraigned on the charge that he did obtain at the ,tower of ,london certain poison of green and yellow colour called rosalgar 7knowing the same to be deadly poison71 and the same did feloniously and maliciously mingle and compound in a kind of broth which he did deliver to the said ,sir ,t4 ,overbury with intent to kill and poison4 ,he was also accused of giving on other occasions poisons called white arsenick and mercury sublimate1 which he put and mingled in tarts and jellies4 ,weston refused to answer1 and stood mute on ,god1 until it was pointed out by the ,lord ,chief ,justice 7,coke7 that refusing to speak was punishable by the rack1 exposure and starvation1 and would have the same consequence as a conviction by a verdict or by confession4 ,anne ,turner1 who was tried as one of the accomplices1 was the widow of a physician1 and a friend of the ,countess4 ,she pleaded ,not guilty to the charge4 ,the evidence as to sorcery used by her has already been mentioned1 but the chief witness against her was ,james ,franklyn1 who made the following confession3-- ,mrs4 ,turner came to me from the ,countess and wished me from her to get the strongest poison ,i could for ,sir ,t4 ,overbury4 ,accordingly ,i bought seven1 viz43 ,aqua fortis1 white arsenick1 mercury1 powder of diamonds1 lapis costitus1 great spiders1 and cantharides4 ,all these were given to ,sir ,t4 ,overbury1 and the ,lieutenant knew of these poisons4 ,sir ,t4 ,overbury never eat white salt but there was white arsenick put into it4 ,once he desired pig1 and ,mrs4 ,turner put into it lapis costitus4 ,at another time he had two partridges sent him from the ,court1 and water and onions being the sauce1 ,mrs4 ,turner put in cantharides instead of pepper1 so that there was scarce anything that he did eat1 but there was some poison mixed4 ,for these poisons the ,countess sent me reward4 ,she afterwards wrote unto me to buy her more poisons4 ,it is obvious from this confession that the poisons supplied had no power1 and it would seem that ,franklyn was making an income for himself by supplying harmless preparations for the poisons for which he was being paid4 ,as far as it is possible to judge by reading the evidence there was proof that attempts had been made to poison ,sir ,thomas ,overbury1 but no proof that any poison was ever given to him4 ,however1 the evidence appears to have been quite sufficient to convict the prisoners4 ,in passing sentence upon ,anne ,turner the ,lord ,chief ,justice informed her that she had been guilty of the seven deadly sins1 and that as she was the inventor of that horrid garb1 the yellow tiffany ruffs and cuffs1 he hoped she would be the last by whom they would be worn4 ,to this end he ordered that she should be hanged in that garb she had made so fashionable4 ,this was duly done1 while as a further condemnation of the fashion to which the judge had taken exception the hangman wore yellow bands and cuffs4 ,it is said that the fashion of wearing yellow starched linen died with her4 ,after the execution of ,mrs4 ,turner and ,weston came the trial of ,franklyn1 who confessed that poison had not been the cause of ,overbury's death4 ,weldon1 who in #agee1 published a history of the ,kings of ,england describes how ,franklyn and ,weston came into ,overbury's chamber and found him in infinite torment with the contention between the state of nature and working of the poison1 and it had been very like that nature had got the better in that contention 444 but they1 fearing it might come to light by the judgment of physicians that foul play had been offered him1 consented to stifle him with bed-clothes1 which accordingly was performed4 ,and so ended his miserable life1 with the assurance of the conspirators that he died of poison1 none thinking otherwise but these two murtherers4 ,the account given by ,weldon of the manner in which the ,lord ,chief ,justice received this confession is well worth quoting3 ,and now poor ,mrs4 ,turner1 ,weston and ,franklyn began the tragedy4 ,mrs4 ,turner's day of mourning being better than her life1 for she died very penitently and showed much modesty in her last act4 ,after that died ,weston1 and then was ,franklyn arraigned1 who confessed that ,overbury was smothered to death not poisoned to death1 though he had poison given him4 ,here was ,coke glad to cast about to bring both ends together1 ,mrs4 ,turner and ,weston being already hanged for killing ,overbury by poison1 but he being the very quintessence of the law presently informed the jury that if a man be done to death with pistol1 poinard1 sword1 halter1 poison1 etc41 so he be done to death1 the indictment holds good1 if but indicted for one of those ways2 but the good lawyers of those times were not of that opinion1 but did believe that ,mrs4 ,turner was directly murthered by ,lord ,coke's law as ,overbury was without any law4 ,after the trial and execution of the minor prisoners came the trial of the ,countess of ,somerset1 the instigator of the crime1 before the ,house of ,peers4 ,the ,clerk of the ,crown asked her1 ,frances ,countess of ,somerset1 art thou guilty of the felony and murder1 or not guilty8 ,and she1 making obeisance to the ,lord ,high ,steward1 answered ,guilty1 in a low timid voice4 ,the ,attorney-,general1 ,sir ,francis ,bacon1 then praised ,king ,james in a fulsome manner1 and held out hopes of pardon to the prisoner4 ,the ,lord ,chief ,justice ,coke also talked in servile terms of the king1 whose instructions for the investigation of the murder1 he declared1 deserved to be written in a sunbeam4 ,the ,clerk of the ,crown now asked the ,countess if she had any cause to allege why sentence of death should not be passed upon her4 ,to this the prisoner replied in a low voice1 which only the ,attorney-,general heard1 ,i can much aggravate1 but cannot extenuate my fault4 ,i desire mercy and that the lords will intercede for me to the king4 ,an officer of the ,crown then presented the white staff to the ,lord ,high ,steward1 and sentence of death was passed4 ,the ,lord ,high ,steward 7,chancellor ,ellesmere7 now addressed the weeping prisoner in the following words3 ,since the lords have heard with what humility and grief you have confessed the fact1 ,i do not doubt they will signify so much to the king1 and mediate for his grace towards you4 ,the next day the ,earl was tried and was found guilty1 but both he and the ,countess received only nominal punishment4 ,it was alleged that this leniency to the ,earl and ,countess was due to ,king ,james himself having been cognisant of the plot to kill ,overbury4 ,the trial of ,mary ,blandy1 in #ageb1 at the ,oxford ,assizes for the murder of her father is remarkable as being the first one of which there is any detailed record1 in which convincing scientific proof of poisoning was given4 ,mr4 ,blandy1 who was an attorney at ,henley-on-,thames1 was extremely fond of ,mary1 his only daughter1 and according to the story told by the prosecuting counsel at the trial1 had pretended that he could give her #aj1jjj for her marriage portion in hopes that neighbouring gentlemen would pay their addresses4 ,but this pious fraud1 which was intended for her promotion1 proved his death and her destruction4 ,a ,captain ,cranstoun1 who was recruiting at ,henley1 hearing she was to have #aj1jjj fell in love1 not with her1 but with her fortune1 and concealed from her the fact that he already had a wife4 ,the father having heard rumours of the bad character of ,cranstoun1 refused to let his daughter have anything to do with him4 ,she continued to see him1 however1 and listened to his proposal to get the father out of the way as soon as possible1 so that he might get possession of the #aj1jjj of which the poor man had unfortunately said he was possessed4 ,in ,august1 #agej1 ,mary ,blandy began to prepare people for the death of her father by giving out that she had heard music in the house1 this being looked upon as a certain portent of death4 ,then ,captain ,cranstoun sent her a present of ,scotch pebbles and enclosed with them a packet of a white powder which she was to put into her father's food4 ,she gave him some of this1 which made him very ill1 but as he recovered1 ,captain ,cranstoun sent her more powder1 and some of this she put into his gruel with the result that he again became violently ill1 and died with symptoms suggestive of arsenical poisoning4 ,before his death he was told that ,mary had been putting poison into his food1 and only said1 ,poor love-sick girl4 ,what won't a girl do for a man she loves8 ,i forgive her3 ,i always thought there was mischief in these cursed ,scotch pebbles6 ,the scientific evidence at this trial was given in a very convincing manner by a ,dr4 ,addington1 who had attended the poisoned man and had examined the body and tested the white powder that had been sent by ,captain ,cranstoun4 ,he stated that this was arsenic1 and that he had found the same poison in ,mr4 ,blandy's gruel4 ,when asked in cross-examination why he believed this to be white arsenic he described the different tests he had applied to this powder and to a sample of pure white arsenic that he had purchased1 and showed how the same results were obtained in each case1 and concluded with the remark3 ,i never saw any two things in nature more alike than the decoction made with the powder found in ,mr4 ,blandy's gruel and that made with white arsenic4 ,the judge in his summing up to the jury remarked that the case was one which was to be made out by circumstances4 ,a great part of the evidence rested upon presumption1 and if the jury regarded the presumption as a violent one1 that is to say1 one where the circumstances spoke so strongly that to suppose the contrary would be absurd1 that amounted in law to full proof4 ,the jury1 after deliberating for five minutes1 found the prisoner guilty4 ,she was executed on ,april #fth1 and left a written confession in which she stated that she had not been aware that the powder she had given to her father was in any way noxious or poisonous4 ,cranstoun was subsequently prosecuted and outlawed for his share in the murder4 ,if the scientific evidence in this early trial was a model of what such evidence should be1 the same can hardly be said of that given at the trial of ,katharine ,nairn and ,patrick ,ogilvie at the ,high ,court of ,edinburgh in ,august1 #agfe1 for the murder of ,thomas ,ogilvie1 the husband of ,katharine4 ,they had only been married in ,january of that year1 and it was at about the same time that ,patrick ,ogilvie1 who was a lieutenant in the army1 had returned from abroad4 ,almost immediately he supplanted his brother in the affections of his wife1 and1 a quarrel taking place between the two men1 ,patrick was forbidden to come to the house4 ,shortly afterwards the husband died1 having shown symptoms of irritant poisoning4 ,according to the story of the prosecution1 ,katharine told a woman named ,clark1 who lived in the house with them1 that ,patrick had undertaken to procure poison for her1 and that she was going to give it to her husband4 ,an unsigned letter to ,patrick ,ogilvie1 alleged to be in the writing of ,katharine1 with reference to the poison1 was put in as evidence4 ,testimony was also given by a surgeon of ,brechin that ,lieutenant ,ogilvie had obtained from him a small phial of laudanum which he said he required for his own health1 and also half an ounce of powdered arsenic for the alleged purpose of killing some dogs that destroyed his game4 ,these he had sent to ,katharine1 who was believed to have put the arsenic in her husband's tea4 ,the defence was that the deceased had died a natural death1 and that ,katharine ,nairn was in the habit of taking small doses of laudanum and of salts for her health4 ,expert evidence was given on her behalf by a ,dr4 ,j4 ,scott to the effect that he had made experiments upon arsenic and knew well that it would not dissolve in warm water4 ,the evidence1 which by the way is incorrect1 went to prove that even if arsenic had been introduced into the tea it could not have caused death by poisoning4 ,a surgeon also gave evidence that the symptoms might have arisen from natural causes4 ,for the prosecution no proof of the powder being arsenic or that the husband had really died of arsenical poisoning was given1 and no post-mortem examination was made4 ,the counsel for the defence put the position in the following form3 ,the incest is supposed to be certain because the husband is supposed to have been poisoned2 and1 on the other hand1 the man is believed to have been poisoned1 because there is supposed proof of incest4 ,both prisoners were found guilty and sentenced to death1 but the execution was delayed pending an appeal to the ,privy ,council in ,london4 ,the sentences were confirmed and ,patrick ,ogilvie was executed in ,november1 but ,mrs4 ,ogilvie1 who was expecting the birth of a child1 was kept in prison4 ,a daughter was born early in #agff1 and ,katharine ,nairn managed to escape from prison in ,march of that year4 ,the trial curiously foreshadowed the trial of ,mrs4 ,maybrick a century later in many of its features1 and1 as in the modern case1 convincing proof of guilt was wanting4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the question whether a particular substance is or is not a poison has frequently been raised in a court of justice1 and on several occasions a prisoner has owed his acquittal to a conflict of scientific opinion upon the point4 ,this was the case in a trial that took place in #ahcf1 at the ,norwich ,assizes1 when two farm labourers were charged with having attempted to poison a fellow farm servant1 by putting a deadly poison1 blue vitriol 7copper sulphate71 into a glass of milk4 ,the man noticed that the milk had a metallic taste and only drank a portion of it2 but this was sufficient to make him ill for a short time4 ,on the milk being examined it was found to contain copper sulphate1 and suspicion pointed to its having been doctored by the prisoners4 ,the counsel for the defence raised the objection that the accused were indicted for having administered a deadly poison1 and that medical opinion did not hold that blue vitriol was a deadly poison4 ,a medical witness called on behalf of the prosecution stated that he considered that copper sulphate was a deadly poison1 but at the same time admitted that he had no experience of any case of poisoning in which that salt had been taken4 ,on the other hand1 another doctor asserted that in his opinion the substance was not poisonous1 and pointed out that it was not sold as a poison4 ,the judge1 taking into account this conflict of opinion1 decided that the matter was doubtful and the prisoners were acquitted4 ,in the ,offences ,against the ,person ,act of #ahfa it is provided that any attempt to administer any poison or other destructive thing to any person whether bodily injury be effected or not is guilty of a felony4 ,as copper sulphate1 when taken in quantity1 will certainly cause bodily injury1 the case tried in #ahcf at ,norwich1 would now probably be decided differently1 even though no bodily harm had actually been caused4 ,this is borne out by the trial of ,cluderay1 on the charge of attempted poisoning by administering pods of coculus indicus4 ,no harm had resulted to the intended victim owing to the fact that although the berries themselves are poisonous1 the pod in which they are contained is insoluble when swallowed1 and this prevents the berries from producing their toxic effects upon the system4 ,it was decided by the judge1 however1 that the giving of the entire pod was an administration of poison within the meaning of the ,act4 ,it is not an easy matter to find a suitable definition for a poison4 ,according to ,taylor it is a substance which1 when taken into the mouth or stomach1 or when absorbed into the blood is capable of seriously affecting health or of destroying life by its action on the tissues with which it immediately1 or after absorption1 comes into contact4 ,as applied to criminal cases this definition is obviously open to criticism1 for it is applicable to a substance such as coffee which1 when taken in excess1 will seriously affect the health4 ,some reference to the quantity is therefore needed4 ,a drug1 such as morphia1 may be of benefit when given in small doses1 but becomes a poison when given in large quantity4 ,in the case of ,cluderay1 however1 it could hardly be contended that the administration of entire coculus pods1 although not producing injurious results1 could in any way be beneficial4 ,the trial of ,tawell at the ,aylesbury ,assizes in #ahde1 on the charge of murdering ,sarah ,hart at ,slough1 presented several points of scientific interest4 ,the manner in which the electric telegraph was employed in effecting his capture has been described in another place4 ,at the trial ,tawell denied that he had ever been to ,slough at all1 but the woman who had heard the screams of the victim had seen and spoken with him1 and swore positively to his identity4 ,it was proved that on the day of the murder ,tawell had bought some ,scheele's prussic acid in ,london1 but he accounted for this by the fact that he was constantly in the habit of buying the poison for external use4 ,in the cottage1 where the woman was found lying dead when the doctor arrived1 were two empty tumblers and a bottle of porter1 while a small amount of prussic acid was found in the stomach of the woman4 ,the counsel for the defence urged that there was no proof that the woman had died from the effects of prussic acid and that some sudden emotion might have been the cause of death4 ,as to the prussic acid found in the body1 he suggested that it might have been derived from apple-pips eaten by the deceased4 ,chemical evidence1 however1 was brought forward to prove that prussic acid could not have been formed as suggested in the process of digestion1 and the only result of this novel defence was that for long afterwards the barrister was known as ,apple-pip ,kelly4 ,in his summing up of the evidence the judge1 ,baron ,parker1 said with reference to one of the contentions of the prisoner's counsel3 ,if the evidence satisfies you that the death was occasioned by poison1 and that poison was administered by the prisoner it is not necessary to give direct and positive proof of what is the quantity which would destroy life1 nor is it necessary to prove that such quantity was found in the body of the deceased1 if the other facts lead you to the conclusion that the death was occasioned by poison and that it was knowingly administered by the prisoner4 ,referring to the argument that there was no proof that the deceased might not have died from the effect of a sudden emotion he pointed out that they were not to have recourse to mere conjecture2 that where the result of the evidence gave them the existence of a cause to which the death might be rationally attributed they were not to suppose without a reason for doing so1 that it was to be attributed to any other cause4 ,as has already been mentioned1 the evidence convinced the jury of the guilt of the prisoner1 and he was sentenced to death4 ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,notable ,,poisoning ,,trials ,use of ,poisons--,arsenic and ,antimony--,chapman ,case--,strychnine in ,palmer ,trial--,physiological ,tests--,case of ,freeman--,error from ,quantitative ,deductions--,poisonous ,food ,given to ,animals--,mary ,higgins--,negative ,result of ,physiological ,tests--,hyoscyamus ,poisons--,crippen ,case--,experiment on ,cats--,time ,limit for ,action of ,arsenic--,french ,case4 ,the use of poisons but little known at the time has generally been due to a special knowledge of their properties on the part of the poisoner1 who has hoped in this way to escape detection1 and1 in fact1 has often done so4 ,arsenic1 which has always been a favourite with ignorant poisoners1 is cumulative in its action1 and remains in the system for a long time after it has been taken4 ,it has a remarkable preservative effect upon the tissues1 which it will keep for an indefinite length of time from decomposition4 ,there is1 therefore1 little difficulty in detecting and identifying it in a body years after a crime has been committed4 ,the effect of antimony is very similar1 and it was owing to this fact that it was possible in the ,chapman poisoning case to prove that some of the victims had been poisoned with antimony4 ,organic poisons such as prussic acid and vegetable alkaloids are much less stable in character1 though they are not so fugitive as some poisoners have supposed1 and the presence of alkaloidal poisons in the system has been proved months after death4 ,in the celebrated ,palmer case1 to which reference has already been made1 ,palmer1 who was a doctor1 made use of strychnine1 and1 although he was convicted upon the medical and other evidence1 ,taylor1 the official analyst1 was unable to detect the poison in the remains4 ,on these grounds and the evidence of other chemists who asserted that they could detect the slightest trace of strychnine1 and that had that poison been given it must have passed into the system1 the defence was set up that no strychnine had been given1 and that the prisoner was entitled to an acquittal4 ,all that can be fairly deduced from the chemical evidence1 however1 is that no very large amount of strychnine was present1 and that the method of separating alkaloids used by ,taylor half a century ago was not capable of detecting traces of strychnine4 ,so far1 then1 as regards chemical analysis1 ,palmer had succeeded in administering a poison in sufficient quantity to kill1 but to escape detection4 ,with the more delicate methods of analysis now at the disposal of the chemist this would no longer be possible1 for it has been repeatedly proved that it is possible to detect a minute trace of that alkaloid in the body many months after death4 ,the other details of this case are interesting as forming a very complete chain of evidence4 ,palmer1 as has been mentioned1 was a medical man living at ,rugeley1 where he had formerly had a practice4 ,for some time prior to the trial he had given up medicine and devoted himself to horse-racing1 with the result that he had lost heavily1 and by the summer of #ahee owed about #bj1jjj1 which he had borrowed at an exorbitant rate of interest from different moneylenders4 ,as security for these amounts he had given promissory notes1 in which he had forged the signature of his mother4 ,it was his intention to have paid the most pressing of his creditors out of the proceeds of an insurance upon the life of his brother1 who died in ,august of the same year4 ,the insurance company1 however1 from certain circumstances that had reached their ears1 had a suspicion of fraud in connection with this policy1 and refused to pay the sum insured4 ,the holders of the bills1 therefore1 prepared writs against ,palmer and his mother1 which were to be issued unless they received the promised money1 and it was1 therefore1 a matter of urgency for ,palmer to find a means of satisfying them4 ,early in ,november he went to some races at ,shrewsbury in company with a young man named ,cook1 and the latter won between #b1jjj and #c1jjj1 some #hjj of which he received upon the race-course1 leaving the balance to be paid in ,london4 ,to celebrate the occasion1 ,cook asked a number of his friends to dine with him at the hotel in ,shrewsbury4 ,that evening ,palmer was observed holding a tumbler up to the light outside his bedroom1 and he then went into the other room where ,cook was talking to his friends4 ,after drinking some brandy1 ,cook became violently ill1 and a doctor was sent for4 ,cook said he had been given something by ,palmer1 and gave his money into the charge of one of his friends1 who next day returned it to him4 ,notwithstanding his suspicions1 ,cook returned with ,palmer to ,rugeley1 and put up at an inn there near ,palmer's house4 ,he was there visited several times by ,palmer1 who gave him coffee and broth1 both of which made him violently sick4 ,he was attended by a local medical man1 who was very old1 and1 acting on ,palmer's suggestion1 this doctor prescribed morphine pills for the sick man4 ,palmer went with the doctor to his surgery1 helped him in the preparation of the pills1 and undertook to see that the patient took them4 ,accordingly he went round to the inn the same night1 and persuaded ,cook1 who was unwilling to have anything to do with them1 to take the pills4 ,within fifteen minutes he had died1 after showing all the symptoms of strychnine poisoning4 ,after ,cook's death1 his stepfather came to ,rugeley1 and made inquiries as to the cause of death4 ,certain circumstances drew suspicion upon ,palmer1 and this was strengthened when it was found that on several occasions he had bought strychnine1 and that immediately after ,cook's death he had been seen examining his pockets and searching under the pillow of the bed4 ,when asked whether there were not some sporting debts due to ,cook1 he denied that there were any1 and it was significant that the betting book of the deceased man had disappeared4 ,it was further discovered that ,palmer had since the death paid over considerable sums of money to his creditors1 and that he had induced the old doctor who had been in attendance upon ,cook to sign a certificate giving apoplexy as the cause of death4 ,a post-mortem examination was held1 at which ,palmer1 although under suspicion1 was allowed to be present4 ,when the portion of the stomach was sealed up in a bottle1 ,palmer removed it to another part of the room while the attention of the doctors was otherwise occupied1 and it was found that he had cut two slits in the parchment cover1 and had attempted to get rid of the contents4 ,subsequently he offered a bribe of #aj to the driver who was to take the doctors to the station if he would upset the carriage and break the jar4 ,the evidence of the doctors called by the ,crown left little doubt as to death having been caused by strychnine poison1 and although a number of medical men gave evidence on behalf of ,palmer1 their opinions were conflicting and inconsistent1 and1 as the judge pointed out1 were obviously aiming at an acquittal at all cost4 ,after a trial lasting twelve days1 the judge 7,lord ,campbell7 summed up the evidence1 and dwelt in strong terms upon the scientific witnesses for the defence 7see ante1 p4 #ai74 ,with reference to the fact that no strychnine had been detected in the body1 he remarked that there was no rule of law according to which the poison must be found in the body of the deceased1 and all they knew respecting the poison not being found in the body was that in that part of the body that was analysed by the witnesses no strychnia had been found4 ,since physiological tests are1 in many cases1 much more sensitive than chemical tests1 they have often been used for the identification of traces of poison isolated from a body4 ,thus a small quantity of a particular alkaloid will produce certain characteristic physiological results when injected into the circulatory system of a small animal1 and should precisely the same results be obtained by the injection of the unknown substance1 the obvious inference to be drawn is that the two substances are identical4 ,at the same time it has been shown on more than one occasion that it is not justifiable to draw a comparison between the quantitative action of a particular poison upon an animal and upon man4 ,as an instance of the danger of relying too exclusively upon the results of experiments upon an animal1 the interesting case of ,freeman1 who was tried at ,leicester in #ahbi1 may be mentioned4 ,a young woman1 the servant of a chemist in the town1 was found dead in bed4 ,she had evidently died from the effects of prussic acid1 and from the fact that the one ounce bottle from which the poison had been taken still contained three and a half drachms1 it was inferred that she had taken four and a half drachms4 ,owing to the facts that the arms of the dead woman were crossed upon her breast1 and that the clothes had been pulled up neatly over them1 while the bottle containing the remainder of the poison had been re-corked and was lying by her side1 it was thought that it was not a case of suicide1 but that the poison must have been given to her4 ,suspicion fell upon a young man named ,freeman1 who was an assistant of the chemist1 and he was charged with having murdered the woman4 ,the point urged by the prosecution was that the action of prussic acid was so rapid1 that it was impossible for the woman to have had the time to take the amount which had apparently been taken1 and subsequently to have arranged the bed-clothes and corked the bottle4 ,expert evidence upon this question was given by five doctors1 four of whom gave as their opinion that these things could not have been done by the woman herself4 ,in support of their view1 one of them stated that the same quantity of prussic acid had killed a dog in three seconds4 ,fortunately for the prisoner he was able to produce conclusive evidence of his innocence1 and the jury1 therefore1 very rightly refused to accept the medical opinion4 ,cases in which scientific evidence has been given to prove that a particular portion of food or drink is of a poisonous nature1 as shown by its effects upon animals1 have frequently been before the ,courts1 and the evidence is not so open to criticism as in ,freeman's case1 although1 at best1 such a proof is far less satisfactory than the separation and identification of the poison by chemical means4 ,in one trial1 however1 described by ,taylor1 which took place in the early part of last century in the ,west of ,england1 the evidence supplied by the accidental poisoning of some animals was so convincing as to prove the prisoner guilty1 although chemical evidence of the presence of poisoning was wanting4 ,a farmer's wife was accused of having poisoned her husband by putting arsenic into his soup while they were dining together4 ,then1 in order to get rid of all signs of her guilt1 she had thrown the remainder of the soup into the farmyard1 where the pigs and the fowls had devoured it4 ,the husband had died with all the symptoms and appearances of arsenical poisoning1 but no arsenic was found in the body by the imperfect methods of analysis then available4 ,all the animals in the farmyard had also died1 apparently from the effects of an irritant poison1 and in the bodies of some of them1 probably owing to its quantity being greater1 arsenic was found4 ,the evidence as to these facts1 which was put forward at the trial1 was regarded by the jury as conclusive proof that poison had been given to the man1 notwithstanding the objections pressed by the defence that the poison had not been found in his body1 and that1 since none of the soup was left for examination1 it had not been proved that the soup was poisonous4 ,with the more refined methods of analysis now available1 such evidence would probably have been corroborated1 seeing that the tests are capable of detecting arsenic even in the minute proportion of one part in sixty millions4 ,in a remarkable trial that took place1 in #ahca1 at the ,warwick ,assizes1 expert evidence that an animal had not been poisoned supplied the proof required to establish the guilt of the prisoner4 ,a woman named ,mary ,higgins was accused of having poisoned her uncle with arsenic4 ,it was proved that he had died from an irritant poison1 and there was also abundant proof that the niece had bought arsenic4 ,her explanation of this was that she had wanted it to destroy vermin1 and by way of adding conviction to her story she actually produced a dead mouse1 which1 she alleged1 had been killed by the poison4 ,this proved a fatal blunder on her part1 for an examination of the mouse showed that there was no arsenic whatever in its body4 ,the defence was therefore discredited1 and the prisoner was found guilty of murder4 ,the most valuable applications of physiological tests have been in cases where narcotic poisons have been used1 and especially in the early days of chemical analyses1 when the methods then known were incapable of identifying these poisons4 ,for example1 in the year #ahch a woman was tried at ,liverpool on a charge of having sent a poisoned pudding to another woman with the intention of poisoning her4 ,the two children who were sent with the pudding tasted it on the way1 and finding that it was bitter1 mentioned the fact to the woman to whom they were taking it4 ,she had other reasons for being suspicious1 and1 therefore1 sent the pudding to a doctor to be examined4 ,he applied various tests1 but was unable to detect the presence of any poison1 although from the taste he suspected that some narcotic poison was present4 ,accordingly1 he gave a small portion of the pudding to a dog1 with the result that the animal died within three hours with all the symptoms of poisoning produced by a narcotic poison4 ,on the strength of this evidence1 the prisoner was found guilty4 ,a ,french poisoning trial which took place in the early part of last century is especially interesting from the fact that it is apparently the only recorded instance1 prior to the recent notorious ,crippen case1 in which the deadly plant1 henbane1 was the original source of the poison4 ,in the ,french case a child had been poisoned by some broth1 and the symptoms had suggested the presence of a narcotic poison4 ,the chemical analysis of alkaloidal poisons was at that time in its infancy1 and in order to obtain proof of the poisonous character of the broth1 some of the meat remaining in it was given to a cat4 ,the animal died in about five hours1 and the symptoms produced and the appearance of its body after death were all similar to those observed in the child4 ,the evidence was therefore regarded as corroborative proof that the plant henbane had been introduced into the broth4 ,in the present state of chemical analysis proof would have been expected of the presence of the active principles of henbane 7hyoscine and hyoscyamine7 in the broth and in the body of the victim1 and physiological tests would probably only have been accepted as supplying additional proof of the identity of the poison4 ,a striking example of the way in which the scientific evidence may succeed in establishing the innocence of a person accused of murder is seen in the following case1 which was tried in #ahce3--;,a woman1 who had a violent disposition and was subject to attacks of hysteria1 accused her husband of having attempted to poison her1 and in proof of her charge produced a white powder1 which1 as she alleged1 he had put into her food4 ,the powder was found to be white arsenic1 and the food on examination was found to contain a fatal quantity of that poison4 ,the husband was therefore immediately arrested and kept in prison pending the investigation4 ,the woman was perfectly well for eight days1 but on the ninth day became very violent1 and did many eccentric things1 and on the next day she died4 ,examination of the body showed that arsenic had been the cause of death4 ,her husband denied that he had ever put any arsenic into her food1 but had it not been for the scientific evidence he would probably have been unable to prove that he was innocent4 ,undoubtedly he owed his escape to his having been in prison for the eight days between the accusation brought by his wife and her death1 for the medical witnesses proved that it was not possible for him to have given the dose of arsenic which caused the death of the woman1 since the effects of arsenic could not have remained latent in the system for that length of time4 ,circumstances1 therefore1 indicated that the woman had committed suicide1 and on the strength of this evidence the prisoner was immediately set at liberty4 ,to come to more recent times1 the most notable trial in which the results of experiments upon animals have formed one of the strongest links in the evidence against the prisoner1 was that of ,george ,henry ,lamson1 in #ahha1 who was convicted of poisoning his brother-in-law4 ,here again the accused was a medical man1 who was able by reason of his specialised knowledge to use a poison that at the time would not readily be identified in the body after death4 ,in fact1 in the opinion of ,montagu ,williams1 who defended him at the trial1 there could be but little doubt but that he had previously poisoned a brother of his victim in the same manner1 without incurring any suspicion4 ,he was a young man twenty-nine years of age1 in practice in a small way at ,bournemouth4 ,he was not well off and had been in pecuniary straits1 and1 as it was known at the trial1 would have benefited materially by the death of his brother-in-law1 ,percy ,john1 a lad of nineteen1 who was at a school in ,wimbledon4 ,percy was a cripple1 and had to be carried up and down-stairs1 and to be wheeled about in a chair1 but there was no reason why he should not have lived to old age4 ,the story told by the prosecution was that ,dr4 ,lamson wrote to his brother-in-law1 telling him he was coming to see him at the school on his way over to ,paris1 and the boy was disappointed on receiving a message that he could not come till the next day4 ,on ,december #crd1 however1 ,lamson called at the school1 and said that he had only time to pay a flying visit before catching the night train to ,paris4 ,he produced some gelatine capsules1 and also a cake4 ,taking one of these he remarked to the schoolmaster1 who was present throughout the interview1 that he would leave them with him1 so that he might give nasty medicines to his pupils without difficulty4 ,he then filled one of the capsules from a basin of sugar that was on the table1 and turning to the boy1 said3 ,here1 ,percy1 you're a swell pill-taker2 take this1 and show ,mr4 ,bedbrook how easily it may be swallowed4 ,dr4 ,lamson had also brought with him some sweets and a cake1 and he gave slices of this to the schoolmaster and to his young brother-in-law1 and also ate a piece himself4 ,immediately after the lad had swallowed the capsule ,lamson observed3 ,that's soon gone1 my boy1 and then remarked1 ,i must be going now4 ,he then left with the intention of catching the evening boat-train to ,paris4 ,very shortly afterwards ,percy became ill and told the schoolmaster that he felt exactly as he did four months before when his brother-in-law had given him a pill4 ,doctors were summoned1 but in spite of everything that was done the poor boy died the same evening4 ,a medical examination of the body showed no appearance of any disease that could have resulted in such sudden death1 but a chemical examination of the stomach1 which was made by ,dr4 ,stevenson and ,dr4 ,dupr1 proved that a vegetable irritant poison must have been the cause of death4 ,investigations showed that on several occasions ,dr4 ,lamson had purchased small quantities of aconitine from different chemists1 and this strengthened the suspicions already attaching to him4 ,a few days later ,lamson returned from ,paris and voluntarily went to ,scotland ,yard1 saying that as his name had been mentioned in connection with the case he had thought it best to call and see what was to be done about it4 ,he was then arrested and formally charged with causing the death4 ,the trial was memorable for the conclusive nature of the scientific evidence4 ,the cake and sweets had been analysed and found to be quite free from aconite and the gelatine capsules were also proved to be innocuous4 ,at the bottom of the boy's box a pill-box had been discovered containing pills in which aconitine was present1 but although the point was suggested by the defence1 there was no evidence to show that the boy had secretly taken one of these4 ,the presence of morphia and aconitine in the body was proved1 the latter being identified by its general chemical reactions as an alkaloid1 by the burning sensation produced upon the tongue1 and by its characteristic action upon mice1 as compared with that of a standard solution of pure aconitine4 ,in each case the animals died1 the symptoms being the same and characteristic of aconitine poisoning4 ,for the defence it was urged by ,montagu ,williams that it was admitted by the scientific witnesses for the prosecution that they had no other proof of the identity of aconitine than these physiological tests upon mice2 that their conclusions were a leap in the dark2 and that mice had so delicate a constitution that even an injection of pure water would kill them4 ,how then could it fairly be argued that because these little animals had been killed by an injection of a substance extracted from the body1 that substance must be aconitine8 ,apart from that1 bodies of the nature of alkaloids were formed in the body by decomposition1 and the effects upon the mice attributed to aconitine might very well have been caused by one of these alkaloids4 ,it was further pointed out that there had been no opportunity of giving the boy a pill without the knowledge of the schoolmaster1 and that the prisoner could not have charged the capsule with aconitine without having been observed4 ,the evidence put forward by the prosecution carried conviction to the jury1 and the prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to death4 ,with reference to the more important points raised by the defence it may be mentioned that no known ptomaine 7i4e41 alkaloid formed by decomposition in the body after death7 produces the same physiological effects as aconitine1 and that the conclusions of ,dr4 ,stevenson and ,dr4 ,dupr were based upon the results of comparative tests1 which showed that as little as #a_/bjjj grain of aconitine could be recognised in this way4 ,the probable solution of the mystery of how the prisoner managed to give the poison to the boy is suggested in the reminiscences of ,lord ,brampton1 who1 as ,sir ,henry ,hawkins1 was the presiding judge at the trial4 ,he points out that ,lamson was far too clever a man to attempt such a clumsy plan as to charge the capsule with aconitine1 and thus draw suspicion upon himself4 ,the much more plausible theory is that the capsules had nothing whatever to do with the poisoning but that ,lamson had previously put the aconitine into a raisin in the cake1 and had taken care that his young brother-in-law should get the slice containing that raisin1 while he and the schoolmaster had eaten other portions of the otherwise harmless cake4 ,after sentence of death had been passed1 ,lamson stood with his arms folded and in a loud voice proclaimed his innocence before ,god4 ,before his execution1 however1 it is stated that he confessed that he had not only poisoned ,percy ,john1 but also his other brother-in-law ,herbert4 ,,chapter ,,xv ,,the ,,maybrick ,,case ,few trials in this country have aroused so much controversy as that of ,mrs4 ,maybrick1 in #ahhi1 on the charge of having poisoned her husband with arsenic4 ,james ,maybrick1 who was a cotton merchant1 fifty years of age1 had married the accused in ,america in #ahha1 she being then eighteen years old4 ,four years later they had made their home in ,liverpool1 and apparently got on well together4 ,in #ahhi1 however1 ,mrs4 ,maybrick became friendly with a man named ,brierley1 and on the pretence of paying a visit to a relative1 went to ,london1 where she stayed with him for several days4 ,at the end of ,march the ,maybricks went to the ,grand ,national ,race1 and the husband then became jealous of ,brierley1 who was also present4 ,following this incident came a violent quarrel1 which resulted in ,mrs4 ,maybrick's threatening to leave him4 ,shortly afterwards1 ,mr4 ,maybrick paid a visit to his brother in ,london1 and while there complained of the extravagance and the behaviour of his wife4 ,he also consulted a specialist1 who diagnosed his illness as acute dyspepsia1 and prescribed for him certain medicines1 in which1 however1 there was no arsenic4 ,after his return to ,liverpool early in ,april1 ,mrs4 ,maybrick bought a dozen fly-papers from a chemist1 and afterwards two dozen more from another chemist1 stating that the flies were troublesome in the house4 ,in each case she paid for these1 although she had an account with the chemist4 ,it was found that each of these papers contained from two to three grains of arsenic1 or more than the fatal dose for a man4 ,evidence was given that they were subsequently discovered soaking in water in ,mrs4 ,maybrick's room1 but that they had not been used to kill the flies4 ,at the end of ,april ,mr4 ,maybrick became very ill1 and a doctor was called in4 ,the patient was frequently given food and medicine by his wife1 and arsenic was afterwards found in a bottle of meat juice4 ,the prisoner alleged that at her husband's own request she had put a white powder into this bottle4 ,on the #ith of ,may the doctor concluded that ,mr4 ,maybrick was suffering from the effects of some irritant poison1 and ,mrs4 ,maybrick from that time was not allowed to come near him4 ,on ,may the #aath he died4 ,during the illness1 letters between ,mrs4 ,maybrick and ,brierley had been intercepted1 and in one of these occurred the expression that her husband was sick unto death4 ,at the inquest a verdict of ,wilful murder against ,mrs4 ,maybrick was returned1 and she was committed for trial at the ,liverpool ,assizes4 ,the trial took place before ,mr4 ,justice ,stephen1 who1 by the way1 died insane a year later1 and the prisoner was defended by ,sir ,charles ,russell1 who subsequently became ,lord ,chief ,justice4 ,the case for the prosecution was based upon the presence of a strong motive for the crime1 the quarrel between the husband and wife1 the possession of arsenic 7from the fly-papers7 by the accused1 the presence of arsenic in various foods and medicines alleged by witnesses to have been given to the deceased by his wife1 and the discovery of arsenic in the body after death4 ,in addition to this1 evidence was given by the nurses that they had seen the prisoner manipulating the medicines1 and by doctors and relations of ,mr4 ,maybrick that he was not in the habit of taking arsenic4 ,for the defence it was urged that death was due to acute gastritis1 which was the result of a chill or improper food1 and that arsenical poisoning was not the cause2 that the fly-papers had been purchased by the prisoner for the preparation of a cosmetic for the face2 and that the presence of traces of arsenic in the body was fully accounted for by the fact that ,mr4 ,maybrick was an arsenic eater4 ,several medical men expressed opinions strongly opposed to the views of the prosecution1 and it was pointed out by these that many of the symptoms characteristic of poisoning by arsenic had not been observed in this case4 ,at the same time it was admitted that the effects produced by arsenic were often erratic1 and1 as ,dr4 ,stevenson stated in his evidence for the prosecution1 ,there is no distinctive diagnostic symptom of arsenical poisoning4 ,the diagnostic thing is finding the arsenic4 ,the medical experts who gave evidence upon behalf of the prisoner were ,dr4 ,tidy 7who1 like ,dr4 ,stevenson1 was an official analyst to the ,home ,office71 ,dr4 ,macnamara1 and ,professor ,paul2 and their view1 which was strongly expressed1 was that all the symptoms which had been described to them in the evidence pointed against arsenic having been the cause of death4 ,the judge1 in his summing up of the medical evidence1 pointed out that expert witnesses were liable at times to take up the position of advocates with regard to scientific matters1 and he warned the jury to take this into consideration in forming their conclusions4 ,the analytical evidence as to the presence of arsenic in the body and in the food and medicine was given by ,dr4 ,stevenson and by ,mr4 ,davis4 ,davis had found no arsenic in the stomach1 but it was discovered in the liver and intestines4 ,in the bottle of the meat juice he had found half a grain in solution4 ,arsenic was present in the glass of the bottle1 but to a less extent than in the glass of another bottle of the meat juice1 in the contents of which no arsenic was present4 ,hence the glass could not have been the source of the arsenic found in the other bottle4 ,he had also found arsenic in a glass of milk in the house1 in a vessel in which luncheon had been sent to the office of ,mr4 ,maybrick1 in a medicine bottle1 and in a bottle of glycerine in the lavatory4 ,in fact1 one of the most remarkable features of this case was the number of articles in which arsenic had been discovered4 ,dr4 ,stevenson had also found no arsenic in the stomach1 but had detected a small quantity in the kidney and the intestines4 ,in a portion of the liver he found an amount which he calculated to amount to one-third of a grain for the whole liver1 and he gave as his opinion that the body at the time of death probably contained approximately a fatal dose of arsenic4 ,dr4 ,tidy1 in giving evidence on behalf of the accused1 criticised this evidence of ,stevenson on the grounds that it did not necessarily follow that because one portion of the liver contained so much arsenic1 the same proportion must be present in the remainder4 ,in his experience the amounts of arsenic retained might vary in different parts of the same organ4 ,he calculated from the results of ,stevenson's analyses that the total amount of arsenic was #jjhb grains4 ,if we examine this evidence more closely it is difficult to see upon what basis ,tidy calculated his total4 ,stevenson had examined approximately one quarter of the liver1 and had extracted from two portions a total quantity of #jjgf grains1 so that1 according to ,tidy1 the remaining three-quarters could only have contained #jjjf grains of arsenic4 ,on the face of it this seems an absurd conclusion4 ,the evidence of ,professor ,paul went to prove that arsenic was present in the material of earthenware vessels similar to that in which the lunch was sent to ,mr4 ,maybrick's office1 and that it could be liberated by the action of an acid1 so that the arsenic found in the particular vessel might have originated from the action of acids in the food itself upon the interior of the vessel4 ,as has been mentioned1 one of the points brought as evidence against the prisoner was that a bottle of glycerine had been found in the lavatory1 and that this contained arsenic4 ,there was no evidence that the prisoner had ever had this bottle in her hand1 and1 apart from that1 arsenic is a very usual impurity in ordinary commercial glycerine4 ,having regard to the conflict of the scientific testimony1 and to the evidence of ,mr4 ,maybrick having acquired the habit of taking arsenic while resident in ,america1 it was generally expected that the prisoner would be acquitted4 ,the judge1 however1 evidently believing her guilty1 summed up strongly against her1 and put the point to be decided in the following form3 ,the prosecution said that arsenic was the producing cause of the gastro-enteritis which was the immediate cause of death2 arsenic was found in the body1 and strong proof was given that arsenic was administered4 ,the terrible question was3 ,by whose hand was it administered8 ,the deceased might have taken it himself1 and if there was any reasonable doubt upon that point it was the duty of the jury to acquit the prisoner2 but if a crime was committed1 no other person but the prisoner was suggested as having committed it4 ,the jury were so influenced by the remarks of the judge that1 after a retirement of a little over thirty minutes1 they found the prisoner ,guilty4 ,the feeling was very widely expressed that the prosecution had failed to establish beyond all reasonable doubt that the deceased had died from arsenic1 and that arsenic had been given to him by the prisoner1 and that1 therefore1 she was entitled to the benefit of the doubt1 which the judge's directions to the jury had not allowed to her4 ,it may be mentioned here that the judge himself1 in the second edition of his ,criminal ,laws of ,england1 published in #ahij1 states that out of #igi cases tried before him up to ,september1 #ahhi1 the case of ,mrs4 ,maybrick was the only case in which there could be any doubt about the facts4 ,in consequence of this feeling that a terrible mistake might have been made1 memorials for the respite of ,mrs4 ,maybrick were signed by the physicians of ,liverpool1 by members of ,bars of ,liverpool and ,london1 and by the citizens of ,liverpool1 in all of which stress was laid upon the conflict of medical testimony4 ,memorials were also sent in from other parts of the country1 and in all #e1jjj petitions1 containing upwards of half a million signatures1 were received by the ,home ,secretary4 ,the feeling was too strong to be ignored1 and the ,home ,secretary1 therefore1 announced that he had advised the commutation of the death penalty to one of penal servitude for life1 on the ground that3 ,inasmuch as1 although the evidence leads to the conclusion that the prisoner administered and attempted to administer arsenic to her husband with intent to murder him1 yet it does not wholly exclude a reasonable doubt whether his death was in fact caused by the administration of arsenic4 ,persistent efforts were made to obtain the liberation of the prisoner1 and ,lord ,russell of ,killowen1 who had defended her at the trial1 and whose belief in her innocence had never wavered1 brought the matter under the notice of each succeeding ,home ,secretary1 but always without avail4 ,it was not until after the lapse of fifteen years that she was liberated at the ordinary termination of a sentence shortened by the good behaviour of the prisoner4 ,the course followed by the ,home ,secretary 7,matthews7 and endorsed by his successors is impossible to defend from a logical point of view4 ,if the prisoner was guilty of murder1 there was no justification for yielding to the popular demand4 ,if1 on the other hand1 there was a reasonable doubt as to whether the man died from the effects of arsenic1 she ought to have been set at liberty4 ,but to commute the sentence for the reason given was to convict the prisoner of attempted murder1 a charge upon which she had never been tried1 and for which1 if found guilty1 she would not have received penal servitude for life4 ,at the present time a case of this kind would be brought before the ,court of ,criminal ,appeal1 and the prisoner would have the opportunity of having the alleged misdirections of the presiding judge investigated1 and of putting forward additional evidence--advantages that were not available to the accused in this trial4 ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,adulteration ,,of ,,food ,national ,loss from ,adulteration--,adulterated ,electricity--,the ,beer ,conner--,conflict of ,evidence--,the ,notice ,dodge--,preservatives--,standards for ,food--,court of ,reference--,administration of the ,law4 ,to label the adulterator of food as a criminal would1 in the majority of cases1 be too harsh a sentence1 but in the worst forms of adulteration--those in which food that is positively bad is made to appear good--he more than deserves the title4 ,although in the larger proportion of instances the actual pecuniary loss inflicted upon the consumer by the sale of adulterated food may be but trifling1 the loss suffered by the community collectively through various forms of petty frauds of this nature reaches an enormous total in a year4 ,some idea of the extent to which the public is thus defrauded may be gathered from the instructive figures published some years ago by ,professor ,long in the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,in his article it was estimated that #a1djj1jjj1jjj gallons of milk were produced annually in the ,united ,kingdom1 of which over a third was sold in the form of milk1 the remainder being converted into butter and cheese4 ,assuming that a tenth part of the milk were adulterated by the middleman1 the loss to the farmer would represent over #fjj1jjj per annum4 ,there is little doubt but that this calculation underestimates the amount of milk adulterated by the addition of water or by the separation of the cream4 ,the evidence given before a ,select ,committee of the ,house of ,commons appointed to deal with the ,food and ,drugs ,acts suggests that probably one-fifth of the butter imported into this country is adulterated1 while it is almost impossible to form any estimate of the loss to the consumer from adulterated groceries and from the sale of foreign meat as best ,english4 ,with few exceptions1 nearly everything we eat or drink--in fact1 nearly everything we buy--is liable to be substituted for what we want1 or to be mixed with something else that we do not want--at all events1 at the price we have to pay for it4 ,there is thus considerable excuse for the amusing blunder made by a counsel who was cross-examining ,mr4 ,siemens1 the electrical expert1 in a case in which there was a dispute about the working of some electrical plant4 ,i think1 ,mr4 ,siemens1 that you have had a long experience in connection with electricity8 ,that is so4 ,well1 now1 ,i want you to tell me whether in the course of all your experience you have ever known electricity to be adulterated8 ,in only one instance1 replied the witness4 ,and when was that8 ,in the phrase 'greased lightning1' was the instant witty reply of the electrical expert4 ,but there are few commodities which can be bought or sold that have the clean record of electricity4 ,in every direction1 competition is daily becoming keener1 and rival firms cut the prices1 each forcing the other to sell either with the minimum of profit or to stop selling altogether4 ,under these conditions there is a strong temptation for a small firm in danger of being crushed out of existence by its competitors to avail itself of the additional profit afforded by adulteration1 and thus be able to sell its goods at a lower price than its more scrupulous rivals4 ,in many cases the adulterated articles are sold unknowingly1 the shopman being tempted by the offer of an alleged genuine product at a very low price1 while the foreign manufacturer who supplies him with the goods cheerfully accepts the risk of prosecution1 well knowing that he cannot be brought to book4 ,frequently the adulteration is most skilfully effected1 and every fresh advance in the chemical methods of detecting foreign ingredients is scientifically met by the adulterator4 ,the old gross forms of adulteration are1 for the most part1 things of the past1 save1 of course1 in the case of foods like milk1 which contain much water1 and where the temptation to increase the amount is frequently too strong to be resisted4 ,the old story of the grocer who called his apprentice to prayers after telling him to water the treacle and sand the sugar1 has lost its point1 at all events as regards sanding the sugar4 ,the fraud is too palpable4 ,and the same may be said of other unskilful forms of adulteration1 such as the addition of gypsum to flour1 chalk to milk1 starch to butter1 and so on4 ,in short1 adulteration of to-day has become a fine art1 and the public analyst has strong suspicions about many a sample1 which he dare not condemn1 since it might possibly be genuine1 though of poor quality4 ,long before the days of the public analyst there was an official who was1 in a sense1 his forerunner1 and his methods were simplicity itself4 ,as might be guessed1 our ancestors three or four hundred years ago1 were mainly concerned about the strength of the national beverage--beer1 and they appointed officers who were known as beer conners1 to visit the different ale-houses1 and to taste and examine the liquor that was being sold4 ,according to ,mr4 ,sidney ,lee1 ,john ,shakespeare1 the father of ,william1 was appointed an ale-taster in #aeeg4 ,the test to be applied needed no complicated apparatus or chemical reagents--nothing beyond a pair of leather breeches1 which were called the conning breeches4 ,the beer conner would put these on1 and having poured a little of the ale on to a wooden bench would sit down in it and patiently await the result4 ,if after a given time he found that he was glued to the bench1 the ale contained sugar1 and was condemned as adulterated1 but if he could rise without an effort the beer was passed as pure4 ,the oath to be taken by these beer tasters or conners ran as follows3-- ,you are the chosen ale-tasters of this town4 ,you shall well and truly serve his ,majesty and this town in the same office4 ,you shall at all times try1 taste1 and assize the beer and ale to be put to sale in this liberty1 whether the same be wholesome for man's body1 and present those that offend1 or refuse to suffer you to assay it4 ,you shall give your attendance at all courts1 and present from time to time the offenders1 and all things else belonging to your office you shall do and execute4 ,so help you ,god4 ,a public analyst of to-day might well envy the easy lot of the beer conner1 who had no difficult problems to solve1 and who1 if he condemned ale that had sufficient body to hold him to his seat1 was sure of the support of the government officials4 ,to the layman it may seem strange that a conflict of opinion should ever occur between analysts with regard to the genuineness of a sample of food1 and that it should ever be possible for an accused salesman to bring rebutting scientific evidence4 ,a consideration of the following points1 however1 will make this clear1 and show how such different opinions may be honestly held4 7#a7 ,food products may consist of entirely dissimilar substances1 which may readily be distinguished by suitable tests1 as1 for instance1 pepper and salt2 or 7#b7 the food may contain a special constituent which is either entirely wanting or only present in a smaller proportion in other allied products4 ,it is mainly with foods of this latter description that the difficulties of the public analyst arise4 ,for instance1 butter fat contains a large proportion of certain volatile compounds1 which are either absent or are present in much smaller quantity in the fats used to adulterate butter2 and thus an estimation of these volatile compounds affords a means of judging of the purity of the butter4 ,thus1 if only half the normal quantity of volatile compounds is present1 the conclusion is drawn that the butter is adulterated with an equal quantity of foreign fat1 and so on4 ,the task would not be difficult if butter fat were always constant in composition2 but1 unfortunately1 there are often wide variations in the proportion of ingredients1 and it frequently happens that the public analyst has to give his judgment upon a sample1 which might either be a butter very rich in the characteristic volatile substances and adulterated with #aj per cent4 of foreign fat2 or it might be a genuine butter that was very deficient in these volatile compounds4 ,this1 then1 is the dilemma4 ,if the analyst condemn such a sample on the strength of this and other tests1 he may be confronted by the evidence of other analysts who will give their opinion that the butter is genuine2 and if1 then1 the matter be referred to the ,government analysts1 their report may or may not corroborate his1 and in the latter alternative the authority instituting the prosecution may have to pay heavy costs4 ,it is well known that butters are scientifically blended with foreign fats so as to fall just on the border line between abnormal and adulterated samples1 and the analyst is frequently compelled to pass such a butter as genuine1 lest he should unwittingly do an injustice4 ,a large proportion of ,dutch butter is abnormal in this respect1 and has been so frequently condemned as adulterated by ,english chemists1 that protests have been made by the leading ,dutch analysts4 ,the reason for the abnormal character of ,dutch butter appears to be that the cows are left too long in the fields1 for as soon as they are stalled for the winter1 the character of the butter gradually becomes normal again4 ,these details have been given at some length1 for they are typical of the problem which the public analyst has to solve in the case of many natural products1 i4e41 to decide whether a food is adulterated or only naturally of poor quality4 ,there is no special difficulty in the analyses2 it is a question of interpretation of the results4 ,the chief culprit in the matter of the adulteration of butter is the small dealer1 who buys margarine from the margarine manufacturer and skilfully blends it with butter in a proportion that is small in a single instance1 but is sufficient to bring him in a handsome profit in the course of a year4 ,owing to the difficulty of detecting such small additions of margarine to butter 7which1 as was explained above1 is due to the variations in the natural product7 a most ingenious device has been adopted in some countries4 ,this is the addition of a small quantity of a latent colour to the margarine1 so that1 although it appears yellow1 like butter1 its colour can be changed by the application of a single reagent to pink or blue1 and its presence thus revealed in a mixture of butter and margarine4 ,several years ago an attempt was made in some of the ,united ,states to compel manufacturers of margarine to colour it pink1 so that it could not possibly be palmed off as butter1 but as this law was found to have the effect of stopping the sale of margarine altogether1 it is no longer enforced4 ,various substances have been suggested as suitable for the latent colouring matter1 such as starch1 which turns blue on contact with iodine1 and certain colourless coal-tar derivatives which change to pink upon the addition of an alkali or acid4 ,there are numerous objections to the use of some of these compounds4 ,thus1 starch may be washed out of the margarine by a simple treatment with water1 while a coal tar derivative that turns pink on contact with an alkali is too sensitive an ingredient for everyday use4 ,a far more satisfactory substance than any of these was found in the oil derived from sesame seed4 ,this is a wholesome oil with a fragrant odour and pleasant taste1 which is largely used as a salad oil in certain parts of ,europe4 ,it is one of the few vegetable oils that can be detected by means of a special colour reaction2 for on treating the oil with a particular reagent it gives a bright rose colour1 and the test is so sensitive that it will detect the presence of even a small percentage of sesame oil in other fats4 ,a compulsory addition of a small amount of sesame oil to all margarine1 therefore1 affords an absolutely certain means of recognising the margarine subsequently4 ,the first country to adopt this plan was ,germany1 where a few years ago a regulation was made that all makers of margarine must use #aj per cent4 of sesame oil with the other ingredients4 ,belgium has also adopted the same plan of earmarking the margarine produced in the country1 and has thus simplified in one direction the problem of detecting petty adulteration4 ,a similar problem has to be solved in dealing with milk1 the proportion of cream in which varies naturally to such an extent that it is possible to add a considerable amount of water to a rich milk without bringing it below the level of a poor but genuine milk4 ,when such a sample of milk has been condemned1 the analyst has often been confronted by an appeal to the cow herself4 ,but even the specious notice which was for years to be seen over a dairy3 ,our customers may come and see the cows milked into their own jugs1 is no proof that the fluid they yield is necessarily milk4 ,for the up-to-date dairyman has discovered how to adulterate the milk at the other end of the cow4 ,he has found that by giving her certain food in excess he can make her produce an abnormally large quantity of milk which lacks the right proportion of cream and other constituents of genuine milk4 ,it has more than once been ruled by a bench of magistrates1 and more recently in the ,high ,court1 that all is not milk that comes from the cow1 and that a customer who asks for milk is entitled to get something with certain definite characteristics4 ,even in cases where there would be no such escape from the results of the analyst's certificate1 the ingenious adulterator is by no means at the end of his tether1 but has numerous dodges upon which to fall back4 ,one of the best known of these is the notice dodge1 examples of which must frequently have been seen by everyone4 ,a notice1 often in very small type1 is put up to the effect that the seller will not guarantee that the goods he sells are genuine4 ,then when he is summoned for selling1 say1 adulterated milk1 he produces his notice and claims that that indemnifies him4 ,a very amusing instance of this notice dodge being carried to its logical conclusion was witnessed in ,merionethshire a few years ago1 when the ,chief ,constable of the district reported that all the shopkeepers had put up notices stating that ,all goods sold here are adulterated4 ,a similar deadlock occurred1 in #aijc1 in ,buckinghamshire1 and there the ,county ,council forbade such notices being exhibited1 though it is doubtful whether it was within its legal rights in so doing4 ,the plausible excuses put forward by the perverted ingenuity of the adulterator to escape conviction are innumerable4 ,mistake on the part of the seller1 warranty with goods obtained from abroad1 and the shop-boy as scapegoat are among the most common forms of defence4 ,the extent to which a legal quibble may be carried reached its limit perhaps in a prosecution that occurred a few years ago4 ,in a certain village there was only one shop1 and that was a co-operative store1 of which the whole of the villagers were members4 ,a county inspector bought pure coffee at this shop1 and on analysis the coffee was found to contain #ij per cent4 of chicory1 and eventually the manager of the store was fined4 ,for the defence1 it was urged that the villagers were themselves both shopkeepers and purchasers1 and1 therefore1 could not be prejudiced by the sale of adulterated goods4 ,the inspector1 however1 was not a member of the co-operative store1 and on this ground the prosecution was successful4 ,but if one of the villagers had bought the coffee1 it is doubtful whether any fine could have legally been inflicted1 for it would have been a case of co-operative adulteration4 ,a very common method of avoiding the attention of the inspector is a refusal to supply him with the goods4 ,in a small town the dishonest tradesman will be on his guard against suspicious looking individuals1 and should he consider them to be agents of the inspector will refuse to serve them4 ,a fine is imposed for refusal to sell1 but this usually involves the shopkeeper in considerably less expense than a fine for selling adulterated goods1 while he retains his character as an upright citizen4 ,the question of preservatives in food is typical of the present chaotic state of the law with regard to the adulteration of food4 ,a ,parliamentary ,commission sat for a long period1 and finally issued a report1 the recommendations of which were allowed to remain recommendations1 and every analyst and public authority must still put its own interpretation upon what is and what is not permissible4 ,preservatives are undoubtedly used in an absolutely haphazard way4 ,milk is preserved with all kinds of substances1 chiefly boric acid1 and at one time1 formalin2 butter and hams with boric acid2 and jams with salicylic acid and similar compounds4 ,thus1 at the end of the day1 an unsuspecting individual may have consumed a considerable quantity of various antiseptic agents4 ,everyone will agree that preservatives of every kind ought to be prohibited in milk1 the more so since it is the staple food of young children and invalids1 and in the case of butter the presence of a preservative should be notified1 as recommended by the ,commission4 ,a little boric acid in ham probably interferes much less with the digestion than an excess of salt1 but it is right that the consumer should be given his choice of spoiling his own digestion in the way that pleases him best4 ,an objection brought against such notifications of preservatives in food is that they would convey no meaning to the public1 but the commercial travellers of rival firms would certainly not lose the chance of making capital out of the notices of their opponents4 ,nearly all the non-alcoholic wines and lime juice cordials in the market are heavily preserved4 ,but the fact that the public demands an article that shall not ferment after the bottle has been opened1 and that prosecutions for the use of preservatives are spasmodic1 makes it impossible for the manufacturer to discard them4 ,if he did so under the present conditions1 he would no longer be able to compete with other firms who continued to take the risk of prosecution4 ,moreover1 it is no uncommon thing for the defendants in these cases to call as witnesses on their behalf gentlemen holding positions as medical officers1 and cases that are well defended are almost invariably dismissed4 ,the manufacturer of non-alcoholic wines stands in a very difficult position4 ,if he employs preservatives in sufficient quantity effectively to stop fermentation he is liable to be prosecuted under the ,food and ,drugs ,act4 ,if1 on the other hand1 no preservative is used1 the liquid is liable to ferment1 and the manufacturer may then be prosecuted for selling a fermented liquid without a licence4 ,hence it follows that if the use of preservatives in lime juice cordial and the like is to be prohibited1 the law ought to be rigidly enforced and not applied in the present haphazard fashion1 which allows one manufacturer to sell his goods unchallenged for years1 and drags his competitor into one police court after another4 ,it is hardly fair that matters which are so much questions of opinion should be left to be fought out in the police courts before magistrates who have no technical knowledge to deal with them4 ,the position1 however1 was well put by a magistrate a year or two ago in giving his decision in a prosecution for the sale of lime juice cordial preserved with salicylic acid4 ,evidence was given by chemists and medical men for the prosecution that such an addition was injurious1 while a number of scientific witnesses of equal eminence were present to support the view of the defendants4 ,the magistrate1 without calling upon the defence1 dismissed the case4 ,he held that there was an irreconcilable conflict of opinion between the purists who would allow no preservatives whatever in such products and the manufacturer who had to meet the popular demand for such an article that would keep after it had been opened1 and he considered that it had not been proved that the amount of salicylic acid was in excess of that needed for that purpose4 ,incidentally he remarked that if notification of the addition of such preservatives on the label were made compulsory1 then the fun would begin4 ,you would see notices of ,so-and-so's lime juice preserved with sulphide1 harmless1 but with a smell of bad eggs4 ,or of ,so-and-so's lemon squash1 preserved with salicylic acid1 refreshing1 but ruinous to the digestion4 ,one of the recommendations of the ,departmental ,committee of #ahii was that means should be provided for the establishment of a separate ,court of ,reference1 which should deal with the question of preservatives in food and decide which should be permissible and in what quantities they should be allowed4 ,such a ,court of ,reference1 in which there should be representatives not only of the medical and chemical professions1 but also of the large manufacturers and dealers in food1 would tend to remove the present state of uncertainty on this point4 ,looking at the matter from a practical point of view1 it seems to be an impossibility to eliminate the use of preservatives from all articles of food1 and it would be a far more satisfactory course if a via media could be found between prohibiting their use absolutely and leaving it to the manufacturer to dose his products with any quantity of any antiseptic4 ,evidence could be heard by such a body of official referees1 who1 after taking into consideration the views of all concerned1 could from time to time issue authoritative regulations1 which would be binding upon everyone4 ,it should also be part of the duties of such a ,court to see that the regulations were rigidly enforced1 so that a manufacturer who carried them out should not suffer by the competition of another manufacturer who 7as at the present time7 ran only a trifling risk of prosecution in ignoring them4 ,another advantage of such a proposed ,court of ,reference would be that the manufacturer would no longer be liable to a criminal prosecution on points on which there is no agreement between the highest scientific authorities in the country4 ,under the present conditions1 a town or borough council1 using the ratepayers' money1 may attempt to get a decision on the subject of preservatives in an ordinary police court4 ,the manufacturer1 if he is rich enough to pay for the necessary expert evidence1 will probably succeed in getting the case dismissed1 as1 in fact1 has frequently been done4 ,but the magistrates' decision carries no finality1 and is not binding upon anyone else1 so that the borough council may raise the question again1 and prosecute the same firm for the same alleged offence in the same court4 ,if1 instead of selecting the same firm of manufacturers1 which would have the appearance of vindictiveness1 they bring an action against another firm which cannot afford the #bjj to #cjj required to win an action of the kind1 and the case is tried before another magistrate1 they may succeed in getting their victim heavily fined1 and justice would thus be reduced to the absurdity that1 while one magistrate held that there was no offence1 his brother magistrate decided that a criminal offence had been committed4 ,it may1 perhaps1 be mentioned that this is no imaginary picture1 but is based on actual occurrences4 ,another question which has been the subject of almost as many conflicts as the addition of preservatives is the colouring of preserved peas with a small trace of copper4 ,many of the prosecutions have been successful1 but quite as many have been dismissed4 ,the public demands a green colour in the preserved peas it purchases1 and it is apparently impossible to have this without the addition of copper4 ,formerly a vigorous campaign was carried on in ,france to prevent any addition of copper whatsoever1 but it was found to be impossible to enforce its absence1 and the attempts to do so there have long been abandoned4 ,a better course than spasmodic prosecutions1 frequently abortive1 would be to fix a limit to the amount that might be used1 and to render it obligatory upon the manufacturer to state prominently upon the label that the peas were coloured with copper4 ,it may be mentioned in this connection that ,professor ,tunnicliffe issued a minority report to the main report of the ,departmental ,committee1 in which he recommended that the amount of metallic copper to be allowed in preserved vegetables should not exceed half a grain per lb41 and that its presence should always be declared4 ,the colouring of sugar by means of tin salts stands upon a very different footing1 for in that case the colouring is done with the definite object of deceiving the purchaser4 ,at one time1 pure ,demerara cane sugar1 which was brown from the presence of certain vegetable impurities1 had a great reputation for its fine flavour1 and still fetches a higher price in the market than purified beet sugar4 ,this reputation has been traded upon by certain unscrupulous sugar dealers1 who have discovered how to treat white beet sugar with a tin salt or with aniline dye-stuffs so as to give it the appearance of the old genuine ,demerara cane sugar4 ,at present it is practically impossible to distinguish1 except by the flavour1 between absolutely pure beet and cane sugars1 but the dyed product is a very different substance from the brown ,demerara sugar1 and there have been numerous convictions for the fraudulent substitution of the one for the other4 ,the presence of traces of arsenic in food products is a very much more serious matter than the presence of a small amount of copper4 ,arsenic is undoubtedly a cumulative poison1 and the effects produced by the long-continued repetition of small doses were shown by the numerous fatal cases of poisoning caused by drinking arsenical beer1 in the poisoning epidemic a few years ago4 ,it may be safely asserted that for twenty years before that outbreak it had never occurred to anyone to test beer for arsenic4 ,the possibility of its being present ought to have suggested itself1 but apparently it never did4 ,the origin of the arsenic in the beer is obvious1 when it is remembered that glucose is one of the substances commonly used in the brewing of beer1 and that glucose is prepared by treating starch with sulphuric acid1 which1 is in turn1 frequently made from iron pyrites containing arsenic4 ,after the source of the arsenic in the ,manchester beer had been discovered1 an arsenic scare set in4 ,every possible description of food was examined1 and traces of arsenic were found in many hitherto unsuspected places4 ,malt1 dried in kilns and allowed to come in contact with the fumes from coal1 invariably contains an appreciable amount of arsenic derived from the coal1 and even malts prepared with the greatest care usually contain about one part per million of arsenic4 ,for all practical purposes1 however1 so small a trace is negligible4 ,the members of the ,royal ,commission which was appointed to examine and report on arsenic in food were strongly divided with regard to whether any trace of arsenic should be permitted in food4 ,some were in favour of absolute prohibition1 while others recognised that1 even if this were done1 the rule could never be rigidly enforced4 ,hence their report bears evidence of a compromise1 for it states that although the ,commission had been unable to discover that such minute traces of arsenic were injurious1 yet they were unwilling to admit that any quantity1 however small1 was permissible in food4 ,subsequently they recommended that a particular test should be used which would ensure that arsenic in food and drugs should not exceed an infinitesimal trace1 and that frequent tests of raw and finished materials should be made4 ,these recommendations are now widely adopted1 and it is highly improbable that another epidemic of arsenic poisoning will ever occur again in this country4 ,no better illustration of the vicious circles in which adulteration may move can be found than in the practice of certain manufacturers of jam of the cheaper kind4 ,apple pulp is a common constituent of jams which conceal their identity under another name4 ,now1 in the case of raspberry jam1 for example1 it is necessary to have the seeds as well as fruit pulp1 and these seeds may be bought very cheaply from the makers of fruit essences4 ,the best quality of these essences is prepared by mixing the fruit with alcohol and distilling the mixture1 the spirit carrying over with it the ethereal oils to which the fruit owes its characteristic odour and flavour4 ,cheaper fruit essences are imitated chemically by making the most important of the compounds in the genuine ethereal oils1 and dissolving them in spirit2 but they are usually coarse in flavour1 and do not bear comparison with the real product4 ,where intermediate grades are wanted1 mixtures of the real and synthetical essences are often blended1 and these frequently imitate the natural product so closely as to be only distinguishable by a trained sense of smell and taste4 ,in the preparation of the genuine fruit essences a residual pulp1 containing the seeds and woody fibre of the fruit1 but devoid of all flavour or aroma1 is left behind1 and it is this which the unscrupulous jam manufacturer makes use of in preparing a cheap jam1 in which the seeds1 at all events1 are genuine4 ,then1 in order to give more flavour to his product1 he buys from the essence maker a flavouring essence1 a small part of which may have originally been derived from the fruit that has given him the pulp and seeds for his jam4 ,the question of adopting a fixed standard for all natural products is one that has been widely discussed4 ,it would have the advantage of simplifying the issue to be decided by the analyst and of preventing possible errors of judgment in the case of samples upon the border line between undoubtedly genuine and undoubtedly adulterated products4 ,on the other hand1 the legal fixing of a standard gives security to a skilful adulterator1 who is able to make his goods fall within the limit of the figures given by genuine products of low quality4 ,although most of the milk in large towns consists of the mixed products of many herds of cows1 and thus tends to have a percentage of fat only slightly higher than that required by the law1 there is but little doubt that a considerable proportion is scientifically watered and thus brought down to a limit of richness1 which is only a little above that which will enable it to pose as milk straight from the cow4 ,another instance of this effect of standardisation was seen in ,bavaria1 where a few years ago a minimum analytical figure was fixed for lard1 with the result that the ,american lard merchants sent to ,germany large quantities of lard which answered the requirements of this test1 but were heavily adulterated with beef fat4 ,however much an analyst may deprecate the fixing of standards for such products as milk and butter1 he is forced in practice to fix a standard for himself4 ,the ,society of ,public ,analysts1 recognising this1 passed a resolution that milk to be regarded as genuine must contain not less than #aa-a_/b per cent4 of solid matter1 and of this not less than #c per cent4 must be fat4 ,this fixes the standard for milk at a very low limit1 and undoubtedly leaves a margin for the watering of rich milks4 ,on the other hand1 ,dr4 ,vieth1 whose experience in the examination of milks was probably unequalled1 wrote in reference to this standard3 ,i think it is very judiciously fixed1 but in upholding the standard of purity1 it should never be forgotten that the cows have never been asked for nor have given their assent to it1 and that they will at times produce milk below standard4 ,a bad season for haymaking is1 in my experience1 almost invariably followed by a particularly low depression in the quality of the milk towards the end of the winter4 ,should the winter be of unusual severity and length1 the depression will be still more marked4 ,long spells of cold and wet1 as well as of heat and drought1 during the time when cows are kept on pasture1 also unfavourably influence the quality and1 ,i may add1 the quantity of milk4 ,mr4 ,h4 ,d4 ,richmond1 who had also had the opportunity of examining an immense number of samples of milk1 considered that the standard of #c per cent4 of fat was a reasonable one for the mixed milk of a whole herd1 but considered that milk ought not to be pronounced as watered unless the solids other than fat were well below #hj per cent41 except upon evidence derived from other tests4 ,in the ,sale of ,food and ,drugs ,act of #ahii powers were conferred upon the ,board of ,agriculture to make regulations determining what deficiency in the proportion of constituents of milk1 cream1 butter1 or cheese should raise a presumption that the product was not genuine until the contrary was proved4 ,acting under this section of the ,act1 the ,board adopted the minimum limit of the ,society of ,public ,analysts1 so that now any milk containing less than #c per cent4 of fat and #he per cent4 of cream is regarded as adulterated unless it can be proved by the vendor that it is genuine1 and it thus has the effect of transferring the burden of proof from the prosecution to the defence4 ,as was mentioned above1 the whole tendency of recent legal decisions is towards enforcing this standard4 ,for instance1 in a case in which there had been an appeal to the cow1 it was held by the present ,lord ,chief ,justice that3 ,if1 however1 the article produced1 although it is produced by the cow1 is the result of an abnormal condition of things arising either from disease1 or1 as here1 from unsound treatment of the cow1 ,i think that does amount to evidence upon which the magistrates can find the article is not of the nature1 substance1 and quality of the article demanded4 ,a want of system characterises the whole administration of the ,food and ,drugs ,act1 and many of the local authorities are unwilling to see that an adequate number of samples are taken4 ,for instance1 only a few years ago1 ,lancashire1 with a population of over a million and a half1 was content with #a1gee samples1 or one to each #aj1jjj people1 while in ,essex1 with a population of over half a million1 the samples taken were #fhf4 ,in ,bury ,st4 ,edmunds no samples at all were taken during the four years ending #ahii1 and a similar lax administration of the law in many other places might be cited4 ,some places pride themselves upon their freedom from adulteration1 because out of the paltry number of samples taken by the inspectors1 a quarter of the number or less may have been adulterated4 ,even when the limited number of samples is properly taken1 there is often a scandalous inadequacy and frequent inequalities in the amount of fine inflicted4 ,for instance1 a milkman was fined one shilling at ,margate for the sale of watered milk--a fine grossly inadequate to take away temptation2 while in other courts we find fines of a pound or more imposed for exactly the same offence4 ,the remedy for this would be to have a fixed scale of fines for each offence4 ,another direction in which legislation is needed is the protection of the middle-class buyer4 ,at the present time a shopman runs little or no risk in selling adulterated food to private houses4 ,and the greater the vigilance of the local authority in protecting the buyer over the counter1 the greater is the temptation to the shopkeeper to make an illicit profit out of ordered goods4 ,some means might well be provided for the examination of purchases in transit4 ,as a rule1 the public is apathetic in the matter of adulteration1 and errors of judgment1 frequently inevitable under the present system1 on the part of the analyst have led to his being regarded as the natural enemy of the tradesman4 ,if some system of standardisation for food products were generally adopted1 leaving the burden of proof of the genuineness of abnormal samples upon the seller1 and if the element of chance in the administration of the law were reduced1 this prejudice on the part of tradesmen in general would disappear1 although with the dishonest dealer the public analyst would become more unpopular than in the past4 ,,index ,adulteration of food1 #bad ,agraphia1 #gh ,anthropometry1 #ej ,arsenic in beer1 #bca ,arsenic poisoning1 #agf1 #aha1 #ahc ,bank-note forgeries1 #ajb ,beck case1 #da1 #ib ,beer conners1 #bag ,bertillonage1 #ej ,blandy1 ,mary1 #aha ,blood1 structure of1 #aed ---- stains identified1 #aee1 #aeg ----1 serum test for1 #afb ,bloodhounds1 #bi ,briggs1 murder of1 #cc ,brinkley poisoning case1 #aji1 #aaf ,capture of criminals1 #bb ,catchpole1 ,margaret1 #bb ,charlesworth case1 #bh ,circumstantial detection1 #cc ---- evidence1 #aa ,conflict of scientific evidence1 #ad1 #ai ,courvoisier1 #d ,crippen case1 #be1 #afg ,detective force1 #b ,dodd1 ,dr41 #adj ,elizabethan ink1 #ajg ,errors of eye-witnesses1 #ci ,essex1 ,earl of1 #h ,fallibility of eye-witnesses1 #cg ,fauld's observations on finger-prints1 #fb ,finger-prints1 #ed ----1 detection by1 #ff1 #fh ----1 heredity in1 #fb ----1 identification by1 #ei ----1 persistence of1 #eh ----1 systems of classifying1 #fd1 #fg ,forged documents1 #ic ,forgery trials1 #ace ,gorse ,hall murder1 #da1 #aff ,gun-flash identification1 #dd ,hair1 identification of1 #afg ---- of animals1 #afi ,hale1 trial of1 #ace ,handwriting1 #gj ----1 evidence as to1 #he ----1 heredity in1 #ga ----1 hypnotic1 #hb ----1 formation of1 #gc ---- in diseases1 #gh ---- in insanity1 #gi ---- in paralysis1 #hj ----1 mistakes as to1 #ib ---- of ,napoleon1 #gf ---- experts1 #hg ,herculaneum papyri1 #aac ,herschel's finger-print system1 #ee ,hypnotic writing1 #ha ,ink in writing1 #aje ---- ----1 age of1 #aje1 #aaj ---- ----1 differences in1 #aad ,insurance frauds1 #h1 #aj ,lamson1 ,dr41 #bja ,laundry mark identification1 #ce ,lovibond's tintometer1 #ajh ,matlock will case1 #adc ,maybrick trial1 #ah1 #bjf ,microscope in forgery cases1 #ic ,milton's ,bible1 #ajh ,mirror writing1 #hj ,mistaken identity1 #ci1 #da ,mller1 #cd ,nairn1 ,katharine1 #ahc ,napoleon's signatures1 #gf ,ogilvie1 trial of1 #ahc ,overbury1 murder of1 #agf ,palmer1 trial of1 #ah1 #aia ,perreaus1 trial of the1 #acf ,personal identification1 #cg ,photographic identification1 #dh ---- detection of forgery1 #ie ,physiological tests1 #aie ,pilcher's trial1 #aaa1 #adi ,poisons1 definition of1 #ahe ----1 miraculous effects of1 #aga ,poisoning trials1 #aga ,police dogs1 #cb ,portraits1 identification by1 #bg1 #bh ,preservatives in food1 #bbd ,purkenje's finger prints1 #ed ,rudd1 trial of ,mrs41 #ach ,russell1 ,lord ,william1 #d ,scientific assistance for prisoners1 #ac ---- deduction1 #f ---- proof1 #ab ,smethurst1 trial of1 #ai ,somerset1 ,countess of1 #agi ,spencer ,cowper1 trial of1 #ae1 #he ,standards for food1 #bcd ,suffolk witches1 #agb ,swan and ,jefferies1 trial of1 #d ,sympathetic inks1 #acj ,systems of identification1 #dh ,tawell1 capture of1 #bd ---- trial of1 #ahg ,telectrograph1 #bf ,telegraph1 capture by aid of1 #bd1 #be ,tichborne case1 #df ,turner1 ,anne1 #agb1 #agg ,typewritten matter1 #ig ,weston1 trial of1 #agb1 #agf ,whalley will case1 #ade ,witnesses as advocates1 #ai ,wireless telegraphy1 #be1 #bg ,witchcraft and poisoning1 #agb ,wood1 trial of1 #aba ,writers' cramp1 #gh ,yarmouth murder1 #cd ,,the ,,end ,press of ,isaac ,pitman ,sons1 ,bath1 ,england4