110 NOTES AND MEMORANDA. — Ne eee 
were so satisfactory to these experts that they were willing to deli- 
berately swear that the tissues of Mrs. Fero’s head were bruised. 
Both Dr. Stevens and Dr. Van Derveer state that they saw broken 
muscular fibres in certain specimens of tissues from Mrs. Fero’s head, 
which they examined under the microscope with powers magnifying 
objects from 700 to 1000 diameters. We do not question the accuracy 
of their observations in this particular ; but of what importance is it 
in determining whether or not the tissues were bruised, whether blows 
were struck before death ? 
According to Bowman, the average diameter of the ultimate mus- 
cular fibres of the human female is ;},th part of an inch; these are 
bound together by connective or cellular tissue into small bundles, and 
these again into larger ones, which constitute muscle or lean flesh. 
In order to examine these ultimate muscular fibres the usual method 
is to take a small portion of a muscle as fresh as possible, but after 
it has lost its contractility, and, using magnifying glasses, the particle 
is torn under water into fine shreds by means of needles. The con- 
nective tissue is so strong that force must be used to separate the 
ultimate fibres, which as a consequence are in parts irregularly broken 
or torn. The specimens thus prepared may then be submitted to 
examination under a high power of the microscope, in such a condition 
as to exhibit most of the important points in their structure. 
In this case, however, broken muscular fibres were not found in 
fresh specimens from Mrs. Fero’s head, prepared by the above or 
similar manipulations, but only in specimens of the tissue after it had 
been subjected to the action of strong alcohol five months. -But, as 
has just been said, the above method of preparing fibres for examina- 
tion is very certain to break them. Even were this not necessarily so, 
would it be safe or wise to say that the delicate muscular fibres were 
not broken during these manipulations, when the bulk of the material 
worked upon in each case was much smaller than the head of a pin ? 
But this is by no means all : it is necessary to bear in mind the treat- 
ment the head had undergone before these examinations. It had been 
subjected to the action of saws, knives, and fingers, during two post- 
mortem examinations; to burial and exhumation; to repeated handling 
in Davenport, Delhi, and Albany; it had been placed on wooden 
tables and marble slabs, and the muscular parts had been cut, pulled, 
and separated from each other at different times and places. It would 
be strange, indeed, if thousands of fibres were not broken during these 
operations, as undoubtedly they were—this even a casual examination 
would show—and stranger still if broken fibres were not detected 
when the tissue was examined under the microscope. Both of these 
experts, on their cross-examination, admitted that they could not 
determine by the microscope whether the fibres were broken before 
or after death ; we agree with them in this, and hence fail to see how 
their discovery of broken fibres, under the actual circumstances, was 
the slightest evidence of blows or bruises. 
Dr. Stevens saw not only broken muscular fibres, but also some 
other objects which he thought might be fibrin. Let us examine into 
this. The blood contains, besides water, blood-globules, albumen, and 
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