CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 27 



coat of the stomach was found to be partially inflamed or stellated 

 in several places, and the villous coat was softened by the action of 

 some corrosive substance; the blood-vessels of the stomach were 

 turgid, and the intestines, particularly near the stomach, inflamed. 

 The contents of the stomach were placed in a jug in a room to wlich 

 the prisoner — to whom, at that time, no suspicion attached — had 

 access, and it appeared that he had clandestinely tampered with 

 those contents by throwing them into another vessel containing a 

 quantity of water ; and there were other suspicious moral circum- 

 stances in his conduct which are purposely omitted in this analysis, 

 as the case turned entirely upon the question of the sufficiency of 

 the proof of the corpus delicti. Dr. Edwards concluded from the 

 symptoms — the shortness of the illness and the morbid appearances 

 — that the deceased had died from some active poison ; and, in order 

 to discover the particular poison supposed to have been used, he ap- 

 plied to the contents of the stomach the chemical tests of the sul- 

 phate of copper in solution, and the ammoniaco-nitrate of silver, 

 which severally yielded the characteristic appearances of arsenic : 

 the sulphate of copper producing a green precipitate, whereas a blue 

 precipitate is formed if no arsenic be present ; and the nitrate of 

 silver producing a yellow precipitate, instead of a white precipitate, 

 if arsenic be not present. Dr. Edwards considered these tests in- 

 fallible, and used them, as he stated, because they would detect a 

 more minute portion of arsenic ; on which accoui.t he considered 

 it to be more proper for the occasion, as, from the appearance of 

 the tests, he found there could not be much. Dr. Edwards also 

 tried experiments upon the bile mixed with water and with a decoc- 

 tion of onions, to ascertain whether any substances taken into the 

 stomach would alter the appearances produced by those tests, but 

 they produced no appearance of arsenic. The great object of the 

 prisoner's counsel was to extract from Dr. Edwards, upon his cross 

 examination, admissions, 1st. That the symptoms and appearances 

 were such as might have been occasioned by some other cause than 

 poisoning ; 2nd. That the reduction test would have been infallible ; 

 and 3rd. That it might have been adopted in the first instance, and 

 might also have been tried upon the matter which had been used 

 for the other experiments. Upon his re-examination. Dr. Edwards 

 accounted for his omission of the reduction test by stating that the 

 quantity of matter left after the other experiments would have 

 been too small, and that it would not have been so correct to 

 use the matter whicli had been subjected to the experiments. — 

 The prisoner's counsel, having obtained this admission, proceeded 



