APPLICATIONS OF THE MICROSCOPE. 115 



were deponed to ; but, after the trial had pro- 

 ceeded for two days, and many witnesses had 

 appeared, it was felt that the evidence was in- 

 complete and unsatisfactory, though the actual 

 guilt of the pannel could scarcely be doubted. 

 But the Microscope was called into court, and 

 its evidence adduced in support of the charge. 

 A Microscopist had been employed to examine 

 a pair of corduroy trousers and a razor, which 

 belonged to the prisoner at the time of the 

 commission of the murder. The Microscopist 

 deponed, that he found on the trousers several 

 small spots, the largest not so large as a swan- 

 shot ; that he discovered, by the aid of the eye 

 of the Microscope, that the spots were blood; 

 that they were human blood; and that these 

 spots of human blood had been made by small 

 streams of blood " spirting" upward from the 

 divided artery of a living human body. He 

 farther deponed that particles of soap attached 

 to the spots of blood ; that an attempt had been 

 made to wash them out ; and that ink had been 

 carefully poured over some of them. He declared, 

 in conclusion, that the handle of the razor, 

 which had belonged to the pursuer, was stained 

 with blood, and that this blood also ivas human. 



