1885.] Conducting Chemical Examinations. 31 
apart solely for that purpose, and so entirely under my own 
control that no one else could enter it without my knowledge 
and permission, which I considered absolutely necessary for 
conducting the analyses and examinations with that extreme 
care which such cases imperatively demanded. 
The medical expert would of course attend and take the 
leading part in the post mortem examinations ; he would also 
be the adviser in cases where general practitioners were in 
doubt as to whether a patient they were attending was being 
slowly poisoned or labouring under the effects of poison. 
In cases where the chemical analyst found poison in the 
body, the medical expert would, in giving his evidence, have 
to state whether the appearances revealed at the post mortem 
examination and the symptoms of the dying person indicated 
the particular poison the analyst had found. In cases where 
the analyst did not discover any poison, the medical expert’s 
opinion would have to be taken as to whether the medical 
examinations indicated poisoning, and, if they did, what 
particular poison. 
3rd. As the Law very properly allows those who may be 
charged with adulterating any article of food they sell to 
employ an analyst to examine a portion of the sample the 
local authority, by one of its agents, has obtained for the 
purpose of ascertaining whether it is adulterated or not, so 
in the still more serious matter of poisoning the suspected 
persons ought — if they so desired — to have the power by 
Law of employing an analytical chemist to be present 
during the examinations the chemical expert made. For if 
a mistake were committed by the expert, which we have 
shown from analogous cases is not impossible, it would in 
most cases be impossible for the defendant’s counsel to dis- 
cover it, even with the aid of an analyst, no matter how 
skilfully he might cross-examine the expert. 
It would not, however, be desirable to allow the accused 
power to seleCt any person who chose to call himself an 
analytical chemist for this very delicate and responsible 
duty ; but the political chief of the Government Depart- 
ment which had charge of these inquiries might name some 
chemists of eminence, in each of the three divisions of the 
kingdom, he would accept. 
4th. But whether in future the Government will or 
will not allow — and especially if they will not allow — the 
accused to select an analyst to be present in the expert’s 
laboratory during the time he is conducting the examina- 
tions, no chemist, no matter how eminent he may be, 
should be appointed as a Government expert without having 
