The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-11-28
marks on ase Blood Test TN Murder
Trials. -t"#
From the Cincinnati GazcGte.l

In the course OF the celebrated Wander
pool trial, now in progress at Kalamazoo,
an interesting medico-legal question has
arisen. about which two professors are at
loggerheads, and wnich is beginning to at
tract much attention. 1t will be remem-
bered by many Of our readers that George
Vanderpool and Herbert Field were in
1863 doing large banking business in Man
istee, Mich. In September of that vear
the partnership was dissolved, and the af-
fairs OF the firm were settled up. On sun
day, the 9th Of September, Field disappear
ed, and two OF three days after his body was
found in the Mani>tee river.
Various circumstances combined to throw
suspicion Oh MIR. Nanderpool and, on
Tuesday or Wednesday, he was arrested.
The case came to trial in due time, and YAH
derpool was found gnilty. But, on the
ground that the teeltngiu Manistee had been
so strong against him that IN impartial trial
was impossible, new hearing of the case
was granted, and the trial was ordered TO
take place at Kalamazoo. Here it has been
going on for three weeks, exciting more gen.
rallnterest than any case that has ever been
tried in the State.
Among other circumstantial evidence on
which the prosecution rely was the pres
ence Of many stains, alleged to be of blood,
that were found on the floor and walls OF
the bank. 1t is the theory of the prosecu-
ton that, after signing the articles of dis.
solution, the two parties returned to the
bank, and that while Field was sitting at a
desk, engaged il writing, Vanderpool
came I'D behind him and stuck him two
heavy Slows on the head; that the blood,
spirting in all directions, stained every
thing in the immediate vicinity that after
wards, the body, being left on the floor,
stained the carpet; and that in the even
ing. as it was carried by Vanderpool down
a pair of stars which led to the river, 1t
left traces of blood ut different points.
On the first day Of the second trial, Dr..
S. p. Duftield, Of Detroit, was examined.
He testified that he was often called upon to
make chemical and microscopic analyses !;
that on the 18th of October-more than six
weeks, il will be remembered, after the
murder-he received from the prosecuting
attorney of Manistee county package con-
tanning piece Of matched flooring about
six inches long, two pieces of carpet about
the same size, and some chips OF wood, I'D
which were the supposed hlood-stalns
He could swear positively, he said, that
these stains were made by human blood. He
also testified in his cross-examinationtha that he
could readily distinguish the difference
between the blood twelve years old and
blood one year old. He then SAID: There
is no danger Of installing the blood OF
war1n-blooded animal for that of a man.
Whether ali the blood examined is hui
man cannot say, but human blood was
present in all the specimens. / can draw
the general character and class to which it
belongs from the corpuscles. While the
corpuscles vary in diameter, that OF the
human, being in its fresh state, being the
largest, might shrink during drynesS, and
not again resume its full size. would not
~ nncifivpiU the size of fha
corpuscleS, therefore I take the corpuscle
to determine the class to which it belongs,
and the crystal determines the individual
of that class" 5s @s:s.~. - '
When the time came for the defence to
present their testimony, one of their wit
nesses was DR.. Silas II. Douglass, professor
of chemistry and foXicology in the Uni
yersity of Michigan. In reply to the ques-
ton whether there is any method by which
it can be certainly determined whether
blood is the blood Of human being or the
blood of other mammalia, he answered
that there was not any positive way. The
nearest approximation to it, he testI-
fed, is by ascertaining the size Of
the blood disk and its form; but,
fIlasmuch as the disk is liable to vary from
circumstances, it is not considered q safe
mode of determining so important Ques-
tiops "a relate to legal Investigations. After
saying that he had read carefully the latest
works on the subject, he said that all that
could be done was to say whether or not
Ger, ain blood belonged to the class num-
malta. 1t could not be stated with certain
ty that it belonged TO q human being. "The
crystal Of the. dogs blood cannot be dis,
tinsushed from the crystal Of the human
blood" NC AK 49,: SS1
The question on which these two doctors
disagree is'an interesting one, but: 1T is one
on which almost all the authority Is on one
side. The subject has been frequently dis
cussed, and, 50 far as we know, the concln-
sions that investigators have arrived at are