The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-02
No Poison Proved to Have Been
Given General ketchum.
Convincing Testimony Of DR..
Reese, of Philadelphia.
Showing the Fallacy of the
Tests for Poison.

mig prelminaries, and Attorney General Syester
continued his cross-examinatIon. 1t has not been
until this morning that this gentlemans sterling abb
lities as chemist so apparent; but under the
searching and ably conducted cross examination OF
the Attorney General, his superior attachments were
developed to an extent which really astonisned
every one present The Attorney General himself
was heard to remark, "He is giant In his profess
ziOn.n He left the stand at ten minutes past one
O'Clock, having admfut5sorod damaging blows
70 the foundation Of the prosecutions case that It
must certainly fall to the ground. He was sue.
ceedea by Or. Reese, of Philadelphia, whose test.
mony, as follows. will be seen to be equally
damaging to the prosecution
TESTIMONY OF J. J. REESE, OF PHILADELPHIA.
DR.. JOHN ]. REESE reside In Philadelphia; am
practising physician, and at present occupy the
chair OF Medical Jurisprudence and Coxicology IN
the University OF Pennsylvania; was formerly Pro.
lessor OF Chemistry In the medical department Of
Pennsylvania College, at Philadelphia; have, IN
connection with my present chair, made toxicology
special study.
Mr. STEBLE-Did you hear the evidence OF Pro-
lessor Aiken, and, il SO, regard his analysis
"a complete and satisfactory
WITNESs-l heard all Of Professor Aiken's testi-
Mony as TO his analysis OF the stomach of General
Ketchum and the sediment III the lumber and to
my mind his results DO not establish the proof OF
the presence OF antimony in either the stomach OF
General Kvtchum or the Iumbler. In my opinion,
Dir, o chemical analysis connected with poisoning
case should be as thorough, accurate and exhaust
I've
Attorney General syEsTER--Don't state what your
opinion is. We want facts only.
WITNEss-One reason why his analysis was In.
SUFFICIENT and unreliable is the omission In that
analysis Of some very important and characteristic
tests necessary to develop the metal anti.
mony. Another is that when tests known
70 be characteristic used, OF them failed;
and the third is that In the tests used and
most relied upon by them for their result there
were sources Of fallacy which rendered them I'M
certain and incOnclusive. The mission to obtain
the metal and then submit it TO all the character.
istic tests known for the detection OF anthony Is
capital objecu on TO my mind, In DR.. Aken's
analysis. II Is very easy to obtain the metal anti.
mony II 1t ID present. and, to my mind any analysis
would be detective and unreliable that failed TO
produce the metal when antimony was present.
why TONRY's EXPERIMENTS WERE UNRELIABLE
Mr. STEELE-Did you hear the evidence OF Pro.
lessor Tonry in relation to his analysis and II So do
you regard the tests he used the results he Oh.
tanned as establishing the presence Of antimony IN
the liver and other viscera OF General Ketchum's
WITNEss-I heard his testimony, and am Of the
same opinion with reference 10 Mr.. Tonry's analy.
sis a. mold In relation TO that OF Dr. Aiken; two OF
the tests considered characteristic and which failed
In the analysis OF Mr. Tonry were:-Frst the appli.
DO anthony; second his experiment with the
blowplpe; the failure OF these two experiments
tended to disprove rather than prove the presence
Witness here referred to the new method of
stated that 1t should not have been omitted. BY
this process any crystalline substance such tartar
cmet1c CORROSIVE subumale arSenlouS acid, Strych-
MIA, morpha, &c, can be readily separated from amy
organic uncrystallZable substance. BY placing The
paper and noating It on pure water IN snort time
any crystalline substance! VIII pass through the
membrane into the water, from which they can be
recovered In o pure state.
MR.. STEELE-what tests do you refer to as being
WITNESS The ones chiefly relied on In The analy.
SIS to wlt-1he sulphurretled hydrogen test and its
Mr. STEELE-Wbat were the three tests used by
Dr. Aiken, and what IN your judgment Is their
enlClency In testing for anthony
ctpitate with sulphuretied hydrogen; second, It's
BOlubillty IN boiling hydrocnl0ric acid; and, third
duction Of q white clouu; In my Judgment these
tests are fallaclous, because organic matter may
give precisely similar results acid solutions from
the effects OF sulohuretted hydrogen-to wit, an
orange red or reddish-brown 7recipnate, more or
ing solution win produce II dropped into wafer.
white cloud which ultimately becomes precipl- |
iate these a , have long been known to chemists
Mr: sTEELB-Do you know what would be the |
snec,s OF suphuretted hydrogen or sulphide OF am
monium on nncture OF yellow jessamine and n.y. |
dfnte OF choral
.wIrNEss-Tbey give an orange -colored precipitate
antmonial solution; OF this remarkable coincidence |
was unaware unlil became acquainted with the
Iecent interesting experiments made In this case by
SUBJECT; have repeated these experiments myself,
viii also afford still further Developments; the pre-.
ctpltate obtained by adding suphide OF ammonium
lessalnine and c6lora is soluble 10 great extent
10 nydrocnioric acid, and this acid solution gives
o cropped asa n0 sUasi +, that
great extent IN hydrocnorc acid, and II
dropped yellowish RED precipltate is reproduced;
AL these results are remarkably similar to those
0pt@nea Dy Or. Aiken In his analysis OF the stomach
Mr. sTEELE-hsve you made further experiments |
s win yellow essamns and cnlora regards their
.,o WirSEssnIes, sir; organic substances espe.
with acid produce du s Wnsa u TSea
strip OF copper ioi, which stain might easily be
mistaken for one OF antimony or arsenic; the vel
low )essamme and Choral viii also produce the
witness then exhibited to the Jury several str,ns
Of copper foil thus stained with yellow jessamne
and choral and some animal substance Containing
WrNgss-n sulphur he present in The organic
matter as Is always the case when the material is
taken from dead body, the effect is more decided
the copper thus stained be washed, dried and
Then heated to redness in small reductive tube,
mere will be more or less OF u white eublimate.
which an unpractised or even practised eve might
No., mistake for an anIiTonal sabiment this fact Of
cnemicai world.
Mr. STRELB-Do you speak OF the results above
named FROM your own experiments3
WlTFESs-fes cir; have tried such experiments
dno6 coming TO Annapolis as have detailed, espe-
c1aly In reference TO yellow jessamine and choral
aud ~ for snis reason that nave called those
tests uoed by Dr. Aiken laoacious; mean the color
produced by anlphuretted hydrogen and their sub
eeguent results.
NJ. sTRRLE-What, IN your opinion, would be
necessary In an Analysis such ~ performed by Dr.
Aiken upon the stoilAch OF Geufral Ketcnum 10 he
done 10 establish the presence OF antm0ny9
wITEEes--l should require the production Of the
metal and III sufficient quantities. TO enable me 10
subject II TO oil its reactions; that
my opinion is absolutely necessary; the metal