The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-09-09

throughout this quiet community, ana as the sun
way to the court room to listen to the closing scenes
Of this mans final trial. that has for four years 80
the entire country. The court bell rung at nine
O'Clock precisely and the judges, jury and counsel
Immediately responded, to find the entire room
densey crowded with an eager asSemDldge. Alarge
number OF elegantly dressed ladies filled the seats
in the body OF the room, while the sterner sex
ever o vacant place could be obtained. The pris-
oner came into the court room before the ringing
o. the bel and took his seat near ms counsel ns1
and collected He was the object of much attention
on the part OF the ladies'. rGba
JUDGE JENKINS OPINION.
AT nine minutes after nine O'Clock Judge Junkn
raped the Court to order ana said:-"0entlemen OF
the Jury, do most heartily congratulate you upon
WIN without furtner premise proceed to give you
my opinions upon the law and evidence In this
cvse, and amidst breathless silence the Judge be-
gan his charge. He defined murder and man
slaughter reciting the pennsylvania act by which
the grade OF murder is defined, and then pro-
few wen settled principles governing Investigations
OF this kind First then, there must be PROOF clear
and satisfactory OF the corpus dec that Is Il must
mitted at all. In the present case the Common.
murdered by the administration OF poison and al
leges that DR.. Paul Schoppe is the person who ie.
loniously administered that poison. Now, then the
corpus deficit in this case 10, that the woman was
murdered. But If she died natural death then
there has been no crime committed by any one.
That she died is admitted; but that she was muir
dered by any one whomsQever is utterly denied.
That she died Is not marvellous; she was obedient
to the common fate, 80 that you readily l per-
torily appears from the evidence that this
woman was murdered your investigation stops
search for the author OF crime until 1t Is clearly
and satisfactorily shown that crime has been COM
IT'S broaaeat and for s' 50
doing we are sustained by high authority. Whar-
ton, in his Criminal Law, volume 1. section 745,
must necessarily be the foundation OF every crimi-
nal suit. and until that fact is proved most most dan
II would never convict any person Of murder un-
less the fact were proved to be done that is unless
%tsed fS And LORD stow In Evans vs. EVANS
said, ITO take presumptions In order to swell an
equivocal fact into criminal fact would be an
tions,n and the civil law is the same .'The death
in such case should be distinctly proved either by
body, perhaps by circumstantial evidence strong
enough to leave no ground for reasonable doubt.
It is the established rule that the facts that form
either by direct testimony or by presumpuve evil
dence Of the most cogent and irresistible kind.
where the rule laid down by Lord Hale seems
to have been generally followed" So many
cases have occurred where appearances u strongly
quent events fully explained, that it is unsafe to
depart from those established rules which by the
THE REASONABLE DOUBT.
The place and circumstances may point strongly
to guilty agencies. dead body found wounded IN
an Out-0f-the-way place or by the wayside excites
committed while person found dead in his own
house, and in his own bed, without marks
Of ocon o crime pe Is to be
under all circumstances from causes constantly
operating, and the wonder is, not that we die, but
sonableness OF the rule that requires undoubted
proof that crime has been committed before we
ea as to ns It's slightest
died natural death, and this presumption cannot
overcome at all 1t must be by clear and satisfactory
evidence that she was murdered BY poison. Il #
woman died a natural death. then we instruct you
that your investigation should stop at that
point and would BE- your little duty
what point in your inquiry the reasonable doubt,
which the law regards as the property Of the pri-
tory evidence as to the commission OF the crime
itself or the perpetrator thereof II committed still
1t Is tne same doqot that IN law WORKS
the doubt when it is born Of confusion in the proof
relied on by the Commonwealth to establish not the
guilty agency OF the accused, but the very crime It.
SELF for II no crime has been committed no one can
be punished.
~--. WHAT PoIsoNp
If this woman died from she effects of poison,
was its In reference 70 the medical defni-
zion OF poison 1t Is necessary to OBJ
serve that the a.. law does not regard the the
II 1t be capable of destroying life 1t s OF little i'm
pOrtance, 80 far as the responsibility of prisoner
Is concerned, whether It's action on the body is of
mechanical or chemical nature and whether 1t Ope.
rate fatally by absorption into the blood or not. II
the accused is tried on charge Of murder or man.
slaughter. ut is not easy" says DR.. Taylor, ito
define the boundary between, q medicine and q
sc, <Intn
large dose is a poison, and poison In small
dose is medicine. In the present case If this
se ana ac
las we will hereafter EXPLAIN, poison the
most rapid and speedy In Its results. All poisons
have certain symptoms-that s, they produce GER
tain effects upon the human SYSTEM" and to
medical jurist q correct knowledge OF the symp-
those cases in which persons are charged with
their unlawful administration. Necessarily we
must, in matters Of this kind, depend for our In
formation on the experience and wisdom OF the
learned in the medical profession and we Will
therefore take the liberty of drawing largely from
DIR. Taylor, an eminent London author and prac-
titioner, whose excellent work on medical juris-
prudence Is now before US.
Here the Judge quoted largely from that work.
and especially laid great stress on the f0llOwingJ
PRUssIC ACID AS A POISON
symptoms This acid has hot bitter taste and an odor
resembling bitter almonds diued. The time at which
PssGs s %eS n
hat an ounce ounce diluted acid, symptoms
usually commence in the act Of swallowing. or within
layed beyond one or two minutes
Here he described the symptoms. Insensibility,
the eyes fixed and gstening the pupils dilated
and unaffected by light, limbs placid, skin cold and
covered with clammy perspiration; there is con-
appears dead in the intermediate period and the
pulse imperceptible. The respiration is slow and
gasping and occasionally sobbing, generally con-
vulsve; but when insensibility is profound 1t may
be stertOrOus Commissions OF the limbs and body,
with spasmodic closure OF the jaw, are sometimes
smallest fatal dose will kill within one hour, and
said that great authorities, such as Targu Taylor,
ct al, called death by this acid death by lightning
THE LIGHTNING DEATH
He then proceeded thus:-It appears that, ordi-
narily, we may expect death from the administra-
ton OF prussic acid within an hour at most. This
is an important fact which Is Of immense value In
the determination OF this case. We now turn to
the evidence which has been laid before you, and
see how far it sustains the theory OF the Common