The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-06

party are marched into tho presence Of
magistrate and put in bonds; the buffalo are
unmolested, happy; justice is indicated, and
Russian Prince learns that there are fools in
America, who when they mean to show what
folly can really do surpass anything known N
the civilized or Nncivilized world.
s.-. .sxIS a-.ssA:.x-
Medical Experts In the Wharton. Trial.
The great Wharton trial still drags it's weary
length along, illustrating in striking manner
the uncertainty as to results or facts obtain
able from the evidence of medical experts.
1t would seem as if the advance in the exact
sciences tended more and more to prove the
danger of implicitly relying on medical testi-
mony alone in criminal trials. Mrs. Ellen G.
Wharton is accused of poisoning General
Ketchum with tartar emetic for the purpose
Of relieving herself of an Indebtedness
Of two thousand six hundred dollars.
The case for the prosecution, when presented
alone, seemed mountain of proof in itself,
under which the prisoner was crushed beyond
deliverance. The circumstantial 9, evidence
seemed to point conclusvely that Mrs. Whar-
ton had administered the poison, which DR..
Aiken and Professor Tonry swore they found
in the stomach Of the deceased. The symp-
toms of the moribund were stated to have
been those of one intoxicated with anthony,
and DR.. P. G. Williams, who attended him,
declared that upon these symptoms and some
sediment In q tumbler he first founded his sus-
picion of foul play. The case At this stage
looked black indeed for the refined lady
against whom all these aptly joined conclu-
sions and damning spots were found. The
ingenuity with which the prosecution had
Joined all the links of information together
was regarded as creditable to their
sagacity and diligent labor in the peoples
cause. Nineteen days had they labored to
9th of December last Attorney General
Syester rested his case there appeared to be
small room for Mrs. Wharton's escape from the
meshes which would hold her until the gallows
claimed its own. The defence arose to its
herculean task, and during the last eight days
have done such serious damage to the case for
the prosecution that it seems no longer tenable.
And the most curious thing is that it has been
almost wholly by purely circumstantial
evidence that this has been brought
about. Drs Aiken and Tony professed
to have found poison. Professors
McCulloch, Genth and Reese testified and
appear to have proved. that no anthony had
been found by the tests at all. They showed
conclusively that the results obtained in the
experiments could have been produced by the
action of the reagents employed by Aiken and
Tonry upon the medicine administered be-
fore General Ketchum's death, and left it open
to serious doubt but that the poison, if any,
was contained in the reagents themselves. The
discredit thus thrown upon the so-called
analyses startled the untechnical, who had
taken the prosecuting professors at their
word. The most fatal obj ection to the chemi-
cal testimony came from Professor Genth. It
may be summarized in one of his replies, as
follows :-"Whenever substance is to be
treated for the presence of any poison-anti-
mony, for instance-it is necessary under oil
circumstances to use the best methods known,
and which are not liable to error and in case
of metallic poisons to produce the metal, and
to produce the metal In such quantity that
by subsequent investigation Of that metal
no doubt at all can be left as 10 its nature"
The professors had not produced their anti
mony. After thus multiplying the analyses,
the defence proceeded to throw doubt upon
the medical testimony as to the cause Of
death. DR.. Warren, of Baltimore, declared
the symptoms to be those of disease well
known in that city as malignant purpuric fever,
OF, technically, epidemic cerebro-spinal men,
nights.
Turning moment from the medical evil
dence it may be noticed that another impor-
tant line taken up by the defence is indicated
In the evidence Of young Mrs. Cottman, who
testified to finding torn strips of paper after
Mrs. Wharton having an interview with Gen
eral Ketchum at the house of Mrs. Chubb.
The defence evidently intend to support Mrs.
Whartons statement that the note for two
thousand six hundred dollars was destroyed
there after being handed to her by the de-
ceased.
It will be seen, then, that the defence, as lar
as developed, sustains more or less strongly,
first, that If anthony were found 1t should
have been presented; second, that no anti
monv was found; third that he did not die o.