The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-12-06
during an infection of pain that would drive

lecture-room, made my way to the root OF
the building. AS | emerged through the
scuttle-way, Miss Borgier scrambled to her
feet and advanced to meet me without mani
Testing the slightest discomposure. Her
face fairly beamed with pleasure.
''Wasn't it beautiful"' she asked with
smile, extending her hand. 81 heard the
bones slowly grinding and crushing"
l did not take her hand. "How came
you here?" 1 demanded, avoiding her
glance.
comp said she, with a silvery laugh, Il
came early, about sunrise. The Janltor lett
the door aiar, and | slipped in while he was
IN the cellar. All the morning l spent in
the place where they dissect; and when the
students began to come in down stairs es-
capped here to the roof.
s.Are you aware, Miss Borgier,' asked,
very gravely, "that you have committed
serious indiscretion, and must be gotten out
of the building as quickly and privately as
possible?'
She did not appear to understand. every
WE'LL" she said. II suppose there is moth
ing more to see. | mayas well CO."
led her down through the garrett, cum
bered with boxes and barrels of unarticu-
lated human bones; through the medical
library, unoccupied at that hour; by back
stairway into and across the great vacant
chemical lecture room; through the anatomi-
Cal CABINET, 1ull Oh OUTFITS dppdililSe W tiiO
imagination of her sex. l was silent, and
she said nothing; but her eyes were every
where, drinking in the strange surroundings
with an avidty which L could feel without
once looking at her. Finally we came to
basement corridor, at the end of which a
door, not often used, gave egress by an alley
way to the street. 1t was through this door
that subjects for dissection were brought
into the building. l took bunch of keys
alyot ond turpp6 the lOpE
''Your way is clear now" said
To my immense establishment Miss Boz
gier, as we stood together at the end OF the
dark corridor, threw both arms around my
neck and kissed me.
"Good-by," she said as she disappeared
through the half-opened door.
When | awoke the next morning after
sleeping for more than fifteen hours,
found that could not raise my head from
the pillow without nausea The symp oms
were exactly like those which mark the
effects of an over dose of laudanum.
have thought it due to myself and to my
professional reputation to recount these
facts before briefly speaking of my recent
testimony as an expert in the Ratcllff muir
der trial. the character of my relations with
the accused having. been persistently mis-
represented.
The circumstances of that celebrated cas-
are no doubt still fresh in the recollection OF
the public. Mr.. John l.. Ratclitf, wealthy,
middle-aged merchant of Boston, came to
st. Louis with his young bride on their we'd
ding journey. His sudden death at the
Planters Hotel, followed by the arrest OF
his wife, who was entirely without friends
or acquaintance in the city, her indictment
for murder by poisoning, the conflict OF med
ical testimony at the trial, and the purely
81 sJn,,
the prisoner, attracted general attention and
| excited public interest to degree that was
| quite extraordinary.
| 1t will be remembered that the State proved
| that the relations of Mr.. and Mrs. Ratclitf,
as observed by the guests and servants of the
hotel, were not felcitous; that he rarely
spoke to her at table, habitually averting his
face in her presence; that he wandered aim
lessly about the hotel for several days pre-
vious to his illness, apparently half stupe-
fed, as if by the oppression OF some heavy
mental burden, and that when accosted by
any one connected with the house he started
as if from dream, and answered incoher-
entity if at ALL
1t was also shown that, by her husbands
death, Mrs. Ratcliff becamelthe sole mistress
of large fortune.
The evidence bearing directly upon the
circumstances of Mr.. Ratclff's death was
physician was summoned nobody had access
to him save lis wife. At dinner that day,
in response to the polite inquiry of lady
neighbor at table, Mrs. Ratcliff announced,
| with great self-posseSsion, that her husband
was seriously indisposed. Soon after II
O'Clock at night Mrs. Ratcliff rang her bell,
and, without the least agitation of manner,
remarked that her husband seemed to be
dying, and tina, it might be well to send for
phvSinian Dr Enlhprt who arrival with
in very few minutes, found Mr.. Ratclltf in
a profound stupor, brea hing stertoriously.
He swore at the trial that when he first en-
t. red the room the prisoner, pointing to the
bed, coolly said: 81 suppose have killed
him.
DR.. Culbert's testimony seemed to point
Enthusiastically to poisoning by laudanum or
morphine. The unconscious mans pulse
was full but slow his skin cold and pallid;
the expression of his countenance placid,
yet deadly pale; lips livd. Coma had al
ready supervened and it was impossible to
rouse him. The ordinary eXpedients were
tried in vain. Flagellation of the palms of
his hands and the soles of his feet, electrici-
ty applied to the head and spine, failed to
make any impression on his lethargy. The
eyelids being forcibly opened the pupils were
seen to be contracted to the size OF pin-heads
and violently turned inward. Later the
stertorious breathing developed into the ON
inOusly loud rattle OF mucous in the trachea;
there were commissions, attended by copious
frothings at the mouth; the under jaw fell
upon the breast, and paralysis and death
followed four hours after DR.. Culbert's arri-
val.
Several of the most eminent practitioners
of the city, put upon the stand by the prose-
cution, swore that, in their opinion. the
symptoms noted by DIR. Culbert not only in
Dictated opium poisoning, but could have re-
suited from no other cause.
On the other hand the State absolutely
failed to show either that opium in any form
had been purchased by Mrs. Ratcliff in st.
Louis or that traces of opium in any form
were found in the room after the event. 1t is
true that the prosecuting attorney in his
closing argument sought to make the latter
circumstance tell against the prisoner. He
argued that the disappearance of any vessel
containing or having contained laudanum,
in view of the positive evidence that lauda-
nun had been employed, served to establish
a deliberate intention OF murder and to de-
molish any theory of accidental poisoning
that the defense might attempt to build; and
he propounded half dozen hypothetical
methods by which Mrs. Ratcliff might have
disposed in advance of this evidence of her
crime. The Court, of course, in summing
up, cautioned the jury against attaching
weight to these hypothesis Of the prosecut-
ing attorney.
The Court, however, put much emphasis
on the medical testimony for the prosecution
and on the calm declaration of Mrs. Ratcliff
to DR.. gilbert, 81 suppose have killed him."
Having conducted the autopsy, and after
ward made qualitative analysis of the con-
tents of the dead mans stomach l was put
upon the stand as witness for the defense.
Then l saw the prisoner for the first time
in more than five years. When l had taken
the oath and answered the preliminary ques-
tions, Mrs. Ratcliff raised the veil which she
had worn since the trial began and looked
me in the face with the well-remembered
eyes of Miss Borgier.
| confess that my behaviour during the
first few moments of surprise afforded some
ground for the reports thai were afterwards
current concerning my relations with the
prisoner. Her eyes chained not only mine,
but my tongue also. Isaw Jerusalem again,
and the face framed in blue sky, peering
down into the amphitheatre of the old medi-
ical college. 1t was only after a struggle
which attracted the attention of judge, jury,
bar and spectators that | was aoIe to proceed