The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1892-08-31
NO TRACE OF BLOOD.
Professor Wood Found No Poison
in the Stomachs.
NO HUMAN HAIR ON THE HAToHET

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Testimony in Relation to the Prus.
BIC Acid-The Defence Begun.
FALL RIVER, Mass, Aug. 31.-Court
came in at 1890 precisely, and the first
witness called was Professor Edward S.
Wood, the man for whom everybody
has been looking for days. He said he
had received package containing two
stomachs on the 9th of Aug, and two
jars containing milk used on the 4th
and 9th of Aug. All were properly
labeled.
The stomachs were labeled 'Mr. and
Mrs. Borden" The stomachs appeared
to be perfectly natural. Mrs. Borden's
stomach contained about eleven ounces
OF solid food. The food was partially
digested and showed wheat, March and
meat. The contents contained chiefly
meat, and there were vegetable pulp
cells which might be bread or apples
The digestion seemed to be advanced in
the neighborhood of two and one-half
hours, more or less.
The stomach was tested for prussic
acid, but with negative result The
stomach OF Mr.. Borden contained only
six ounces, chiefly water. In Mr.. Bor-
den's stomach there was only lmall
portion of starch; the digestion in his
case, the conte ats being nearly all water,
WAS much further advanced than in the
case of Mrs. Borden. There were IL few
: threads OF vegetable tissue in the
stomach which might have been apple.
Witness had not yet analysed the milk
and could not report on that.
No Blood on tho Hatchct.
On Aug. IL he received from DR..
Dolan Ratchet, two axes, a blue dress
skirt, dress waist, white starched skirt,
lounge cover and three small envelopes,
in which were hair taken from Mr.. and
Mrs. Borden and hair taken from the
hatchet. On Aug. 16 witness received
pair OF black stockings. The hatchet
contained number of suspicious look
ing spots, but careful examination
showed no traces of blood.
Every spot which looked like blood
WAS examined, but no traces of blood
were seen. A big smirch on the blue
skirt looked like blood, but found not to
be blood. The white skirt had one spot
which looked like blood and was found
to be one, and it was directly in front
about six inches from the bottom. The
carpet was blood stained (this was the
sitting room carpet, and there was
blood of course on that. There was no
blood on the lounge cover.
The hair on the Ratchet was not hu-
man hair (sensation), more like that
taken from an animal. The spot on the
right shoe was not blood, and there was
no blood on either shoes or stockings.
There was nothing on the two axes.
Near the edge OF the hatchet were spots
which seemed to be blood, but were
found not to be.
There was spatter on the blade, but
IL was not blood and there were spots
on the side Of the head Of the hatchet
which looked to me like blood, and
thought they were, said witness, but
they were not.
On cross examination ProfessorSNo
said the spot looked larger on the out
side of the skirt than on the inside. The
Ezo of the spot was about the size of
pin head.
Question-This you said was human
blood2 Answer-I don't know; didn't
BAy so. have not examined it.
Question-Could you tell in what di-
rection this blood came when it struck
the skirtl Answer-I could not.
smaller hatchet was handed to the
witness, but he said he could not exam
Inc 1t in SO short time as was allowed
him. he had spent six or eight hours
on the other one. He said there was
rust on this one, and rust might always
be taken for blood until examined The
hatchet was put in his care for full ex-
animation. Witness said it would be
impossible for the murder to escape
getting blood on his body in some way.
The Afternoon Session.
1t is understood that while to the gem
bral public the testimony of Professor
Wood was favorable to Lizzie, because
Il appeared to be demonstrated that
there was no blood stains on the clothes
or hatchet, that it was really against
her, because of his evidence in regard to
the time of death. 1t has already been
established by the government that
Lizzie was about the room at near the
times referred to and that these times
and the nearly exact time of death are
almost identical. II the testimony of
Mrs. Regan is put in relative to quar-
pei between the sisters, and it proves to
bs as has been stated, then the govern
ment will feel quite certain that there
Is no flaw In its chain.
The first witness was Annie NJ. White
official stenogrnpher, who said she was
present at the inquest and took notes of
The whole examination. Her notes as
written out were offered in evidence.
After objection the court decided to ad-
INIT the statement Lizzie Borden made
at the il quest 1t racited the relation
Bhip existing between her and her step.
mother; the story of the visit of the
man to her father about hiring the
store; stated that she had worn a navy
blue dress on the morning of the muir
der; related the old story of how the
family lived; what Bridget was doing
on the morning of the murder, and the
movements of Morse. She made two
statements about her whereabouts on
the day of the murder when her father
game home. At first she said she was
up stairs, then she said she was in the
kitchen, and to this last story she stuck.
The statement recited the finding of
her father after the murder and de-
scrlbed her subsequent actions said the
blood on her skirt might have come
from flea bite; denied that she ever
went to any drug store in Plymouth to
inquire for prussic acid. She said that
about two weeks before the tragedy she
heard or saw somebody run down the
steps and away; she saw something sim
alRr about the house last winter; when
she first saw the form recently it was on
the back steps and ran toward the barn;
last winter she saw a person run away
on Sunday night when she came home
FROM church and told her father of the
occurrence, but said nothing to him
about tue second affair.
This closed the governments case.
After the reading of the statement DR..
Dolan was called by the defense, and
said he had fled the record of the Oak
Grove autopsies with the court. Both
were put in by the defense as evidence
and ordered put into the records.
Mrs: Churchill WINS recalled and asked
what Bridget had said about the note;
whether Bridget had said it came from
Lizzie or Mrs. Borden. The answer
was that Bridget did not say who told
her about the note.
Mr.. Adams asked as special ruling
that the court strike out ali of that por-
tion OF the evidence relating to prussic
ncid. but the Cnnrt lnnlinnl T.. II.