Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-04-21
FINDING MORPHINE
DIR. Vaughan Proves that PtomaineS and
Morphine Give Like Results.

DIR. Vaughan Proves that Ptomaines and
Morphine Give Like Results.
The New York Worlds report Of the
Buchanan murder trial contains the
following which is of unusual interest
showing the little dependence to be
placed in certain chemical tests:
Prof. Victor c. Vaughan, the second
of the experts called by the defense Ia
the Buchanan poisoning trial, was per-
mltted TO transform the courtroom into
working laboratory. The days pro-
ceeding went further aield than ever
from the real issue involved. The ease
began with the charge that the prisoner
killed his wife by morphine and another
poison. When the session ended yes
terday the defense was harping upon
the possibilities OF noXious germs that
may Turk in iee-cream.
Prof. Vaughan, the greatest bacteri-
Ologist in this country, tried 20 convince
the jury that the methods employed by
Profs. Witthaus and DOremus, on which
they base their testimony that they
found morphine, and possibly atropine,
in the stomach and intestines OF Mrs.
Buchanan, were not such as would war
rant their conclusions.
The witness positively declared that
the tests, In order 10 be Of any value,
should have been made with pure NOR
phine isolated from the residue, If NOR
phine really existed there, for the rea-
son that thar residue was full Of pto.
maines, or the germs caused by the de-
composition of the body, and that those
ptomaines would respond to the tests
made for morphine in manner so iden-
tiCal with the responses Of the residue
with morphine in it that no chemist
could tell whether there was morphine
there or not by the results.
1t was this that had TO be demon
Strated. A table was placed in front Of
the witness, and a lot Of chemicals and
chemical apparatus placed upon IT,
Then Prof. Vaughan produced two
small bottles. One or them, he declared,
contained a solution In which there was
oue-tenth OF a grain OF morphine and
some of the decompoSed matter Of
ptomaines from a portion OF the
stomach. The other had a solution
merely OF water and the ptomalnes.
There were six tests 10 be made, as
they had been made by the experts for
the prosecution, to SEQ whether the
color produced would correspond with
the responses Of the morphine.
As each test was made, tie little test
ing cups, two for each experiment, one
of which contained the results Of the
experiment with the morphine and the
ptOmaineS, aud the other the results Of
the experiments with the ptomaines
alone, were passed around among the
jurors. Nobody except the witness
knew which was the testing cup that no
morphine had been put in.
As these color responses were being
produced il was noticed that In most
cases one was very much more pro-
nounced than the other. Prof Waugh han
said he would not tell which was which
until he was through.
Now" said Prof. Vaughan, when he
had finished the six tests, would Profs.
Witthaus aud Doremus like to say
which Of these cups contain the re-
sponses of the morphine and which the
results Of the ptomaines"
Neither OF them had any such desire,
so Prof. Vaughan himself revealed the
secret Every one Of the testing cups
In which the color responses were most
pronounced had had no morphine in ii
at all, but merely the decomposed mat
ter, or ptomaines. The responses too
were such as Profs. Wltthaus and Dore-
mus got from their experiments with
the residue from the stomach Of Mrs.
Buchanan, and on the strength Of
which they say that they found NOR
phine.
If could not select the testing cups
in which there had been opium myself, F"
said Prof. Vaughan, "if IL were not for
the fact that l had labeled them. No
chemist could. The fact is that the
color responses which l have produced
here, and which Profs. Witthaus and
Doremus produced with the residue
from Mrs. Buchanan's body, are not
characteristic Of morphine, but are dis
tinctively Characteristic of ptomaines. ="
Assistant District Attorney Wellman
reviewed Prof. Witthsus' career as a
chemist for the last thirty-fye years,
and said:
"Now he swears he found morphine.
Are you prepared TO deny it?"
II deny most emphatically," was the
answer, "that he has brought any posi-
tive evidence here that he found any
morphine"