Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-04-20
EXPERT TESTIMONY IN MURDEf
CASES.

The reliability Of expert testimony
In poisoning cases is getting a great
backset in the Buchanan murder trial
At New York. In the course Of the
trial the prosecution has had several
pathologists, professors and expert wit
nesses upon the stand VINO testified be-
yond all dispute that the wife of DIR.
BUCHANAN came to her death from the
effects Of morphine and atrophine pois-
oning.
Now the defense puts such prominent
and reputable Professors as DR.. WOLFE
and VICTOR c. VAUGHAN, Dean OF the
Faculty Of the University Of Michigan,
to prove that there is little or no re-
lance to be placed in the autopsy OF
the high and learned fellows for the
prosecution.
1t is the claim Of the prosecution that
while Mrs. BUCHANAN died OF morphine
poison the reason why she did not show
the symptoms of morphine poisoning to
the attending physicians who diagnosed
her illness as cerebral hemorrhage, was
because stropine was administered with
the morphine. Prof. WOLFF fatty
contradicted the theory by the state
ment that when a person was suffering
from q deadly dose Of morphine the ad-
ministration Of atropine would not elm
mate the characteristic symptoms Of
morphine poisoning, and when a person
was suffering from atropine poisoning
the administration Of morphine would
not affect the clinical history Of afro
pine. de recited the facts in three
cases which had come under his obser-
walton TO prove this.
Prof. VAUGHAN's testimony will carry
more weight with it than any of the
others because of his experience and
renown. II is told Of him when on the
witness stand that
IE look NV UOIE NuA4 AAAGEu nlAu4bNo ~
tell of all the colleges from which he was
graduated. of all the institutions and IA
nous laboratories in this country and
abroad ia which he had studied, OF all the
titles he held, and OF all the scientific socle-
ties i'm this country and abroad OF which he
was a member. il was "the Royal Society
Of this and 1.-The National Society of thai,
until the Jurors BEGAN 70 gaze in amaZemenU
at the modest, miGdle-aged man in the wit
ness chair.
Prof. VAUGHAN testified that since
1875 he had made the study Of poisons
his special work, and for the last ten
years he had given little attention to
anything else than his search for and
study Of ptomaines and leucomaines.
1t is learned from the report Of the
trial that Prof VAUGHAN mas been
called in by the defense Tor the
special purpose which is to prove that
So-caled experts, called upon to testify
TO murder cases, testify as 10 conclusions
as the result Of tests which are not ade-
quate, and further, 10 demonstrate that in
the decomDOsition of the human body
ptomaines are 10 be found, which, in their
chemical reaction, are identical with the
alka.oid poisons, such as morphine and
atropine.
Mrs. Buchanan had been buried for
fortv-three days when her stomach was
given 70 PrOfs Whitthaus and DOremus
for chemical ANALYSIS. With a certain
residue, which they obtained from the
stomach and intesdnes, they made certain
tests. They secured such reactions that
they have sworn that there was morphine,
10 the extent Of at least one-tenth OF
grain, in the residue.
Prof Vaughan has brought with him
ptOmaines that he has isolated from ca
davar that had been decomposlng less than
forty-three days, and on the witness stand
he will submit those ptOmaines TO precisely
the same tests that Prof. Witthaus and Do
remus submitted residue from Mrs. Buch-
anan's stomach, which they swear contain
ed morphine, because OF the reactions they
got from the tests, and he expects to get
the same reactions from the ptomaines.
He viii 60 further than that TO show
how chemists may DO mistaken in declar-
ing that they had found poisons in the
stomach Of a deCOmpOslng cadaver. He
VIII, on the stand, with pure pOisOns, Sc
cure the characteristic reactions of many
pOis0ns, and then he will secure precisely
the same results from various varieties of
ptomaines which he has isolated from de-
composing bodies.
Kahan-Wol