Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1895-09-24
DID HOLMES USE TT {?
THEORY THAT THE ALLEGED MUR-
 DERER USED IMPROVEMENTS.

Are Completely Dissolved--Instaaces of
 Some Notorious Murderers Who Were
 Scientific Men.
 # The mystery which surrounds the dis tappearance of some of the alleged vic Atims of Dr. H. H Holmes has set a Buffalo chemist to thinking and theoriz- ling, and he has produced most novel theory regarding tie method probably used by Holmes to make away with the |Sbodies of some of his victims after all the little preliminaries in the way of collecting insurance money and the like Sshad been concluded.
 M Holmes is man of scientific ideas, a anan who has kept abreast with the march of science i'll all its branches land who has been apparently something zof a pioneer i'll resea1ch himself. This &is shown by the discovery in his Chi #cago "eastleo of most mysterious flu sid, composed principally of petroleum, (which, when an acid was added, threw off a gas which caused death in short time. That much has been discovered.
 What the acid was remains to be
 learned.
 # This Buffalo chemist, who seems to haye been devoting considerable time to @the matter, has worked out theory that Holmes may have used prepara- tion known as nitrobenzine for the re- moyal of his victims after be had used them for whatever purpose he had in view.
 The great study of criminals when they have committed a murder is the disposa1 of the body of their victim, and, strange as it may seem, the most Eeducated men, the most scientific, the inost studied thinkers as we'll as the un- educated and the heavy brained, all zcommit the fatal error of a too great caution
 There was the Parknan- Webster mur- der, one of the most celebrated in the history of killing in this country. Pro fessor Webster, the demonstrator of anat- omy at Harvard college, killed Park *man. The professor had handled hun dreds of cadavers in his time and was Thoroughly familiar with the disposal sof the remains of bodies after they left sthe dissecting room Yet, with all his wonderful mind and the opportunities at his command for the disposal of body without suspicion, he attempted to burn Parkman's s remains and was caught.
 Every one who reads the newspapers at all must remember the great care ex- ercised by the murderers of Dr. Gronin to prevent discovery of their crime, and sso with the murderer of Unger, ill New York, some years ago-the man who killed his friend, August Boiler, and Shipped his body to Baltimore in a trunk To prevent identification he zcut off the victims head and threw it into the East river as he crossed one night with the trunk. Yet ill the forethought which he exereised-and he spent two days figuring out his plans ssfor disposing of the body with certain Ssafety to himsef-he overlooked mark *of positive identification, a crooked lit %tle finger and most peculiar scar at the joint. That identified the body, and
 Unger is now serving 20 years sen tenee He would have been hanged if the head could have been fonnd Had She cut off the little finger and disposed zof it he would be free man today. # Holmes seems to have been more suc- cessful, for up to the present time there *does not seem to be, judging from what
 has been published, very much direct #evidence against him i'll any of the #cases. True, bones have been found ill xhis house, but he has defense for that fconditicn of affairs i'll the fact that he
 was medical man and had the bones zfor study. And through all his case the squestion stands ont clear and distinct, E What became of the bodies?" E This may be 8 solution of the ques ktion-this theory of the chemist referred to above.
 Some time ago in Mulhausen. Alsace, ssthere was an explosion in chemical factory ill room where there was stored ||&Sa quantity of what is known as nitro- # benzine. There were several men em
 ployed in the room, and all escaped but gone The nitrobenzine of course flooded @the place, and when the fire was put out zand search made for the body of the
 man the mixture was several feet deep xon the floor. It was thought the work man had escaped, for no trace of him $could be found until part of one foot
 was found at the edge of pool of the #nitrobenzine.
 That set the chemists to thinking, and #they experimented with the bodies of Sanlmals, with the result that it was found the stuff destroyed every particle #of the body, blood. bones, flesh and
 teeth. Further experiments showed that #metal even would be destroyed by the F #nltrobenzine, so that the body of hu-
 man being, fully dressed, if placed Ill &the chemical, would be totally obliter-
 ated within few hours, not the slight #est trace of even so much as button re- #maininp