The morning journal-courier., 1908-03-14


 medical witnesses that notable cere- Dral congestion from the effects Of opium already existed SD great as to materially increase the effects oE the Sunshot injury. In a series of record ed histories of 1,00b cases Of head ln- 1 Jury, gunshot and otherwise. occurring under my personal observation. there are twenty so-called walking cases which proved fatal These were cases Tn which the patient walked more than few steps, or for more than few moments, before losing consciousness. None of them are comparable with the case under consideration Sixteen patti ents died from large and progressive heinorrhage, three others died several days after the injury was received and largely as the result of alcoholism: and the one remaining died from ex- haustion following repeated convul- sions. None of those dying from hemorrhage had suffered a severe gen. eral confusion. or a hemorrhage into the posterior cranal fossae. a s had Mir. Edwards. In view of these several considerations, and of the want of precedent the supposition of suicide cannot be reasonably entertained"
 This opinion from the man recem- mended as an expert in his profession upon the specific questions involved. both by the Medical Examiner and by the other physicians who apparently have adopted the coroner's theory of suicide. is especially instructive and worthy of consideration.
 I would now for a moment direct your attention to what Doctor Bart lett terms Doctor Wolff's criticism of Doctor Smith, which is also apparent ly based upon a misapprehension of the contents of Doctor Wolff's opinion.
 Tribute to Dr. H. T.. Smith.
 Everybody knows who Doctor Smith is and everybody knows equally who Doctor Wolff is, and take it it will be admitted that they are among the leading chemists in the State of Connecticut.
 Doctor Wolff undoubtedly consider cd that Doctor Smiths report to the coroner as contained in the record of the coroner's investigation hereinbe- fore referred to was decidedly blind as to details, rendering 1t exceedingly difficult to judge 1t accurately. He therefore supplemented this report by ap personal interview with Doctor Smith. which was held in my presence and it was after this interview that Doctor Wolff wrote his opinion
 I take it that the situation from a chemical standpoint as I see it Is as follows:
 Dr. Smiths Report. 1 Doctor Smith reported to the coro- ner on January 17th. He stated at page 1 of his report, which will be found with the record of the coroner's in- quiry hereinbefore referred to, that the contents of the stomach had "a distinct 2pium-like odor' He set aside fifty grHins of the stomach contents l for a preliminary examination, and after completing this preliminary ex- animation, upon which he reported to the coroner that he found morphine and judged from the odor of the con tents of the stomach that it was taken in the form of laudanum, he made more extensive examinau,
 mainder of the material stating that his final residue gave "a typical com bination of reactions for morphine" 1 tPage 3, Doctor Smiths report). How ever, in this examination he failed to | find any chemical proof of the pres ence of meconic acid in this material.
 It appears from the standard works on chemistry and on Medical Juris- prudence. as well as from the state- ments made to me by Doctor Wolff that, In order to establish chemically that opium Is one of the ingredients of the material under examination, it Is necessary to discover in that ma teral not only morphine but also meconc acid In the light of the se
 authorities 1t appears most natural that. if the amount of laudanum had been taken by MT Edwards which must have been taken in order that the quantity of morphine claimed to have been found in the stomach should have been actually found there, that there should have been no difficulty, from a chemical standpoint, in prov ing conclusively that meconic acid was present. However, as appears from Doctor smiths report tpage A he was unable to establish the presence of meconic acid In the material examined by him, hence it is left In uncertainty ! whether any laudanum was ever talk en by MT Edwards before his death.
 Discovery of the Morphine.
 As to the discovery of morphine by Doctor smith in the urine I quote now from page i of his report. He states that the final small residue obtained from this branch of his examination gave positive reaction for morphine by Froedhe's Test
 The same authorities have referred to above insist that in examining ma- terial of this character, examined as this was more than forty eight hours after death, in order that chemist may report with certainty the finding of morphine, it is essential that he should procure positive reactions in- dicating the presence of that drug by not less than six of the more delicate tests, since there are many alkaloids present as the result of decomposition which may give similar results if any single test is relied upon However. Doctor smith has relied, so far as ap- pears from his report, solely upon a single test, hence I have found no au- thority who considers that he has proved the existence. from chemical standpoint, of even trace of nor phine at this point in his examination. If then this particular branch of his report be eliminated, as l believe under the better authority 1t must be, from the case, there is no proof whatever of any absorption of morphine into MT. Edwards system before his death and hence no proof of any morphine p6is- oning.
 I do not write this in any criticism of Doctor Smith by reason of the fact that 1 understand that he was in- strueted to stop his chemical investi- gations before he had pursued them to a proper conclusion and, If I recol-