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TRIAL OF JOHN AV-. WEBSTER. 25
Dr. Gay tried to get him up and compose him. After being in the cell
sotrmo five or ten minutes, they were, able to get. him up, his head hung
down, and he was in a great perspiration and state of excitement; so
much so, that I thought he would not live. They carried him up stairs
into the office, and he asked for water. He attempted to drink, but
could not. I held the tumbler to him, but he could not take hold of it.
He bit at it, and struck his face against it, and spilt the water all over
him. Dr. Gay held it once for him, and he snapped at it as before. He
sat in the chair, so poorly supporting himself, that once or twice I
thought he would fall out of it. I never saw a person in such a condi-
tion before:-one who had so little control of himself. He trembled
and was convulses). I cannot say that it was like delirium tremens, as
I have never seen a case of that; nor do I know what it was like.
He wanted to have word sent to his family, as they would not know
where he was; also to Mr. William H. Prescott, and Mr. Franklin Dex-
ter. He mentioned his family a great many times. Mr. Parker spoke,
and said that there was another family that had been in great distress
for a week; that, perhaps, he could explain certain things at the Medi-
cal College, which would relieve that family. Mr. Parker told him
that he could go down there, or not, as he pleased; that we were going
there, and he could accompany us, if he saw fit. He said that he had
nothing to explain, and would go with us. The ofcers helped him into
the coach.
I don't recollect whether he was perspiring at this time; but down
in the lock-up, I remember some one's making a remark, (I think it
was Dr. Gay,) when he saw him perspiring so, about the coldness of the
cell; to which Dr. Webster replied, that his extremities were freezing.
The party in the coach with Dr. Webster, went down to the Medical
College. I ran down there, by myself, first stopping at my houset I
arrived there just as the party had got into the. Professor's back room,
up stairs. Two of the officers accompanied him, holding him up, one
on each side. They proposed to open the back private room, and
inquiry was made for the key. Professor Webster said that Mr. Clapp
had taken it from him with other keys. The door was then forced.
The key for the privy-door down stairs, was asked for. The Professor
said that it hung up on a nail at the end of the shelf. A key was found;
and I think that Mr. Littlefield and Mr. Starkweather went down to
try it. They came back, saying that it did not fit; and Dr. Webster
said that some one, then, had taken it away. We then went down
stairs into the laboratory, and the privy-door under the stairs was
broken open.
We stayed in the laboratory some ten or fifteen minutes. I remem-
ber hearing something said there about the bones being found in the
furnace, and a request being made to let every thing stay as it was,
till the coroner's jury should meet. We went from the laboratory out
to the trap-door, which affords an entrance under the building. Some
of the party went down and handed up parts of a human body:-a
pelvis, the right thigh, and right leg; I think it was the right thigh and
right leg. They were brought out and placed where Professor Webster
could see them, upon a board. I did not hear him make any remark
about them. He appeared about the same as before, a good deal
excited, and had to be supported by the officers. He stood some eight or
nine feet distant from the parts of the body. After looking at them
some little time, the party turned away, and Dr. Webster was taken
back to the carriage and the jail.
I was at the Medical College, the next afternoon, (Saturday,) when
other parts of the body were found. We were searching the premises,
and I was in the upper laboratory, or back room, when I was called by
some one down below, saying that they had made further discoveries.
I went down, and officer Fuller and some others were then drawing a
tea-chest out into the floor, to overturn it. They turned it over, and
the thorax and thigh carne out imbedded in tan. The thigh was inside
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