Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 40   Enlarge and print image (67K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
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Bemis Report of the Webster Trial, 1850 [1897], Image No: 40   Enlarge and print image (67K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
40 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. scriptioin of it, will be found under Mr. Waterman's (the maker's,) testi- mony.] Cross-examined by Mr. Sohier.-My impression is that there were pieces of bone in the cinders, which stuck to the side of the furnace:- I am sure, that there were; and think that I saw them, before breaking the cinders off. I cannot be positive of the names of 'the officers who remained in charge of the College, Friday night; think they were, Fuller, Rice, Starkweather, and Trenholm. When I speak of the block of teeth, I mean the same that I handed to Dr. Lewis. Winslow Lewis, Jr., sworn,-examined by Mr. Bemis. I am a prac- tising physician in this city. I was called, on the Saturday afternoon succeeding Dr. Webster's arrest, to the Medical College, to examine some portions of a human body which had been found there.. I found Dr. Martin Gay and Dr. Charles T. Jackson there. I was sent for, by Coroner Pratt. I think that I got there at three o'clock. I called on Dr. George I-f. Gay, and Dr. James W. Stone, to aid me in the. matter; and also advised the co- operation of Professor Jeffries Wyman. We meet next day, Sunday, in the morning. It was arranged, that Doctors Gay, and Jackson, should make the necessary chemical investigations; Professor Wyman, should take charge of the bones, and the articles supposed to have spots of blood on them; and Doctors Gay, Stone, and myself, should prepare a detailed report upon the fleshy portions of the body, which we par- ticularly examined. We accordingly drew up such a report, and made it in writing, under oath, to the coroner's jury. [The report was here produced, and read to the jury, by Mr. Bemis, and explained by Dr. Lewis, as he proceeded, by means of a diagram prepared by Professor Wyman. The same diagram was used in con- nection with Professor Wyman's testimony. It was a drawing of the human skeleton, exhibiting, by means of various colorings, the parts of the body covered with flesh, the bones found in the furnace, and the absent parts not accounted for. Questions of explanation were also asked of Dr. Lewis, as he proceeded, by the counsel for the Government, in connection with different parts of the report.] REPORT OF MEDICAL COMMITTEE. " Winslow Lewis, Jr., George H. Gay, and James W. Stone,-Hav- ing been directed to make a post-mortem examination, at the Medical College, in North Grove street, attended to that duty, Dec. 2d, 1849, at ten o'clock, A. M., and examined five portions of a human subject, viz.: a thorax, a pelvis, two thighs, and a left leg. The thorax and left thigh were discolored, apparently with tan and some caustic substance. The three remaining ones were white, fair, and appeared as if they had been soaked in water. The cartilage on the head of the left thigh-bone, was colored black. The following is a description of the five portions separately: 1st. Remains of thorax, and parts attached to it; which consisted of all the bones, except the sternum, or breast-bone. Fracture of the fifth right rib, apparently recent, and about four inches from the junc- tion of this rib with the sternum. Both clavicles and seapulm, present; the clavicles large. Both lungs, present, but collapsed; left lung had plural adhesions; structure of both lungs apparently healthy. Anterior thoracic-muscles, cut up from the ribs, about six inches from the centre on each side, and with the skin thrown back; posterior portion of integu- ments, from left scapula to right lumbar region, of a dark mahogany color, and hardened; remaining portion of integuments, generally of a natural appearance, except a little greenness under the right a,xilla. (probably from commencing decomposition,) and some blueness under the left axilla,-leaving the skin soft, and easily broken, through arti- ficial action exerted upon the hair and skin, as far forward as the sec-