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TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER. 65
up, myself. I got a boy, named John Maxwell, to carry it up, " as quick
as, he could." I gave it to him, and in about twenty minutes he came
back, and said, that he gave it into Dr. Parkman's hands, at his house.
I had an interview with Dr. Webster about noon, on Monday, the
same day, before Dr. Parkman called in the evening. I am positive
that it was the same day. Dr. Webster asked me, if the vault had ever
been fixed, where we put the remains from the dissecting and demonstra-
tor's rooms, up stairs. It is the vault, where the receptacle is, in the
entry. He said, that something had been said before the Faculty, about
a new one being built, or having that one repaired. He asked me,
What the matter was, and how it was built? I told him, that it was
built right under his coal-pen. The pen is large enough to hold eight
tons. I told him that the heft of his coal had sprung the walls of the
vault, so that it leaked and the smell came out all over the building.
He asked me, if it had been fixed? I told him, that it had; and he
asked me, How? I told him that the vault had all been covered up with
dirt.-I had had two men down there, two days; and they had covered
it up with dirt, and there had been no smell since. He asked me, How
I got down to cover it up?-that is, not I, particularly, but how any-
body got down? I told him that we took up the brick floor in the
dissecting-room entry, and then curt a hole through the board floor, to
get down. He asked me, If that was all the way to get down under
the building? I told him that it was; ;the only way to get under the
laboratory, and his lecture-room: and I described to him, how the walls
ran.
He asked me, If he could get a light into that vault? and I told him,
no. He asked me, If I was sure? I told him, that I was; for I had
tried it, a few days before, and the foul air put it right out.-I had tried'
ft, at the request of Dr. Ainswgrth, to find something which he had
lost in the vault. I think it was' an African skull, that he had placed
there to macerate. When I went to look for it, I found that the rope
had rotted off, and let the skull down into the vault. I attempted to
put a light down and the foul air put the light out.
The Doctor then said, that he wanted to get some gas, to try an
experiment. I replied, " It is a good time now: the tide is in. and will
press the gas up." It was high tide then, I believe. I asked him, how
he could get the gas out of the vault into any kind of a vessel? He
said, that he had apparatus, that he could do it with. He finally told me,
that when he wanted the gas, he would let me know. This was the last
that I ever heard of it.
On Thursday, the day before Dr. Parkman disappeared, Dr. Webster
said, that he wanted me to get some blood for next day's lecture. He
said- I want as much as a pint." I took a glass jar down, off his
shelf. I think that it held as much as a quart. I asked, If that would
do, to get it in. He said, yes. He said, " Get it full, if you can, over at
the Massachusetts General Hospital." efore two o'clock, I carried •the
glass jar out i'n'to the entry, and put it on the top of the case, where I
put up notices. After Dr. Holmes's lecture was out, I went up to his
room, and saw the student, who attends the apothecary shop at the
Hospital. I don't know what his name is; but I belive it is Hathaway:
-he has been there a number of years. I told him of the glass jar on
the case and that Dr. Webster wanted to get a pint of blood. He said,
` I think that we shall bleed some one to-morrow morning, and 1 will
save the blood."
Friday morning, I went over to the Hospital after the blood, and
saw the student of the apothecary shop. He said that re could not
gent any, as they had not bled anybody. I went to Dr. WebstWs room
about half-past eleven o'clock, that forenoon, and told him that I could
not get any' blood at the Hospital. He said, that he was sorry, as he
wanted to use it at his lecture. That is all that I know about the blood.
I have no recollection of speaking to Dr. Webster, again, that day.
In the morning of Friday, I made the fire in Dr. 'Webster's back
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