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372 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
the reservoir, terminated by a cock. This pipe is on the right hand;
and on the same side, in the corner of the sink, below the reservoir,
is an exit-pipe, which passes down through the floor, and in the angle
formed by the wall of the furnace that warms the lecture-room and the
partition separating the lower laboratory from the dissecting-room
entry.
The reservoir was filled with water in October, preparatory to other
arrangements for the lectures. It was filled by attaching one of the
long flexible hoses, kept in the College, to the Coahituate-water pipe.
Very little of the water had been drawn from the reservoir, as the sink
in the small room was used only as a place for washing my hands.
It was the water from this reservoir which was first used and allowed
to flow over parts of the body. After some of the discolored water had
been found to escape from the sink and not to pass freely down the exit
pipe, the pipe appeared to be obstructed. The exit pipe passes down
through the floor in the corner, and, on examination, the ceiling of the
laboratory below was found to be stained. This stain probably remains,
although, from the action of the lime, it may have been rendered fainter
than at first. That it escaped the notice of the officers and others who
examined the lower laboratory, must have been owing to the circum-
stance that attention must not be directed to anything above, but to the
furnace immediately below.
As some water remained in the reservoir and the cock was not tight,
I placed a pail under it to receive the droppings and prevent more water
passing down the exit pipe.
The well in the lecture table was kept full by a hose connected with
the Cochituate-water pipe on the left of the door between the two rooms.
Two short hoses have 'always been kept in the upper laboratory, to be
connected with this pipe and with each other, when water was required
in or upon the lecture table.
From the well in the lecture table, the discolored water flowed
through a cock below, into a wooden conductor running along the ceil-
ing of the room below. This water was delivered into the sink near the
stairs. An examination of the well and conductor may yet confirm
what is stated.
From the Cochituate-water pipe over the sink in the lower labora-
tory, water was conveyed into the well in the table in that room. The
discolored water was allowed to flow from the cock below, directly under
which there has always been an aperture in the floor, for the passage
of water from this well, when it became necessary to change it.
In consequence of some imperfection in the pewter cock of this well,
the discolored water flowed out faster than it escaped through the
aperture in the floor; the water was allowed to run from the hogshead
near by for the purpose of cleaning the floor of the colored water from
the well, and, on leaving the room, the water was left running. As the
discolored water from the well seemed likely to spread, and might, I
thought, even extend outside the room, I removed several pails full, and
poured it into the sink upon the floor. To remove any traces of it from
the sink, I laid a spout from one of the hogsheads and let clean water
flow from it into the sink.
With great respect,
J. W. WEBSTER.
On the 18th, the Committee were further addressed on behalf of the
prisoner by the Rev. Messrs. Spear, Rev. S. S. Brimblecom, Rev. J. M.
Usher, and by Mr. J. Fiske Allen.
On the 19th of July, (the next day,) at a meeting of the Governor
and Council, the Committee op Pardons submitted the following unani-
mou!
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