Dr. James W. Stone. Report of the Trial of
Professor John W. Webster ...
, 1850
,
Image No: 49
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Dr. James W. Stone. Report of the Trial of
Professor John W. Webster ...
, 1850
,
Image No: 49
   Enlarge and print image (54K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
40 'bones were put in a box in the privy, Friday night, and the door nailed up; they were placed there as the coolest and safest place. Now remember that I took out the contents before the inquest; don't remember what officers were left in charge; don't remember what other bones I found, beside the artificial jaw. Have had in my custody a tin box, which came from the store of Mr. Waterman. A large bunch of teeth fell throng' , the grate, in removing the contents of the furnace; an officer, Trenholm, picked them up. [The tin box was here shown to the Jury. It was about two feet long, by twelve inches wide, and twelve deep, with a tin cover which could be soldered to a rim.] Cross-examination. The bones were mixed with the cinders adher- ing to the furnace. Noticed the bones in the cinders at the time of breaking them off. Officers Fuller, Rice and Trenholm, were among those who had charge of the building, Friday night. When I said bunch of teeth, I meant the block'; there were two or three single teeth found. De. WINSLow LEWIS, JR., sworn.-Called to the Medical College on Saturday, by Coroner Pratt; Drs. Martin Gay and Charles T. Jackson were with me. Arrived there at three o'clock. I called on Drs. Geo. Gay, J. W. Stone, and Jeffries Wyman, to assist me. Dr. Wyman took charge of the bones found, and certain articles that had blood on them. Drs. Gay, Stone, and myself, prepared a report on the five pieces of a body that were found in the privy; it was reduced to writing, signed, and sworn to. A very broad, discolored and hardened stripe extended from the left shoulder to the hips; the rest of the 'skin was of a natu- ral appearance, except a slight greenness at the arm-pit. There was a ragged perforation under the left nipple. There was nothing which was unlike what I should expect to find in the body of Dr. Geo. Parkman; they were not apparently portions of an anatomical subject for dissection. There was nothing in the manner in which the parts were separated to indicate that it was a subject. There was no preservative fluid in the vessels, as there would have been if it was a subject. There could not be the least doubt that all the five pieces belonged to the same body. A mass of mineral teeth was given to me by Coroner Pratt; carried them to my home and kept them all night, as Dr. Keep was absent from the city; handed them to Dr. Keep the next day. ['The document above referred to was here read, and 'the terms explained to the Court and Jury. The paper is as follows :] REPORT OF THE MEDICAL 'COMMITTEE ON THE INVESTIGATION OF TIM REMAINS. Drs. Winslow Lewis, Jr., George H. Gay, and James W. Stone, being severally sworn, on oath depose as follows: - Having been directed to make a post mortem examination, at the Boston Medical College, in North Grove-street, attended to that duty December 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 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: -