Dr. James W. Stone. Report of the Trial of
Professor John W. Webster ...
, 1850
,
Image No: 246
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Dr. James W. Stone. Report of the Trial of
Professor John W. Webster ...
, 1850
,
Image No: 246
   Enlarge and print image (58K)           << PREVIOUS  NEXT >>
237 in that tea-chest, constituted parts of only one human body. By the marvellous science and skill, so beautifully detailed to you here by that accomplished scientific man, Dr. Wvman, and by the testimony of those other intelligent physicians, who made the examination of the body-by the testimony of all of them, this fact is placed beyond the reach of doubt. In addition to that, it is evident, from all the testi- mony, that these constituted the parts of a body which was riot a sub- ject for dissection. That you can have no doubt about; the testimony of Dr. Ainsworth is that there was no subject, that belonged to the Col- lege, missing. He keeps a correct record, and all his subjects were accounted for. It has not been suggested that any other person was killed or missing, except Dr. Parkman. And now take these coincident facts :-that here were the mutilated remains of a human body ;that no subject was missing from the dissecting-room; that no person had died, by violence or otherwise, whose remains were missing; no living person missing, except Dr. Parkman; and that xhese remains are found to bear every point of resemblance, and not a single point of dissimi- larity, in form, age, or size, or in the fact that he wore false teeth '- I ask you if anything can rest on human probabilities, what is the value and strength of this argument? Is it negative? Why, you might take the entire community-ay, the community of the entire country and the world-and go through it, and select from it the man who most resembled Dr. George Parkman : let him be slain; let that man's remains be mutilated precisely as these were muti- lated, preserving no more than were preserved of these; and the chances are as millions to one -ay, you cannot calculate the chances - that upon the remains of that person, or those portions of them cor- responding to those found here, although there might be entire resem- blance in most particulars, still there would to thA searching eye of friendship, and of long acquaintanceship, be some one little point of dissimilarity;-and one such point as that would be just as fatal as if there were no resemblance at all. Yet here you find, from the testi- mony of the physicians, from the testimony of Mr. Shaw, of Dr. Strong, and others who examined them, and drew their conclusions, that they, were the remains of Dr. Parkman, before Dr. Keep had ever examined those teeth, or it was known that Dr. Keep could have identified them. I ask you wbether their opinions were not justified by this state of facts ? I do not say that upon this evidence alone you would have been called upon to pronounce upon this question of identity; but I do ask you to consider whether all these facts do not reasonably justify the conclusion, to which his friends arrived, that those were the mortal remains of Dr. Parkman, and of no one else ? Consider it for a moment. Here is a portion of a human body, which has great peculiarities. There is no doubt about that. Mr. Shaw testifies to it. Dr. Strong testifies to it. There was the pecu- liar color, profusion, and length of hair; the peculiar shape of the jaw, with the fact of wearing false teeth; and the exact similarity in the height of the body. What are the chances that, among all these points of resemblance, there should not be one single point of difference, if they were the remains of another person? These resemblances may be said to be slight. Well, if they are, they are many; and a thousand threads, all running in one direc- tion, and not one running counter to them, though they are as slight