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TRIM. OF JOHN `U. WEBSTER. 11
of cold air, whereby its original form was singularly preserved:-a
block of mineral teeth, which two accomplished dentists, Dr. Keep,
and his assistant, Dr. Noble, will testify were the teeth of Dr. Park-
man, made for him in 1846, upon an occasion which they distinctly
remember. Dr. Keep will state to you how he recognizes his own work,
and the grounds upon which he feels the confidence that he will express
in his testimony; a confidence so strong, from his recollection of
the work itself, and the formation of these teeth, with certain peculiari-
ties of their structure, that if he had seen them anywhere, or at any
time, since their completion, he would have known them as the teeth
which he made for Dr. George Parkman in the autumn of 1846. There
were other portions of mineral teeth found, which will aid you in your
judgment of the reliability of the testimony of the dentists, but which
are not so characteristic, as the block of which I have spoken.
Dr. Keep has in his possession, and will produce before you, an exact
mould of the entire jaws of Dr. Parkman, taken at the time he made
this set of mineral teeth. You will see by that mould that Dr. Park-
man's jaws had a peculiar conformation; so peculiar, that, unless
through some caprice of nature, their precise counterpart could not
exist. It will also appear that these mineral teeth must have been
thrown into that furnace, and subjected to the action of fire in connec-
tion with the head. This will be made perfectly clear to you upon
the evidence of another scientific witness, that portions of them were
found fused in with certain fragments of the jaw-bones. Beyond this,
there will be exhibited to you the bones of the right lower jaw, found
in that furnace with broken and serried edges, which will be put
together, showing that they belonged to one and the same jaw; and the
conformation of that jaw, when the fragments are thus put together,
you will find precisely corresponding, in all its striking peculiarities,
with the mould of Dr. Parkman's jaw taken by Dr. Keep. This will
be the nature of the evidence to satisfy you that Dr. Parkman came to
his death as charged in the indictment, at the Medical College, and
that these were his remains.
There are one or two points to which it may be proper, in this con-
nection to advert, before proceeding to state the evidence applicable
to the other branch of the case. The thorax found in the tea-chest
exhibited a perforation, as to which there will be evidence tending to
show that it was a wound which penetrated between the ribs, severing
a portion of the membrane that covers them, and entering the region
of the heart. It will also appear that there had been chemical appli-
cations of strong alkalies made to these remains, as demonstrated by
an accomplished chemist, who will be here to state the result of his
examination. It will further be shown that these, were not the
remains of a subject for dissection, in the Medical College, for two rea-
sons: one, that there was no injection of the veins with any preserva-
tive fluid, which is the invariable mode of treating such subjects there;
and, secondly, that all such subjects are accounted for independently
of this, by the Demonstrator of Anatomy, who keeps an accurate record
of them.
The evidence will, doubtless, satisfy you that these remains were
separated,-I was about to say, mutilated,-by some person possessing
a certain degree of anatomical skill; though they were evidently not
dissected for anatomical purposes. There are various facts in connec-
tion with them which I will not detain you to recite; you will appre-
ciate them as they come from the witnesses. I have proceeded far
enough to apprise you of the character and general scope of the evi-
dence upon which the Government relies to prove that these were the
remains of Dr. Parkman, and that he must, upon this state of facts,
have come to a violent death.
Your next great inquiry, Gentlemen, if you are satisfied upon the
evidence that Dr. Parkman was murdered, will be, was it by the pris-
oner at the bar?
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