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216 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
1 seen Dr. Parkma.n. Such inquiries were, at that time, being every-
where made by all classes of people, and of all sorts of persons. Dr.
Webster, as some of the witnesses have mentioned to you, was somewhat
peculiarly inclined to interest himself in all subjects which attracted the
public attention; and it was therefore perfectly natural that he should do
so in this. He had heard that Dr. Parkman had been recently seen in
Cambridge by Mrs. Coleman; and, on his way back to his home, he
stopped at her house to obtain certain information. Whatever the
answer, no harm could come of the inquiry; and it might possibly afford
some clue to the discovery of a citizen who was lost. She says, that,
in reply to his inquiries, she informed him that it was on Thursday;
that he repeated the question, and she gave him again the same answer:
and that still further, as he was leaving the house, he asked her once
more, if it was not on Friday that she had seen Dr. Parkman. Her tes-
timony indicates, at least, that her reply to this last interrogatory was
uttered with a. somewhat significant emphasis. All this may be very
correctly related by Mrs. Coleman; but, certainly, there is pretty strong
reason to suppose, that Dr. Webster did not understand her, in relation
to the time, according to her present narrative; for you will recollect,
that the same evening, when he was riding from Cambridge to Boston,
under arrest, though he was then wholly unconscious of it, he proposed
to the officers to call at Mrs. Coleman's, who had seen Dr. Parkman, as
he told them, on Friday. But, be all this as it may, it is not pretended
that he sought to induce her to make any representations on the subject.,
which were not in strict accordance with her recollections. He called
upon her for information; and, having obtained it, he confessedly left
her, without persuasion or comment. Her whole testimony may be fairly
set aside, as immaterial to the issue, or as furnishing no guide or aid to
you in any part of your deliberations. I have no doubt that you will
regard and treat it with indifference.
There are two matters more, testified to by Mr. Littlefield, which
belong to this class of miscellaneous facts, which are crowded in as parts
of the auxiliary proofs against the prisoner. I refer to the blood which he
desired to have procured for his use from the Hospital and to his con-
versation with Mr. Littlefield concerning the dissecting-room vault.
In the first place, as to the blood. Dr. Webster, in the manner in
which he usually made calls upon the janitor for services about the
laboratory and lecture-rooms, requested him to obtain for his use a small
quantity of blood from the Hospital, saying ht wanted to make use of
it in the course of the lecture he was that day to deliver to the class.
Professor Horsford has informed you, that blood is an article which a
chemical teacher might have occasion to use in the course of his instruc-
tions. There is not the slightest evidence to show that such was not
the object for which Littlefield was requested to procure it. The pre-
sumption must be, that such was the purpose; for the law always pre-
sumes that men act in conformity with their duty, and make a right use
of whatever they are permitted to use at all, until there be something
to render it doubtful, or prove it to be otherwise. There is nothing here
to excite a suspicion, or even to start the question, whether this blood
was collusively called for, or wanted for a most fit and suitable appropria-
tion.
And then as to the dissecting-room vault. There had been some con-
versation or arrangement, among the professors in the College, respect-
ing its repair, as it had before, on account of the imperfection of its
construction emitted an unpleasant effluvia through the building; and
Littlefield was inquired of, if it had been repaired; and he answered
that it had been. Dr. Webster, believing that gas might be generated
in it if the vault had been made tight and secure, and wishing to know
the f~ did not put this question in that form to Littlefield, who might
not ve been able to answer it, but asked him if a light would burn
in it; to which Littlefield replied that it would not, for he had let down
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