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222 TRIAL OF JOHN W. WEBSTER.
on Tuesday, noticed the tea-chest containing the tan. There were then
a few minerals upon it, but not so many as to conceal the tan from
observation; but, when that chest was afterwards found by the police,
the minerals had been accumulated upon it, so that the tan was entirely
concealed. This change, slight as it is, could not have been made but
by some human agent. You will ask in vain for an answer to the inquiry,
who he was. And in this same tea-chest, when it was found by the police
to contain the thorax and the thigh of a human body, was found also
the pruning-knife of Dr. Webster with no mark or spot of blood upon it,
but clean as when it came from the shelf of the tradesman who sold it.
Do you suppose that Dr. Webster placed it there? Why should he have
done so? He made no secret of its possession, and he had no reason to
do so; he exposed it as freely as he had for years exposed the silver-cased
yataghan. Another agent might have had a motive,-to cast off possible
suspicion from himself, or to prepare the way for a future accusation;
but it is impossible to suppose a reason or a motive which could have
induced Dr. Webster to hide that knife there.-There is another circum-
stance, still more expressive and significant: the twine that was tied
round the bone of the thigh, which was crowded into the thorax and
imbedded in the tan of the tea-chest. That twine, no doubt, came from
the ball of Dr. Webster. Wherefore was it fastened to that bone? Can
you conceive that he should have done it? It was not used for compress-
ing the thorax to a diminished size,-it was tied on for no assignable pur-
pose that you can attribute to him. No twine was found upon any other
part of the limbs or body. There is but one cause which you can assign
for this small, but significant fact. Whoever fastened that twine to
that bone meant it should be an indication which should point to Dr.
Webster; and, if there was such a purpose, there was a secret agent
in that apartment by whose instrumentality it was effected.
rerhaps, also, the fire which was detected in the assay-furnace by
Mr. Littlefield on Wednesday affords a similar indication. On Tuesday,
when the laboratory was visited by the police, Kingsley saw a bright
fire burning in it; but there is no pretence that there were then flesh or
bones in it in the process of consumption. On Wednesday, Dr. Webster
returned early to Cambridge; it was late in the afternoon when Little-
field discovered the great heat on the outer wall. If there was a secret
agent clandestinely visiting these apartments, he was one who watched
the movements of Professor Webster; and he who contrived to deposit
portions of the remains in the vault of the privy, might have conceived
and executed the plan of consuming another portion of them in the fire
which was left in the furnace.
These circumstances are all full of difficulties, which admit of no
explanation with the limited means of knowledge that we possess; but
they deserve none the less your anxious and careful consideration. They
point far away to crimes and agencies with which the prisoner at the
bar can have had no possible connection.
There is still another fact, which seems utterly irreconcilable with
the supposition that Dr. Webster destroyed the life of Dr. Parkman,
and disposed of his remains within the walls of the College. The remains
which have been discovered are those alone of the naked dead, body
of a human being. Where are the remnants or the traces of the gar-
ments which he wore? So exact and accurate were the professional
examinations of the cinders and ashes taken from the furnace, that the
material of which every part was composed has been ascertained and
verified. So minute was it, that even a, very small quantity of tea-chest
lead was detected and identified. But where is the manifestation of
the presence of any part of human apparel? Yet we all bear about us
something that is incombustible,-the buckles of our suspenders, the
buttons upon our garments, the nails in our shoes. But not a remnant
or a specimen of them all has been discovered.
Now, if it be true, that, of all that has been found in every part of the
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