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17
REPORT FROM DR. JACKSON TO DR. WINSLOW LEWIS,lJx
' -gear Sir: I present below'an account of our eaamination-of the fiirnaae
contefite,' list of
articles found in the laboratory furnace cinders, delivered to us by the
,jury of the Coraberm in-
quest at the Massachusetts Medical College, in Boston, Dec. lst 1849. These
articles weresort-
ed on Sunday, by Drs. Sherman, Ainsworth, and myself, Dr. Gay having been
obliged- to leave
for the day. Bones found in the cinders from the furnace-Right oscalsis,
right aatragalus, tibia
and fibula, phalurges, probably of the middle or ring finger; coronid proof
of lower jaw; :natme-
rous fragments of a skull, a human tooth that had a hole in it, as if once
filled by dental,epera-
tion; three blocks of artificial mineral teeth were also found in the
cinders without the gold
plate; a pearl shirt button was found 'in the ashes, and was partially
calcined; numerous little
cpp-shaped pieces of copper similar to some seen in one of the laboratory
drawers, were also
found.'
Many pieces of glass were mixed with the slugs and pieces of metal were
found in and among
* the cinders; these various articles were all carefully examined, and such
as needed cynical
analysis were subsequently taken by Dr. Gay and myself, and examined; the
lumps of metal
most abundant in the furnace cinders were tea=chest lead, and an alloy of
tin and lead in nearly
_ equal proportions
- The tin predominating in the pieces analysed; the cinders being pounded
and washed, dis-
closed some small globules of gold and an alloy of silver, and gold. The
amount of gold ,found
was small 30 grains; the amount o€ silver was small. After your examination
of the human
bWy committed toyou,I made some chemical examinations of the surface which
had been discolored
on bhe chest and one thigh, and found that. they had been imbued with a
solution of potash.
This I determined by chemical analysis, finding potash and a little sea
salt. There waa,an evi-
dent corrosion of the surface of the skin by the action, probably, of the
potash aided by beat. I
faun task in the skin of both the thigh' and thorax and in the muscles ; at
each en& nf the
thorax, the alkali being very marked.
k "Color of the skin whic ad been acted upon by potash was probably, in
part colored
1bi~ , the potash aiding in this coloring; I found no alkali in the
interior of the thigh, nor
•. A he- esh of the back beneath the skin; I observed that the hair on the
left side of the thorax
• had been singed -by fire.
I noticed that the skin was corroded by potash and was quite tender near
the opening in the
skin opposite the first and seventh ribs, and that the edges of these
openings appeared -0 have
been corroded by that alkali; I dissectd out portions of the. femoral
arteries and .flesh of both
thighs, and tile artery and vein of the leg,' to ascertain whether the'body
had been injeotied with
the fluids used for preserving bodies in the dissecting-room. These I gave
into the ids of
Dr. Martin Gay, for analysis, and he has caused an examination of one of
these pieces'to be
made in my'laboratory by Mr. Richard Crosby, who found no traces of zinc or
arsenic sub-
stances used in the preservation -of bodies in the dissecting-room. . . i;
The spots on. the Wall, .floor,and furniture, shown us by the Jury and
Police, were sullaitted
' to the examination of Dr: Jeffreys Wyman`; as were also the spots on a
pair of pants an"lippers
s,4bmitted to our inspection, and his results will probably be reported to
you by that gentleman.
The results to which I have arrived are. that portions of a human adult
skeleton were found in
the cinders amd'coah,'and submitted to my examination. That tea chest lead
lad been thrown
into the fire-that the gold found may have been derived from the set of
mineral teeth. found in
the fire; that the silver was in small quantities; that the skin, and parts
of the thorax and
body you examined had been subjected to the action of po ash, and an
attempt had been
`` made to burn the thorax in the fire, but had not been persevered in;
these are all the -con-
clusions we are authorized to draw from the premises le"in set forth, and
from the examina-
tion submitted to the ehe*al "department of your comuiAtee.
$espectfully submitted,
By your obedient servant,
C. T. JACKSON.
Dr. C. T. JACKSON's testimony continued.-Potash is best, because it can be
used in any
common vessel made of met&ch as ier or tin; the potash used in dissolving a
body,
should be boiled during the option, which would be greatly expedited by the
application of
heat. Nitric acid would require peculiar kinds of vessels to consume the
flesh in; I saw several
bottles in the closet of Prof. W.'s laboratoryoolne of which contained
nitric, and some muri-
atic acid ; .there was -rot, I think, more than ten pounds of nitric acid
in all the bottles there ;
on the walls and on the stair-case leading from the tower to the upper
laboratory were drops or
splashes of a greenish liquid which by the employment of test papers I
discovered to be nitrate
of copper.
The splashes looked as though made separately apon each stair, and not as a
consequence of a
quantity of liquid accidentally spilled from above. In the ashes of the
furnace wereluund some
pnnehed'piecea of'copper, which had apparently been subjected to the action
of nitric- -acid, to
praduae.nitrate of copper. I call theta punched pieces because they
resembled ,the pieces tat
are struck out from the bottom of a cullender with a punch by the
manufacturer. These
poached pisses €ound in the furnace ware o€ precisely the same.size and
ford as those found in
s drawer in ProŁ Webster's laberatory only they were somewhat thinner in
consequence
• , _ probably a€ the nation of the acid upon them.
From the slugs taken from the furnace there were separated in all 178
60-100 grain#'~f gold.
. 2~
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