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154
I have examined specimen shown me by Dr. Wyman; but could
not say that it ryas fractured during life. [Bone shown.]
The animal matter is not all removed, and the bone is only partially
calcined ; and I cannot say that it was fractured during life. I gave
my opinion of my own opinion, when you inquired if I would defer
my opinion to that of Dr. Wyman.
PROFEssoR E. N. HORSFORD, sworn. -I am instructor at the Uni-
versity, at Cambridge, in the Lawrence Scientific School. I have
delivered part of a course of lectures, at the Medical College, since
Dr. Webster's arrest. I commenced instructing in chemistry in
1841. I have had occasion to use nitrate of copper in my laboratory,
and I have seen it used in other laboratories. It is a solution of
copper in nitric acid, and is used in organic analyses.
I have tried nitric acid, and also potash, in dissolving bones and
flesh. I tried it on the hock-bone of beef, and on the muscle, too ;
using the commercial nitric acid. The muscle was placed in one
vessel, and the bone in another. In about four hours and twenty
minutes, the bones had disappeared; and in five hours and twenty
minutes, the vessel was entirely clear, leaving no trace of it. The
flesh disappeared in three or four hours. I have dissolved human
muscle in a very short time; but have made no experiments with
human bones. I took the laboratory after Prof. Webster's arrest.
There are two instruments, called Sanctorius thermometers. Colored
liquid is required, which is made of solutions of copper.
As to blood, I have occasion to use it not unfrequently. Have
never made experiments on gases in anatomical vaults. Gases are
generated there. I sent out some clothing, and an old blanket, to
Prof. Webster's house, after his arrest. They consisted of a pair of
overalls, a blue coat, and a little light cap. I examined them only
cursorily before I sent them out. I knew Prof. Webster was under
arrest. I saw them again, and looked at them carefully; but I saw
no blood on them. I did not see any change in them.
Cross-examination. I found them in the small back room. I think
the policeman had had them for a pillow. They were lying on the
floor.
When I took the laboratory, there were four or five bottles of nitric
acid, of perhaps a gallon, or a gallon and a half. The weight de.
pends upon the concentration - perhaps fourteen pounds. I think
:t would take rather more than the weight of the whole flesh and
bone to dissolve a human body. Nitric acid would act on a metallic
vessel somewhat. The best vessel would be one lined with porcelain.
In the experiments I made, no smell came out. It would not, with.
out a cover being ofl; and the temperature were raised to a great
heat.
Nothing would come from the body itself, but from the acid.
There is no vessel there that would contain one hundred and fifty
pounds of nitric acid. Nitrate of copper may be spilled about the
laboratory, and I did .iot think much of it. It might affect clothes,
in process of time. It is slowly corrosive, when applied to the skin.
In my last lecture, I used blood, to show the effect of heat upon it.
In my experiments with the nitric acid, I used something more than
four pounds of acid to the four pounds of bone.
By the Defence. To destroy flesh by nitric acid, would depend
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