Trial of the Seddons

Excerpt from Trial of the Seddons Another point which makes the case remarkable is the absence of all evidence as to the handling by Seddon of arsenic at anyjtime. It is usually regarded as necessary for conviction in a murder case either to trace the weapon to the prisoner's hand, or, in the case of poison, if the actual poison cannot be traced, at least to prove expert knowledge on the part of the accused as to the method of administration and effect of the poison employed. In this case it was not proved that Seddon administered or even handled tiny arsenic, that he had any knowledge or source of information toxie effects, or that his occupation or education was of a kind likely to make the presumption that he had such information a reasonable one. A further distinguishing feature Of the case was the use made of the famous Marsh test, which is the classical method of discovering the presence of arsenic'fihde'ribit exists in a quantity too small to be revealed by a 'simple analysis. This has hitherto been used almost exclusively as a qualitative testtas/'the presence of arsenic is only revealed by the slightest deposit on a mirror. It has never before, I think, been sought to base on this almost invisible mark any calculations as to quantity. Yet in the Seddon case it was of such vital importance to the prosecution to prove that there must have been at least two grains in the body at the time of death that the Marsh mirrors were used as a quantitative test. On reference to the evidefice, it will be seen that in -is of the viscera which were analysed it was necessary, in order to arrive at the quantity of arsenic which must have been present in the material to use a multiplying factor of as much as two thousand. The margin of possible error therefore was enormous, and it is typical of the difficulties to which the prosecution were put in this case that so much of their case was obliged to rest on induction and deduction. Dr. Willcox, who conducted these experiments. Is a man not only of the highmbility in his profession, but also of the most exact and scrupulous fairness, and one may assume that in this case the results of his experiments were understated rather than overstated. Nevertheless, such a method of arriving at a small fact on which a man's life depends might easily in less expert hands, and conducted with less scrupulous conscientiousness, have produced errors of the most dangerous kind. It is not for me to say whether such methods should or should not be relied upon as a means of bringing criminals to justice, but merely to draw attention to this further peculiarity which distinguishes the Seddon case from other famous poison cases. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.… (more)