The Parkman murder : trial of Prof. John W. Webster, for the murder of Dr. George Parkman, November 23, 1849 : before the Supreme Judicial Court, in the City of Boston with numerious accurate illustrations.

  • John White Webster
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Parkman murder : trial of Prof. John W. Webster, for the murder of Dr. George Parkman, November 23, 1849 : before the Supreme Judicial Court, in the City of Boston with numerious accurate illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    of fuel. 1 knew Dr Pas-Tjinan for some years. I saw &im on the day on which he disai)peaied. It was about half past 12 o'clock, hi Beacon street; he tiini- ■ed down in the direction of the common; I was at the Medical College on Tuesday following the find- ing of the remains; it was about the middle of the •day. The medical gentlemen had nearly finished their examination. 1 saw jvarts of a body lying on a table. Witness after giving his oiMnions upon th<i manner in which the jiarts were separated, con- tinued: I saw the aperture and the lower part of the 6th rib in a direct line with it, saw distinctly a mark made by a knife; the iiesh at the opening hau the appearance ofohaving been cut when alive, as the skin was drawn back, and its appearanoj was «ntii-ely different from wiiat it would be if made after death. I then thought the stab might have <iestroyed life. The interior parts of the trunk were uniisuaiiy bloody; the biood from such a wound would pass internally. I observed the hair on the breast and other parts of the body; the skin had such an appearance as age brings upon us^ 3 think the jicrson must have been between 50 and •60; slight ossification was also apparent, which is seldom seen under fifty; the body in its n:irrow formation across tfee chest and the hips, was pecu- liar; the trunk was unusual for length and these, together with tiie color of the hair, made me tliink It was Dr. Parkman's body. There was nothing <lissimilar to my ideas of I>r. Parkman's bodily for- mation. Cross-examined fey SSerrick. I 5i7e at No. 5 ■Cambridge street; was on terms of friendly inter- ■course with Dr. Parkman. I have always taken a strong interest in the study of anatomy, and ob- serve closely people whom i meet. I pay great at- tention to observing peculiaritses of the human form, in the street, and elsewhere. It v/as Monday when I first called at the Medical College. [Wit- ness mentioned the names of some gentlemen he met there.] I thinJt the stove in the la?)oratory would have been much better to burn a human body than the furnace. I liave burned human flesh in a common stove; by putting in to© much flesh at a time. It will put the fire out. From the stab be- tween the 6th and 7th ribs, the b'^od woidd n-early all flow internally; death would insue very soon^ Cannot exactly te31 the quantity of blood in a man of Dr. Parkman's age and figure. [Dr. stroKg was on the stand for about one hour. He was very rambling and digressive in his evi- dence, but evidently understood the subject of anat «my, v/hicii he says has been the study of iiis Jife] Dr F. S. AINSWORTH, called and awom. I am demonstrator of Anatomy at the Medical C«>1- 3ege. Every subject brought to tlie College, must pass through my hands beibre being giwan to the students. I keep a record of all subjects brought to the College, and those <ilsposed of. On learning the ■fact that parts of a human body had been found, I referred to my record and found no additional entry had been made. I examined the remains found in the vault of- the privy, and was satisfied that it had never been brought to m«, or to the College for dis- ■eection. Subjects are always prepared for dissec- •tion'by injecting into the arteries prejiared fluid. I examined the body fofmd, with reference to ascer- ■taining if it had been so prepared, and found dt not to be the case. Prof. Webster has no necessary or .oflicial iniereourse with the Anatomical Society. My imi)ress!on was that the person wbo out up these remains had no knowledge of the science of Anatomy. He may have seen a body cut up, but I ■do not think he couid ever have ta,ken tfee Itnife in -his own hand. The breast bone was cirt out in the only v/ay in which it could have been done with a knife. There as ajoint connecting the collar bone with tfee breast 3)one. At this time, 7 o'clock, tfee Court adjourned until -imorxow morning. Tn-uasDAY, Marcli 2i. THIRD DAY. The Court came in at 9 o'clock. Dr. CHARLES T. JACKSON called and swora. I am a chemist by profession. I was called to the Medical College on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 1st, 1849, and met Dr. Maitin Gay and Dr. Lewis. T» Dr. Gay and my^self were assigned tfae remains for chemical examination; die contents of a small assay furnace were also submitted to um for examination. I did examine the remains foinid, but did not think they had been used for anatomical purposes. There was something about tl'.em, particularly the manner of opening the body, tiiat showed some knowledge of anatomy. In fne separation of the thigh from the hip, there was no hacking, but th-e operation ap- peared to be neatly done. I heard the testimony of Drs. Ston« and Gay in relation to their examination of the remains and agree with them in their conclu- sions as to the age and per.son of the remains. 1 was a-cquainted vi^ith the late Dr. Parkman; discov- ered nothing in these remains dissimilar to what liis remains should have been. [The Import of Dr. Jackson was now submitted to ' liim, and certified to be his. Mr Bemis now read this report. The report states in detail the result* •of the examination, found stains apparently of blood on chips, sundry bones mentioned, blocks of teetjl, a shirt button, masses of metal and lead, supposed to be from a tea chest. In the metal thirty grsdus of gold were found.] Examination resarrved. Sijiee my interview ■wp:h Dr. Gay, at that time, I have been instructed by the police to take possession of the articles left with Dr. Gay. Took the biood vessels which I gave to Dr. Gay, and delivered them to Mr Crosby, a chemist, for examination. Found that potash had been ap- plied to the remains; its effect is to soften, to dis- solve. If desirous of decomposing a body, I should, dissolve the potash, and boil tlie body in it, precise- . ly as I should make soap. If the body was cut u? in small pieces and dissolved in potash, it might be dissolved in a few hours. I should think it would require one half of the weight of the body in potasli to dissolve the body. I went over Dr 'Vv'^ebster's laboratory. The larg- est vessel I saw there., not at that time, however, was a tin boiler, such as is used in washing clothes, from a foot to fifteen inches square. The vessel was not large enough to put in the body withous cujting it up. The next best article for dissolving the body, is nitric acid. To dissolve the bod^-, bones and all, it -would require of this acid about th« weight of the body. The dissolution would take place more rapidly at a boiling heat than at any oth- er heat. This operation would require a vessel d porcelain or glass. There v/as no vessel of this kind in the laboratory large enough to dissolve any coa siderabie quantity of matter by this method. In my examination I found several botties con- taining five or six pounds each of this acid: in these botitles were nitric acid and also muriatic acid. Tlvere were not over ten pounds of nitric acid. On the side wall of the staircase leading from the lee ture room to tke laboratory, tkere were drops of a. green liquid, and dark stains on the stair case. I sent to my laboratory and got some filtering paper to absorb this fiuid. Dr Gay took the paper, ab- sorbed the fluid upon it, and carried it away. Since then I have examined that paper; I find that fluid so nitrate of copper. These spots were very abundant along the side wall down the etair case. At that time these spots were fluids; they have since dried up. These spots on the wall api>ear.3d to coincide with the dark stains on the staircase. They were more abundant towards the bottom of the stairs. It had the appearance of having been spilt on eadi stair, suceessivelyj and not to liavs run dov/ntiie jitajrs.