Trial of the Seddons (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Trial of the Seddons

A further distinguishing feature of the case was the use made of the famous Marsh tut, which is the classical method of discovering the presence of arsenicwhen itexistsin aquantitytoosmallto berevealed by asimple analysis. This has hitherto been md almost exclusively as a qualitative test, as 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 havebeenatleasttwograinsinthebody atthetime of death thattha Marsh mirrors were used as a quantitative test. On reference to the evidence, it will be seen that in certain portions 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 wereput in thisoasethatsomuch of theircasewaaobligedtoreston induction and deduction. Dr. Willcox, who conducted these experiments. Is a man not only of the highest ability 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 ccnscientiousness, have produwd 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.

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