A Modern Wizard

by Rodrigues Ottolengui

  CHAPTER V.

  FOR THE PROSECUTION.

  In spite of the promises of the District Attorney, several monthspassed before the great murder trial was commenced. The public at lastwere delighted to hear that their love for the harrowing details of acelebrated crime was to be satisfied. A few of the newspapers of thesensational stamp announced that they, and they only, would have thefullest accounts, illustrated with life-like portraiture of theaccused, the lawyers, the judge, the jury, and the chief witnesses.This promise was so well fulfilled that on the opening day thereappeared several alleged portraits of Dr. Medjora, which resembled himabout as little as they did one another.

  Several days were consumed before the jury was impanelled, and then atlength the prosecution opened its case, which was mainly in charge ofMr. George Munson, a newly appointed Assistant District Attorney, thevery man of whom Mr. Dudley had spoken, when his partner had bewailedtheir unfortunate lot, because they had never been intrusted with acriminal case.

  Mr. Munson was a rising man. He had attracted attention, and wasreceiving a reward of merit by his promotion to the office which henow filled. It was hinted somewhere, that his appointment had beenlargely dependent upon his conduct of that murder case, during whichhe had shown a wonderful knowledge of chemistry, for one not actuallya chemist. And his having charge of this most important case, in whichchemical expert testimony seemed likely to play an important part,substantiated the statement.

  He was well versed in law, was keen and quick at cross-examination,and merciless in probing the private lives of witnesses, when suchaction promised to aid his cause. He was not, however, a verybrilliant speaker, but it was expected that the District Attorneywould himself sum up. Thus the prosecution seemed to be in able hands.Opposed to them were Messrs. Dudley & Bliss, two young, unknown men,and people wondered why the Doctor, reputed to have wealth, had notengaged more prominent counsel.

  Mr. Munson's opening speech was not lengthy. He confined himself to abrief statement of his case, summarizing in the most general fashionwhat he expected to prove; in brief, that Mabel Sloane had died ofmorphine poisoning, and not of diphtheria, that the poison had beenadministered by Dr. Medjora, and that his object had been to ridhimself of a woman who stood in his path, an obstacle to theadvancement of his ambition. Mr. Munson thus avoided the mistake sooften made by lawyers, where, following the temptation to make aspeech, they tell so much that they weaken their cause, by affordingtheir opponents time to prepare a more thorough defence.

  A few witnesses were called to establish in a general way the death ofthe girl, her place of residence, and such other facts as areessential in the preparation of a case, in order that no legaltechnicality may be neglected. But as it is manifest that I cannot, inthe scope of this narration, give you a full account of the trial, Ishall confine myself to compiling from the records just so much of theevidence as shall seem to me likely to attract your interest, and tobe necessary to a full comprehension of the Doctor's position, andrelation to this supposed crime.

  The first important witness, then, was Dr. Meredith, the physician whohad aroused suspicion by reporting to the Board of Health that thegirl had, in his opinion, died of opium narcosis. It was apparent,when he took the stand, that he was extremely nervous, and dislikedexceedingly the position in which he found himself. Indeed it is avery trying predicament for a physician to be called upon to testifyin a court of law, unless he is not only an expert in his profession,but also an expert witness. He finds himself confronted by an array ofmedical and legal experts, all conspiring to disprove his assertions,and to show how little his knowledge is worth. Generally, he haslittle to gain, whereas he may lose much in the estimation of hispatrons by being made to appear ridiculous on the stand.

  After taking the oath, Dr. Meredith sat with his eyes upon the flooruntil Mr. Munson began to question him. Then he looked straight at thelawyer, as though upon him he relied for protection.

  "You attended Miss Mabel Sloane in her last illness, I believe?" beganMr. Munson.

  "I did."

  "How were you called in to the case?"

  "I was called in consultation by Dr. Fisher."

  "You were sent for by Dr. Fisher! Then I am to understand that you andhe were good friends?"

  "The best of friends."

  "And are so still?"

  "I think so. Yes."

  "And Dr. Medjora. Did you know him before your connection with thiscase?"

  "Only slightly."

  "Were you present when Miss Sloane died?"

  "I was present for half an hour before she died."

  "Exactly! And you remained with her until she was actually dead?"

  "Yes, sir. I saw her die."

  "Of what did she die?"

  "I object!" cried Mr. Bliss, springing to his feet and interruptingthe prosecution for the first time.

  "State your objection," said the Recorder, tersely.

  "Your Honor," began Mr. Bliss, "I object to the form of the question.The whole point at issue is contained in it, and I contend that thiswitness is not qualified to answer. If he were, the trial might endupon his doing so."

  "The witness is only expected to testify to the best of his belief,"said the Recorder.

  "Very true, your Honor. I only wish it to go to the jury in the properform. If they understand that this witness does not know of what MissSloane died, but simply states what he thinks, I shall be perfectlysatisfied."

  "You may as well modify your question, Mr. Munson," said the Recorder.Thus Mr. Bliss scored a little victory, which at once convinced theolder lawyers present that, though young, he would prove to be shrewdto grasp the smallest advantage. His object had evidently been tobelittle the value of the answer, before it was made, by thus callingattention so prominently to the fact that Dr. Meredith could not knowpositively what he was about to charge.

  "In your opinion, what caused the death of Miss Sloane?" This was thenew question formulated to meet the objection raised.

  "She died of morphine poisoning!" replied Dr. Meredith.

  "You mean you think she died of morphine poisoning?" interjected Mr.Bliss.

  "Kindly wait until you get the witness before you begin yourcross-examination!" said Mr. Munson, with a touch of asperity. Mr.Bliss merely smiled and kept silent, satisfied that he had producedhis effect upon the jury.

  "Will you state why you conclude that Miss Sloane died of morphinepoisoning?" continued Mr. Munson.

  "I observed all the characteristic symptoms of morphine narcosis priorto her death, and the nature of the death itself was consistent withmy theory."

  "Please explain what the symptoms of morphine poisoning are?"

  "Cold sweat, slow pulse, stertorous breathing, a gradually deepeningcoma, contracted pupils, which, however, slowly dilate at the approachof death, which is caused by a paralysis of the respiratory centres."

  "Did you observe any of these symptoms in Miss Sloane?"

  "Yes. Practically all of them."

  "And would these same symptoms occur in any other form of death,except from morphine poisoning?"

  "They would not. Of course they do not apply to morphine only. Theyare generally diagnostic of opium poisoning."

  "But morphine is a form of opium, is it not?"

  "Yes. It is one of the alkaloids."

  "Now, Doctor, one more question. You have testified that you attendedthis girl in her last illness; as a physician you are familiar withdeath from diphtheria; you have stated what are the symptoms ofmorphine, or opium poisoning, and that you observed them in this case;further, that an identical set of symptoms would not occur in anyother disease known to you; now, from these facts, what would you saycaused the death of Miss Mabel Sloane?"

  "I should say that she died of a poisonous dose of some form of opium,probably morphine."

  "You may take the witness," said Mr. Munson, as he sat down. Mr. Blissspoke a word to Doctor Medjora, and then holding a few slips of paper,upon which were notes, mainly suggestions w
hich had been written bythe prisoner himself, and passed to his counsel unperceived by themajority of those present, he faced the witness, whose eyes at oncesought the floor.

  "Doctor," began Mr. Bliss, "you have stated that you are only slightlyacquainted with Dr. Medjora. Is that true?"

  "I said that I was only slightly acquainted with him prior to my beingcalled to attend Miss Sloane. Of course I know him better now."

  "But before the time which you specify, you did not know him?"

  "Not intimately."

  "Oh! Not intimately? Then you did know him? Now is it not a fact thatyou and Dr. Medjora were enemies?"

  "I object!" exclaimed Mr. Munson.

  "I wish to show, your Honor," said Mr. Bliss, "that this witness hasharbored a personal spite against our client, and that because ofthat, his mind was not in a condition to evolve an unprejudicedopinion about the illness of Miss Sloane."

  "I do not think that is at all competent, your Honor," said Mr.Munson. "The witness has testified to facts, and even if there werepersonal feeling, that would not alter facts."

  "No, your Honor," said Mr. Bliss, quickly, "facts are immutable. But aprejudiced mind is as an eye that looks through a colored glass. Allthat is observed is distorted by the mental state."

  "The witness may answer," said the Recorder.

  At the request of Mr. Bliss the stenographer read the question aloud,and the witness replied.

  "Dr. Medjora and myself were not enemies. Certainly not!"

  "Had you not had a controversy with him upon a professional point?"

  "I had an argument with him, in a debate, just as occurs in alldebates."

  "Precisely! But was not this argument, as you term it, a discussionwhich followed a paper which you had read, and in that argument didnot Dr. Medjora prove that the whole treatment outlined by you waserroneous, unscientific, and unsound?"

  "He did not prove it; he claimed something of the kind!"

  "You say he did not prove it. As a result of his argument, was notyour paper refused publication by a leading medical journal?"

  "I did not offer it for publication."

  "I think this is all incompetent, your Honor," said Mr. Munson.

  "You may go on," said the Recorder, nodding to Mr. Bliss.

  "Is it not customary for papers read before your societies to becomethe property of the society, and are they not sent by the society tothe journal in question?"

  "Yes, I believe so."

  "Was not your paper sent to the journal as usual, and was it notrejected by the journal?"

  "I do not know that it was."

  "Well, has your paper been published anywhere?"

  "No."

  "You said that you were present when Miss Sloane died. Now how didthat happen. Were you sent for?"

  "No. I had seen the patient with Dr. Fisher during the day, and sheseemed to be improving, so much so that Dr. Fisher decided that weneed not see her until the next morning. Later I thought this a littleunsafe, and so I called during the evening."

  "Oh! Dr. Fisher thought she was well enough, but you did not. Was thatwhy you called at night?"

  The witness bit his lip with anger at having made this slip.

  "I live near, and I thought it would do no harm to call."

  "Now when you called, you have stated that you were with her for halfan hour before she died. Did she die a half hour after you entered herroom?"

  "In about half an hour."

  "How soon after you saw her, did you suspect that she had beenpoisoned?"

  "Immediately."

  "Oh! Immediately! Then of course you made some effort to save herlife, did you not? You used some antidotes?"

  "It was difficult. At first of course there was merely a suspicion inmy mind. I tried to have her drink some strong coffee, but deglutitionwas almost impossible. This is another evidence of the poison."

  "Now, Doctor, be careful. You say that impaired deglutition was due topoisoning. But do you not know that deglutition is most difficult incases of diphtheria?"

  "The patient swallowed very well in the afternoon."

  "But if she had grown worse, if the false membrane had increased,would she not have had greater difficulty in swallowing?"

  "Yes, but----"

  "Never mind the buts. Now, then, when you found that she was too illto swallow, what else did you do?"

  "I injected atropine, and sent for Dr. Fisher."

  "Oh! Then you did send for Dr. Fisher?"

  "Yes."

  "Did he arrive before she died?"

  "Yes. About five minutes."

  "Did you suggest to him that the patient was dying of poison?"

  "I did, but he would not agree with me. Therefore I could not doanything more, as he was the physician in charge."

  "Is Dr. Fisher a skilful man?"

  "Yes."

  "As skilful as you are yourself?"

  This was a hard question, but with Dr. Fisher present, only one answerwas possible.

  "Certainly, but we are all liable to make a mistake."

  This was a bad effort to help his cause, for Mr. Bliss quicklyinterposed.

  "Even you are liable to make a mistake, eh?"

  "Of course, but in this instance I saw more of the case than Dr.Fisher did."

  "Still, Dr. Fisher was present for several minutes before this girldied, and though you suggested that she had been poisoned, andproposed taking some action to save her from the poison, he disagreedwith you so entirely that he made no such effort. Is that right?"

  "Well, there was very little that he could have done anyway. It wastoo late. The drug had gone too far for the stomach-pump to beefficacious; the atropine had had no beneficial result, we had nomeans of applying a magnetic battery, and no time to get one.Artificial respiration was what I proposed, whilst waiting for abattery, but Dr. Fisher thought it a useless experiment, in presenceof the diphtheria. He offered to perform tracheotomy, but as Iconsidered that the respiratory centres had been paralyzed bymorphine, I could see no advantage in that."

  "So whilst you two doctors argued, the patient died?"

  "It was too late for us to save her life. The coma was too deep. Itwas a hopeless case."

  "Now, then, Doctor, let us come to those symptoms. You enumerated alist, and claimed that you observed them all. The first is cold sweat.Did you notice that specially?"

  "The cold sweat was present, but not very marked. It would be less sowith morphine than with other forms of opium."

  "Oh! So there was not much sweat after all? Now was there more thanwould be expected on a warm night such as that was?"

  "I think so. It is only valuable as a diagnostic sign in conjunctionwith the other symptoms."

  "Next we have slow pulse. This was a half hour before death. Does notthe pulse become slow in many cases just before death?"

  "Yes."

  "Very good. Not much sweat, and slow pulse does not amount toanything. What next? Oh! 'stertorous breathing.' That is not uncommonin diphtheria, is it, Doctor?"

  "No."

  "Just so. Now then, 'gradually deepening coma.' That is to say, a slowsinking into unconsciousness. Or I might say, dying slowly. Is a slowdeath of this kind only possible where opium poisoning has occurred?"

  "No."

  "Lastly we have the contracted pupils. That is your best diagnosticsymptom, is it not, Doctor?"

  "Yes. It is a plain indication of opium."

  "Now then, Doctor, admitting that the contracted pupils are a sign ofmorphine, how did you determine, in that darkened room, that there wasa contraction of the pupils?"

  "I passed a candle before her eyes, and they gave no response, whilstthe pupils were contracted minutely."

  "How small?"

  "As small as a pin's point."

  "Now then, Doctor, you answered a lengthy question for Mr. Munson andyou told us that these symptoms, that is, all of them occurringtogether, would not be found in any other condition than that which inyour opinion would be the result
of opium poisoning. Please listen tothis question and give me an answer. Suppose that a patient weresuffering with diphtheria, and were about to die of that disease, andthat some time before she died morphine were administered in amoderate, medicinal dose, would it not be possible to have thecontracted pupils such as you have described as a result of themorphine, whilst death were really caused by diphtheria?"

  "I object!" cried Mr. Munson, quick to see the ingenuity of thisquestion, which if answered affirmatively by the witness would leavethe inference that Miss Sloane might have taken a non-poisonous doseof morphine and still have died of diphtheria.

  "The question seems to me to be a proper one," said the Recorder.

  "Your Honor," said Mr. Munson, "this witness is here to testify tofacts. He is not here as an expert. That is a hypothetical questionand does not relate to the facts in this case."

  "It is no more a hypothetical question than one which the prosecutionasked, your Honor. He asked if the described symptoms could occur inany other disease. The witness was allowed to answer that."

  "Yes," said the Recorder, "but you made no objection. Had you done so,and claimed that this witness could not give expert testimony, I wouldperhaps have sustained you. I think you may leave your question untilthe experts are called, Mr. Bliss."

  "Oh! Very well, your Honor. I should prefer to have an expert opinionupon it. If this witness is not an expert, of course his opinion wouldbe of no value to us."

  This was a rather neat manoeuvre, tending to further discredit thewitness, without placing himself in opposition to the Judge, animportant point always. Mr. Bliss then yielded the witness, andthe Assistant District Attorney asked a few more questions inre-examination, but they were mainly intended to re-affirm theprevious testimony, and so obtain a last impression upon the minds ofthe jury. Nothing was brought out which would add to what has alreadybeen narrated. Court then adjourned for the day.