he authorities in vainly trying to get him to do it without such
arrangement, and finally the stomach was returned unopened. During the
whole of this time the poor woman, very probably innocent, was lying
in prison with the dreadful charge hanging over her.]

[Footnote 15: A very forcible illustration occurs to me from my own
experience. I was once summoned to see a woman in the Philadelphia
Hospital to whom an assistant nurse of bad character had been seen
to administer laudanum. At the time of my arrival she was apparently
suffering from the advanced stages of opium poisoning. I spent about
five hours in trying to restore her. The nurse protested that she
had given only the medicinal dose ordered by the doctor, but was
not believed. After death we found thrombosis of the brain--a rare
affection, leaving such minute traces behind it that a careless
examination will always fail to detect them. This was one of the
affections which, as I had stated on the witness-stand some months
before the occurrence just narrated, might have caused the death of
Miss Stennecke with symptoms resembling those of opium poisoning.]

[Footnote 16: According to the testimony in both the cases of alleged
poisoning by Mrs. Wharton, professional advice was called in at her
request.]

[Footnote 17: I think the general opinion of the profession has
endorsed the position of the defence. It is very probable that General
Ketchum did die of the disease named, but there are other affections
of which he I may have died; and certainly there were no sufficient
grounds for asserting that the facts of his case were inconsistent
with natural disease. The truth is, disease is often so hidden, its
manifestations so obscure, its stamp upon the tissues so faint, that
rarely is a physician justified in asserting from the symptoms and
a _partial_ negative post mortem, such as was performed on General
Ketchum, that any given death could not have been due to a natural
cause. Numerous cases of death from natural causes have occurred in
which science has been apparently baffled. I have myself seen at least
one sudden death in which a careful post mortem failed entirely to
detect the cause.]

[Footnote 18: Since writing the present paper I have been shown a
private letter of Judge Pierce, written last April in regard to the
first trial of Mrs. Wharton. After considerable solicitation the judge
has allowed the publication of an extract from it, which I insert
here