ied in the wound, not even the quotation of Shelley's line:

"Makes such a wound, the knife is lost in it,"

could secure it a moment's acceptance. The same reception was accorded
to the idea that the cut had been made with a candlestick (or other
harmless article) constructed like a sword-stick. Theories of this sort
caused a humorist to explain that the deceased had hidden the razor in
his hollow tooth! Some kind friend of Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook
suggested that they were the only persons who could have done the deed,
as no one else could get out of a locked cabinet. But perhaps the most
brilliant of these flashes of false fire was the facetious, yet probably
half-seriously meant, letter that appeared in the "Pell Mell Press"
under the heading of

THE BIG BOW MYSTERY SOLVED.

"Sir--You will remember that when the Whitechapel murders were
agitating the universe, I suggested that the district coroner was
the assassin. My suggestion has been disregarded. The coroner is
still at large. So is the Whitechapel murderer. Perhaps this
suggestive coincidence will incline the authorities to pay more
attention to me this time. The problem seems to be this. The
deceased could not have cut his own throat. The deceased could not
have had his throat cut for him. As one of the two must have
happened, this is obvious nonsense. As this is obvious nonsense I
am justified in disbelieving it. As this obvious nonsense was
primarily put in circulation by Mrs. Drabdump and Mr. Grodman, I am
justified in disbelieving them. In short, sir, what guarantee have
we that the whole tale is not a cock-and-bull story, invented by
the two persons who first found the body? What proof is there that
the deed was not done by these persons themselves, who then went to
work to smash the door and break the locks and the bolts, and
fasten up all the windows before they called the police in? I
enclose my card, and am, sir, yours truly, One Who Looks Through
His Own Spectacles."

("Our correspondent's theory is not so audaciously original as he
seems to imagine. Has he not looked through the spectacles of the
people who persistently suggested that the Whitechapel murderer was
invariably the policeman who found the body? Somebody must find the
body, if it is to be found at all.--Ed. P. M. P.")

The editor had reason to be pleased