Excerpt from Trial of the Seddons

Another point which makes the case remarkable is the absence of all evidence as to the handling by Seddon of arsenic at anyjtime. It is usually regarded as necessary for conviction in a murder case either to trace the weapon to the prisoner's hand, or, in the case of poison, if the actual poison cannot be traced, at least to prove expert knowledge on the part of the accused as to the method of administration and effect of the poison employed. In this case it was not proved that Seddon administered or even handled tiny arsenic, that he had any knowledge or source of information toxie effects, or that his occupation or education was of a kind likely to make the presumption that he had such information a reasonable one.

A further distinguishing feature Of the case was the use made of the famous Marsh test, which is the classical method of discovering the presence of arsenic'fihde'ribit exists in a quantity too small to be revealed by a 'simple analysis. This has hitherto been used almost exclusively as a qualitative testtas/'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 have been at least two grains in the body at the time of death that the Marsh mirrors were used as a quantitative test. On reference to the evidefice, it will be seen that in -is 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 were put in this case that so much of their case was obliged to rest on induction and deduction. Dr. Willcox, who conducted these experiments. Is a man not only of the highmbility 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 conscientiousness, have produced 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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Excerpt from Trial of the Seddons Very few people can hear an important criminal trial. The ordinary Court of law has accommodation for only a small audience, and few even of those whose interest is professional have the time to devote nine or ten consecutive days to the hearing of a single case. Yet the things that take place in these Courts are done in the name of every citizen, and when the judge and jury deprive a man of liberty or life, they do it on our behalf and with our authority. It is therefore of moment that the public should have the means of studying at leisure, in such carefully prepared records as those of the series in which this volume appears, the working of this immensely important machine to which people's lives and liberties are entrusted. And I cannot imagine any more interesting exercise in the judicial faculties for a thoughtful and reflective person than to read the evidence carefully and attentively, away from the personal distractions of the Court, where he can concentrate his mind on its significance sentence by sentence, and attempt to come to a calm judgment. One sees, in such a record, human nature laid bare; one follows, link by link, the chain composed of causes followed by their surprising effects; and one observes, far from the emotional storm that inspired the crime, the cold and durable nature of a man's acts when all the passion has died out of them and the tale is told and the reckoning to be paid. But the study must be made with patience and restraint. The tendency of the ordinary amateur in these matters is to make up his mind quite early in the case (it is what I am convinced nearly all jurymen do), and to throw down the book when the evidence has been half read, saying, "I am sure he did it" or "I am sure he is innocent," as the case may be. I need not say that a record like that which I am presenting in the following pages will be both useless and uninteresting if it is treated in this manner, but that if it be patiently

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