“The spectacles were of a rather peculiar pattern.  The frames were of the type invented by Mr. Stopford of Moorfields and known by his name.  The right eye-piece was fitted with plain glass, as is usual in the case of a blind, or useless, eye.  It was very much shattered, but its character was obvious.  The glass of the left eye was much thicker and fortunately less damaged, so that I was able accurately to test its refraction.

“When I reached home, I laid the pieces of the spectacles together, measured the frames very carefully, tested the left eye-glass, and wrote down a full description such as would have been given by the surgeon to the spectacle-maker.  Here it is, and I will ask you to note it carefully.

“’Spectacles for constant use.  Steel frame, Stopford’s pattern, curl sides, broad bridge with gold lining.  Distance between centres, 6.2 centimetres; extreme length of side-bars, 13.3 centimetres.

“’Right eye plain glass.

“’Left eye -5.75 D. spherical
-------------------
-3.25 D. cylindrical axis 35 deg..’

“The spectacles, you see, were of a very distinctive character and seemed to offer a good chance of identification.  Stopford’s frames are, I believe, made by only one firm of opticians in London, Parry & Cuxton of Regent Street.  I therefore wrote to Mr. Cuxton, who knows me, asking him if he had supplied spectacles to the late Jeffrey Blackmore, Esq.—­here is a copy of my letter—­and if so, whether he would mind letting me have a full description of them, together with the name of the oculist who prescribed them.

“He replied in this letter, which is pinned to the copy of mine, that, about four years ago, he supplied a pair of glasses to Mr. Jeffrey Blackmore, and described them thus:  ’The spectacles were for constant use and had steel frames of Stopford’s pattern with curl sides, the length of the side-bars including the curled ends being 13.3 cm.  The bridge was broad with a gold lining-plate, shaped as shown by the enclosed tracing from the diagram on the prescription.  Distance between centres 6.2 cm.

“’Right eye plain glass.

“’Left eye -5.75 D. spherical
-------------------
-3.25 D. cylindrical, axis 35 deg..’

“‘The spectacles were prescribed by Mr. Hindley of Wimpole Street.’

“You see that Mr. Cuxton’s description is identical with mine.  However, for further confirmation, I wrote to Mr. Hindley, asking certain questions, to which he replied thus: 

“’You are quite right.  Mr. Jeffrey Blackmore had a tremulous iris in his right eye (which was practically blind), due to dislocation of the lens.  The pupils were rather large; certainly not contracted.’

“Here, then, we have three important facts.  One is that the spectacles found by us at Kennington Lane were undoubtedly Jeffrey’s; for it is as unlikely that there exists another pair of spectacles exactly identical with those as that there exists another face exactly like Jeffrey’s face.  The second fact is that the description of Jeffrey tallies completely with that of the sick man, Graves, as given by Dr. Jervis; and the third is that when Jeffrey was seen by Mr. Hindley, there was no sign of his being addicted to the taking of morphine.  The first and second facts, you will agree, constitute complete identification.”