[Footnote 14:  The parsimony of many legal authorities is an indication of their want of appreciation of the differences in men.  Not rarely medical experts are forced to sue a borough or county for compensation, even when the fee has been agreed on beforehand.  In Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, some time ago a woman was arrested on the charge of poisoning her mother-in-law, and the stomach of the deceased was sent to Professor Reese of this city for analysis.  Warned by previous experience, he refused to make the analysis without a written agreement as to the fees.  Nearly three months were spent by the 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.]