“In natural light, under the microscope, it is at times possible to get a hazy impression which conveys little information. But it has been found possible to use the ultra-violet waves which are shorter than natural light waves in a vacuum and thus to get a photograph of particles too short to be caught in ordinary light.” Here the doctor made his final drawing.
Ultra-violet waves:
“Thus a shadow thrown on a spark of an ultra-violet ray in a vacuum will be recorded on a photograph of the phenomenon. The discovery of the Becquerel Rays, the X-rays and the various rays known as “gamma,” etc., were all stepping stones to our knowledge of the tiniest particles. Compared with electrons, atoms and molecules, the colloid is relatively large.
“A photograph would show the presence of a colloid without great difficulty. Now, what is the relation of the colloid to the problem we are trying to solve? During the world war, things were learned which were mothered by necessity. Surgery had to be not only quick but effective. While what is known as the shock of an operation is due to a toxic condition, it is not what is technically known as blood poison. It is definitely the shock of the operation. In the world war it was learned that the shock of the operation was due to the absorption or infiltration of certain toxic or poisonous substances which belong to the colloid family.
“It was observed that if the haemostats were removed from a wounded member, which had been amputated, the condition of shock immediately was noticeable. This led to the conclusion that the haemostats kept out something which could enter when they were removed. The inevitable conclusion which followed was that the cause of shock was something which could not pass through an animal membrane or tissue, such as the walls of the blood vessels. Experiments have shown that while crystalline molecules would pass readily enough through a parchment filter the colloids remained behind.
“So, if a wound is made perfectly sterile and haemostats are used to seal the wound hermetically, the colloid poisons are excluded and, as they could not penetrate an animal membrane, the sealing of the wound effectually prevents the condition known as shock which so often is the fatal result of an operation. The tiny colloid, first known by its shadow on a spark, cannot enter the blood stream if the wound of amputation is sealed.
“The lessons of the world war showed that the wall cells of the blood vessels, the arteries, veins and capillaries present a compact and effective barrier to the passage of the colloidal poisons which cause death. Can you see now where we have arrived? Dr. Lawson has said that Mr. Craighead’s death was due to poisons which seeped in through the wall cells of the blood vessels. But in this long and perhaps tiresome explanation I have shown this to be impossible. Jim Craighead did not die of the shock of the operation. Dr. Lawson is positive that the wound was perfectly clean, that it was impossible for infection to have entered at the point of amputation.
“If it was impossible there, it was impossible elsewhere. So, if Jim Craighead did not die of the shock, he died of something else. It was not blood poison, for it would not have acted on a man of Craighead’s strength and perfect health, in so short a time. His death was due neither to blood poison nor to shock. Of what, then, did he die? Symptoms tell us clearly enough. Craighead’s son describes in untechnical language, symptoms which point almost unerringly to the fact that Craighead died of poison, administered to him. That poison, I assert was strychnine.”
Had a thunderbolt destroyed the cupola on a nearby building and caused it to crash in on them, or had a boy rushed in crying that a tidal wave was rushing up Broadway, the excitement could not have been greater. The girl was crushed. Was it guilt that could be read in her terrified features? The coroner’s jury, which a few minutes earlier was ready to render a verdict of death due to an operation, was now anxious to recommend the arrest of a murderer.