“It means something under 1/100 part of a grain. It does not mean something which I could not weigh, but something which I could not guarantee to be absolutely free from other things; but anything under 1/100 part of a grain I should not consider satisfactory. If I said distinct traces, I should say it meant something between 1/100 and 1/1000 part of a grain, while a minute trace is less than 1/1000 part of a grain.”
In reference to Reinsch’s test which Mr. Davies used in these experiments, this passage occurs in Taylor’s “Medical Jurisprudence,” vol. i., p. 268: “The mere presence of a gray deposit on pure copper affords no absolute proof of the presence of arsenic. Bismuth, antimony, and mercury all yield deposits with Reinsch’s test. The gray deposit of bismuth may easily be taken for arsenic.” And again: “The errors into which the faulty methods of applying Reinsch’s test lead have led its reliability to be much discredited, and, although in skilful hands the results are trustworthy, it would be perhaps unsafe to rely upon it in an important criminal investigation.”
It is submitted that the evidence relating to the articles which Mr. Davies said were infected with arsenic only to the extent of an unweighable trace could not and ought not to be regarded as proof that any arsenic at all was there, or as being anything more than a suspicion upon this analyst’s mind that what he saw was arsenic, and that it was a misdirection on the part of Mr. Justice Stephen to treat a mere expression of opinion of that kind as proof of the presence of arsenic.
Misdirection as to Arsenic in Solution
It will be observed that the only things of which James Maybrick could have partaken [but did not], in which arsenic in a weighable form was present, were the bottle of Valentine’s meat juice and the pot of glycerin, and that the arsenic found in them was found in a state of solution.
As regards the half grain of arsenic found in the meat juice, scientific evidence will be forthcoming that it is a physical impossibility for any person to dissolve half a grain of solid arsenic in 411 grains of Valentine’s meat juice, which is all the liquid that was in the bottle when it was handed to Mr. Davies.
Mr. Davies, moreover, found that (although he used very loose and unscientific language in his evidence) the specific gravity of the meat juice was considerably reduced, thereby showing that the half grain of arsenic found in it had been introduced in the form of arsenic in solution.
It will now be observed that the only arsenic in solution which was available, among the stores of arsenic found in the house, was the bottle No. 10 in the police list, and it is submitted that bottle No. 11 (solid arsenic) must, like the black solutions, be eliminated from any store of arsenic which Mrs. Maybrick, whether she had access to it or not, could have employed for the purpose of infecting any of the things found in the house to be infected.