accept his
unimpeached evidence upon this point, relative to the administration
of the morphine, as the only available evidence upon which to base an
opinion. And if you do adopt that, and decide, as you necessarily
would, that self-administered morphine cannot implicate Dr. Medjora in
this crime, why the case is ended at once, and need scarcely go any
further.

"However, merely as a matter of form, I will take up one or two more
points. The second link in this circumstantial chain is that evidences
of morphine were found at the autopsy. But, gentlemen, what of that?
You and I know how it entered the system, and of course we expect that
eminent specialists, such as the gentlemen who performed the autopsy,
must necessarily recognize the recent presence of the drug. It forms
no particle of proof whatever against Dr. Medjora. That we see clearly
enough, when we eliminate the bare facts from the fog of
misinterpretation. But I may casually remind you of another fact,
which these same eminent specialists told us about. They found that
the kidneys were atrophied, an evidence of disease, and later we
learned that if the kidneys are diseased morphine is retained in the
system, until a poisonous dose may accumulate. So we see that even if
the deceased was poisoned to death, it was only by the retention of
many doses, due to a diseased condition, and in no way attributable to
criminal interference.

"The next link is the actual presence of the drug, as testified by the
expert chemists. They tell us that they found morphine. Why of course
they did. It was in the system; we knew that it was there; and we are
not at all shocked by the discovery.

"But I need not take up any other of these forged links, for, as you
plainly see, the principal ones are so very faulty that as they are
the mainstay of the bonds that bind our client, we break them asunder
with scarcely an effort.

"Now, I will say a few words relative to expert testimony, and I beg
of you to understand throughout, that however I may attack this sort
of evidence as a class, I speak in general terms only, and in no way
cast any imputations against the scientific gentlemen who have
appeared upon the stand, except as they come within the limitations of
their class, as I am about to explain to you.

"When expert testimony was first introduced it was received with
marked respect. The expert witness was counted as a professor in his
specialty, and his word was almost fin