only
that we can reach the true meaning of what the direct testimony
teaches.

"So we come at last to find that evidence is evidence, and that all
evidence is important, and may prove convincing. This is true, without
regard to the technical classification. Leave classification to the
lawyers, gentlemen. You have but to weigh all that has been offered to
you as relevant, and bearing upon the issue. Be assured, the Recorder
would not have admitted any extraneous matter. You are not to cast
aside anything that you have heard, merely because Mr. Bliss tells you
that it is delusive. It is not delusive. On the contrary, all is very
clear, as I shall now demonstrate to you.

"I will take up the chain of evidence much in the same order as did
Mr. Bliss. First, then, we have Dr. Meredith. Mr. Bliss hints to you
that he is a prejudiced witness, but whilst I might argue that a man
must be more than a villain to falsely accuse another of murder, I
need go into no defence of this witness, because it has been freely
admitted that his testimony is true. Mr. Bliss argues that all that
can be deduced from what Dr. Meredith tells us, is that morphine was
present in quantity sufficient to show toxic symptoms. Now that is all
that we care to claim from this witness. He recognized morphine
poisoning prior to death, but Mr. Bliss attempts to belittle the value
of this by the hypothesis that the drug was self-administered. He
calls your attention to the statements of the prisoner to this effect,
and tells you to believe him. On this subject I will speak again in a
moment. The principal thing at this point is, do they ask us to
believe that the girl died from diphtheria, or did she die of poison,
regardless of how she received it? They do not choose between these
two queries, but ask you to say either that she died of diphtheria,
or, if of poison, that it was self-administered. It rests with you,
gentlemen, then, to decide this weighty point. As to diphtheria, we
have the report of the experts against it. Dr. Meredith declared, even
before her death, that she was dying from poison. The autopsy showed
that the cause of death was poison. The chemical analysis shows
morphine in a poisonous dose, which is declared to be more than three
grains. True, Dr. Fisher, a witness who was forced upon the
prosecution, declares that diphtheria caused the death, but this is in
contradiction to the opinion of all the others, and though honestly
offered, no