at remains, though it is unchanged in appearance, will
remain liquid for an indefinite time. The other method is to dissolve a
certain proportion of some alkaline salt in the fresh blood, after which
it no longer has any tendency to solidify."

"You have heard the evidence of Inspector Sanderson and Sergeant Bates?"

"Yes."

"Inspector Sanderson has told us that he examined the safe at 10.31 a.m.
and found two good-sized drops of blood on the bottom. Sergeant Bates
has told us that he examined the safe two hours later, and that he took
up one of the drops of blood on a piece of white paper. The blood was
then quite liquid, and, on the paper, it looked like a clear, red liquid
of the colour of blood. What should you consider the condition and
nature of that blood to have been?"

"If it was really blood at all, I should say that it was either
defibrinated blood--that is, blood from which the fibrin has been
extracted by whipping--or that it had been treated with an alkaline
salt."

"You are of opinion that the blood found in the safe could not have been
ordinary blood shed from a cut or wound?"

"I am sure it could not have been."

"Now, Dr. Rowe, I am going to ask you a few questions on another
subject. Have you given any attention to finger-prints made by bloody
fingers?"

"Yes. I have recently made some experiments on the subject."

"Will you give us the results of those experiments?"

"My object was to ascertain whether fingers wet with fresh blood would
yield distinct and characteristic prints. I made a great number of
trials, and as a result found that it is extremely difficult to obtain a
clear print when the finger is wetted with fresh blood. The usual result
is a mere red blot showing no ridge pattern at all, owing to the blood
filling the furrows between the ridges. But if the blood is allowed to
dry almost completely on the finger, a very clear print is obtained."

"Is it possible to recognise a print that has been made by a nearly dry
finger?"

"Yes; quite easily. The half-dried blood is nearly solid and adheres to
the paper in a different way from the liquid, and it shows minute
details, such as the mouths of the sweat glands, which are always
obliterated by the liquid."

"Look carefully at this paper, which was found in the safe, and tell me
what you see."

The witness took the paper and examined it attentively, first with the
naked eye and then with a pocket-lens.

"I see," said he, "two