THE KYEBURN MURDER.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 581, 18 November 1880, Page 2

THE KYEBURN MURDER.

3>R WHITTO.V'S REPLYTo tlie Editor. Sir,—On the failure of Bishop Nevill to verify'any .of the pre validations and lies of Ah Lee it became necessary for him to show s>me raison d'etre for that respite, which he demanded from the Executive. With the aid of a certificate, 'Taylor's Medical JurisITuderic i,' and the ' Otagb Daily-Times,' he wished to prove, and I suppose he consider* ' that he has. proven, my inability to distinguish sheep's blood from human blood when in the dried state.

This certificate, signed by ths ; so-ialled Dunedia scientists, proves nothin'. It simply fcertifies- that Dr Whitton's evidence was insufficienb to prove the presence" of human blood on the trousers of Ah Lee. My evidence, on the contrary, was that the blood found.on Ah Lee was not the biool of a sheep. That portion is caiefullY omitted whirein I state I that I lased-as a comparison dried sheep's blond,- previously dried onmo'eskin for eight days; and I used the sam 3 medium for moistening these blood eells. of a sheep and those on the trousers. ©5 Ah. T .ee ; ansi that 1 examined them both together under a Browning's, microscope. o£ 500 diameters. The in both cases, did not correspond in size, those from the trousers appearing double the sizi of thosi from the shjgp.., The microscope was powerful the conclusion sound.

;:: are appareutly composed of medical men in practice, and who havecon jidered it Infra dig to examine the blood of any being lower in-creation than that of man; and the remainder are belohghigito'our JSdrieational Institute—who* are so bnsily engaged in seeking for psotoplasui and the : origin of life that, they cannot waste'their time in such practical pursarts as. the distinction of human from other mam-malian-iblood. v The certificate was written to order without taking any trouble to ex-amine-the matter., microscopically or otherwise ibr themselves ; they read the evidence and wrote out the certificate forthwith ; but then that was sufficient foi Dunedin scientists. " ■•"■"-■

Now^^aa^" Taylor," 1 did not and do not take him as my infallible guide in medicolegal investigations The possession of such organs as eyes and brains implies the powerof observation and judgment; and all that ■; 'Taylor' can do is to show one of the best methods of using such faculties. The 'Daily Times' sagely advi es the Government to purchase and distribute; amongst the scientists of Dunedin a few microscopes of extraordinary horse power • but even with any of those at present in Dunedin, and witii a few drops of the Bishop's blood (which be ill can spare), I venture to predict that I at once can distinguish the blood of a sheep fiom the blgod of Bishop Nevill.—l am, etc , V *" Thomas Bain Whittqk, M.D. .1 L.&^:,Eng. Naseby, November 11. , [We have been requested by DrV-Whitton to pdblish tbe above letter, which appeared in the 'Evening Star' of Saturday last. Ep, j: M.l.a] i ;