DOCTORS AS DETECTIVES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19810, 29 November 1919, Page 15

DOCTORS AS DETECTIVES.

SOME REMARKABLE STORIES. Dr de/ .Renville, «■ French physician who has specialised in the medico-legal aspects of his profession, has (says the “ Public Ledger,” of Philadelphia) gathered some true stories of detective work by physicians that equals tho mythical achievements of Sherlock Holmes. Some years ago one of the | “ legal doctors ” of the polio® force received notification tx> accompany gendarmes to tho scone of a. death—-that of a woman innkeeper. The apartment where the woman had been found had J not been disturbed ; the legal doctor had. full play for his faculty of obser- • vation. He went all over the room, and used his microscope at various places and on several objects that ap- ’ neared to interest him particularly. At ■ last he inquired tho name of the last vessel that had come in, It proved : to he the Donna Maria from Sicily. • He delivered hie opinion, then, without . ft moment's delay. • THE DEDUCTION. " A left-handed man, wearing s slight ! moustache, murdered this woman. He is probably a Sicilian, who arrived on the Donna Maria. He is over 6ft 6iu J in height. He was acquainted with his victim, having been a guest previously at her inn. So he knew that she often got drunk. He broke in, killed her because he feared that she would awaken while he was robbing the place, and made good his escape. He has in his pocket now the stump of the candle he used to light Mm in committing the crime. Make a swift search for a person answering this description,” While one of tho Havre detectives hastened to take up the trail, the doctor gave hia reasons for deducing all these details: — " In entering tho murderer cot himself at the door, and a blood-stained splinter of the wood made it clear tliai he is left-handed. To one side of the spot whore tho blood dripped on the floor you can flee some candle grease; that is where his candle dripped. It is obvious that, while he held in hla left hand the weapon he used, he carried the candle in his right. When I put the microscope on toe candle drippings 1 could recognise them as coming from a Sicilian candle, having studied very closely the Bei tilliou’collection of candles, assembled from all parts of the world. In Hie candle grease there appeared two small, reddish hairs very different in texture from those which grow in tho oeard. The assassin must have stood there holding the candle after he committed tho murder biting or twisting his moustache while ho debated his crime and his next procedure.” It was not long before the detective brought in a Sicilian named Fofora&so, who had been one of the Donna Maria’s passengers. The doctor, having a piece of paper ready, offered it to him, , He reached out his left hand, which was cut, to take it. W T hen they search, ed him the candle was found in his pocket, and when they questioned, him lie broke down and confessed the murder. THERMOMETER CLUB. In a Pennsylvania town a physician was knocked down and robbed while on his way bo see a patient- His pockets were rifled, and ono of the articles stolen was a clinical thermometer with which he had earlier in the evening taken the temperature of a patient. He remembered the temperature registered, and also that he had not shaken down the thermometer in his pocket. He communicated those facts to the police. Some time afterwards a thermometer registering the identical temperature was discovered in a pawnshop, and the poiice were enabled to track tbe doctor’s assailants and capture them. Even clergymen have disclosed Sherlock Holmes-like qualities. Dr John Donne, the famous English divine and poet, was walking in the churchyard while a grave was being dug, when tho sexton cast np a monld- | ering skull. The doctor idly took it • up, and in handling it, found a headless nail driven into it. This he managed to take out and conceal in his handkerchief. He questioned the sexton, and learned that the skull was probably that of a certain man who was the proprietor of a brandy shop, and was a drunkard, being found dead in bed one morning after a night in which he had drunk two quarts oi brandy. “ Had he a wife?” asked the doctor. “Yes.” “What character does she bear?” “ She bore a very good character ; only the neighbours gossiped about her because site married the day after her husband’s funeral. She still lives here.” The doctor soon called on the woman. He asked for and received tho particulars of the death of he;- husband. Suddenly opening his handkerchief, he showed her the toll-tale nail, askino- in a loud voice, “ Madame, do you know this nail?” Amazed, the woman, taken off her guard, confessed, and was tried and executed.