TRUE DETECTIVE STORIES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 254, 22 July 1919, Page 5

TRUE DETECTIVE STORIES

, PHYSICIANS AS SLEUTHS. . Dr. de Neuvilk, n French physician, who has specialised iu I'hfi medico-iefrnl aspects of his profession, has'' (says the ."Public Ledger" of Philadelphia) gathe.red some true stories of detective work by physicians that equals the mythical achievements of Sherlock Holmes. Some years ago one of the "legal doctors" of -the police-fores received notification to accompany gendarmes to the seine of a death—rant of a woman innkeeper. The apartment where the woman had been found dead had not been disturbed; the legal doctor had full plav for his faculty of observation. Ho weiit all over j'ooni. and used his microscope n.t various places and 011 several object* that ' appeared to interest him particularly, At last he inquired'the name of the last vessel that had come in. Jl: proved to be tho Donna Maria, from Sicily. He delivered his opinion then, without a moment's delay. ( "A left-handed man, wearing a slight nioustache, murdered this woman. Ho is probably a Sicilian, who arrived on the Donna Maria. He is over sft. Gin. in height., He was acquainted with his victim..having been a guest previously at her inn. So he knew that she ofton got drunk. ffe.hroke in, killed her bsoausn that she would awaken whiln he was robbinnr the place, and made good his escape. He has in his pockpt now the stump of the candle he used to light him in committing the crime. Jtake « swift se.irch for a person answering this description."

"While olio of the Havre detectives hastened to. take up the trail, the doctor gave. his reasons for deducing all these details

"In enterin? the murdferer cut himself at the floor, and' a blood-stained splinter of the wood made it clear ihnt lie is left-handed. To one side of tho spot where the Wood dripped 011 the floor you can see some cand!/ grease; that is, where his candle dripped. It is obvious that, while lie held in his left hand Urn weapon lie used, he carried the candle in the right. When I put the microscope on the candle drippings I could recognise them as coming from a Sicilian candle, having studied very closely #.c Bertillon collection of candles, assembled from all parts of the .world. I now surmised that anyone who would be using a Sicilian candle must have just come f.rom Sicily. In the candle grease there appeared two small, reddish hairs, very difKrent in texture from those which srow in the beard. The assassin must have stood there, holding the candle after ha committed tho murder, biting or twisting his moustache while he debated hi» crime and his next procedure." It was not long_ before the detective brought in a Sicilian named Fororazzo, it ho had been one of the Donna Maria's passengers. The doctor, having a piece of paper ready, offered it to him. -Ho reached out his left hand, which was cm, lo take it. When they searched h>;ii. the candle was found in'his pocket, nn.l when thoy questioned him he brolto down and confessed tho murder. in a Pennsylvania town a physician was bucked aown and robbed wliile "on Ills way to see a patient. His pockets wen;, rilled, and one of tho articles stolen jvas a clinical thermometer, with which he li:id earlier in the evening taken iho tempeiature uf a patient. He renumbered the temperature .registered, and also that he hud-not shaken down tho U>enm,ii,cter in his pocket. He oommunicnted these facts to the police. Some limo afterwards a thermometer registering tho identical temperature was discovered in a pawnshop, ami the polico wete enabled 10 track the doctor's assailants and 'capture them. Even clergymen have disclosed Sherlock Holmes-like qualities. Dr. John Donne, tho famous English <livine and poor, was walking in the churchyard while a grave was being dug, wheu tho wxtun cast up a mouldering skull. Tho doctor idly look it up, and, in handling it, iunnd a headless nail driven into it. Tnis he managed .to take out and conceal in his haudkeichief. Ho questioned tho sexton, and learned that tho skull was probably that of a certain man who was die proprietor of a brandy shop, and was a drunkard, being found dea<l in bed ono morning alter a night in which ho had drunk two' quarts of brandy. "Had he a wife?" asked .the doctor. "Yes." "Whut chaiacter does she bear?" "Slio bore a very good character, only the neighbours gossiped about her booause she married tho day after her husband's funeral. She still lives here." Tho doctor soon called 011 the woman. Ho asked for, aud received the particuiars of the death of her husband. Suddenly, opening his handkerchief, he showed lier tho tell-tale nail, asking in a loud voico: "Madame, do you know this nail?" Amazed, tho woman, taken off her guard, confessed, and was tried and executed."