When Sir Robert ceased speaking, the coroner bowed, and having written down the last words, reflected for a few moments. Then he turned to the jury and said: “I don’t think we need detain Sir Robert any longer unless there are any questions that you would like to ask.”
At this point the usual over-intelligent juryman interposed.
“We should like to know whether the vessels in which the specimens were contained were perfectly clean and free from chemicals.”
“The bottles,” Sir Robert replied, “were clean in the ordinary sense. I rinsed them out with clean water before introducing the material. But, of course, they could not be guaranteed to be chemically clean.”
“Then doesn’t that invalidate the analysis?” the juror asked.
“It was hardly an analysis,” the witness replied. “It was just a
