It should be stated that in Lamson's
pocket-book were found memoranda as to the symptoms and effect of
aconitine, and as to there being no test for its discovery. Lamson
therefore had made the poisoning of this boy a careful and particular
study. He was not such a clumsy operator as to administer it in the
way suggested. The openness of that proceeding was to blind the eyes
of detectives and lawyers alike; the aconitine was conveyed to the
lad's stomach _by means of a raisin in the piece of Dundee cake which
Lamson cut with his penknife and handed to him_. He knew, of course,
the part of the cake where it was.
My attention was directed to the artifice employed by Lamson, by the
shallowness of the stratagem, and by the one circumstance that almost
escaped notice--namely, the Dundee cake and the curious desire of the
man to offer the boy a piece in so unusual a manner. So eager was he
to give him a taste that he must needs cut it with his _penknife_.
I was sure, and am sure now, although there is no evidence but that
which common sense, acting on circumstances, suggested, that the
aconitine was conveyed to the deceased by means of the piece of cake
which Lamson gave him, and being carefully placed in the interior of
the raisin, would not operate until the skin had had time to digest,
and he the opportunity of getting on his journey to Paris, whither
he was bound that night, to await, no doubt, the news of the boy's
illness and death.
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