The String of Pearls (1850), p. 558

client, rests upon a bone. That will do, Sir Richard; we will not trouble you any further. Perhaps the court will stop the case, as it only rests upon a bone."
"Not exactly," said the judge.
The next witness was the surgeon, and his evidence was listened to with great attention. He said—
I was in the vaults of St. Dunstan's church, and I looked over a great quantity of osteological remains. Among those remains I found a male femur."
"A what, sir?" said Todd's counsel.
"It would be better," said the judge, mildly, "if the witness would be so good as to give the vulgar names to what he may have to speak of, as the jury may well be excused for not being in possession of anatomical and scientific nomenclature."
"I will endeavour to do so," said the surgeon. "I beg to assure the court, that it was from no feeling of pedantry that I used the scientific terms; but they are so common professionally, that they are used without thinking that they are other than the terms in common use."
"That is just the way I view it," said the judge, "and the court had not the least idea of anything else. Pray go on, sir, with you evidence."
"I found, then, a large quautity of human bones," said the surgeon, "in the vaults of St. Dunstan's, and among them a male thigh-bone, which I have with me."
Here he produced from his great-coat pocket the bone he spoke of, wrapped up in paper, and deliberately untying the string which bound the paper to it, he handed it to the jury. One of that body, more bold than the rest, took it, but several of the jurymen shrunk from it.
"Now, sir," said the Attorney- General, "can you upon your oath, without the slightest reservation, take upon yourself to say whose thigh-bone this was?"
"I can. It was the thigh-bone of Mr. Fiancis Thornhill."
"Will you state to the court and jury, the grounds upon which you arrive at that conclusion?"
"I will, sir. Mr. Thornhill met with an accident of a tedious and painful nature. The external condylor projection on the outer end ot the thigh-bone, which makes part of the knee joint, was broken off, and there was a diagonal fracture about three inches higher up upon the bone. I had the sole care of the case,
and although a cure was effected, it was not without considerable distortion of the bone, and general disarrangement of the parts adjacent. From my frequent
examination I was perfectly well acquainted with the case, and I can swear that the bone in the hands of the jury was the one so broken, and to which I attended."
" Very well, sir; that is all I wish to trouble you with."
The Attorney-General sat down, but Todd's counsel rose, and said—
"Did you ever have a similar case to that of Mr. Thornhili's under your treatment?"
"Never a precisely similar one.''
"But you have heard of such cases?"
"Certainly."
"They are sufficiently common, not to be positively rare and curious in the profession?"
"They are not common, but still they do occur sufficiently often to lose the character of rarity."
"Of course. You have no other means of identifying the bone, but by its having been fractured in the way you describe?"
"Certainly not."
"Then, it may be the thigh-bone of any one who has suffered a similar injury."
With this remark, the counsel sat down, and the surgeon was permitted to