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of the trial, I had on the witness-stand nearly every eminent physician in Boston, and nearly every sea-captain and ship-owner.
I studied five treatises on scurvy, one very old German one printed in Latin.
1 mention that because it contained an authority that I could find nowhere else, and when I brought it to the attention of one of the defendant's physicians on the cross-examination he admitted that he had never heard of it before, and more than that I had to read it to him as he could not read its language.
The case was submitted to the jury on a very able and impartial charge of the presiding justice, and we obtained a verdict of three thousand dollars, which was paid with interest and a very large amount of costs.
The education of this case was of immense value to me and I think to the country during the war. Three occasions presented themselves where I found the men under my command affected with scurvy.
Not one of the doctors of their regiment had reported it to me, and I found out the fact myself only because I inspected my own hospitals and knew what I was looking for.
I have mentioned above that in preparing cases I have had to spend days in a machine shop, and I will state a case in which that happened, as an encouragement and an instruction to my young friends of the bar as to how I think a case should be prepared.
In November of the year 1852, it will be remembered, General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire was elected President.
In the December following, himself, his wife, and only son, a lad about ten years old, got on board the cars at Boston to go to their home at Concord, New Hampshire.
When about twenty-four or twenty-five miles from Boston, and between two and three miles from the town of Andover, the train was derailed by the breaking of the forward axle of the tender on the left side.
The train happened to be on a slight curve and along a high embankment built up largely of rubblestone.
By the shock the cars were thrown from the track, and some of them went down the embankment.
The President and his wife were substantially unhurt, but the son, who was standing up looking out of the window, was instantly killed.
Some half dozen others were killed and many were wounded.
By the law of Massachusetts the administrator of a passenger killed by negligence or malfeasance of a railroad corporation in running
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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