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March 22, 1905.

Hon. S.F. Leib,
San Jose, Cal.

Dear Mr. Leib:

In considering the manner of the death of Mrs. Stanford, these
things are important:

1. Not a single symptom recognized as occurring in strychnine
poisoning was present in her case.
2. The symptoms were those of heart failure, with heart neuralgia
or angina pectoris
3. The heart has not been examined.
4. The amount of poison found in her room was minute, less than
half a grain in all, of which she took less than 1/20th of a
grain, so far as we can see.
5. The carbonate with a trace of strychnine was for some hours in
the possession of Dr. Humphris.
6. Dr. Humprhis had accepted Mrs. Stanford's theory of poisoning
and was himself the first to accuse the bottle of soda, say-
ing, after perhaps touching with his tongue that "there was
strychnine enough in it to kill ten men."
7. He is a man without professional or personal standing, and his
diagnosis as well as his proposed fee were involved in having
strychnince found in Mrs. Stanford's possession.
8. He gave none of the recognized remedies for strychnine poison-
ing, in fact, did nothing whatever, while the two girls were
busy with treatment which would have produced instant death
in strychnine poisoning.
9. If the tonic theory of the strychnine is not acceptable, you
have the other, that it was put in by the doctor to bolster up
his case, after he had had time to read up the symptoms a little.
10. Can you imagine an actual murderer putting a minute particle of
poison -- one part in 1324 -- in the bottle of soda. These pro-
portions are usual in medicine, but not in poisoning!
11. Can you imagine death by strchnine -- one of the most horrible of all forms -- without one of its symptoms appearing?
12. Whatever the affair of the Poland water may mean, there is as yet
no reason to connect the cause of Mrs. Stanford's death with it,
except that she died in the terrible belief that she had been
again poisoned.

Very truly yours,

[Unsigned]