Letters and papers re: death of J. L. Stanford, 1905-1921

Copy.

March 14, 1905.

Doctor David Starr Jordan.

Dear Sir;-

After thinking the thing over again I have come to the conclusion that I had better leave the communication relative to my opinion as to the causes of Mrs. Stanford's death, for you to do with as you see fit, should you at any time find it of any service whatever in anything more than a private way, though in all probablility there is no further use you would have for it.

All through the communication I have purposely left out anything whatever in the way of criticism of any doctor connected with the case, with the exception of course of what can be read between the lines. I have said nothing as to the reasons why Dr. Humphris did not put Mrs. Stanford to bed, why Dr. Humphris if he considered it a case of strychnine poisoning should have allowed Miss Berner and Miss Hunt to keep rubbing her and using all sorts of counter irritation up the very end etc.

I wish to thank you for your hospitality last evening. I have enjoyed very much having the privelege [sic]of meeting one of whom I have heard and read so much and in whom all college men are especially interested.

Yours sincerely,

Ernest C. Waterhouse.

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Stanford University, Cal. March 22, 1905

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 yet 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 1/20 of a grain as 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. Humphris had accepted Mrs. Stanford's theory of poisoning, and was himself the first to [accused] the bottle of soda saying 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 case and diagnosis as well as his proposed fee were involved the theory of in having strychnine poisoning found in Mrs Stanford's possesion.

8. He gave none of the recognized remedies for strychnine, 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 of the symptoms a little.

10. Did an Can you imagine an actual poisoner murderer putting a minute particle of poison, one part [] in 324 1324 in a bottle of soda to produce death. These proportions are usual in medicine, but not in poisoning.

11. Can you imagine death by strychnine poisoning 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 other affair cause of Mrs. Stanford's death with it except that she actually died in the terrible belief that she had been again poisoned.