sufficient liquid in it to permit of chemical
analysis.  The person appeared to have
been about thirty-five years old, and five
feet six inches high.  At an inquest, shortly
afterwards held, a carpenter deposed that,
in the preceding month of February, he
had seen a gentlemanly-looking man sitting
on a heap of building materials near the
unfinished houses, cutting up little bits of
wood, as a boy might do who was making
a boat. He gave strange and incoherent
answers to some questions put to him;
but, as he was quiet and inoffensive in
manner, and was not seen again, the
incident went out of recollection.

But now ensued the extraordinary
episode of conflicting identification.  The
carpenter, on seeing the dead body, at
once declared it to be that of the poor
demented gentleman whom he had seen
two months earlier.  A lady came forward,
and described a brother of hers who
had been missing from his home for some
months.  He had another sister, who lived
at Hackney Wick, though his own
residence was elsewhere.  On seeing the dead
body, she pronounced it to be either
veritably her brother, or very much like him.
This lady's testimony was not incompatible
with that of the carpenter; but the
complication was now to come.  A lady
and gentleman came forward to state that
a man had deserted his wife and family
about eighteen months previously, taking
away two thousand pounds' worth of
property with him; they produced a
photograph, which struck those who saw it as
possessing much resemblance to the
features of the deceased person.  But while
this incident was under consideration, the
friends of an emigrant appeared, stating
that he had returned from New Zealand,
and then disappeared.  Nothing was done,
however, towards identifying the body in
this quarter.  Dr. Ellis, physician to St.
Luke's Hospital, stated in evidence that,
on the night of the first of February, a
lunatic named Heasman had escaped from
the hospital in Old-street, in a most
extraordinary way, seeing that he must have
passed through six locked doorways, climbed
up a wall fifteen feet high, and jumped or
dropped on the pavement outside.
Heasman, however, was a strong active man, of
thirty-five or forty years of age, and might
possibly have accomplished what would be
beyond the muscular powers of most men.
Dr. Ellis, when he saw the dead body, at
once pronounced it to be that of Heasman,
wearing the same clothes as he had
worn at the hospital. On examining an old
boot found near the body, the name of
Harnett was seen written on the lining.
Dr. Ellis said that there was a man named
Harnett lodged in one of the six rooms
through which the lunatic must have
passed in effecting his escape. Strong as
this testimony was, a lady, who had heard
Dr. Ellis give his evidence, nevertheless
insisted that the deceased was her husband,
who had been missing for some
time; she especially identified a peculiar
mark on one of the fingers.

Next, came a witness who supported the
view taken by Dr. Ellis. A brother of
Heasman stated that the unfortunate man,
though sane on most subjects, had for many
years been under an hallucination that he
had been poisoned, and was now dead
speaking of himself in the past tense.  He
was married, and had a family of eight
children.  He had been an inmate of St.
Luke's about eighteen months.  Like Dr.
Ellis, this brother believed the deceased to
have been the lunatic Heasman.  In spite
of all this, however, a new witness, Mrs.
Mary Anne Banks, distinctly swore that
the deceased was her husband.  He was a
commercial traveller, who had been for
some time missing.  She stated that there
was a general resemblance both in form
and features.  She described (before seeing
the body) a very peculiar mark which her
husband had on one of his fingers; and
the deceased had exactly such a mark.
Her sisters, two married women, corroborated
her assertion that the deceased was
her husband Banks— also comparing the
fingers, the features, the general contour of
face, the beard, the moustache, the chest, the
shoulders, all tallied.  While the jury, utterly
bewildered, were considering this evidence,
another lady came forward, and showed a
photograph of a missing gentleman, much
more resembling the deceased than that
which had been produced from St. Luke's.
Mrs. Banks, and Mr. Heasman' s brother,
both appeared on a subsequent occasion,
and each insisted on the truth of the
respective stories told.  Cumulative testimony,
however, was forthcoming in support of
the St. Luke's incident.  Mrs. Heasman,
wife of the unfortunate man, not only
corroborated the identity; but stated that the
name of Heasman, found on some of the
deceased man's under-clothing, was written
by herself, and that the dark-blue trousers
were the same which she had stitched with
the aid of a sewing-machine.  Dr. Ellis,
once more, found that the deceased had lost