At the inquest Mr. Davies defined what he meant by the word “trace.” He said: “It means something under 1/100 part of a grain. It does not mean something which I could not weigh, but something which I could _not_ guarantee to be absolutely free from other things; but anything under 1/100 part of a grain I should not consider satisfactory. If I said _distinct traces_, I should say it meant something between 1/100 and 1/1000 part of a grain, while a _minute trace_ is less than 1/1000 part of a grain.” In reference to Reinsch’s test which Mr. Davies used in these experiments, this passage occurs in Taylor’s “Medical Jurisprudence,” vol. i., p. 268: “The mere presence of a gray deposit on pure copper affords _no absolute proof_ of the presence of arsenic. Bismuth, antimony, and mercury all yield deposits with Reinsch’s test. The gray deposit of bismuth may easily be taken for arsenic.” And again: “The errors into which the faulty methods of applying Reinsch’s test lead have led its reliability to be much discredited, and, although in skilful hands the results are trustworthy, it would be perhaps unsafe to rely upon it in an important criminal investigation.” It is submitted that the evidence relating to the articles which Mr. Davies said were infected with arsenic only to the extent of _an unweighable trace_ could not and ought not to be regarded as proof that any arsenic at all was there, or as being anything more _than a suspicion_ upon this analyst’s mind that what he saw was arsenic, and that it was a _misdirection_ on the part of Mr. Justice Stephen to treat a mere expression of opinion of that kind as proof of the presence of arsenic. MISDIRECTION AS TO ARSENIC IN SOLUTION It will be observed that the only things of which James Maybrick could have partaken [but did not], in which arsenic in a weighable form was present, were the bottle of Valentine’s meat juice and the pot of glycerin, and that the arsenic found in them was found in a state of solution. As regards the half grain of arsenic found in the _meat juice_, scientific evidence will be forthcoming that it is a physical impossibility for any person to dissolve half a grain of solid arsenic in 411 grains of Valentine’s meat juice, which is all the liquid that was in the bottle when it was handed to Mr. Davies. Mr. Davies, moreover, found that (although he used very loose and unscientific language in his evidence) the specific gravity of the meat juice was considerably reduced, thereby showing that the half grain of arsenic found in it had been introduced in the form of _arsenic in solution_.