"He seized me by the coat-sleeve in his eagerness and drew me over to the table at which he had been working. "Let us have some fresh blood" he said digging a long bodkin into his finger and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette. "Now I add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water. You perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water. The proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million. I have no doubt however that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction." As he spoke he threw into the vessel a few white crystals and then added some drops of a transparent fluid. In an instant the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar."