"
"You operated on her, I believe?"
"Yes. She came to me to have a name removed. It had been tattooed over
her heart."
"You removed it?"
"Not at once. I tried fading the marks with goat's milk, but she was
impatient. On the third visit to my office she demanded that the name
be cut out."
"You did it?"
"Yes. She refused a general anesthetic and I used cocaine. The name
was John--I believe a former husband. She intended to marry again."
A titter ran over the court room. People strained to the utmost are
always glad of an excuse to smile. The laughter of a wrought-up crowd
always seems to me half hysterical.
"Have you seen photographs of the scar on the body found at Sewickley?
Or the body itself?"
"No, I have not."
"Will you describe the operation?"
"I made a transverse incision for the body of the name, and two
vertical ones--one longer for the _J_, the other shorter, for the
stem of the _h_. There was a dot after the name. I made a half-inch
incision for it."
"Will you sketch the cicatrix as you recall it?"
The doctor made a careful drawing on a pad that was passed to him.
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