why, shortly after the warm wine was brought up on the night
of May 30, he went up to the room where one of the servants of
the hotel was lying sick. Castaing replied that he was sent for
by the wife of the hotel-keeper. This the woman denied; she said
that she did not even know that he was a doctor. "According to
the prosecution," said the judge, "you left the room in order to
avoid drinking your share of the wine." Castaing said that he
had drunk half a cupful of it. The judge reminded him that to
one of the witnesses Castaing had said that he had drunk only a
little.

A ridiculous statement made by Castaing to explain the purchase
of morphia and antimony in Paris on May 31 was brought up against
him. Shortly after his arrest Castaing had said that the cats
and dogs about the hotel had made such a noise on the night of
May 30 that they had disturbed the rest of Auguste, who, in the
early morning, had asked Castaing to get some poison to kill
them. He had accordingly gone all the way, about ten miles, to
Paris at four in the morning to purchase antimony and morphia to
kill cats and dogs. All the people of the hotel denied that
there had been any such disturbance on the night in question.
Castaing now said that he had bought the poisons at Auguste's
request, partly to kill the noisy cats and dogs, and partly for
the purpose of their making experiments on animals. Asked why he
had not given this second reason before, he said that as Auguste
was not a medical man it would have been damaging to his
reputation to divulge the fact of his wishing to make
unauthorised experiments on animals. "Why go to Paris for the
poison?" asked the judge, "there was a chemist a few yards from
the hotel. And when in Paris, why go to two chemists?" To all