"If the Mystery Were To Be Solved, Someone with Some Human Interest Would Have To Get Up on His Toes"

"The Chemistry Murder Case."

By Miles J. Breuer, M. D. (1889-1945; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and Roy Glashan's bibliography page HERE).

First appearance: Amazing Stories, October 1935.

Short story (25 pages as a PDF).

Online at Roy Glashan's Library (HTML HERE) and (EPUB HERE).

   "Ever heard of such a thing as jealousy? That causes more murders than explosives and formulas."

WHEN a brilliant research chemist is found dead in his laboratory, everybody assumes it's an unfortunate lab accident.  It will require the brain power of the university's curator to show that it was anything but an accident—in fact, it's a murder, with one of the oldest motives in the book . . .

Main characters:

~ Isaiah Culp ("Many of the students thought he ought to be a professor, for he certainly seemed to know enough about Chemistry"), Dr. Seeley ("The body of the young Dr. Seeley was sprawled from his stool across his desk, its head lolling and its arms flung out in an attitude too grotesque to mean anything but death"), John Brusiloff ("This looks like a woman's job"), Miss Shane ("was one of the student-instructors, and had a great deal of ability. She also had as much beauty as she had ability"), Dr. Kane ("This is rubbish. This is—preposterous. This is silly. This is hodge-podge"), the Chancellor ("Science claims its martyrs now and then"), Dr. North ("The pink color of the body," Dr. North continued, "and the dark blue lips and finger-nails, confirm poisoning by hydrocyanic acid"), Mrs. Seeley ("A succession of little flutey squeaks, a swish of fluffy, pale-green and cream skirts and sleeves and cloaks, a slow suffusion of perfume—and Mrs. Seeley, wife of the murdered man, stood there in front of them"), the Inspector ("gave the impression of an inexorable information-mining machine"), the Sergeant ("marched Brusiloff up face-to-face with the Inspector; the prisoner's arms were locked behind him, with the Sergeant's elbows"), and Jackson ("hammered on the door and reported by name. The door was unlocked to admit him, and locked again when he was inside. All the occupants looked at him eagerly, except Miss Shane, who continued to stare intently at the floor").

References:

- "hydrocyanic acid":

  "Hydrogen cyanide (formerly known as prussic acid) is a chemical compound with the formula HCN and structural formula H−C≡N. It is a highly toxic and flammable liquid that boils slightly above room temperature, at 25.6 °C (78.1 °F).

  "Hydrogen cyanide was also the agent employed in judicial execution in some U.S. states, where it was produced during the execution by the action of sulfuric acid on sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the Kipp generator":

  "Kipp's apparatus, also called a Kipp generator, is an apparatus designed for preparation of small volumes of gases. It was invented around 1844 by the Dutch pharmacist Petrus Jacobus Kipp and widely used in chemical laboratories and for demonstrations in schools into the second half of the 20th century." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "In a few seconds the mouse was dead":

  "Mice have been used in biomedical research since the 17th century, when William Harvey used them for his studies on reproduction and blood circulation and Robert Hooke used them to investigate the biological consequences of an increase in air pressure. During the 18th century Joseph Priestley and Antoine Lavoisier both 

used mice to study respiration." (Wikipedia HERE).

Resources:

- Poe's "The Gold Bug" gets a mention in our story. Instances involving ciphers and detectives that we've encountered so far are (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), and (HERE). The estimable Dr. Thorndyke also tangled with a cipher (full Hathi Trust story HERE).

- Other stories by Miles J. Breuer that might be of interest: "The Puzzle Duel" (HERE), "The Disappearing Papers" (HERE), and "The Sheriff of Thorium Gulch" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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