TRIAL OF WILLIAM PALMER FOR THE RUGELEY POISONINGS. (continued 7)

Do you mean to set up that opinion against that of Dr. Devonshire and Dr. Harland, who were present at the post-mortem?—My opinion is founded in part upon the evidence taken at the inquest, in part on the depositions. With the brain and the system in the condition in which Cook’s were I believe it quite possible for convulsions to come on and destroy a person. I do not believe that he died from apoplexy. He was under the influence of morphia. I don’t ascribe his death to morphia, except that it might assist in producing a convulsive attack. I should think morphia not very good treatment, considering the state of excitement he was in.

Do you mean to say, on your oath, that you think he was in a state of excitement at Rugeley?—I wish to give my evidence honestly. Morphia, when given in an injured state of the brain, often disagrees with the patient.

But what evidence have you as to the injured state of the brain?—Sickness often indicates it. I can’t say whether the attack of Sunday night was an attack of convulsions. I think that the Sunday attack was one of a similar character, but not so intense, as the attack of Tuesday, in which he died. I don’t think he had convulsions on the Sunday, but he was in that condition which often precedes convulsions. I think he was mistaken when he stated that he was awoke by a noise. I believe he was delirious. That is one of the symptoms on which I found my opinion. Any intestinal irritation will produce convulsions in a tetanic form. I have known instances in children. I have not seen an instance in an animal. Medical writers state that such cases do occur. I know no name for convulsions of that kind.

Have you ever known a case of convulsions of that kind, terminating in death, in which the patient remained conscious to the last?—I have not. Where epilepsy terminates in death, consciousness is gone. I have known four cases of traumatic, and five or six of idiopathic tetanus.

You heard Mr. Jones make this statement of the symptoms of Cook after the commencement of the paroxysms:—After he swallowed the pills he uttered loud screams, threw himself back in the bed, and was dreadfully convulsed. He said, “Raise me up! I shall be suffocated.” The convulsions affected every muscle of the body, and were accompanied by stiffening of the limbs. I endeavoured to raise Cook with the assistance of Palmer, but found it quite impossible, owing to the rigidity of the limbs. When Cook found we could not raise him up, he asked me to turn him over. He was then quite sensible. I turned him on to his side. I listened to the action of his heart. I found that it gradually weakened, and asked Palmer to fetch some spirits of ammonia to be used as a stimulant. When he returned the pulsations of the heart were gradually ceasing, and life was almost extinct. Cook died very quietly a very short time afterwards. When he threw himself back in bed he clinched his hands, and they remained clinched after death. When I was rubbing his neck, his head and neck were unnaturally bent back by the spasmodic action of the muscles. After death his body was so twisted or bowed, that if I had placed it upon its back it would have rested upon the head and the feet.—Now, I ask you to distinguish in any one particular between those symptoms and the symptoms of tetanic convulsions?—It is not tetanus at all; not idiopathic tetanus.

I quite agree with you that it is not idiopathic tetanus, but point out any distinction that you can see between these symptoms and those of real tetanus?—I do not know that there is any distinction, except that in a case of tetanus I never saw rigidity continue till death and afterwards.

Can you tell me of any case of death from convulsions in which the patient was conscious to the last?—I do not know of any; convulsions occurring after poison has been taken are properly called tetanic.

We were told by Sir B. Brodie that while the paroxysms of tetanic convulsion last there is no difference between those which arise from strychnine and those which arise from tetanus properly so called, but the difference was in the course the symptoms took. Now, what do you say is the difference between tetanus arising from strychnine and ordinary tetanus?—The hands are less violently contracted; the effect of the spasm is less in ordinary tetanus. The convulsion, too, never entirely passes away. I have stated that tetanus is a disease of days, strychnine of hours and minutes; that convulsive twitchings are in strychnine the first symptoms, the last in tetanus; that in tetanus the hands, feet, and legs are usually the last affected, while in strychnine they are the first. I gave that opinion after the symptoms in the case of the lady at Leeds, which were described by the witness Witham, and I still adhere to it. I never said that Cook’s case was one of idiopathic tetanus. I do not think it was a case of tetanus in any sense of the word. It differed from the course of tetanus from strychnine in the particulars I have already mentioned.

Repeat them: There was the sudden accession of the convulsions.

Sudden—after what?—After the rousing by Jones. There was also the power of talking.

Don’t you know that Mrs. Smyth talked and retained her consciousness to the end; that her last words were “turn me over?”—She did say something of that kind. No doubt those were the words she used. I believe that in poison from tetanus the symptoms are first observed in the legs and feet. In the animals upon which I have experimented twitchings in the ears and difficulty of breathing having been the premonitory symptoms.

When Cook felt a stiffness and a difficulty of breathing, and said that he should be suffocated on the first night, what were those but premonitory symptoms?—Well, he asked to be rubbed; but, as far as my experience goes with regard to animals—

The Attorney-General: They can’t ask to have their ears rubbed, of course. (A laugh.)

Mr. Serjeant Shee said the witness was about to explain the effect of being rubbed upon the animals.

Cross-examined continued: In no single instance could the animals bear to be touched.

Did not Mrs. Smyth ask to have her legs and arms rubbed?—In the Leeds case the lady asked to be rubbed before the convulsions came on, but afterwards she could not bear it, and begged that she might not be touched.

Can you point out any one point, after the premonitory symptoms, in which the symptoms in this case differ from those of strychnine tetanus?—There is the power of swallowing, which is taken away by inability to move the jaw.

But have you not stated that lockjaw is the last symptom that occurs in strychnine tetanus?—I have. I don’t deny that it may be. I am speaking of the general rule. In the Leeds case it came on very early, more than two hours before death, the paroxysms having continued about two hours and a half. In that case we believed that the dose was four times repeated. Poison might probably be extracted by chemical process from the tissues, but I never tried it, except in one case of an animal. I am not sure whether poison was in that case given through the mouth. We killed four animals in reference to the Leeds case, and in every instance we found strychnine in the contents of the stomach. In one case we administered it by two processes, and one failed and the other succeeded.

Re-examined: In making reports upon cases such as that which has been referred to, we state ordinary appearances; we state the facts without anything more.

Mr. William Herapath, examined by Mr. Grove, Q.C.: I am a Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology at the Bristol Medical School. I have studied chemistry for more than forty years, and toxicology for thirty. I have experimented on the poison of strychnine. I have seen no case of a human subject during life, but I have examined a human body after death. In one case I examined the contents of the stomach and I found strychnine about three days after death. There are several tests—sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash, sulphuric acid and puce-coloured oxide of lead, sulphuric acid and peroxide of lead, sulphuric acid and peroxide of manganese, &c. The lower oxides of lead would not succeed. These are all colour tests, and produce a purple colour, passing to red. Another class of tests give a different colour with impure, but not with pure, strychnia. The process used previous to these tests is for the purpose of producing strychnia. I obtained evidence of strychnia by the colour tests in the case I have mentioned. I have experimented upon animals with regard to strychnine in eight or nine cases. I have analysed the bodies in two cases in which I destroyed the animals myself. Both of them were cats. I gave the first one grain of strychnia in a solid form. The animal took the poison at night, and I found it dead in the morning. It was dreadfully contorted and rigid, the limbs extended, the head turned round—not to the back, but to the side—the eyes protruding and staring, the iris expanded so as to be almost invisible. I found strychnine in the urine which had been ejected, and also in the stomach, by the tests I have mentioned. I administered the same quantity of strychnine in a solid form to another cat. It remained very quiet for 15 or 16 minutes, but seemed a little restless in its eyes and in breathing. In 35 minutes it had a terrible spasm, the extremities and the head being drawn together, and the feet extended. I watched it for three hours. The first spasm lasted a minute or two. The saliva dripped from its mouth, and it forcibly ejected its urine. It had a second spasm a few minutes afterwards. It soon recovered and remained still, with the exception of a trembling all over. It continued in that state for three hours. During nearly two hours and a half it was in a very peculiar state; it appeared to be electrified all through; blowing upon it or touching the basket in which it was placed produced a kind of electric jump like a galvanic shock. I left it in three hours, thinking it would recover, but in the morning I found it dead, in the same indurated and contorted condition as the former animal. I examined the body 36 hours after death, and found strychnia in the urine, in the stomach and upper intestine, in the liver, and in the blood of the heart. I have discovered strychnia in all other cases by the same tests, but I took extraordinary means to get rid of organic matter. In all cases in which strychnia has been given I have been able to find it, and not only strychnia, but also the nux vomica from which it is taken. I have found nux vomica in a fox and in other animals. The detection of nux vomica is more complicated than that of strychnia. In one case the animal had been buried two months. I have experimented with strychnia not in a body, but mixed purposely with organic putrefying matter. I have found it in all cases, whatever was the state of decomposition of the matter.

Are you of opinion that where strychnia has been taken in a sufficient dose to poison it can and ought to be discovered?—Yes; unless the body has been completely decomposed; that is, unless decomposition has reduced it to a dry powder. I am of opinion from the accounts given by Dr. Taylor and the other witnesses, that if it had existed in the body of Cook it ought to have been discovered. I am aware of no cause for error in the analyses, if the organic matter had been properly got rid of. The experiments I have mentioned were made in Bristol. I have made experiments in London, and found strychnia in the stomach, liver, and blood of an animal.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: I don’t profess to be a physiologist. I have principally experimented on the stomach until lately. I tried my chemical process on the 8th of this month with a view to the present case. The experiment here was on a dog. I experimented on the tissues of a cat at Bristol, and of a dog in London. I found strychnia in the blood, the heart, and the urine of the cat, besides the stomach. One grain was given to the dog. It was a large dog. I have seen a cat killed with a quarter of a grain. I have said that Dr. Taylor ought to have found strychnia.

Have you not said that you had no doubt strychnia had been taken, but that Dr. Taylor had not gone the right way to find it?—I may have said so. I had a strong opinion from reading various newspaper reports—among others the Illustrated Times,—that strychnia had been given. I have expressed that opinion, no doubt, freely. People have talked a great deal to me about the matter, and I can’t recollect every word I have said, but that was my general opinion.

Re-examined by Mr. Grove: What is the smallest quantity of strychnia that your process is capable of detecting?—I am perfectly sure I could detect the 50,000th part of a grain if it was unmixed with organic matter. If I put 10 grains in a gallon or 70,000 grains of water I could discover its presence in the 10th part of a grain of that water. It is more difficult to detect when mixed with organic matter. If a person had taken a grain a very small quantity would be found in the heart, but no doubt it could be found. I made four experiments with a large dog to which I had given the eighth part of a grain. I have discovered it by change of colour in the 32d part of the liver of a dog.

Mr. Grove said he believed his Lordship was of opinion that experiments could not be shown.

Lord Campbell: We have intimated that that is our clear opinion.

Mr. Rogers, examined by Mr. Gray: I am Professor of Chemistry at St. George’s School of Medicine, in London. I have made experiments upon one animal (a dog) poisoned by strychnia. The experiments commenced at the close of last December, and ended about ten days since. I gave it two grains of pure strychnia in meat. Three days after death I removed the stomach and contents, and some of the blood. The blood became putrid in about 10 days, and I then analysed it with a view to find strychnine. I separated the strychnine by colour tests. I cannot say how much it was by weight. In a month or five weeks, when the matter had putrefied, I analysed the stomach and its contents. I treated it with acidulated distilled water, and succeeded in discovering strychnia in large quantities about 10 days ago. I never analysed a human subject with a view to find strychnia, but I have many times done so to find other poisons. Strychnia must unquestionably have been discovered in this case if it had been present and the proper tests had been used.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: I have only made one experiment. If the contents of the stomach were lost it would make a difference, but not if they were only shaken up. The operation would then be more difficult. I am a medical man. I did not analyse the tissues of the body of the dog. If I had tried the tissues of Cook’s body it might have been found if it was there, notwithstanding the time that had elapsed since he died. I don’t say that the time would prevent its discovery if there.

Re-examined by Mr. Gray: If strychnia were in the stomach a portion would probably be smeared over the mucous membrane, and then I should expect to find it on the surface.

Dr. Henry Letheby, examined by Mr. Kenealy: I am a Bachelor of Medicine, Professor of Chemistry and Toxicology in the London Hospital of Medicine, and Medical Officer of Health to the City of London. I have been engaged for a considerable time in the study of poisons and their action on the living animal economy. I have also been frequently engaged on behalf of the Crown in prosecutions in cases of this nature during the last 14 years. I have been present during the examination of the medical witnesses, and have attended to the evidence as to the symptoms which have been described as attending the death of Cook. I have witnessed many cases of animals poisoned by strychnine, and many cases of poisoning by nux vomica in the human body, one of which was fatal. The symptoms described in this case do not accord with the symptoms I have witnessed in the case of those animals. They differ in this respect:—In the first place I never witnessed the long interval between the administration of the poison and the commencement of the symptoms which is said to have elapsed in this case. The longest interval I have known has been three-quarters of an hour, and then the poison was administered under most disadvantageous circumstances. It was given on a very full stomach and in a form uneasy of solution. I have seen the symptoms begin in five minutes. The average time in which they begin is a quarter of an hour. In all cases I have seen the system has been in that irritable state that the very lightest excitement, such as an effort to move, a touch, a noise, a breath of air, would send the patient off in convulsions. It is not at all probable that a person, after taking strychnia, could pull a bell violently. Any movement would excite the nervous system, and bring on spasms. It is not likely that a person in that state could bear to have his neck rubbed. When a case of strychnia does not end fatally, the first paroxysm is succeeded by others, gradually shaded off, the paroxysms becoming less violent every time, and I agree with Dr. Christison that they would subside in 12 or 16 hours. I have no hesitation in saying that strychnine is of all poisons, either mineral or vegetable, the most easy of detection. I have detected it in the stomach of animals in numerous instances, also in the blood and in the tissues. The longest period after death in which I have detected it is about a month. The animal was then in a state of decomposition. I have detected very minute portions of strychnia. When it is pure the 20,000th part of a grain can be detected. I can detect the tenth part of a grain, most easily in a pint of any liquid, whether pure or putrid. I gave one animal half a grain, and I have the strychnia here now within a very small trifle. I never failed to detect strychnine where it had been administered. I have made post-mortem examinations on various animals killed by it. I have always found the right side of the heart full. The reason is that the death takes place from the fixing of the muscles of the chest by spasms, so that the blood is unable to pass through the lungs, and the heart cannot relieve itself from the blood flowing to it, but therefore becomes gorged. The lungs are congested and filled with blood. I have administered strychnia in a liquid and a solid form; I agree with Dr. Taylor that it may kill in 6 or 11 minutes when taken in a solid state in the form of a pill or bolus. I also agree with him that the first symptom is that the animal falls on its side, the jaws are spasmodically closed, and the slightest touch produces another paroxysm. But I do not agree with him that the colouring tests are fallacious. I do not agree that it is changed when it is absorbed into the blood, but I agree with its absorption. I think it is not changed when the body is decomposed. The shaking about of the contents of the stomach with the intestines in a jar would not prevent the discovery of strychnia if it had been administered. Even if the contents of the stomach were lost the mucous membrane would, in the ordinary course of things, exhibit traces of strychnia. I have studied the poison of antimony. If a quantity had been introduced into brandy and water, and swallowed at a gulp, the effect would not be to burn the throat. Antimony does not possess any such quality as that of immediate burning. I have turned my attention to the subject of poison for 17 or 18 years.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: I am not a member of the College of Physicians or of Surgeons. I do not now practise. I have been in general practice for two or three years. I gave evidence in the last case of this sort, tried in this court in 1851. I gave evidence of the presence of arsenic. The woman was convicted. I stated that it had been administered within four hours of death. I was the cause of her being respited, and the sentence was not carried into effect, in consequence of a letter I wrote to the Home Office. Other scientific gentlemen interfered, and challenged the soundness of my conclusions before I wrote that letter. I have not since been employed by the Crown.

By Mr. Justice Cresswell: I was present at the trial. I perfectly remember it.

Cross-examination continued: I detected the poison. I said in my letter that I could not speak as to possibilities, but merely as to probabilities. I have experimented on animals for a great number of years: on five recently. I have never given more than a grain, and it has always been in a solid form—in pills or bread. In the case where poison was administered under disadvantageous circumstances, it was kneaded up into a hard mass of bread.

Mr. Baron Alderson: Did the animal bolt it or bite it?

Witness: I opened the mouth and put it into the throat. About half an hour elapsed before the symptoms appeared in one case in which half a grain had been given. In another case death took place within 13 minutes. I have noticed twitching of the ears, difficulty of breathing, and other premonitory symptoms. There are little variations in the order in which the symptoms occur. I have known frequent instances in which an animal has died in the first paroxysm. I heard the evidence of Mrs. Smyth’s death, and I was surprised at her having got out of bed when the servant answered the bell. It is not consistent with the cases I have seen. That fact does not shake my opinion. I have no doubt that Mrs. Smyth died from strychnine. Cook’s sitting up in the bed and asking Jones to ring the bell is inconsistent with what I have observed in strychnine cases.

If a man’s breath is hurried, is it not natural for him to sit up?—It is. I have seen cases of recovery of human subjects after taking strychnine. There is a great uniformity in its effects; that is, in their main features, but there is a small variation as to the time in which they are produced.

What do you attribute Cook’s death to?—It is irreconcilable with everything with which I am acquainted.

Is it reconcileable with any known disease you have ever seen or heard of?—No.

Re-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: We are learning new facts every day, and I do not at present conceive it to be impossible that some peculiarity of the spinal cord, unrecognizable at the examination after death, may have produced symptoms like those which have been described. I, of course, include strychnia in my answer, but it is irreconcileable with everything I have seen or heard of. It is as irreconcileable with strychnia as with everything else; it is irreconcileable with every disease that I am acquainted with, natural or artificial. Touching an animal during the premonitory symptoms will bring on a paroxysm. Vomiting is inconsistent with strychnia. The Romsey case was an exceptional one, from the quantity of the dose. The ringing of the bell would have produced a paroxysm. I am still of opinion that the evidence I gave on the trial in 1851 is correct. I am not aware that there is any ground for an imputation upon me in respect of that evidence. I have no reason to think Government was dissatisfied with me. I have since been employed in Crown prosecutions. After that case Dr. Pereira came to my laboratory and asked me, as an act of mercy, to write a letter to him to show to the Home-office, admitting the possibility of the poison which I found in the stomach having been administered longer than four hours before death. I wrote the letter, drawing a distinction between what was possible and probable, and the woman was transported for life.

Mr. R. E. Gay, examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: I am a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. I attended a person named Forster for tetanus in October, 1855. He had sore throat, muscular pains in the neck, and in the upper portion of the cervical vertebræ. He was feverish, and had symptoms ordinarily attending catarrh. I put him under the usual treatment for catarrh, and used embrocations externally to the muscles of the neck and throat, and also gargles. About the fourth day of my attendance the muscular pains extended to the face, difficulty of swallowing came on, the pains in the cervical vertebræ increased, also those of the muscles of the face, particularly the lower jaw. In the evening of the same day the jaw became completely locked, the pains came on in the muscles of the bowels, the legs, and the arms. He became very much convulsed throughout the entire muscular system, had frequent involuntary contractions of the arms, and hands, and legs, his difficulty of swallowing increased, and not a particle of food, solid or liquid, could be introduced into the mouth. Attempting to swallow the smallest portions brought on violent convulsions; so strong were they throughout the system that I could compare him to nothing but a piece of warped board. The head was thrown back, the abdomen thrust forward, and the legs frequently drawn up and contracted; the attempt to feed with a spoon, the opening of a window, or placing the fingers on the pulse brought on violent convulsions. While the patient was suffering in this manner he continually complained of great hunger, and repeatedly exclaimed that he was hungry, and could not eat. He was kept alive to the fourteenth day entirely by injections of a milky and farinaceous character. He screamed repeatedly, and the noises that he made were more like those of a wild man than anything else. On the twelfth day he became insensible, and continued in that state until he died, which was in the fourteenth day from the commencement of the attack of lockjaw. The man was an omnibus driver, and when I first attended him he had been suffering from sore throat for several days. There was no hurt or injury of any kind about his person that would account for the symptoms I have mentioned. His body was not opened after death, because it was considered unnecessary. I consider his disease was inflammatory sore throat from cold and exposure to the weather, and that the disease assumed a tetanic form on account of the patient being a very nervous, excited, and anxious person. His condition in life was that of an omnibus conductor. He was a hardworking man, and had a large family dependent upon him, and this, no doubt, acting upon his peculiar temperament, tended to produce tetanic symptoms. The witness, in conclusion, said he had not heard all the evidence in this case, but he thought it right to communicate to the prisoner’s solicitor the particulars of the case to which he had now referred, as he considered it had an important bearing upon the charge against the prisoner.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: The case I have mentioned was undoubtedly one of idiopathic tetanus. It is the only one of the kind I ever had to deal with. It arose from exposure to cold acting upon a nervous and irritable temperament. I have a good many patients who are nervous and irritable, but I never met with such another case. The disease was altogether progressive from the first onset, and, although for a short time there was a remission of the symptoms, they invariably recurred. The locking of the jaw was one of the very first symptoms that made their appearance.

Serjeant Shee then addressed the Court, and said that the next witness he proposed to call would occupy some time in examination, and, as it was now nearly 6 o’clock, he suggested that it would be better to adjourn the examination to the next day.

The Lord Chief Justice said he had no objection to the course proposed by the learned Serjeant, and he then inquired of him how much time the case for the defence was likely to occupy.

Serjeant Shee said he hoped to conclude the defence to-morrow; and he should endeavour to do so if he possibly could.

The Lord Chief Justice said there was no desire to hurry him. It was most essential in so important an inquiry that the most ample opportunity should be allowed for a full and satisfactory investigation.

The Court then adjourned till the following morning, at 10 o’clock.

NINTH DAY, May 23.

There was as great a crowd as usual in court this morning, long before the commencement of the proceedings.

The Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Albemarle, Lord Donoughmore, Lord Dufferin, Lord Feversham, Sir J. Pakington, Mr. Harcourt Vernon, General Peel, Mr. Tollemache, Mr. S. Warren, and other Members of Parliament, were present.

The learned Judges, Lord Campbell, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell, took their seats upon the bench at about ten o’clock, and, the prisoner having been placed at the bar, the examination of witnesses for the defence was resumed. No alteration has taken place in the prisoner’s demeanour.

Counsel for the Crown: The Attorney-General, Mr. E. James, Q.C., Mr. Welsby, Mr. Bodkin, and Mr. Huddleston; for the prisoner, Mr. Serjeant Shee, Mr. Grove, Q.C., Mr. Gray, and Mr. Kenealy.

Mr. J. B. Ross, examined by Mr. Grove: I am house-surgeon to the London Hospital. I recollect a case of tetanus being brought into the hospital on the 22d of March last. A man, aged thirty-seven, was brought in about half-past seven o’clock in the evening. He had had one paroxysm in the receiving-room; his pulse was rapid and feeble, his jaws were closed and fixed, there was an expression of anxiety about the countenance, the features were sunken, he was unable to swallow, and the muscles of the abdomen and the back were somewhat tense. After he had been in the ward about ten minutes he had another paroxysm, and his body became arched; it lasted about a minute. He was afterwards quieter for a few minutes, and then had another attack and died. The whole lasted about half an hour. There was an inquest held on the body. It was examined, and no poison was found. I think tetanus was the cause of death. There were three wounds on the body, two at the back of the right elbow, each about the size of a shilling, and one on the left elbow, about the size of a sixpence. The man had had those wounds for twelve or sixteen years. They were old chronic indurated ulcers, circular in outline, the edges thickened and rounded, and covered with a white coating, without any granulation. I am unable to say what was the origin of those ulcers, but I have seen other wounds like them. I have seen old chronic syphilitic wounds like them in other places. Those wounds were the only things which would account for tetanus.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General.—I ascertained that poultices had been applied to the wounds a day or two before, but I am not certain as to the exact time. The man’s wife had objected to their application. They were made of linseed meal. The man’s jaws were fixed so as to render him perfectly incapable of swallowing anything. He said he had first been taken with symptoms of lockjaw at eleven o’clock—as he told me, at dinner,—but, as he told my colleague, at breakfast. He was able to speak, but could not open the jaw. That is a symptom of tetanus. There were symptoms of rigidity about the abdominal and lumbar muscles. He did not say how long he had felt that rigidity. I gathered that some other medical man, a surgeon, had seen him in the afternoon before he came to the hospital, but I am not certain as to that; he was a labouring man.

Have you any doubt that the disease had been coming on since the morning?—No doubt at all. The sores were ugly sores of a chronic character—ulcers. There was an integument which connected the two on the right arm, so that they would be likely to run into one another. The wounds continued under the skin, and there were no signs of healing. They had the appearance of old neglected sores. They were at the seat of the ulnar nerve—a very sensitive nerve,—that which is commonly called the “funny-bone.” I believe he had successive paroxysms all the afternoon before he came to the hospital. I think his attack arose from tetanus. My opinion is founded upon the facts that he had had wounds, that he had died of spasms, that he had lockjaw, that the muscles of the abdomen and back were rigid, and that he complained of pain in the stomach. I did not hear the account of the symptoms of Cook’s death. An affection of the ulnar nerve was peculiarly liable to produce tetanus.

Re-examined by Mr. Grove.—Strychnine was suspected in that case. The nerves of the tongue are very delicate, as are also those of the throat and fauces. I have read descriptions of tetanus in the books. The case described by Mr. Gay was idiopathic, having been caused by a cold. An injury to any delicate nerve would decidedly be a cause of tetanus.

Mr. Ryners Mantell, examined by Mr. Gray.—I am a house-surgeon at the London Hospital. I saw the case mentioned by Mr. Ross, and his statement with respect to the symptoms is correct. In my judgment, the disease of which the patient died was tetanus, produced by the sores on the arms.

Dr. Wrightson, examined by Mr. Kenealy: I was a pupil of Liebig, at Giessen. I am a teacher of chemistry in a school in Birmingham. I have studied the nature and acquired a knowledge of poisons, and I have been engaged by the Crown in the detection of poison in a prosecution. I have experimented upon strychnia. I have found no extraordinary difficulties in the detection of strychnia. It is certainly to be detected by the usual tests. I have tested and discovered it both pure and mixed with impure matter after decomposition has set in. I have detected it in a mixture of bile, bilious matter, and putrifying blood. Strychnia can be discovered in the tissues. I have discovered it in the viscera of a cat, in the blood of one dog, and in the urine of another dog, both of them having been poisoned by strychnia. I am of opinion that strychnia does not undergo decomposition in the act of poisoning or in entering into the circulation. If it underwent such a change, if it were decomposed, I should say it would not be possible to discover it in the tissues; it might possibly be changed into a substance, in which, however, it would still be detectable. It can be discovered in extremely minute quantities indeed. When I detected it in the blood of a dog, I had given the animal two grains. To the second dog I gave one grain, and I detected it in the urine. Half a grain was intended to have been given to the cat, but a considerable portion of it was lost. Assuming that a man was poisoned by strychnine, and if his stomach were sent to me for analyzation within five or six days after death, I have no doubt that I should find it generally. If a man had been poisoned by strychnine, I should certainly expect to detect it.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: Supposing that the whole dose were absorbed into the system, where would you expect to find it?—In the blood.

Does it pass from the blood into the solids of the body?—It does; or, I should rather say, it is left in the solids of the body. In its progress towards its final destination, the destruction of life, it passes from the blood, or is left by the blood in the solid tissues of the body.

If it be present in the stomach, you find it in the stomach; if it be present in the blood, you find it in the blood; if it be left by the blood in the tissues, you find it in the tissues?—Precisely so.

Suppose the whole had been absorbed?—Then I would not undertake to find it.

Suppose the whole had been eliminated from the blood, and had passed into the urine, should you expect to find any in the blood?—Certainly not.

Suppose that the minimum dose which will destroy life had been taken, and absorbed into the circulation, then deposited in the tissues, and then a part of it eliminated by the action of the kidneys, where should you search for it?—In the blood, in the tissues, and in the ejections; and I would undertake to discover it in each of them.

Re-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: Suppose you knew a man to have been killed by strychnia, administered to him one and a-half hours before he died, in your judgment would that strychnia certainly be detected in the stomach in the first instance?—Yes.

Suppose it to have been administered in the shape of pills, and completely absorbed and got out of the stomach, would it still be found?—I can’t tell. If it were found, it would be in the liver and kidneys.

Could it be detected, under those circumstances, in the coats of the stomach?—Not knowing the dose administered, and the power of absorption, I cannot say that it could certainly be detected, but probably it could.

When death has taken place after one paroxysm, and an hour and a half after ingestion of the poison, can you form an opinion as to whether the dose was considerable or inconsiderable?—I cannot.

Mr. Baron Alderson: How do you suppose strychnine acts when taken into the stomach?—I cannot form an opinion.

Mr. Baron Alderson: It goes, I suppose, from the stomach to the blood, and from the blood somewhere else, and, arriving at that somewhere else, it kills.

Lord Campbell: I cannot allow this witness to leave the box without expressing my high approbation of the manner in which he has given his evidence.

Mr. Serjeant Shee requested to be allowed to ask the witness whether a strong dose was likely to pass through all the stages his lordship had mentioned.

Mr. Baron Alderson: That depends on where the killing takes place.

Professor Partridge, examined by Mr. Grove: I have been many years in extensive practice as a surgeon, and I am a Professor of Anatomy in King’s College. I have heard the evidence as to Cook’s symptoms and post-mortem, examination. I have heard the statements as to the granules that were found on his spine. They would be likely to cause inflammation, and no doubt that inflammation would have been discovered if the spinal cord or its membranes had been examined shortly after death. It would not be likely to be discovered if the spinal cord was not examined until nine weeks after death. I have not seen cases in which this inflammation has produced tetanic form of convulsions, but such cases are on record. It sometimes does, and sometimes does not, produce convulsions and death.

Can you form any judgment as to the cause of death in Cook’s case?—I cannot. No conclusion or inference can be drawn from the degree or kind of the contractions of the body after death.

Lord Campbell: Can you not say, from the symptoms you heard, whether death was produced by tetanus, without saying what was the cause of tetanus?

Witness: Hypothetically I should infer that he died of the form of tetanus which convulses the muscles. Great varieties of rigidity arise after death from natural causes. The half-bent hands and fingers are not uncommon after natural death. The arching of the feet, in this case, seemed to me rather greater than usual.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: Granules are sometimes, but not commonly, found about the spine of a healthy subject—not on the cord itself; they may exist consistently with health. No satisfactory cases of the inflammation I have described have come under my notice without producing convulsions. It is a very rare disease. I cannot state from the recorded cases the course of the symptoms of that disease. It varies in duration, sometimes lasting only for days, sometimes much longer. If the patient lives, it is accompanied with paralysis. It produces no effect upon the brain which is recognisable after death. It would not affect the brain prior to death. I do not know whether it is attended with loss of sensibility before death. The size of the granules which will produce it varies. This disease is not a matter of months, unless it terminates in palsy. I never heard of a case in which the patient died after a single convulsion. Between the intervals of the convulsions I don’t believe a man could have twenty-four hours’ repose. Pain and spasms would accompany the convulsions. I cannot form a judgment as to whether the general health would be affected in the intervals between them.

You have heard it stated, that from the midnight of Monday till Tuesday Cook had complete repose. Now, I ask you, in the face of the medical profession, whether you think the symptoms which have been described proceeded from that disease?—I should think not.

Did you ever know the hands completely clinched after death except in case of tetanus?—No.

Have you ever known it even in idiopathic or traumatic tetanus?—I have never seen idiopathic tetanus. I have seen the hands completely clinched in traumatic tetanus. A great deal of force is often required to separate them.

Have you ever known the foot so distorted as to assume the form of a club foot?—No.

You heard Mr. Jones state that if he had turned the body upon the back it would have rested on the head and the heels. Have you any doubt that that is an indication of death from tetanus?—No; it is a form of tetanic spasm. I am only acquainted with tetanus resulting from strychnine by reading. Some of the symptoms in Cook’s case are consistent, some are inconsistent, with strychnine tetanus. The first inconsistent symptom is the intervals that occurred between the taking of the supposed poison and the attacks.

Are not symptoms of bending of the body, difficulty of respiration, convulsions in the throat, legs, and arms, perfectly consistent with what you know of the symptoms of death from strychnine?—Perfectly consistent. I have known cases of traumatic tetanus. The symptoms in those cases had been occasionally remitted, never wholly terminated. I never knew traumatic tetanus run its course to death in less than three or four days. I never knew a complete case of the operation of strychnine upon a human subject.

Bearing in mind the distinction between traumatic and idiopathic tetanus, did you ever know of such a death as that of Cook according to the symptoms you have heard described?—No.

Re-examined by Mr. Grove: Besides the symptom which I have mentioned as being inconsistent with the theory of death by strychnine, there are others—namely, sickness, beating the bed clothes, want of sensitiveness to external impressions, and sudden cessation of the convulsions and apparent complete recovery. There was apparently an absence of the usual muscular agitation. Symptoms of convulsive character arising from an injury to the spine vary considerably in their degrees of violence, in their periods of intermission, and in the muscles which are attacked. Intermission of the disease occurs, but is not frequent, in traumatic tetanus. I don’t remember that death has ever taken place in fifteen hours; it may take place in forty-eight hours during convulsions. Granules about the spine are more unusual in young people than in old. I don’t know of any case in which the spine can preserve its integrity, so as to be properly examined, for a period of nine weeks. I should not feel justified in inferring that there was no disease from not finding any at the end of that time. The period of decomposition varies from a few hours to a few days. It is not in the least probable that it could be delayed for nine weeks.

By the Attorney-General: Supposing the stomach were acted on by other causes, I do not think sickness would be inconsistent with tetanus.

John Gay, examined by Mr. Gray: I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, and I have been a surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital. A case of traumatic tetanus in a boy came under my observation in that hospital in 1843. The patient was brought in during the time he was ill. He was brought on the 28th of July and died on the 2nd of August. He had met with an accident a week before. During the first three days he had paroxysms of unusual severity. His mother complained that he could not open his mouth, and he complained of stiff neck. During the night he started up and was convulsed. On the following night he was again convulsed. At times the abdominal muscles, as well as those of the legs and back, were rigid; the muscles of the face were also in a state of great contraction. On the following (third) day he was in the same state. At two o’clock there was much less rigidity of the muscles, especially those of the abdomen and back. On the following morning the muscular rigidity had gone, he opened his mouth and was able to talk; he was thoroughly relieved. He had no return of spasms till half-past five the following day. He then asked the nurse to change his linen, and as she lifted him up in the bed to do so violent convulsions of the arms and face came on, and he died in a few minutes. About thirty hours elapsed between the preceding convulsion and the one which terminated his life. Before the paroxysm came on the rigidity had been completely relaxed. I had given the patient tartar emetic (containing antimony) in order to produce vomiting on the second day; it produced no effect. I gave a larger dose on the third day, which also produced no effect. I gave no more after the third day.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General.—The accident which had happened to him was that a large stone had fallen upon the middle toe of the left foot, and completely smashed it. The wound had become very unhealthy. I amputated the toe. The mouth was almost closed up when I first saw him. The jaw remained closed until the 1st of August, but I could manage to get a small quantity of tartar emetic into the mouth. The convulsions were intermitted during the day, but the muscles of the body, chest, abdomen, back, and neck, were all rigid, and continued so for the two days on which I administered tartar emetic. Rigidity of the muscles of the chest and stomach would no doubt go far to prevent vomiting. The symptoms began to abate on the morning of the 1st of August (the fourth day), and gradually subsided until the rigidity entirely wore off. I then thought he was going to get well. The wound might have been rubbed against the bed when he was raised, but I don’t think it probable. Some peculiar irritation of the nerves would give rise to the affection of the spinal cord. No doubt the death took place in consequence of something produced by the injury to the toe.

Re-examined by Mr. Gray.—There may be various causes for that irritation of the spinal cord which ends in tetanic convulsions. It would be very difficult merely from seeing symptoms of tetanus, and in the absence of all knowledge as to how it had been occasioned, to ascribe it to any particular cause.

Dr. W. Macdonald, examined by Mr. Kenealy.—I am a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. I have been in practice for fourteen years, and have had considerable experience, practical and theoretical, of idiopathic and traumatic tetanus. I have seen two cases of idiopathic tetanus, and have made that disease the subject of medical research. Tetanus will proceed from very slight causes. An alteration of the secretions of the body, exposure to cold or damp, or mental excitement would cause it. Sensual excitement would produce it. The presence of gritty granules in the spine or brain might produce tetanic convulsions. I have seen cases in which small gritty tubercles in the brain were the only assignable cause of death, which had resulted from convulsions. I believe that in addition to the slight causes which I have named, tetanic convulsions result from causes as yet undiscoverable by human science. In many post-mortem examinations of the bodies of persons who had died from tetanus no trace of any disease could be discovered beyond congestion or vascularity of some of the vessels surrounding the nerves. Strychnia, however, is very easily discoverable by a scientific man. I remember the case of a woman, Catherine Watson, who is now present, and who was attacked with idiopathic tetanus on the 20th of October, 1855. [The witness read a report of the circumstances attending this case, the subject of which was a young woman twenty-two years of age, who, after going about her ordinary occupation during the day, was attacked with tetanus at ten o’clock at night. By the administration of chloroform the violence of the spasms was gradually diminished and she recovered. After her recovery she slept for thirty-six hours.] In that case there was lockjaw, which set in about the middle of the attack. It is generally a late symptom. I had a patient named Coupland who died of tetanus. It must have been idiopathic, as there was no external cause. The patient died in somewhat less than half an hour, before I could reach the house. I have made a number of experiments upon animals with reference to strychnia poison. I have found the post-mortem appearances very generally to concur. The vessels of the membranes of the brain have generally been highly congested. The sinuses gorged with blood. In one case there was hemorrhage from the nostrils. That was a case of very high congestion. In some cases there has been an extravasation of blood at the base of the brain. I have cut through the substance of the brain, and have found in it numerous red points. The lungs have been either collapsed or congested. The heart has invariably been filled with blood on the right side, and very often on the left side also. The liver has been congested, the kidneys and spleen generally healthy. The vessels of the stomach on the outer surface have been congested, and on the mucous or inner surface highly vascular. The vessels of the membranes of the spinal cord have been congested, and sometimes red points have been displayed on cutting it through.

From a post-mortem examination you may generally judge of the cause of death. I have in a great many cases experimented for the discovery of strychnia. You may discover in the stomach the smallest dose that will kill. If you kill with a grain you may discover traces of it. By traces I mean evidences of its presence. You can discover the fifty-thousandth part of a grain. I have actually experimented so as to discover that quantity. The decomposition of strychnia is a theory which no scientific man of eminence has ever before propounded. I first heard of that theory in this court. In my opinion, there is no well-grounded reason whatever for it. I have disproved the theory by numerous experiments. I have taken the blood of an animal poisoned by two grains of strychnia, about the least quantity which would destroy life, and have injected it into the abdominal cavities of smaller animals, and have destroyed them, with all the symptoms and post-mortem appearances of poisoning by strychnia. Strychnia being administered in pills would not affect its detection. If the pills were hard they would keep it together, and you might find its remains more easily. I do not agree with Dr. Taylor that colour tests are fallacious. I believe that such tests are a reliable mode of ascertaining the presence of strychnia. I have invariably found strychnia in the urine which has been ejected. Strychnia cannot be confounded with pyrozanthe. After strychnia has been administered there is an increased flow of saliva. In my experiments that has been a very marked symptom. Animals to which strychnia had been given have always been very susceptible to touch. The stamp of a foot or a sharp word would throw them into convulsions. Even before the paroxysms commenced touching them would be likely to throw them into tonic convulsions.

Lord Campbell: As soon as the poison is swallowed? No; it would be after a certain time. The first symptoms of poisoning must have been developed.

Examination continued: I do not think rubbing them would give them relief. I think it extremely improbable that a man who had taken a dose of strychnia sufficient to destroy life could after the symptoms had made their appearance pull a bell violently. I have attended to the evidence as to Cook’s symptoms. To the symptoms I attach little importance as a means of diagnosis, because you may have the same symptoms developed by many different causes. A dose of strychnia sufficient to destroy life would hardly require an hour and a-half for its absorption. I think that death was in this case caused by epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications. I form that opinion from the post-mortem appearances being so different from those that I have described as attending poisoning with strychnia, and from the supposition that a dose of strychnia sufficient to destroy life in one paroxysm could not, so far as I am aware, have required even an hour for its absorption before the commencement of the attack. If the attack were of an epileptic character, the interval between the attacks of Monday and Tuesday would be natural, as epileptic seizures very often recur at about the same hours of successive days.

Assuming that a man was in so excited a state of mind that he was silent for two or three minutes after his horse had won a race, that he exposed himself to cold and damp, excited his brain by drink, and was attacked by violent vomiting, and that after his death deposits of gritty granules were found in the neighbourhood of the spinal cord, would these causes be likely to produce such a death as that of Cook?—Any one of these causes would assist in the production of such a death.

As a congeries, would they be still more likely to produce it?—Yes.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: I am a general practitioner, and am parochial medical officer. I have had personal experience of two cases of idiopathic tetanus. What I have said about mental and sensual excitement, and so on, has not come within my own observation. In the case of Catherine Watson, I saw the patient at about half-past ten at night. She had been ill nearly an hour, and had five or six spasms. She had gone about her usual duties up to evening. She felt a slight lassitude for two days previous to the attack. It was only by close pressing that I ascertained that lock-jaw came on about an hour or two after I was called in. The case of Coupland was that of a young child between three and four years old. I was attending the mother, and saw the child in good health half an hour before it came on. It was seized with spasm, what I conjectured to be of the diaphragm, and died in about half an hour. I had seen the child asleep, but I did not examine it. I don’t know whether I saw the face of the child, but it was in bed; I judged that it was asleep.

Is that the same as seeing it asleep?—Sometimes a medical man can form a better judgment than a lawyer. Mr. Smith applied to me to be a witness in this case. I communicated to him the case of Catherine Watson, as resembling the case of Cook. I furnished my notes to be copied the night before last. I have been here since the commencement of the trial. I have been at all the consultations. I began the experiments for this case in January. I had made experiments before. That was eight or ten years ago. I then found out that strychnia could be discovered by chemical and physiological tests. I killed dogs, cats, rabbits, and fowls. The doses I administered were from three-quarters up to two grains. To dogs, the smallest quantity administered was a grain. In four cases, I killed with one grain, five with a grain and a half, one with a grain and a quarter, and two with two grains. I never killed a dog with half a grain of strychnia, and therefore never experimented to find that quantity after death. I have always found the brain and heart highly congested. The immediate cause of the fulness of the heart is, that the spasm drives the blood from the small capillaries into the large vessels. The spasm of the respiratory muscles prevents the expansion of the lungs. The congestion of the brain is greatest when the animal was young, and in full health. It does not depend upon the frequency of the spasms. I have seen cases of traumatic tetanus. I have had two in my own practice. One lasted five or six days, the other six or seven days, and the patient recovered. I have never seen a case of strychnia in the human subject. So far as I can judge, Cook’s was a case of epileptic convulsions, with tetanic complications. Nobody can say from what epilepsy proceeds. I have not arrived at any opinion on the subject. I have seen one death from epilepsy. The patient was not conscious when he died. I can’t mention a case in which a patient dying from epilepsy has preserved his consciousness to the time of death.

You have been reading up this subject?—I am pretty well up in most branches of medicine. (A laugh.) I know of no case in which a patient dying from epilepsy has been conscious. My opinion is Cook died of epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications.

By Lord Campbell.—That is a disease well known to physicians. It is mentioned in Dr. Copland’s Dictionary.

Examination continued. I believe that all convulsive diseases, including the epileptic forms and the various tetanic complications, arise from the decomposition of the blood acting upon the nerves. Any mental excitement might have caused Cook’s attack. Cook was excited at Shrewsbury, and wherever there is excitement there is consequent depression. I think Cook was afterwards depressed. When a man is lying in bed and vomiting he must be depressed.

This gentleman was much, overjoyed, at his horse winning, and you think he vomited in consequence?—It might predispose him to vomit.

I am not speaking of “mights.” Do you think that the excitement of the three minutes on the course at Shrewsbury on the Tuesday accounts for the vomiting on the Wednesday night?—I do not. I find no symptoms of excitement or depression reported between that time and the time of his death. The white spots found in the stomach of the deceased might, by producing an inflammatory condition of the stomach, have brought on the convulsions which caused death.

The Attorney-General.—But the gentlemen who made the post-mortem examination say that the stomach was not inflamed.

Witness.—There were white spots, which cannot exist without inflammation. There must have been inflammation.

The Attorney-General.—But these gentlemen say that there was not inflammation.

Witness.—I do not believe them. (A laugh.) Sensual excitement might cause epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications. The chancre and syphilitic sores were evidence that Cook had undergone such excitement. That might have occurred before he was at Shrewsbury.

Might sexual intercourse produce epilepsy a fortnight after it occurred?—There is an instance on record in which epilepsy supervened upon the very act of intercourse.

Have you any instance in which epilepsy came on a fortnight afterwards? (A laugh.)—It is within the range of possibility.

Do you mean, as a serious man of science, to say that?—The results might.

What results were there in this case?—The chancre and the syphilitic sores.

Did you ever hear of a chancre causing epilepsy?—No.

Did you ever dream of such a thing?—I never heard of it.

Did you ever hear of any other form of syphilitic disease producing epilepsy?—No; but tetanus.

The Attorney-General: But you say this was epilepsy; we are not talking of tetanus?

Witness: You forget the tetanic complications. (Roars of laughter.)

The Attorney-General: If I understand right, then, it stands thus—the sexual excitement produces epilepsy, and the chancre superadds tetanic complications?

Witness: I say that the results of sexual excitement produce epilepsy.

Mr. Baron Alderson said he had heard some person in court clap his hands. On an occasion on which a man was being tried for his life such a display was most indecent.

Examination continued: I cannot remember any fatal case of poisoning by strychnia in which so long a period as an hour and a half intervened between the taking of the poison and the appearance of the first symptoms.

What would be the effect of morphia given a day or two previously? Would it not retard the action of the poison?—No; I have seen opium bring on convulsions very nearly similar.

What quantity?—A grain and a half. From my experience, I think that if morphia had been given a day or two before it would have accelerated the action of the strychnia. I have seen opium bring on epileptic convulsions. If this were a case of poisoning by strychnia, I should suppose that as both opium and strychnia produce congestion of the brain, the two would act together, and would have a more speedy effect. If congestion of the brain was coming on when morphia was given to Cook on the Sunday and Monday nights, it might have increased rather than allayed it.

But the gentlemen who examined the body say that there was no congestion after death?—But Dr. Bamford says there was.

You stick to Dr. Bamford?—Yes, I do; because he was a man of experience—could judge much better than younger men, and was not so likely to be mistaken.

But Dr. Bamford said that Cook died of apoplexy; do you think this was apoplexy?—No, it was not.

What, then, do you think of Dr. Bamford, who certified that it was?—That was a matter of opinion; but the existence of congestion in the brain he saw.

The Attorney-General: The other medical men said there was none.

Lord Campbell: That is rather a matter of reasoning than of evidence.

Re-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: I have seen a great many children asleep, and can tell whether they are so without seeing their faces. In the case of the child who died of tetanus the mother had told me that it was asleep. Dr. Mason Good is a well known author upon convulsions. From my reading of his work and others I have learnt that there are convulsions which are not, strictly speaking, epilepsy, although they resemble it in some of its features. I also know the works of M. Esquirolle. From reading those and other works I know that epileptic convulsions sufficiently violent to cause death frequently occur without the patient entirely losing his consciousness. Epilepsy, properly so called, is sudden in its attack. The patient falls down at once with a shriek. That disease occurs very often at night, and in bed. It sometimes happens that its existence is known to a young man’s family without his knowing anything about it. Convulsions of an epileptic character are sometimes preceded by premonitory symptoms. It sometimes happens that during such convulsions actual epilepsy comes on, and the patient dies of an internal spasm. It often happens that if a patient has suffered from epilepsy and convulsions of an epileptic kind during the night, he may be as well next day as if nothing had happened, more especially when an adult is seized for the first time. In such cases it often happens that such fits succeed each other within a short period. I heard the deposition of Dr. Bamford. If it were true that the mind of the deceased was distressed and irritable the night before his death, I should say that he was suffering from depression. From what Cook said about his madness in the middle of the Sunday night I should infer that he had been seized by some sudden cramp or spasm. Supposing that there was no such cramp, I should refer what he said to nervous and mental excitement. There might be some disturbance of the brain. I do not believe that inflammation can be absent while spots on the stomach be present. About eighteen months ago I examined the stomach of a person who had died from fever, in which I found white spots. I consulted various authors. In an essay on the stomach by Dr. Sprodboyne, a medical man who practised in Edinburgh, I found mention of similar spots in the stomach of a young woman who had died suddenly.

Dr. Bainbridge, examined by Mr. Grove: I am a doctor of medicine, and medical officer to the St. Martin’s workhouse. I have had much experience of convulsive disorders. Such disorders present great variety of symptoms. They vary as to the frequency of the occurrence and as to the muscles affected. Periodicity, or recurrence at the same hours, days, or months, is common. I had a case in which a patient had an attack on one Christmas night, and on the following Christmas night, at the same hour, he had a similar attack. The various forms of convulsions so run into each other that it is almost impossible for the most experienced medical men to state where one terminates and the other begins. In both males and females hysteria is frequently attended by tetanic convulsions. Epileptic attacks are frequently accompanied by tetanic complications.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: Hysteric convulsions very rarely end in death. I have known one case in which they have done so. That occurred within the last three months. It was the case of a male. It occurred in St. Martin’s workhouse. The man had for years been subject to this complaint. On the occasion on which he died he was ill only a few minutes. I did not make a post-mortem examination. I was told he was seized with sudden convulsions, fell down on the ground, and in five minutes was dead. There was slight clinching of the hands, but I think no locking of the jaw. The man was about thirty-five years of age. He was the brother of the celebrated æronaut, Lieutenant Gale. In many cases of this description consciousness is destroyed. It is not so in all. I have met with violent cases in which it has been preserved. I never knew a case in which during the paroxysm the patient spoke. Epilepsy is sometimes attended with opisthotonos. I have seen cases of traumatic tetanus. In such cases the patient retains his consciousness. I have known many cases of epilepsy ending in death. Loss of consciousness—not universally, but generally—accompanies epilepsy. I never knew a case of death from that disease where consciousness was not destroyed. I have known ten or twelve such fatal cases.

Re-examined by Mr. Grove: Persons almost invariably fall asleep after an epileptic attack.

The Attorney-General: And after taking opium?—Yes.

Edward Austin Steddy, examined by Mr. Gray: I am a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and am in practice at Chatham. In June, 1854, I attended a person named Sarah Ann Taylor, for trismus and pleuro-tothonos. When I first saw the patient she was bent to one side. The convulsions came on in paroxysms. The pleuro-tothonos and trismus lasted about a fortnight. The patient then so far recovered as to be able to walk about. About a twelve-month afterwards, on the 3rd of March, 1855, she was again seized. That seizure lasted about a week. She is still alive. The friends of the patient said that the disease was brought on by depression, arising from a quarrel with her husband.

Cross-examined by Mr. James: I do not know how long before the attack this quarrel occurred. During it the woman received a blow on her side from her husband. During the whole fortnight the lockjaw or trismus continued. In March, 1855, she was under my care about a week, during the whole of which the trismus continued.

Dr. George Robinson, examined by Mr. Kenealy: I am a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, and Physician to the Newcastle-on-Tyne Dispensary and Fever Hospital. I have devoted considerable attention to the subject of pathology. I have practised as a physician for ten years. I have heard the whole of the medical evidence in this case. From the symptoms described, I should say that Cook died of tetanic convulsions, by which I mean, not the convulsions of tetanus, but convulsions similar to those witnessed in that disease. The convulsions of epilepsy sometimes assume a tetanic appearance. I know no department of pathology more obscure than that of convulsive diseases. I have witnessed post-mortem examinations after death from convulsive diseases, and have sometimes seen no morbid appearances whatever; and in other cases the symptoms were applicable to a great variety of diseases. Convulsive diseases are always connected with the condition of the nerves. The brain has a good deal to do with the production of convulsive diseases, but the spinal cord has more. I believe that gritty granules in the region of the spinal cord would be very likely to produce convulsions, and I think they would be likely to be very similar to those described in the present case. I think that from what I have heard described of the mode of life of the deceased, it would have predisposed him to epilepsy. I have witnessed some experiments with strychnia, and have performed a few. I have also prescribed it in cases of paralysis.

By the Attorney-General: I have seen twenty cases where epilepsy has been attended by convulsions of a tetanic character. I have never seen the symptoms of epilepsy proceed to anything like the extent of the symptoms in Cook’s case. I never saw a body in a case of epilepsy so stiff as to rest upon the head and the heels. I never knew such symptoms to arise in any case except tetanus. When epilepsy presents any of these extreme forms it is always accompanied by unconsciousness. In almost every case of epilepsy the patient is unconscious at the time of the attack. In cases of epilepsy I have found gritty granules on the brain; and any disturbing cause in the system, I think, would be likely to produce convulsions. I believe that the granules in this case were very likely to have irritated the spinal cord, and yet that no indication of that irritation would have remained after death. I think that these granules might have produced the death of Mr. Cook.

The Attorney-General: Do you think that they did so?

Witness: Putting aside the assumption of death by strychnia, I should say so.

The Attorney-General: Are not all the symptoms spoken to by Mr. Jones indicative of death by strychnia?

Witness: They certainly are.

The Attorney-General: Then it comes to this—that if there were no other cause of death suggested, you would say that the death in this case arose from epilepsy?

Witness: Yes.

By Serjeant Shee: Epilepsy is a well-known form of disease which includes many others.

Dr. Richardson said: I am a physician, practising in London. I have never seen a case of tetanus, properly so called, but I have seen many cases of death by convulsions. In many instances they have presented tetanic appearances without being strictly tetanous. I have seen the muscles fixed, especially those of the upper part of the body. I have observed the arms stiffened out, and the hands closely and firmly clinched until death. I have also observed a sense of suffocation in the patient. In some forms of convulsions I have seen contortions both of the legs and the feet, and the patient generally expresses a wish to sit up. I have known persons die of a disease called angina pectoris. The symptoms of that disease, I consider, resemble closely those of Mr. Cook. Angina pectoris comes under the denomination of spasmodic diseases. In some cases the disease is detectable upon post-mortem examination; in others it is not. I attended one case. A girl ten years old was under my care in 1850. I supposed she had suffered from scarlet fever. She recovered so far that my visits ceased. I left her amused and merry in the morning; at half-past ten in the evening I was called in to see her, and I found her dying. She was supported upright, at her own request; her face was pale, the muscles of the face rigid, the arms rigid, the fingers clinched, the respiratory muscles completely fixed and rigid, and with all this there was combined intense agony and restlessness, such as I have never witnessed. There was perfect consciousness. The child knew me, described her agony, and eagerly took some brandy-and-water from a spoon. I left for the purpose of obtaining some chloroform from my own house, which was thirty yards distant. When I returned her head was drawn back, and I could detect no respiration; the eyes were then fixed open, and the body just resembled a statue; she was dead. On the following day I made a post-mortem examination. The brain was slightly congested, the upper part of the spinal cord seemed healthy, the lungs were collapsed, the heart was in such a state of firm spasm and solidity, and so emptied of blood, that I remarked that it might have been rinsed out. I could not discover any appearance of disease that would account for the death, except a slight effusion of serum in one pleural cavity. I never could ascertain any cause for the death. The child went to bed well and merry, and immediately afterwards jumped up, screamed, and exclaimed, “I am going to die!”

By the Attorney-General: I consider that the symptoms I have described were those of angina pectoris. It is the opinion of Dr. Jenner that this disease is occasioned by the ossification of some of the small vessels of the heart. I did not find that to be the case in this instance. There have been many cases where no cause whatever was discovered. It is called angina pectoris, from its causing such extreme anguish to the chest. I do not think the symptoms I have described were such as would result from taking strychnia. There is this difference,—that rubbing the hands gives ease to the patient in cases of angina pectoris. I must say, there would be great difficulty in detecting the difference in the cases of angina pectoris and strychnia. As regards symptoms, I know of no difference between the two. I am bound to say that if I had known so much of these subjects as I do now in the case I have referred to I should have gone on to analysis to endeavour to detect strychnia. In the second case I discovered organic disease of the heart, which was quite sufficient to account for the symptoms. The disease of angina pectoris comes on quite suddenly, and does not give any notice of its approach. I did not send any note of this case to any medical publication. It is not at all an uncommon occurrence to find the hands firmly clinched after death in cases of natural disease.

By Mr. Serjeant Shee: There are cases of angina pectoris in which the patient has recovered and appeared perfectly well for a period of 24 hours, and then the attack has returned. I am of opinion that the fact of the recurrence of the second fit in Cook’s case is more the symptom of angina pectoris than of strychnia poison.

Dr. Wrightson was re-called, and in answer to a question put by Serjeant Shee, he said it was his opinion that when the strychnia poison was absorbed in the system it was diffused throughout the entire system.

By the Attorney-General: The longer time that elapsed before the death would render the absorption more complete. If a minimum dose to destroy life were given, and a long interval elapsed to the death, the more complete would be the absorption and the less the chance of finding it in the stomach.

By Serjeant Shee: I should expect still to find it in the spleen, and liver, and blood.

Catherine Watson said: I live at Garnkirk, near Glasgow. I was attacked with a fit in October of last year. I had no wound of any kind on my body when I was attacked. I did not take any poison.

By the Attorney-General: I was taken ill at night. I had felt heavy all day from the morning, but had no pain till night. The first pain I felt was in my stomach, and then I had cramp in my arms, and after that I was quite insensible. I have no recollection of anything after I was first attacked, except that I was bled.

Serjeant Shee then said, that he was now about to enter into another part of the case for the defence, and, probably, the Court would think it a convenient period to adjourn.

The Lord Chief Justice said that the Court had no objection to adjourn if the learned Serjeant thought it would be a convenient time to do so.

The Attorney-General requested that before the Court was formally adjourned a witness named Saunders, whose name was upon the back of the bill, and who was not in attendance, and who, he believed, had not made his appearance during the trial, should be called upon his recognizances. He added that he believed this witness was also subpœned on behalf of the prisoner, but he (the Attorney-General) intended to have called him for the Crown.

The Court directed that the witness should be called upon his recognizances, and this was done, but he did not appear.

The Court then adjourned until ten o’clock on Saturday morning.

TENTH DAY, May 24.

The Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell took their seats at ten o’clock.

The interest felt in this extraordinary trial was by no means diminished, notwithstanding the tedious length, to which the proceedings have extended. The interior of the court was crowded in every part, crowds were collected outside, and numbers of persons who had considered themselves fortunate in obtaining orders of admission from the Sheriff, were ranged in long rows along the passages leading to the court, anxiously awaiting the only chance of admission, which was afforded them by some more fortunate brother spectator vacating his position.

The counsel for the Crown were, as on previous days, the Attorney-General, Mr. James, Q.C., Mr. Bodkin, Q.C., Mr. Welsby, and Mr. Huddlestone. Counsel for the prisoner, Mr. Serjeant Shee, Mr. Grove, Q.C., Mr. Gray, and Mr. Kenealy.

CLOSE OF THE MEDICAL EVIDENCE.

The names of the jurors having been called over.

Mr. Oliver Pemberton, lecturer on anatomy, of Queen’s College, Birmingham, and surgeon to the General Hospital of that town, was sworn and examined by Mr. Grove, Q.C. Witness said—I was present at the examination of the body of Cook after its exhumation in January, and closely examined the condition of the spinal cord. It was not, however; in such a condition as to enable me to say confidently in what state it was immediately after death. The upper part, where the brain had been separated, was green in colour from the effects of decomposition. The remaining portion, though fairly preserved, for the body had been buried two months, was so soft as to prevent my drawing any opinion of its state immediately after death.

Cross-examined by the Attorney-General: I saw the body the day after the bony canal had been opened. The opening of that canal would, to a certain extent, expose the cord, but the outer covering or dura mater was not opened, to the best of my recollection, until I arrived. I attended the examination on the part of the prisoner. Mr. Bolton, professor of Queen’s College, Birmingham, was also present on the occasion on the part of Palmer.

By Mr. Serjeant Shee: Was there any difference of opinion expressed on that occasion by the medical men?

The Attorney-General objected to the question.

Lord Campbell decided that it could not be put.

Mr. Serjeant Shee said that this witness brought to a conclusion the medical evidence on the part of Palmer.

GENERAL EVIDENCE.

Henry Matthews, examined by Mr. Grove: I am inspector of police at the Euston-square Railway Station. I was stationed there on Monday, 19th November last. At two o’clock in the afternoon of that day a train left London which would stop at Rugeley. No train after that hour stops at Rugeley. The express train left at five in the afternoon; it is due at Stafford at 8.42 p.m.; it did not arrive till 8.45. The distance from Stafford to Rugeley by railway is nine miles. I do not know the distance by road. The shortest and quickest mode of getting to Rugeley after the two o’clock train, would be by the five o’clock express to Stafford, and thence by road to Rugeley.

Joseph Foster, examined by Mr. Gray: I am a farmer and grazier at Sibbertoft, in Northamptonshire. I kept the George Hotel, at Welford, in that county, up to Lady-day last. I knew the late John Parsons Cook for many years previous to his death. I have met him at various places, in the hunting field, at dinners, and elsewhere. I have had opportunities of judging of his health. I think he was of a very weak constitution. I form that judgment from having been with him on several occasions when he suffered from bilious attacks. Those are the only circumstances upon which I formed that opinion.

Cross-examined by Mr. James: I knew Mr. Cook for ten years; he hunted regularly for the last two years in Nottinghamshire. He kept sometimes two and sometimes three horses. I have known him to hunt three days a week when he was well. I knew Mr. George Pell. There is a cricket club at Welford. I do not know whether Cook was a member of the club. I have seen him there. I saw Cook for the last time at Lutterworth, about the middle of October last. I last knew him to have a bilious sick headache about a year and a half ago [laughter].

Lord Chief Justice Campbell: I most strongly implore that there will be no expression of any sensation evinced at the answers given by any of the witnesses.

By Mr. James: I saw Cook at my own house when he complained of suffering. He did not hunt on that day. He came to my house to meet the hounds, but did not go. He was dressed in his hunting dress. I could not swear I did not see him next within a week afterwards in the hunting-field.

By Lord Campbell: I never saw Cook sick on any other occasion, except about seven years previous at Market Harborough, at the cricket match, after dinner.

George Myatt, saddler, examined by Mr. Gray: I was at Shrewsbury races on the day when Polestar won. I was at the Raven Hotel on the evening of that day, Wednesday. I saw Cook and Palmer there about twelve o’clock on the night of that day. I was waiting in the room at the hotel when they came in. I considered Cook was the worse for liquor. They proposed having a glass of brandy and water each before they went to bed. Each of us had a glass of brandy and water. When Cook commenced to drink it he made a remark that he fancied it was not good. He drank part of it off, and said he thought there was something in it. He then gave it to some one near him to taste. Cook proposed to have some more, and Palmer said he would not have any more except Cook drank his up. They had no more brandy and water, and Palmer and I went to bed. I slept in the same room with Palmer. The brandy was brought in a decanter, and the brandy which I had was poured out of the decanter, I don’t know by whom. I did not leave the room during the time when Palmer and Cook came in to me until we went to bed. I did not see anything put into the brandy and water, and I do not think anything could have been put in without my seeing it. Palmer and I went into the bedroom and left Cook in the sitting-room. I slept in the same bedroom as Palmer. When I went to bed I locked the door, and Palmer did not go out of the room during the night. When Palmer got up in the morning, he asked me to go and call Cook. I did so. I went to Cook’s bed-room door, rapped at it, and he told me to come in. I went in, and he told me how ill he had been during the night, and that he had been obliged to send for a doctor. He asked me what it was that was put into the brandy and water, and I told him I did not know that anything had been put into it. He asked me to send for the doctor, meaning Palmer. I did so. I next saw Cook when he came in to his breakfast. Palmer was in the room. Palmer and I breakfasted first, and Cook came in directly after we had finished, and had breakfast in the same room. On the evening of that day Cook, Palmer, and myself, left for Rugeley, having previously dined together at the Raven. We started for Rugeley about six o’clock in the evening. We travelled by the express train from Shrewsbury; Palmer paid for the three railway tickets. On the way Palmer was sick, and both Cook and he said they could not account for the circumstance of their being sick. Palmer vomited on the road between Stafford and Rugeley. We left the train at Stafford, at the junction. We then got into a fly to proceed to Rugeley, there being no train for that place. It was on the way to Rugeley that Palmer was ill and vomited. Palmer said he could not account for it unless it was that Cook had some brass vessel which he had drank out of, or that the water was bad. There had been a great many people ill during the Shrewsbury races. I heard several people speak of their having been ill who could not account for it. The distance by road from Stafford to Rugeley is about nine miles.

Cross-examined by Mr. James: I have known Palmer all my life. He deals with me for saddlery. I have not been in the habit of going to the races with him, but I have gone now and then. I was at Shrewsbury races with him. I never was at Doncaster with him. I was there once with a gentleman named Robinson. I was at Wolverhampton races in August last. I went with Palmer. I did not sleep in the same room with him at Wolverhampton. I did not stop at the same hotel with him. I stopped with my brother-in-law in Wolverhampton. I believe I was there a couple of days. I did not dine or breakfast with Palmer. I was at Lichfield races with Palmer in September. Lichfield course is within ten miles of Rugeley. I did not sleep at Lichfield. I did not either go to Lichfield or come home with Palmer. I believe I have never slept in a double-bedded room with Palmer anywhere but at Shrewsbury. I never did. I never was at Worcester in my life. I paid my own expenses to Shrewsbury. Palmer paid the expenses of my living at the hotel at Shrewsbury, and the fare back. He has never paid my expenses at any other races. If he has paid any expenses for me, I have deducted them from his bill. I dare say I went to some races with him the year before; I think two or three, but I can’t call to mind how many. I had an interview with Palmer in Stafford Gaol. I was with him a couple of hours. I should think that that was a month or five weeks ago. I cannot say when it was that I saw him. I cannot say whether it was before or after Stafford Assizes. Mr. Smith said he was going, and I thought I should like to see Palmer. I have stood half a sovereign or a sovereign with him occasionally. I know what “putting on” a horse means. I did not bet at Shrewsbury. I did not back Cook’s mare, Polestar. I have stood a sovereign with Palmer on a horse. The first time when I saw Cook at the Raven on the Wednesday evening was as near twelve o’clock as possible. I had not been dining with Palmer. I had dined at home, at Rugeley. I arrived at Shrewsbury about eight o’clock. I went to the Raven. I knew the room which Palmer generally had, and I went up to see if he was there. That was between eight and nine o’clock. I went there direct from the railway station. I saw Cook at the door outside. He asked me what brought me there. I told him I was come to see how they were getting on. I found that Palmer had gone out, and I then went into the town. I was away about an hour, and then returned to the Raven. I went into Palmer’s sitting-room. Palmer was not there. I waited in the sitting-room till he came. There was a man named Shelley there. He was a betting man. I waited about a couple of hours before Palmer came in. I think he came in about twelve o’clock, but I can’t say exactly. He came in with Cook. I saw that Cook was the worse for liquor. He was not very drunk, but I could see that he was the worse for liquor. The brandy and water was brought in directly. The brandy was in a decanter. I believe the water was on the table, but cannot say. I should say the brandy and the tumbler were brought up together. I don’t remember Mrs. Brooks coming. I don’t remember Palmer being called out of the room. I remember a gentleman coming in. I know now that he was Mr. Fisher. Before Fisher came in, Palmer had not left the room. That I will swear. Palmer never left the room until he went to bed. I swear that positively. I was close to him the whole time. When Fisher came in, Cook asked Palmer to have some more brandy and water. Palmer said he would not have any more unless Cook drank his. It was evident to any one that Cook was the worse for liquor. Cook said, “I’ll drink mine,” and he drank it at a draught. Directly after he drank it he said, “There’s something in it.” He did not say, “It burns my throat dreadfully.” He said the brandy was not good. I will swear he did not say, “it burns my throat dreadfully,” or anything of that kind. He gave it to some one to taste. I believe it was Fisher, but will not swear. I can’t say whether it was Palmer or Cook who gave it to Fisher to taste. I believe there were only four persons in the room at the time. I can’t say whether any other person came into the room before we went to bed. Cook had emptied the glass as nearly as possible; there was a little left in it. I can’t swear whether Palmer touched the glass or not. I believe he did taste. I believe Palmer said he could not taste anything that was the matter with the brandy and water, and he gave it to Fisher. I don’t recollect Fisher saying, “It’s no good giving me the glass—it is empty.” I can’t swear whether he said so or not. I should think we remained in the room twenty minutes after that. Cook did not leave the room before we went to bed. Palmer and I went straight up to bed. We left Cook in the sitting-room. I did not hear that night that Cook had been vomiting and was ill. I took one glass of brandy and water. We had one glass each. The water was cold. On the following day I dined with Palmer at the Raven. Mr. Cook served me with what I had to eat. During the first two days of the inquest I was at home at Rugeley. I did not go to the inquest.

Re-examined by Mr. Grove: I was not subpœned for the Crown; I was examined, but not summoned. The deputy-governor was not present all the time I was with Palmer at Stafford. He went out once, but another officer came in. Palmer did not say a word about this case. There was an officer present the whole time.