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.