in she had this quarrel. I learned that during the quarrel she had had
a blow given her on her side by her husband. I observed the setting in
of the lockjaw at that time. I saw her in March, 1855, when she was
under my care for about a week. The locking of the jaw continued the
whole week. She has never got thoroughly well. She has tetanic
extensions of the limbs in any case of excitement. In my opinion the
disease is in action in her system at the present time.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: G. Robinson]
Dr. GEORGE ROBINSON, examined by Mr. KENEALY--I am a Licentiate of the
Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal Medical Chirurgical
Society of London, and physician to the Newcastle-on-Tyne Dispensary and
Fever Hospital. I have devoted considerable attention to pathology, and
have published essays on it. I have practised as a physician for ten
years. From the symptoms I have heard described my opinion is that Mr.
Cook died from tetanic convulsions, by which I mean, not the disease of
tetanus, but convulsions similar to those witnessed in tetanus.
Convulsions of that kind occasionally assume the nature of epilepsy. I
know of no department of pathology which is more obscure than that of
convulsive diseases. I have been present at post-mortem examinations of
persons who died from convulsive diseases. I have sometimes seen no
morbid appearance whatever, and in other cases the morbid appearances
which were visible were common to a variety of diseases. Convulsive
diseases undoubtedly depend very much on the state of the nerves. They
are all connected with disorders of the nervous action. The brain has
great influence in producing convulsive diseases, but the spinal cord
has a greater influence. The presence of gritty granules in the
neighbourhood of the spinal cord would be likely to produce convulsive
diseases. There is such a disease as spinal epilepsy, which is
accompanied by strong convulsions, which might resemble in a great
degree those described in the present case. Periodicity would belong to
convulsions arising from spinal epilepsy. I should think from the
evidence I have heard that Mr. Cook’s mode of life would predispose him
to epilepsy.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--In all cases of epilepsy there
are violent convulsions. I cannot tell you how many I have seen assume a
tetanic character; perhaps twenty.
Has it gone as far as opisthotonos?--Not the extreme opisthotonos of
tetanus. The whole body has been straightened out and the head thrown
back. I heard Mr. Jones describe Mr. Cook’s symptoms, that the body was
so bowed that he could not raise it, so bowed that it would lean upon
its heels and the back of its head if it had been turned over.
[Sidenote: G. Robinson]
Have you ever seen anything in epilepsy approaching to these
symptoms?--I have never seen anything approaching to it. I have never
seen a body so stiffened that it would rest on the head and heels.
Is that symptom peculiar to tetanus?--You may have convulsions of the
same character occurring from other causes--tetanic convulsions from the
operation of various poisons.
Keep to natural diseases. Did you ever know these symptoms of
opisthotonos, in that shape or to that extent, arise from anything but
tetanus?--Not within my own experience. I have read of epilepsy being
accompanied with tetanic convulsions. Epilepsy, when it assumes that
marked character, is accompanied with unconsciousness. I have read in a
case of Dr. Marshall Hall’s that sometimes unconsciousness is not
present. He does not mention whether death took place in this case or
not. That would make all the difference.
You said that gritty granules would be likely to produce convulsive
diseases. What extent of development, in your judgment, must such
granules reach to produce an action in the spinal marrow?--I should say
there is no relation between the size of the granules and the extent of
the effect produced.
Would you expect when they began to get to the size that they would have
any effect on the nervous system--that they would begin to show their
effect more or less gradually?--No, in epilepsy I have myself observed
several granules in the membrane of 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 irritate the
spinal cord, and an attack might very likely come on at once in a fit of
epilepsy. There would be pain during the continuance of the violent
spasms of the patient, not necessarily pain merely from the spasms.
These granules might or might not produce arachnitis.
You would expect to find inflammation in that case?--Not necessarily.
Irritation, not inflammation. Granules of that description do not often
exist in healthy spines. In the dissections of epilepsy in the large
hospitals, these small granules have been found very frequently. The
granules, in my opinion, would be likely to produce epilepsy. In my
experience I have never known epilepsy unaccompanied by unconsciousness,
nor have I known epilepsy producing the marked symptoms of tetanic
character which occur in Mr. Cook’s case.
[Sidenote: G. Robinson]
Do you feel yourself warranted in giving an opinion that these granules
caused epilepsy in this case?--I think I might have done so. If I put
aside the hypothesis of poisoning by strychnia I would. Several of the
symptoms described by Mr. Jones, the severe paroxysm, the stiffening of
the body, the convulsions of all the muscles of the trunk and limbs, and
the complete opisthotonos, are also common to other convulsions. The
symptoms are certainly consistent with death by strychnia.
They are the symptoms that you would expect after strychnia?--I think
there would have been some slight premonitory symptoms. If I had no
other cause to which I could ascribe the death I would ascribe it to
epilepsy.
But in this case you admit some of the symptoms are inconsistent with
your experience of epilepsy?--Yes.
Re-examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--They are consistent with the
possibility of epilepsy. They are consistent with convulsions of an
epileptic form ending in death, though perhaps not actually amounting to
epilepsy.
Supposing it to have been actual epilepsy, at what period of the last
attack should you say the epilepsy commenced?--When Mr. Cook sat up in
bed and cried out. I should imagine that would be the sense of
suffocation which would be the premonitory symptoms.
After the final shriek, and throwing himself back in his bed, is there
any symptom from which you would infer consciousness after that
moment?--Except that he swallowed some pills.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL--Allow me to remind you he asked them to turn him
over.
By Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--Would you consider that a body which immediately,
or within ten minutes after death, when it is quite warm, lay perfectly
straight, the hands extended, resting on its heels and its back and its
head, was in a state of opisthotonos?--Not if it rested on its back. In
my judgment it might be that the body might assume, without actual
rigidity, the bow-like shape and appearance which has been spoken of,
and yet, when turned over, lie flat in the bed, resting on the head,
back, and heels.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: B. W. Richardson]
Dr. BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON, examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--I practise
in London, and I am a licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and
Surgeons in Glasgow and a member of the College of Physicians in London.
I have never seen a case of idiopathic or traumatic tetanus, but I have
seen a considerable number of deaths by convulsions, and I have known
these cases, when they have ended in death, sometimes assume tetaniform
appearances without being, strictly speaking, tetanus. The patient, if
conscious, generally desires to sit up. I have known persons to die from
a disease called angina pectoris. The symptoms of the disease, when it
is fatal, resemble closely the symptoms of the paroxysms in which Mr.
Cook died. It is classed amongst the convulsive or spasmodic diseases,
and has no distinctive feature in post-mortem examination.
[Sidenote: B. W. Richardson]
Will you state what symptoms you particularly refer to?--I could not do
better than describe a case which I myself saw. A child, ten years of
age, was under my care in November, 1850. I supposed she had suffered
from scarlet fever. She had a slight feverish attack. She recovered so
far that my visits ceased on 20th November. I left her merry in the
morning, and at half-past ten I was called to see her dying. She was
supported upright at her own request. The face was pale; the whole of
the face and arms rigid, the fingers clenched, the respiratory muscles
completely fixed and rigid, and, with all, complained of an intense
agony and restlessness such as I had never witnessed. There was perfect
consciousness. The child knew me, and explained her intense agony;
eagerly took from my hands some brandy and water from a spoon. I then
left to get some chloroform for the purpose of producing relaxation by
chloroform vapour. On returning, I found the head was thrown back. I
could detect no respiration. The eyes remained fixed open, and the body
just resembling a fit. She was dead. I did not observe whether the
rigor-mortis came on at its usual time or later. I made a post-mortem
examination the following day. Unfortunately I left the body in the arms
of the sister, and, of course, it was laid out afterwards. At the
post-mortem examination I observed that the brain was slightly
congested; a portion of the upper part of the spinal cord seemed normal
and healthy, the lungs were collapsed, the heart was in such a state of
firm spasms and so empty that I remarked it might have been rinsed out,
it was so perfectly clean and free from blood. There were no appearances
of functional disturbances except a slight effusion of serum in one
pleural cavity, I believe the right side. The other part of the spinal
cord was in a normal state. They told me the child was unusually well
and merry at supper; that she then went to bed with her sister, and in
lying down suddenly jumped up and said, “I am going to die,” and begged
her sister to rub her.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--This case accords with all the
descriptions of angina pectoris by the best authors--Latham, Watson,
Boyeau, Pratt, and Sir Everett Holme.
What is the true nature and cause of angina pectoris?--It has been laid
down as disease of the valves of the heart. There have been many cases
in which there has been no discovered cause.
Are the symptoms of angina pectoris not those that would be produced by
taking strychnia?--Not exactly. In angina pectoris the patient requests
to be rubbed to give relief.
Did you hear the Leeds case?--Assuming that that was a case of
strychnia, I must say that the two forms are so strictly analogous that
there would be great difficulty in detecting angina from strychnia, with
this difference, that angina is paroxysmal, it comes and goes, and
strychnia would not be so likely to do that. You would not expect it for
many months.
[Sidenote: B. W. Richardson]
But in this case you are speaking as if it ended in the first
paroxysm?--Yes.
How then can you be justified, in cases where you discover no abnormal
conditions of the heart or its arteries, in setting down the death to
angina?--Precisely as if I saw the symptoms of epilepsy I should accept
them as such.
Supposing the disease was referable to two causes, in the absence of all
evidence, what is your reason for setting it down to one in preference
to the other?--I quite admit that if I had known as much of the nature
of strychnia as I do now I should have gone on to make analysis.
Is the disease of angina pectoris attended with painful symptoms before
it terminates in death?--Most painful. The paroxysms terminating in
death may run on for more than eight minutes. It comes on suddenly. It
does not always kill at the first attack. It generally spreads itself
over a certain period of time.
You said that the head was somewhat bent back. Was that
opisthotonos?--There was rigidity, not amounting to opisthotonos, but
still very marked. The neck was so stiffly bent back that if the body
had been laid down, and the lower limbs, which I did not see, had been
the same, I have no doubt the body would be resting on its head and
heels.
You say in epileptic convulsions you have seen the hands clenched firmly
till death. Did you ever see them so long after death?--I have seen them
firmly clenched, not in epilepsy only.
In what cases have you seen them firmly clenched after death?--In cases
where there has been violent convulsion. I saw them once from
hæmorrhage.
In other cases have you?--I can only say, in a general sense, I have
seen the hands clenched over and over again, and have paid no attention
to it. My belief, from seeing people die, is that the clenching of the
hands is, in many cases, mere matter of accident.
Re-examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--Have you known cases personally or
from your reading where patients recover from angina pectoris, and
whether within a short time afterwards they sometimes have another
attack?--They do, sometimes in so short an interval as twenty-four
hours.
During the interval between the two attacks what is the condition of the
patient?--Perfectly healthy, to all appearance.
Are the symptoms described in the evidence more like the symptoms of
angina pectoris or strychnia poison?--I should certainly say angina
pectoris.
You had no reason to suspect poison of any kind in that case, either
before or now?--Not the slightest.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Dr. Wrightson]
Dr. WRIGHTSON, recalled, examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--In your opinion,
when the strychnia poison is absorbed into the system, does it become
diffused by the circulation of the blood through the system, or does it
collect in the tissues?--I should think it is diffused throughout the
entire system by circulation if it be wholly absorbed, and it would
depend on the rapidity with which death takes place after complete
absorption, and on the quickness of circulation.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--Would the absorption be more
complete if a longer time were given for the process between the
administration and the death?--Certainly, it would be.
Is that supposing a minimum dose given sufficient to destroy life; if a
long interval elapses between the taking of the poison and the death,
the more complete the absorption the less the chance of finding it in
the stomach?--_Cæteris paribus_ that would be so.
By Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--Would you have a very good chance of finding it in
the kidneys and spleen and in the blood?--Yes.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: C. Watson]
CATHERINE WATSON, examined by Mr. GROVE--I live at Garnkirk, in
Scotland. Last October I was affected with a fit. I had no wound nor
injury on my body before. I had taken no poison.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--I was not ill during the day. I
was in low spirits, but not in pain. A few minutes before eleven at
night I took a pain in the stomach, then two cramps in my arms, then I
was very ill. I have never had cramps like this before nor since.
The Court then adjourned.
Tenth Day, Saturday, 24th May, 1856.
The Court met at ten o’clock.
[Sidenote: O. Pemberton]
Mr. OLIVER PEMBERTON, examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--I am Lecturer in
Anatomy at Queen’s College, Birmingham, and surgeon to the General
Hospital at Birmingham. I was present at the examination of the body of
the late Mr. Cook after it had been exhumed in January or February. I
observed the condition of the spinal cord. In my judgment it was not in
a condition to enable one to state with confidence in what state it had
been 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 a body buried two months,
was so soft as not to enable me to form any opinion as to its state
immediately after death.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--I did not see the body till the
day after the bony canal had been opened, which, to a certain extent,
would expose the interior substance of the cord to the atmosphere. So
far as I recollect, it was still covered with a very hard, dense
membrane. Mr. Bolton, the professor at Queen’s College, was also present
on Palmer’s behalf.
* * * * *
Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--My lord, this closes the medical testimony.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: H. Matthews]
HENRY MATTHEWS, examined by Mr. GROVE--I am an inspector of police at
Euston Station. I was there on 19th November last. The two o’clock
afternoon train is the last that stops at Rugeley. The express for
Stafford leaves at five, and is due at Stafford at 8.42. On 19th
November it arrived at 8.45. From Stafford to Rugeley it is nineteen
miles by railway. I do not know how far by road. After the two o’clock
train to Rugeley, the quickest way to get there is by the five o’clock
to Stafford, and then by road.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Joseph Foster]
JOSEPH FOSTER, examined by Mr. GRAY--I have known the late John Parsons
Cook for many years, and, from what I saw of him, he was of weak health
and constitution. I have been with him when he has had a bilious attack
and sick headache.
Cross-examined by Mr. JAMES--He hunted regularly about three days a
week. He was a member of the Welford Cricket Club, but I have not seen
him playing for three or four years.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: George Myatt]
GEORGE MYATT, examined by Mr. GROVE--I am a saddler at Rugeley. I was at
Shrewsbury races, and saw Palmer and Cook at the Raven Hotel there on
the Wednesday evening of the race week. It was about twelve at night,
and Cook seemed the worse of liquor. We had some brandy and water
together. Cook drank most of his, and remarked that it was not good, and
thought there was something in it. Cook proposed having some more, but
Palmer told him to finish what he had first. Cook then drank his up. We
all then went to bed. I slept in the same room as Palmer. The brandy we
had was brought in a decanter and poured out. I did not leave the room
from the time Palmer and Cook came in till we went to bed. Had anything
been put in the brandy and water I should have seen it. As far as I can
remember, when Palmer and I went to our bedroom we left Cook in the
sitting room. I locked our door, and Palmer never left the bedroom
during the night. In the morning Palmer asked me to call Mr. Cook, which
I did. Cook then told me how ill he had been during the night. He said
he had been obliged to send for a doctor, and asked me what was put in
the brandy and water. I told him I did not know that anything was put
in. He then asked me to send Palmer to him, which I did. After Palmer
and I had finished our breakfast, I next saw Cook, who came into the
sitting room and had his breakfast. That night the three of us had
dinner at the Raven, and left for Rugeley about six o’clock. We went by
express from Shrewsbury to Stafford. Palmer took the three tickets and
paid. We took a fly from Stafford, there being no train. In the fly from
Stafford to Rugeley Palmer was sick, and vomited through the window.
They could not account for it, unless it was cooking in some brass
utensil, or the water. I heard other people speak about being ill at
Rugeley, and they could not account for it. It is 9 miles by the road
from Stafford to Rugeley.
[Sidenote: George Myatt]
Cross-examined by Mr. JAMES--I have known the prisoner all my life, and
he deals with me for his saddlery at his racing stables. I am not in the
habit of going to racing meetings with him, although I attend them
myself. He paid my expenses at Shrewsbury races, but never at any other
race meeting. About four or five weeks ago I went with Mr. Smith to
Stafford gaol, and was with Palmer for about two hours. I have now and
then stood in half a sovereign or a sovereign with Palmer when betting
on his horses. On the Wednesday night in which I saw Palmer and Cook I
dined at home at Rugeley, and reached Shrewsbury between eight and nine.
I went straight from the station to the Raven Hotel, and up to Palmer’s
room, where I saw Cook. Palmer was out, and I went to the town for about
an hour, and returned to Palmer’s room. He was not in; I waited about
two hours, when he came in with Cook, about twelve o’clock. Cook was
drunk, but not very drunk. The decanter of brandy and the tumblers were
brought in directly. The water, I think, was on the table. I do not
remember Mrs. Brooks calling, or Palmer being called out of the room to
speak to her. I remember Mr. Fisher coming in. I will swear that Palmer
did not at any time that evening take out a glass of brandy and water
and leave the room. He never left the room from the time I joined him
till we went to bed. When Cook drank his brandy and water he made a
remark to the effect that it was not good, and that there was something
in it. I will swear that he did not say, “It burns my throat
dreadfully,” or anything to that effect. The brandy and water was then
given to some one to taste. I think there were but four people in the
room when Cook drank the brandy and water. Palmer sipped from the glass
Cook had drank from, and said he could not taste anything the matter. He
held the glass to Mr. Fisher. I do not remember whether Fisher said, “It
is no good giving me the glass, it is empty.” I will not swear he did
not. Palmer and I went to bed about half an hour after, and left Cook in
the room. That I will swear. The first I heard of Cook being ill during
the night was when he told me of it next morning.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: John Sargent]
JOHN SARGENT, examined by Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--I frequently attend race
meetings, and knew Mr. Cook intimately. I was with him at Liverpool on
the week previous to the Shrewsbury meeting. We slept in adjoining
rooms, and in the morning he called my attention to the state of his
throat and mouth. The back part of his tongue was in a complete state of
ulcer. I said I was surprised that he could eat and drink in the state
his mouth was in. He said he had been in that state for weeks and
months, and took no notice of it now. He had frequently before then
shown me his throat when it was in that state. On one occasion, when he
took a ginger nut with cayenne by mistake, he told me that it nearly
killed him. Before Shrewsbury races Cook was very poor. He owed me £25,
and paid £10 on account, saying he had not sufficient to pay his
expenses at Liverpool. Cook and Palmer were in the habit of betting for
each other on particular horses. I have heard Cook apply to Palmer to
supply him with a lotion called blackwash. This is a mercurial lotion of
calomel and lime water.
Cross-examined by Mr. JAMES--He applied for it at the latter end of last
year. Having seen the state of his throat, I was surprised at his eating
and drinking so well.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: J. Smith]