G. Lathom Browne

TRIALS FOR POISONING BY STRYCHNIA. PALMER, DOVE, AND BARLOW.

Three cases are reported in this chapter. (1) That of William Palmer, for the poisoning of John Parsons Cook, at Rugeley, in Staffordshire, which, in consequence of the prejudice existing against him in that county, was transferred by Act of Parliament to the Central Criminal Court in the City of London,[26] and taken before Lord Chief Justice Campbell, on the 14th, and eleven following days, of May, 1856. (2) That of William Dove, for the murder of his wife, Harriet, at Leeds, tried at York, July 16th, 1856, before Baron Bramwell. (3) That of Silas Barlow, for the murder of his mistress, Eliza Soper, at Vauxhall, tried at the Central Criminal Court, November, 1876, before Mr. Justice Denman.

The first of these trials is remarkable for the conflict of the medico-scientific evidence, the most eminent men among our physicians and analysts being called on either side, and the most contradictory testimony as to the possibility of detecting strychnia being given by them. The second trial shows the dangerous effect of hasty newspaper reports in such cases—the murder of his wife by Dove having been clearly suggested by the popular report to which some of the journals of the day gave circulation, that Dr. Taylor, the eminent analyst, had stated, in connection with Palmer’s case, that strychnia could not be detected by analysis. This case is also interesting from the nature of the insanity which was set up by the defence. The last trial, that of Silas Barlow, exposes the danger of the sale of the “Vermin Killers,” so popular with all householders, most, if not all, of which contain a large proportion of strychnia, and thus offer a ready means for murder or suicide, especially as the purchase of them would not be attributed to an evil intention. It is but a poor consolation to know that, when the mischief has been done, the punishment of the actor can be secured by the skill of the analyst.

THE RUGELEY POISONINGS.

TRIAL OF WILLIAM PALMER, May 14, and following days, 1856.[27]

Before Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Cresswell, at the Central Criminal Court.

For the Prosecution: The Attorney-General (Sir A. Cockburn), Mr. Edwin James, Q.C., Mr. Bodkin, Mr. Welsby, and Mr. Huddlestone.

For the Defence: Mr. Serjeant Shee, Mr. Grove, Q.C., Mr. Gray, and Mr. Kenealy.

William Palmer, surgeon, of Rugeley, Staffordshire, aged 31, was indicted for the wilful murder of John Parsons Cook.

HISTORY OF THE CASE.

Connection between Cook and Palmer.

Mr. Cook, having been originally brought up as a solicitor, on coming into a fortune of from £12,000 to £13,000, abandoned his profession, and took to the turf, where he became acquainted with the prisoner, who had for some years kept racehorses. Originally in good local practice, Palmer had of late transferred the majority of his patients to a Mr. Thirlby, who had previously been his assistant, retaining only two or three more immediately connected with him or his family. His father, originally a working sawyer, had, by his industry, gradually risen to be a timber merchant in a large way of business, and, on his sudden death in 1837, left a fortune of £70,000. As he died intestate, the eldest son executed a deed by which each of the children took £7,000, and the remainder was left to the widow. Of these children, seven in number, the prisoner was the fourth. As a child he was known for his amiability and kindness, but also for his shy and underhand manner, and his partiality for trying experiments of a cruel nature on animals. “He was just and generous,” said one of his early friends, “when he grew up, and he never forgot an old face.”[28] Originally apprenticed to a firm of druggists in Liverpool, he had to leave them in consequence of a scandal in money matters; was then put with Mr. Tylecote, a surgeon, near Rugeley; walked the London hospitals, living the gay life of so many of that class of students; passed his examinations; married the illegitimate daughter of an Indian officer, who left her a small property; and set up in Rugeley as a surgeon. Of his five children only the first, a son, was living at the time of his trial, the others all dying suddenly of convulsions within a few weeks after their birth. He was an indulgent husband, a kind father, a regular attendant at church, and apparently a religious man.

On his marriage, Palmer commenced to live in a handsome style, keeping his carriage, and soon after began training and breeding racehorses, and occupying himself on the turf. As his wife’s fortune was only for her life, in 1854 he insured her life for £13,000, the premiums on which exceeded the income he derived from her, further insurances of a greater amount being declined by other offices. Within nine months after this, his wife was dead, and the insurance money received, relieving Palmer from difficulties that were already pressing on him. Again, within three months after his wife’s death, Palmer was endeavouring to effect insurances on the life of his brother Walter, a confirmed drunkard, to the enormous extent of £80,000. Only one of these policies, that in the Prince of Wales’ office, was accepted, the other offices being put on their guard by the hint that “his wife had died after the first payment of the premium had been made.” Pressed by his pecuniary difficulties, he then tried to effect an insurance for £10,000 on the life of one George Bate, a decayed farmer, whom he employed as a kind of farm bailiff, and represented as a gentleman and an esquire, with a famous cellar of wine, but the insurance offices were now thoroughly awake; a detective was sent to interview the esquire, whom he found hoeing turnips, and the scheme fell through.[29]

Since 1854, Palmer had been in the hands of the bill discounters, and especially of a money-lending attorney in Mayfair of the name of Pratt, with whom he from time to time discounted what purported to be the acceptances of his mother, some of which were renewed on partial payment, others cleared off by the money received from the insurance of his wife’s life.

“This,” said the Attorney-General, “brings us to the close of 1854. In the course of that year he effected another insurance in his brother’s name, but Palmer was the real party, and corresponded with Mr. Pratt on the subject of effecting it, and the policy for £13,000 was assigned to Palmer. On the strength of that policy, which remained in the hands of Pratt, who paid the first premium out of a bill he discounted for Palmer at 60 per cent., they proceeded to discount further bills, this policy being kept as a collateral security. The bills, in the whole, discounted in the course of that year, amounted to £12,500—two in June, which were held over from month to month to keep them alive—two of £2000 each in March, 1855, with the proceeds of which Palmer bought two racehorses, Nettle and Chicken. These bills were renewed from time to time, and eventually came due in January, 1856. Another bill for £2000 was discounted in April, 1855, renewed like the others, and became due on the 25th of October. On the 9th of July another bill for £2000 was discounted, renewed, and became due on the 12th of January. On the 27th of September another bill for £1000 was discounted to pay for the renewal of the bills due and then coming due. So that when the Shrewsbury races took place in November, 1855, bills were due or rapidly maturing to the extent of £11,500, every one of which bore the forged acceptance of the prisoner’s mother. You will therefore understand the pressure which naturally and necessarily arose upon him; the pressure of the liabilities for £11,500 which he had not a shilling in the world to meet, and the still greater pressure which arose from the consciousness that the moment he could go on no longer, his mother would be resorted to for payment. The fact of his having committed these forgeries would be known, and would bring on him the penalty of the law for that crime so committed. The insurance company having refused to pay the policy effected on his brother’s life, no assistance could be derived from that source.”

Already, in May, 1855, Cook, with whom he had become intimately acquainted in racing transactions, had lent him his acceptance for £200 to meet a small claim, and had had to pay it on Palmer’s default. In August of that year, Palmer again asked the money-lending attorney of Mayfair to discount a bill of Cook’s for £500, representing that Cook required the money. It was, however, declined without further security, and then Cook assigned two of his racehorses—Polestar, the subsequent winner at Shrewsbury, and Sirius—as a collateral security, and obtained only £375 in money, and a wine warrant for £65, the rest being swallowed up in discount and expenses. This money and warrant Cook never got, Palmer asking Pratt to send it to the post-office at Doncaster, whence he obtained it; and as it was made “to order,” and bore a receipt stamp, Palmer, it was alleged, forged the name “John Parsons Cook,” and took the cheque and the warrant, and appropriated the proceeds. That bill would be due on the day of Cook’s death. In the same month it was that he attempted to effect the insurance on Bate’s life and failed; and though Cook had, at Palmer’s request, attested this proposal, which referred to Palmer as the usual medical attendant, beyond that he had nothing to do with this attempt.

Such was the desperate position of the prisoner at this time. It, however, rapidly grew worse. On the 6th of November a writ for £2000 against Palmer, and another for the same sum against his mother, were issued, but held over by Pratt in order that Palmer might make some arrangement. This he did to the amount of £800, and in consequence, after allowing for an exorbitant discount, £600 was taken off the bill, leaving £1400 to be met. The Prince of Wales office had refused to pay on Walter Palmer’s life, and Mr. Pratt would not wait any longer. On the 13th of November, Pratt wrote him that all the bills, £11,500 in amount, must be met—a letter which Palmer must have received the next day—the day after that on which Cook’s horse, Polestar, won at the Shrewsbury races. After the race, Cook had between £700 and £800 in his pocket from bets paid on the course, and from the stakes and his other bets would be entitled on the week after to receive more than a thousand pounds at Tattersal’s. Before that day Cook was dead, his pocket-book empty, and his betting-book not to be found.

Cook, though slightly disposed to pulmonary complaints, was a hale and hearty young man, at the time of his fatal illness suffering only from debility.[30] It was only natural that his victory should excite him, and that with some friends he should celebrate it with two or three bottles of champagne at the “Raven Hotel” on his return from the course. He was, however, generally abstemious. He went to bed with nothing the matter with him, got up the next day and went on the course as usual. That night his illness began.

Late on the evening of the 14th of November, a betting agent of Cook’s, of the name of Fisher, who was staying at the “Raven,” was invited by Cook to come into the room where he, Palmer, and one Myatt were, and take some brandy and water.

“They were drinking grog,” says Fisher; “the deceased had some brandy and water before him. He asked me to sit down, and I did so. Cook asked the prisoner to have some more brandy and water, and he said he would not until Cook had drunk his. Cook then took up his glass, and drank almost all the liquor that was in it, and, within a minute, he exclaimed, ‘There is something in it; it burns my throat dreadfully.’ Upon his saying this, Palmer took up the glass, and sipped what remained in it, and said, ‘There is nothing in it.’ There was a very small quantity in the glass when the prisoner took it up. At this time a person of the name of Reid came in, and the prisoner handed the glass to him, and asked if he thought there was anything in it, and handed it to me also, and we said there was nothing we could recognize, as the glass was empty. I said, however, that there was a strong scent upon it, but I could not detect anything but brandy. Cook went out of the room, and when he returned he called me out. I went with him into my sitting-room. He appeared very ill, and he told me he had been very sick and asked me to take his money. He said he thought Palmer had been dosing him. He gave me £700. He did not say what I was to do with the money. He was very sick again after he had given me the money, and asked me to go into his bedroom with him. I did so. Another person named Jones went with us; the deceased vomited violently in his bedroom in our presence. He was so ill I recommended him to send for Dr. Gibson, who attended and gave him some medicine. He was certainly not drunk; there was nothing about him approaching to drunkenness. He appeared very ill the next morning, but a good deal better than the previous night, and I returned him his money.”[31]

Mr. Gibson, who saw Cook during this attack, confirmed Fisher’s and Reed’s account, stating that his tongue was perfectly clean, his pulse good, but his stomach appeared distended, that he only administered simple remedies. Cook told him he thought he had been poisoned. He seemed a little excited, but not drunk. A Mrs. Brooks, who also attends races, added the following evidence on this incident:—

“I went to the ‘Raven’ to see Palmer about half-past ten at night on Wednesday the 15th. I went upstairs, and asked a servant to tell Palmer that I wished to speak to him. She said he was there. At the top of the stairs are two passages, one facing, the other to the left. I turned to the left. I saw Palmer standing by a small table in the passage. He had a tumbler-glass in his hand in which there appeared to be a small quantity of water. I did not see him put anything into it. There was a light between me and him, and he held it up to the light. He said to me, ‘I will be with you presently.’ He saw me the moment I got to the top of the stairs. He stood at the table a minute or two longer with the glass in his hand, holding it up to the light and shaking it. The door of a sitting-room was partially open, and he went into it, taking the glass with him. In two or three minutes he came out again with the glass. What was in it was still of the colour of water. He then went into his own sitting-room, and the door was shut.”

Some brandy and water, which Palmer afterwards brought to Mrs. Brooks, proved harmless to her; but she admitted that on the previous day a great number of the racing men at Shrewsbury were affected with sickness and purging, and that there was a talk in the town of the water being poisoned.[32] With the return of Cook from Shrewsbury to Rugeley with Palmer, on the day after this suspicious attack, the summary of the case ends, it being necessary to detail the subsequent events in the words of the leading witnesses.

THE SYMPTOMS.

In the evening of the 15th of November, Cook returned from Shrewsbury with Palmer to the “Talbot Arms,” at Rugeley, an inn situated immediately opposite Palmer’s own house. He said he had been ill at Shrewsbury, went to bed early, dined with Palmer the next day, and returned to the inn at night, apparently none the worse, and quite sober.

“On the following morning,” said Mills, the chambermaid, “Palmer came to see him, and asked me for a cup of coffee for him, which I procured, and I think I gave it to the deceased, and left the room. I did not see him drink the coffee; but when I went into the room shortly afterwards, I found it had been vomited in the utensil. I did not observe a jug of toast-and-water in the bedroom; but a jug that did not belong to the bedroom was sent down at night, for me to make some fresh toast-and-water in it. The prisoner was in deceased’s bedroom four or five times on this day, and I heard him tell Cook that he would send him over some soup. I afterwards saw some broth in the kitchen, which I knew had not been made in the Talbot Arms; and the waitress took this broth to the deceased’s bedroom. I saw the prisoner after this, and he asked me if Mr. Cook had had his broth; and the waitress said she had taken it to him, but he refused to take it, and said that it would not stay on his stomach. The prisoner then told me to fetch the broth, as Mr. Cook must have it, and I did so, and left it in deceased’s bedroom, and shortly afterwards I saw that it had been vomited. The same evening some barley water was made for the deceased, and also some arrowroot, but I cannot say whether they remained on his stomach or not. Mr. Bamford, the doctor, was called in after this. On the Sunday after the deceased came to the Talbot Arms, I saw him in his bedroom about eight o’clock in the morning, and he said he had slept well since twelve o’clock, and he felt pretty comfortable. A large breakfast cup of broth was brought from the prisoner’s house between twelve and one o’clock on the Sunday, and I took it up to the deceased’s bedroom. I tasted the broth, and very soon afterwards I was sick. I drunk about two tablespoonfuls. I vomited violently all the afternoon, and was obliged to go to bed. I was quite well up to the time of my drinking the broth. I saw the deceased on Sunday evening, and he seemed in good spirits, and not to be any worse. I saw the deceased on the Monday morning between seven and eight o’clock, when I took him a cup of coffee for his breakfast. He did not vomit the coffee. Palmer had seen him before this, but he did not come again until ten o’clock at night. The deceased got up about one o’clock, and he shaved and dressed himself, and appeared a great deal better, but said that he was exceedingly weak. Ashmall, the jockey, came to see him on the Monday, and also Mr. Saunders, the trainer. Soon after one o’clock, the deceased took some arrowroot, and it remained on his stomach. The deceased went to bed at four o’clock, and between nine and ten the prisoner went into his room, and I left him there. Some pills were sent by Dr. Bamford for the deceased, about eight o’clock, and I took them into his room, and placed them on the dressing-table, and they were there when the prisoner went into the room. I went to bed between ten and eleven, and I was called up about twelve. I then heard violent screams from the deceased’s bedroom, and upon entering it I saw the deceased sitting up in bed, and he desired me to fetch the prisoner directly. I told him he had been sent for, and I then walked to the bedside and found one of the pillows was upon the floor. I picked it up and asked Mr. Cook if he would lay his head down. At this time he was beating the bedclothes apparently in great agony, and he told me he could not lie down, and he should be suffocated if he did; and he then, in a loud tone, asked me again to send for Mr. Palmer. There was a sort of jumping or jerking about his head and neck and body all this time, and his breathing was very much affected. He screamed three or four times while I was in the room, and twice he called out, ‘Murder.’ He asked me to rub one of his hands, and I found it quite stiff. It was the left hand. The fingers were all stretched out and there was no motion in them, and they twitched while I was rubbing the hand. Palmer came into the room while this was going on, and the deceased recognized him, and said, ‘Oh, Palmer,’ or ‘Oh, doctor, I shall die.’ The prisoner replied, ‘Oh, my lad, you won’t;’ and after remaining a minute or two in the room he told me to stay there, and went out. He returned in a very few minutes, and he then produced some pills, and he gave the deceased a draught in a wine-glass, after he had given him the pills. Cook said that the pills stuck in his throat, and the prisoner told me to give him some toast-and-water, and I did so in a teaspoon. His head and body continued jerking, and he seized the spoon fast between his teeth and seemed to bite it very hard. The deceased shortly after swallowed the toast-and-water and the pills, and the prisoner then handed him the draught. It had a thick heavy appearance. The deceased snapped at the glass in the same way he did at the spoon, and he appeared unable to control himself. As soon as he had swallowed the draught, he vomited it immediately, and it appeared to me to smell like opium. The prisoner then made the remark that he hoped the pills had stayed, and he searched the utensil in which the deceased had vomited with a quill, and said that he could not find them; and he told me to take the utensil away and empty it carefully, and I did so, but could not see any trace of the pills. After this the deceased seemed a little more easy. The attack lasted altogether about half an hour, and during the whole of the time he was quite conscious. When he was composed he asked the prisoner to feel how his heart beat; and Palmer went to his bedside, and put his hand either to his heart, or the side of his face, and he said it was all right. I left the deceased about three o’clock in the morning, and at this time the prisoner was sitting in the easy chair, and I believe he was asleep. About six o’clock the same morning I saw the deceased again, and he told me that Mr. Palmer had left him about a quarter past five o’clock. I asked him how he was, and he replied that he was no worse; and he then asked me if I had ever seen any one in such agony as he was the night before, and I told him I never had. He then said he was sure I should never like to see anyone in such agony again, and I inquired what he thought was the cause. He replied that it was through some pills that Palmer had given him about half-past ten. The deceased was quite composed and quiet at this time, and there was no jerking or convulsion about him, but his eyes looked very wild. About twelve o’clock the deceased desired me to send the Boots over to Mr. Palmer to know whether he might have a cup of coffee. A message was brought back that he might, and Mr. Palmer would be over immediately. When I took up the coffee the prisoner was in the room, and I gave him the coffee, and he tasted it to see that it was not too strong. Mr. Jones came to the inn about three o’clock, and I saw him in the deceased’s room, and the prisoner after this told me that Cook had vomited the coffee. I saw Cook several times after this, and he appeared in very good spirits, and talked about getting up the next morning, and wished the barber to be sent for to shave him. I did not see the deceased later than half-past ten o’clock on the Tuesday night, and the prisoner was then in his bedroom, and I gave him some toast-and-water for the deceased, and the prisoner said he did not want anything more. I sat up in the kitchen on purpose to see how Mr. Cook went on, and I heard the bell of his room ring violently about ten minutes before twelve, and went up immediately. I found the deceased sitting up, and Mr. Jones had his arm round his shoulders, apparently supporting him. The deceased when he saw me, told me to fetch Palmer directly. I went over to his house, and rang the surgery bell, and the prisoner came to the window almost in an instant, and opened a small casement, and I told him to come over to Mr. Cook, as he was in much the same state as he was the night before. He made some reply, and I returned at once to the ‘Talbot Arms,’ and in a minute or two the prisoner came into Mr. Cook’s room. The first thing he said was that he did not think he had ever dressed so quickly before in his life. At this time Mr. Jones was supporting the deceased. I went out into the landing about a minute or two, and the prisoner came out, and I observed to him that Mr. Cook appeared in the same state as the night before, and he replied, ‘Not so ill by a fiftieth part.’ He then went to his own house, and returned in a very short time to the deceased’s bedroom. I then heard the deceased ask to be turned on his right side, and I then shortly after heard that he was dead.”

The cross-examination of Elizabeth Mills was mainly directed to three points—(1.) The fact of Mr. Cook complaining of sore throat, but not of difficulty in swallowing, in May, 1855, when the witness said all that he did was to use a gargle sent by Dr. Bamford. (2.) Her omission to tell the coroner that the broth had made her sick; that Cook had said he became ill on taking the pills sent by Palmer; that he beat the bedclothes, called “Murder!” and “twitched” when she rubbed his hands. These omissions the witness accounted for by the fact that the coroner did not ask her to detail all the symptoms she saw, but merely required her to answer such questions as he put. On her depositions being read, the Attorney-General proposed to call evidence to prove the negligence and misconduct of the coroner, but the court ruled that it was inadmissible.[33] (3.) That the witness had had several interviews with Cook’s stepfather, Stevens, his attorney, and the chief constable, before giving evidence—the defence imputing that they had instructed her in the symptoms. She denied, however, any such conduct on their part. She had heard of Dove’s case, but not read it, and Mr. Stevens had never given her any money. An attempt to injure her moral character in reference to a man of the name of Dutton entirely failed, and her evidence remained substantially uncontradicted.

Lavinia Barnes, the waitress at the “Talbot Arms,” remembered Cook coming there on Monday, the 12th, on his way to the races, and not complaining of illness, and she saw him when he returned on Thursday, the 15th, and after he came from dining at Palmer’s, on the Friday evening, when he spoke to her, and was sober.

“On the Saturday,” continued this witness, “I saw him twice. Some broth was sent over and taken up to him by me. He could not take it; he was too sick. I carried it down, and put it in the kitchen. I afterwards saw Palmer, and told him Cook was too sick to take it; he said he must have it. Elizabeth Mills afterwards took it up again. Mills was taken ill with violent vomiting on the Sunday between twelve and one o’clock. She went to bed, and did not come downstairs till four or five o’clock. I saw some broth that day in the kitchen; it was in a sick cup, with two handles, not belonging to the house. I did not see it brought; it was taken back to Palmer’s. On Monday morning (19th) I saw Palmer, and he told Mills he was going to London. I saw Cook during that day. Saunders came to see him, and took him up some brandy-and-water. I slept that night in the next room to Cook’s. Palmer came between eight and nine in the evening, but I did not see if he went up to Cook’s room. (According to Mills, Palmer had seen Cook in the morning, and saw him again at ten at night.) About twelve o’clock I was in the kitchen, when Cook’s bell rang violently. I went upstairs. Cook was very ill, and asked me to send for Palmer. He screamed out ‘’Murder!’ He exclaimed that he was in violent pain—that he was suffocating. His eyes were wild-looking, standing a great way out of his head. He was beating his bed with his arms. He cried out, ‘Christ, have mercy on my soul!’ I never saw a person in such a state. Having called up Mills, I left to send ‘Boots’ for Palmer, who came, and I again went into Cook’s room. Cook was then more composed. He said, ‘Oh, doctor, I shall die!’ Palmer replied, ‘Don’t be alarmed, my lad.’ I saw Cook drink a dark mixture out of a glass, but do not know who gave it him. I both heard and saw him snap at the glass. He brought up the draught. I left him between twelve and one, when he was more composed. On Tuesday he seemed a little better. At night, a little before twelve, the bell rang again. I was in the kitchen. Mills went upstairs, and I followed her, and heard Cook screaming, but did not go into the room. I stood outside the door, and saw Palmer come. He had been fetched. I said, as he passed me, ‘Mr. Cook is ill again.’ He said, ‘Oh, is he?’ and went into the room. He was dressed in his usual manner, and wore a black coat and a cap.[34] She also heard him make the observation to Mills before reported. She went to the room, but came out before Cook died.”

MEDICAL EVIDENCE.

In consequence of his severe illness, the following deposition of Dr. Bamford (an aged local practitioner) before the coroner was read:—

“I attended the late Mr. Cook, at the request of William Palmer, and first saw him about three o’clock on Saturday, the 17th of November, when he was suffering from violent vomiting, the stomach being in that irritable state, that it would not contain a teaspoonful of milk. There was perfect moisture of the skin, and he was quite sensible. I prescribed medicine for him; and Mr. Palmer went up to my house and waited until I had made it up, and then took it away. I prescribed a saline draught, to be taken in an effervescing state. Between seven and eight in the evening Mr. Palmer again requested me to visit Mr. Cook. The sickness still continued, everything he took being ejected from his stomach. I gave him two small pills as an opiate. Palmer took the pills from my house. I did not accompany, nor do I know what became of the pills. On the following morning (Sunday) Palmer again called, and asked me to accompany him. Mr. Cook’s sickness still continued. I remained about ten minutes. Everything he took that morning was ejected from his stomach. Everything he threw up was as clear as water, except some coffee that he had taken. Palmer had administered some pills before I saw Mr. Cook on Saturday, which had purged him several times. Between six and seven in the evening I again visited the deceased, accompanied by Palmer. The sickness still continued. I went on Monday morning between eight and nine, and changed his medicine. I sent him a draught, which relieved his sickness, and gave him ease. I did not see him again until Tuesday night, when Palmer called for me. I examined Mr. Cook, in the presence of Mr. Jones and Mr. Palmer, and I observed a change in him. He was irritable and troubled in his mind. His pulse was firm, but tremulous, and between 80° and 90°. He threw himself down on the bed, and turned his face away. He said he would have no more pills, nor take any medicine. After they had left the room, Palmer asked me to make two more pills, similar to those on the previous night, which I did, and he then asked me to write the directions on a slip of paper, and I gave the pills to Palmer. The effervescing mixture contained 20 grains of carbonate of potash, 2 drachms of compound tincture of cardamine, and 2 drachms of simple syrup, together with 15 grains of tartaric acid for each powder. I never gave Mr. Cook a grain of antimony. I did not see the preparations after they were taken away. His skin was moist, and there was not the least fever about him. I considered death to have been the result of congestion of the brain, when the post-mortem examination was made, and I do not see any reason to alter that opinion. Palmer said he was of the same opinion with respect to the death of the deceased. I never knew apoplexy produce rigidity of the limbs. Drowsiness is a prelude to apoplexy. I attribute the sickness on the first two days to a disordered stomach.” When called in the sixth day of the trial, after his recovery, the witness said—speaking of the last visit to Mr. Cook—“Having seen Cook, I left the room with Jones and Palmer: the latter said he rather wished Cook to have his pills again (I had prepared the same pills on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday), and he would walk up with me for them. He did so, and stood by me in the surgery while I prepared them. I had strychnia in a cupboard in my private room. I put the pills in a box, and addressed it ‘Night pills, John Parsons Cook, Esq.’ I wrote that direction all four nights. On the Tuesday night Palmer requested me to put on a direction. After that I did not see Cook alive. It was, as near as could be, twenty minutes past twelve, at midnight, when I saw Cook dead. I understood he was alive when they came for me, and I could not have been more than five or ten minutes in going up. My house is about two hundred yards from Palmer. I found the body stretched out, resting on the heels and the back of the head, as straight as possible, and stiff. The arms were extended down each side of the body, and the hands clenched. I certified it was apoplexy.”

Mr. William Henry Jones, a surgeon at Lutterworth, and intimate friend of Cook’s for the last five years, was written to by Palmer on the Monday, the 19th, stating that “Cook was taken ill at Shrewsbury, and obliged to call in a medical man;” that “since then he had been confined to his bed with a very serious bilious attack, combined with diarrhoea,” and that Palmer “thought it advisable that his friend should come and see him.” Illness prevented this before about half-past three in the afternoon of Tuesday, the day before Cook died.

“On my arrival at Rugeley,” said the witness, “I went up to Cook’s room. He said he was very comfortable, but had been very ill at Shrewsbury. He did not detail the symptoms, but said he had had to call in a doctor. Palmer came in. I examined Cook in his presence. He had a natural pulse. I looked at his tongue; it was clean. I said it was hardly the tongue of a bilious, diarrhoea attack. Palmer replied, ‘You should have seen it before.’ I did not then prescribe for Cook. In the course of the afternoon I visited him several times. He changed for the better. His spirits and pulse both improved. I gave him, at his request, some toast and water, and he vomited. There was no diarrhoea. The toast and water was in the room. Mr. Bamford came in the evening, about 7 o’clock, and expressed his opinion that Cook was going on very satisfactorily. We were talking about what he was to have, and Cook objected to the pills of the previous night. Palmer was there all the time. Cook said the pills made him ill. I do not remember to whom he addressed this observation. We three (Palmer, Bamford, and myself) went out upon the landing. Palmer proposed that Mr. Bamford should make up some morphine pills as before, at the same time requesting me not to mention to Cook what they contained, as he objected to the morphine so much. Mr. Bamford agreed to this, and he went away. I went back to Cook’s room, and Palmer went with me. During the evening I was several times in Cook’s room. He seemed very comfortable all the evening. There was no more vomiting nor any diarrhoea, but there was a natural motion in the bowels. I observed no bilious symptoms about Cook.”

By Lord Campbell.—“Did he appear to have recently suffered from a bilious attack?”

Answer.—“No.”

Examination resumed.—“Palmer and I went to his house about eight o’clock. I remained there about half-an-hour, and then returned to Cook. I next saw Palmer in Cook’s room at nearly eleven o’clock. He had brought with him a box of pills. He opened the paper on which the direction was written in my presence. That paper was round the box. He called my attention to the paper, saying, ‘What an excellent handwriting for an old man!’ I did not read the direction, but looked at the writing, which was very good. Palmer proposed to Cook that he should take the pills. Cook protested very much against it, because they had made him so ill on the previous night. Palmer repeated the request several times, and at last Cook complied with it, and took the pills. The moment he took them he vomited into the utensil. Palmer and myself (at Palmer’s request) searched in it for the pills, to see whether they were returned. We found nothing but toast-and-water. I do not know when Cook had drunk the toast-and-water, but it was standing by the bedside all the evening. The vomiting could not have been caused by the contents of the pills, nor by the act of swallowing. After vomiting Cook laid down and appeared quiet. Before Palmer came Cook had got up and sat in a chair. His spirits were very good; he was laughing and joking, talking of what he should do with himself during the winter. After he had taken the pills I went downstairs to my supper, and returned to his room at nearly twelve o’clock. His room was double-bedded, and it had been arranged that I should sleep in it that night. I talked to Cook for a few minutes, and then went to bed. When I last talked to him he was rather sleepy, but quite as well as he had been during the evening. There was nothing about him to excite any apprehensions. I had been in bed about ten minutes, and had not got to sleep, when he suddenly started up in bed, and called out, ‘Doctor, get up, I am going to be ill! Ring the bell and send for Palmer.’ I rang the bell. The chambermaid came, and Cook called out to her, ‘Fetch Mr. Palmer.’ He asked me to give him something. I declined, and said, ‘Palmer will be here directly.’ Cook was then sitting up in bed. The room was rather dark, and I did not observe anything particular in his countenance. He asked me to rub the back of his neck. I did so. I supported him with my arm. There was a stiffness about the muscles of his neck. Palmer soon came in; two or three minutes at the utmost after the chambermaid went for him. He said, ‘I never dressed so quickly in my life.’ I did not observe how he was dressed. He gave Cook two pills, which he told me were ammonia pills. Cook swallowed them. Directly he did so he uttered loud screams, threw himself back in the bed, and was dreadfully convulsed. That could not have been the result of the pills last taken. He said, ‘Raise me up; I shall be suffocated.’ That was at the commencement of the convulsions, which lasted five or ten minutes. 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 to be turned over. He was then quite sensible. I turned him on his side. I listened to the action of the heart. I found it gradually weakened, and asked Palmer to fetch some spirits of ammonia, to be used as a stimulant. He went to his house and fetched a bottle. He was away a very short time. When he returned the pulsations of the heart were gradually ceasing, and life was almost extinct. He died very quietly a short time afterwards.

“From the time he called to me to the time of his death there elapsed about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. He died of tetanus, which is a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the whole body. It causes death by stopping the action of the heart. The sense of suffocation is caused by the contraction of the respiratory muscles. The room was so dark that I could not observe the outward appearance of Cook’s body after death. When he threw himself back in bed he clenched his teeth, and they remained clenched after his death. When I was rubbing his neck, his head and neck were unnaturally bent back by the spasmodic action of the muscles. After his death his body was so twisted or bowed that if I had placed it upon the back it would have rested on the head and feet.”

By Lord Campbell.—“When did you first observe the bowing and twisting?”

Witness.—“When Cook threw himself back on the bed. The jaw was affected by the spasmodic action.”

The cross-examination of this witness was directed to the previous health of the deceased, and to his fears that he was still suffering from a former attack of venereal disease, which Mr. Jones decidedly negatived; to his having been in pecuniary difficulties from his racing ventures, which the witness said he was steadily redeeming; to Cook’s objection to take morphia; to the question whether, when before the coroner, the witness had used the word “tetanus,” which it was evident from the original depositions had been scratched out by the clerk, probably from ignorance of its meaning, and to whether he agreed with Dr. Bamford that Cook had died in an apoplectic fit, or rather, as the witness at the time thought, of one of an epileptic character. In re-examination, he said that “he was satisfied that Cook’s death did not arise from epilepsy, as in that disease consciousness is lost, but there is no rigidity or convulsive spasm of the muscles, and the symptoms quite different. He was equally certain that it did not arise from apoplexy.” Dr. Savage, of Gloucester Place, London, who had attended Cook for four years, also negatived the suggestion that he was suffering from syphilitic symptoms, or that he had any venereal taint about him. He was timid, no doubt, about his throat, and had had two small ulcers on his tongue due to two bad teeth, but by the end of May they had gradually disappeared, and were quite well.

The woman who laid out the body noticed that “though it was quite warm, the hands and arms were cold; the body lying on the back, straight down the bed,[35] the arms crossed upon the chest, and the head ‘lying a little turned on one side.’” She had never seen so stiff a corpse before. “We,” she continued, “had difficulty in straightening the arms. We could not keep them straight down to the body. I passed a piece of tape under the back, and tied it round the wrists, to fasten the arms down. The right foot turned on one side outwards. We were obliged to tie both feet together. The eyes were open. We were a considerable time before we could close them, because the eyelids were so stiff. The hands were closed, and were very stiff. I have never known them so stiff as in this case.” Mr. Stevens, Cook’s stepfather, who saw the body three days after death, also noted that the right hand was clenched, and, as he looked across the body, that the left was clenched in the same way.

What passed between Mr. Stevens and Palmer at their interview at Rugeley on the Friday after Cook’s death, and the reasons why he eventually insisted on a post-mortem examination and a chemical analysis of the corpse, belong rather to the section relating to the conduct of the prisoner. It will be sufficient here to note that on the 26th of November the post-mortem examination was held with the following results by Dr. Harland, of Stafford, assisted by Mr. Devonshire, of the London University, and Mr. Newton, of Rugeley, in the presence of Dr. Bamford, Palmer, and several other persons.

POST-MORTEM EXAMINATION.

Dr. John Thomas Harland, physician, of Stafford, arrived at Rugeley at ten in the morning of the 26th, called at Dr. Bamford’s on his way to the hotel where the examination was to be conducted, and on his road met Palmer, whom he had previously known. “I am glad,” said Palmer, “that you are come to make a post-mortem examination. Someone might have been sent whom I did not know.” “What is the case?” replied Harland; “I hear there is a suspicion of poisoning.” “Oh no,” said Palmer; “he had an epileptic fit on Monday and Tuesday last, and you will find old disease in the heart and head.” Such was not the result of the post-mortem. They “found the body much stiffer than bodies usually are five or six days after death—the muscles strongly contracted and thrown out, and the hands stiff and firmly closed.” According to a report which Dr. Harland sent to Mr. Stevens, and which at the suggestion of the judge was read in full, the various internal organs were perfectly healthy and natural, as described in detail in the following examination, subsequent to reading the report:—

“The abdominal viscera were in a perfectly healthy state. They were taken out of the body. We examined the liver. It was healthy. The lungs were healthy, but contained a good deal of blood; not more than would be accounted for by gravitation after death. We examined the head. The brain was quite healthy. There was no extravasation of blood, and no serum. There was nothing which, in my judgment, could cause pressure. The heart was contracted, and contained no blood. That was the result, not of disease, but of spasmodic action. At the larger end of the stomach there were numerous small yellowish-white spots, about the size of mustard seeds. They would not at all account for death. I doubt whether they would have any effect upon the health. I think they were mucous follicles. The kidneys were full of blood which had gravitated there. They had no appearance of disease. The blood was in a fluid state. That was not usual. It is found so in some cases of sudden death, which are of rare occurrence. The lower part of the spinal cord was not very closely examined. We examined the upper part of that cord. It presented a perfectly natural appearance. On a subsequent day, I think the 25th of January, it was thought right to exhume the body, that the spinal cord might be more carefully examined. I was present at that examination. The lower part of the spinal cord was then minutely examined. A report was made of that examination.”

This report was put in, and was read by the witness. It described minutely the appearance and condition of the spinal cord and its envelopes, and concluded with this statement:—“There is nothing in the condition of the spinal cord or its envelopes to account for death; nothing but the most normal and healthy state, allowance being made for the lapse of time since the death of the deceased.”

Examination resumed.—“I am still of opinion that there was nothing in the appearance of the spine to account for the death of the deceased, and nothing of an unusual kind which might not be referred to changes after death. When the stomach and intestines were removed from the body on the occasion of the first examination they were separately emptied into a jar, and were afterwards placed in it. Mr. Devonshire and Mr. Newton removed them from the body. They were the only two who operated. At the time the prisoner was standing on the right of Mr. Newton. While Mr. Devonshire was opening the stomach a push was given by Palmer, which sent Mr. Newton against Mr. Devonshire, and shook some of the contents of the stomach into the body. I thought a joke was passing among them, and said, ‘Don’t do that.’”

By Lord Campbell.—“Might not Palmer have been impelled by some one outside him?”

Answer.—“There was no one who could have impelled him.”

Question.—“What did you observe Palmer do?”

Answer.—“I saw Mr. Newton and Mr. Devonshire pushed together, and Palmer was over them. He was smiling at the time.”

Examination continued.—“After this interruption the opening of the stomach was pursued. The stomach contained about three ounces of a brownish fluid. There was nothing particular in that. Palmer was looking on, and said, ‘They won’t hang us yet.’ He said that to Mr. Bamford in a loud whisper. That remark was made upon his own observation of the stomach. The stomach after being emptied, was put into the jar. The intestines were then examined, but nothing particular was found in them. They were contracted and very small. The viscera, with their contents, as taken from the body, were placed in the jar, which was then covered over with two bladders, which were tied and sealed. I tied and sealed them. After I had done so I placed the jar upon the table by the body. Palmer was then moving about the room. In a few minutes I missed the jar from where I had placed it. During that time my attention had been withdrawn by the examination. On missing the jar I called out, ‘Where’s the jar?’ and Palmer from the other end of the room, said, ‘It is here; I thought it would be more convenient for you to take away.’ There was a door at the end of the room where he was. He was within a yard or two of that door, and about twenty-four feet from the table on which the body was lying.” (Before making this last statement the witness referred to a plan of the room which was put in by the Attorney-General.) “The other door near which Palmer was standing was not the one by which he entered the room. I called to Palmer, ‘Will you bring it here?’ I went from the table and met Palmer half-way coming with the jar. Since I last saw it it had been cut through both bladders. The cut was hardly an inch long, done with a sharp instrument. I examined the jar. The edges were quite clean; no part of the contents could have passed through it. Finding this cut, I said, ‘Here is a cut! who has done it?’ Palmer, Devonshire, and Newton, all said they had not done it, and nothing more was said. When I was about to remove the jar from the room, the prisoner asked me what I was going to do with it. I said I should take it to Mr. Frere’s (a neighbouring surgeon). He said, ‘I would rather you would take it to Stafford than take it there.’ I made no answer that I remember. On finding the slit, I cut the strings, and altered the bladder, so that the slits were not over the top. I took it to Mr. Frere’s, and left it in his hall, tied and sealed. Afterwards when I went for my carriage, whilst waiting in the yard, the prisoner came and asked me what would be done with it, and I said, ‘Sent either to Birmingham or London for examination.’ When I recovered the jar, I tied each corner separately and resealed it with my own seal. During the first post-mortem examination, there were several Rugeley persons present, but, I believe, no one on behalf of the prisoner. At the second examination there was some one on behalf of Palmer (Mr. Pemberton and Mr. Bolton).”

On cross-examination, after stating that Palmer’s words, “they won’t hang us yet,” were addressed to Bamford in a loud whisper, and afterwards repeated to several persons, and that his original notes in pencil were destroyed, a more formal report being written by him on getting home, Dr. Harland said—

“At the base of the tongue of the deceased I observed some enlarged mucous follicles; they were not pustules containing matter, but enlarged mucous follicles of long standing. There were a good many of them, but I do not suppose that they would occasion much inconvenience. They might cause some degree of pain, but it would be slight. I do not believe they were enlarged glands. I should not say that the deceased’s lungs were diseased, although they were not in their normal state. The lungs were full of blood and the heart empty. I had no lens at the post-mortem examination, but I made an examination which was satisfactory without one. The brain was carefully taken out; the membranes and external parts were first examined, and thin slices about a quarter of an inch in thickness were taken off and subjected to separate examination. I think that by that means we should have discovered disease if any had existed; and if there had been any indication of disease I should have examined it more carefully. I examined the spinal cord as far down as possible, and if there had been any appearance of disease, I should have opened the canal. There was no appearance of disease, however. We opened down to the first vertebra. If we had found a softening of the spinal cord, I do not think that it would have been sufficient to have caused Mr. Cook’s death; certainly not. A softening of the spinal cord would not produce tetanus; it might produce paralysis. I do not think, as a medical man investigating the cause of death, that it was necessary carefully to examine the spinal cord. I do not know who suggested that there should be an examination of the spinal cord two months after death. There were some appearances of decomposition when we examined the spinal cord, but I do not think that there was sufficient to interfere with our examination.[36] I examined the body to ascertain if there was any trace of venereal disease. I did find certain indications of that description, and the marks of an old excoriation, which was cicatrized over.”

Re-examined by the Attorney-General.—“There were no indications of wounds or sores such as could by possibility produce tetanus. There was no disease of the lungs to account for death. The heart was healthy, and its emptiness I attribute to spasmodic action. The heart being empty, of course death ensued. The convulsive spasmodic action of the muscles of the body, which was deposed to yesterday by Mr. Jones, would, in my judgment occasion the emptiness of the heart. There was nothing whatever in the brain to indicate the presence of any disease of any sort; but if there had been, I never heard or read of any disease of the brain ever producing tetanus. There was no relaxation of the spinal cord which would account for the symptoms accompanying Mr. Cook’s death as they have been described. In fact, there was no relaxation of the spinal cord at all, and there is no disease of the spinal cord with which I am acquainted which would produce tetanus.”

Dr. Monckton, a physician at Rugeley, made a separate examination of the spinal marrow of the deceased on the 28th of January, when he said that the body was in such a condition as to enable him to do so satisfactorily, and when had there been any disease of a normal character on the spine he should have had no difficulty in discovering it. All that he found were certain granules, the origin of which it was difficult to account for, though frequently found in persons of an advanced age, but which he never knew to occasion sudden death. He agreed entirely with the evidence of Dr. Harland.[37]

EVIDENCE OF MEDICAL EXPERTS.

We come next to a remarkable body of evidence given by men of such eminence in their profession as Mr. Curling, Dr. Todd, Sir Benjamin Brodie, and others of nearly equal mark, negativing the idea that had been suggested in the previous cross-examinations that the death was due to one of the two forms of true tetanus, and affirming that the symptoms which had been detailed were those of the action of strychnia. Not only were these opinions closely questioned in cross-examination, but as many medical men, several of them of not less eminence than these witnesses, were subsequently called for the defence to contradict them; and thus the most extraordinary conflict of scientific evidence raised that had hitherto been witnessed in a criminal court. Subsequently, as we shall see, a similar dispute between the medical giants of the day was roused in the case of Dr. Smethurst, but with, in the end, a very different result. In reading the following statements for the prosecution, it will help to make them more clear, if it is borne in mind that tetanus is of two kinds—(1), Idiopathic, or self-generated, and the other (2), Traumatic, the result of a wound or a sore; that the former may arise from exposure to cold or damp, or even from the irritation of worms in the alimentary canal, but in temperate climates is by no means a frequent disease; whilst the latter, from the various accidents to which human beings are liable, is of more frequent occurrence. Another point to be remembered is, that it is a moot point in medical practice whether a syphilitic sore, unless of course of a most aggravated character, will produce tetanus, and that the difference between the symptoms and progress of true tetanus and of that due to poison is, in the opinion of these experts, very marked. Dr. James Blizard Curling, surgeon to the London Hospital, was first called, and after describing the two kinds of tetanus and their causes, and speaking of the very numerous cases of the “traumatic” kind which he had seen, he thus detailed the symptoms:—

In his cross-examination, Mr. Curling admitted that irritation of the spinal cord, or of the nerves proceeding to it, might produce tetanus, and the correctness of Dr. Watson’s statements in his Lectures, that, in four cases out of five, the disease begins with lockjaw, and that all the symptoms of tetanic convulsions may arise from very trivial blows; but he denied that there was any well authenticated instance of “traumatic tetanus” occurring within a quarter of an hour after the reception of the injury, or that it was very likely that the irritation of a syphilitic sore by wet, cold, drink, mercury, or mental excitement, might lead to tetanic symptoms.

Dr. Todd, for twenty-one years physician to King’s College Hospital, well known for his lectures on Tetanus and the diseases of the Nervous System, and who had seen only two cases of what appeared to him to be idiopathic tetanus, so rare are they in this country, gave the following evidence:[39]—

The deposition of Dr. Bamford, before reported, was here read, his inability to attend from illness having been proved.

The examination of Dr. Todd by the Attorney-General was then proceeded with as follows:—

Sir Benjamin Brodie’s evidence, which follows, was given “with great clearness, slowly, audibly, and distinctly,” and produced a marked effect.

Two other surgeons, Dr. Daniell, late surgeon to the British Hospital, and Mr. Samuel Solly, of St. Thomas’s Hospital, confirmed in every respect the views of the previous medical witnesses, that the circumstances attending Cook’s death were clearly distinguishable from those attendant on ordinary tetanus. They relied on the fact that ordinary tetanus was always progressive, and that it is never intermittent to the extent witnessed in Cook’s case, and seldom endured less than from thirty to forty hours. Mr. Solly alluded to the peculiar grin—“the risus Sardonicus, as the first symptom of true tetanus, which is not common to all convulsions, and which having once seen,” he said, “you cannot forget.” He distinguished between tetanus with convulsions and death from epileptic convulsions by the fact that “the first seldom leaves any trace behind it, whilst the latter does leave its trace in the shape of a slight effusion of blood on the brain, and a congestion of the vessels.” The syphilitic theory was finally overthrown by the testimony of Mr. Henry Lee, surgeon to the Lock Hospital, which is exclusively devoted to syphilitic cases. Though he saw there nearly 3000 cases a year, he had never known one resulting in tetanus, or read of a case of primary or secondary symptoms having that result.

In addition to these experts, on the sixth day important evidence was given by Dr. Jackson, who had had twenty-five years’ experience of tetanus in India, on the difference of the symptoms observed in the idiopathic and traumatic kinds; the former being much more frequent in India than in other climates, affording him in his practice as many as forty cases.

LATE EXAMPLES OF DEATH BY STRYCHNIA.

Four cases of undoubted poisoning by strychnia were brought forward by the prosecution, in each of which the symptoms had been observed by medical men, as well as by the attendants on the several patients. In the first case, that of Agnes Sennett, or French, a patient in the Glasgow Infirmary, in September, 1845, for a sore skin, from thoughtlessness apparently, she took one of two strychnia pills prepared for a paralytic patient, and then went and sat by the ward fire. “In three quarters of an hour,” said Kelly, another patient, “she was taken ill and fell back on the floor. I went for the nurse; we took her to bed, and sent for the doctor; we were obliged to cut her clothes off first because she never moved. She was like a poker. She never spoke till she died.” Each pill, according to the prescription, contained a quarter of a grain of strychnia. When the medical clerk of the hospital saw her in bed, the symptoms were—

“A strong retraction of the mouth; the face much suffused and red; the pupils of the eyes dilated; the head bent back; the spine curved, and the muscles rigid and hard as a board; the arms stretched out; the hands clinched; and there were severe paroxysms occurring in about a quarter of an hour. She died in about an hour and a quarter. When I was called the paroxysms did not last so long; but they increased in severity.” “The retraction of the mouth was continuous, but worse at times. I do not think I observed it after death. The hands were not clinched after death; they were semi-bent. The symptoms appeared about thirty minutes after taking the pills. I tried to make her vomit with a feather. She only vomited partially after I had given her an emetic. There was spasmodic action and grinding of the teeth. She could open her mouth and swallow. There was no lockjaw or ordinary tetanus.”[40]

Dr. Watson, the surgeon to the infirmary, who was called in within a quarter of an hour of the patient being taken ill, said, “She was in violent convulsions, and her arms stretched out and rigid; they were kept quiet by rigidity. She did not breathe, the muscles being kept still by tetanic rigidity. That paroxysm subsided, and fresh ones came on after a short interval. She died in about half an hour. She was perfectly conscious. Her body was opened. The heart was found distended and stiff. The cavities of it were empty. The spinal cord was healthy.”

The second case, also of accidental poisoning, by the error of a local chemist, who substituted strychnia for salicine (willow bark), of which there ought to have been nine grains in the bottle of medicine, was that of a Mrs. Sergeantson Smyth, residing near Romsey. On the 30th of October, 1848, she took half a wine-glass of the mixture, equal to a third of the whole, containing three grains of strychnia. The effect was of course immediate. The symptoms were identical with Cook’s.

Mr. Francis Taylor, of Romsey, found her dead on his arrival. “Her body was on the floor by the bed; the hands very much bent; the feet contracted and turned inwards; the soles of the feet hollowed up and the toes contracted, apparently from recent spasmodic action; the inner edge of each foot was turned; there was a remarkable rigidity about the limbs; the body was warm, and the eyelids almost adherent to the eyeballs.” Three days afterwards the witness made a post-mortem examination, with the following results:—

The third case was that of a Mr. Clutterbuck, a gentleman suffering from paralysis, on whom, with Dr. Chambers, Mr. E. D. Moore, who detailed the case, had attended some fifteen years before.

The fourth case of poisoning by strychnia, though at this time given anonymously, as it had not as yet been brought to a public trial, was that of Mrs. Dove, of Leeds, more fully related in the next report. In this case, Mrs. Witham, who had been in attendance on the deceased, described how, after taking the medicine given to her, “She complained first of her back; her head was thrown back; her body stretched out; that she twitched, her eyes were drawn aside, staring, and that when the witness put her hands on the patient’s limbs they did not relax.” In this case the illness commenced on the 25th of February; attacks came on the 27th, 28th, and 29th (the last a very slight one), and then again, about a quarter past eight, on the 1st of March, and the person died about twenty minutes to eleven on that night. “She principally complained of prickings in the legs, twitchings in the muscles and in the hands, which she said she could compare to nothing else than a galvanic shock. Between the attacks, she was composed. She wished her husband to rub her legs and arms. She was dead when the doctor came.”

On cross-examination, the witness said that the sufferer “could not bear to have her legs touched when the spasms were strong upon her. Her limbs were rigidly extended when she asked to be rubbed between the intervals of the spasms. Touching her then brought on the spasms. Her body was stiff immediately after death,” but how long it continued so the witness could not say, as she did not stay long. She was sensible from half an hour to an hour, from a quarter past eight till after nine, and the witness supposed she was insensible the remainder of the time; she did not speak. On the Saturday before she died the symptoms were the same as on the other days—not more violent.”

Mr. Morley, the surgeon who had attended this case, and whose opinion as to the symptoms being identical with those in the present inquiry, was directly opposed by Mr. Nunneley, of Leeds, who had then assisted him in the post-mortem examination, not only detailed the symptoms he then saw, but also the method and results of his subsequent examination of the body.

ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE.

On the fifth day, the late Doctor Alfred Swaine Taylor, the well-known Analytical Chemist and Author of “Medical Jurisprudence” (the text-book of the legal profession in all criminal investigations), Doctor Owen Rees, now one of the physicians extraordinary to her Majesty, and the late Professor Brande, of the Royal Institution, were called as witnesses. By the two first, the analytical examination of the various parts of Mr. Cook’s body had been conducted, and they had made a joint report of the results. By the last, that report had been carefully examined, and he had also heard all the evidence as to symptoms previously given in the case. No inconsiderable portion of the cross-examination of Dr. Taylor was occupied by questions connected with the publication, in the Illustrated Times, by Mr. Augustus Mayhew, of what professed to be statements as to the details of their analysis by Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees, in which, if correctly reported, the former had committed himself somewhat prematurely to opinions on the case, and had used expressions towards the prisoner which, to say the least, were not discreet. Dr. Taylor, however, stoutly maintained that he had not used many of the expressions objected to; that the opportunity of interviewing him, after the American fashion, had been unfairly obtained, and the pretended report published not only without, but contrary to, his expressed wish. Except, however, as throwing a shade of partisanship over his conduct, and so far lessening the value of his evidence, the whole episode was useless to the defence—perhaps, to a certain extent, injurious. Dr. Taylor had been hasty and injudicious, and undoubtedly taken at an advantage by the energetic reporter, who certainly obtained his interview with him by pretences not strictly true.[43] With these remarks, due to Dr. Taylor’s reputation and abilities, we proceed to give his evidence.

Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor, examined by the Attorney-General.—“I am a fellow of the College of Physicians, lecturer on medical jurisprudence at Guy’s Hospital, and the author of the well-known treatise on poisons and on medical jurisprudence. I have made the poison called strychnia the subject of my attention. It is the produce of the nux vomica, which also contains brucia, a poison of an analogous character. Brucia is variously estimated at from one-sixth to one-twelfth the strength of strychnia. Most varieties of impure strychnia that are sold contain more or less brucia. Unless, therefore, you are certain as to the purity of the article, you may be misled as to its strength. I have performed a variety of experiments with strychnia on animal life. I have never witnessed its action on a human subject. I have tried its effects upon animal life—upon rabbits—in ten or twelve instances. The symptoms are, on the whole, very uniform. The quantity I have given has varied from half a grain to two grains. Half a grain is sufficient to destroy a rabbit. I have given it both in a solid and liquid state. When given in a fluid state it produces its effects in a very few minutes; when in a solid state, as a sort of pill or bolus, in about six to eleven minutes. The time varies according to the strength of the dose, and also to the strength of the animal.”

Question.—“In what way does it operate, in your opinion?”

Answer.—“It is first absorbed into the blood, then circulated through the body, and especially acts on the spinal cord, from which proceed the nerves acting on the voluntary muscles.”

Question.—“Supposing the poison has been absorbed, what time would you give for the circulating process?”

Answer.—“The circulation of the blood through the whole system is considered to take place about once in four minutes. The circulation in animals is quicker. The absorption of the poison by rabbits is therefore quicker. The time would also depend on the state of the stomach,—whether it contained much food or not, whether the poison came into immediate contact with the inner surface of the stomach.”

Question.—“In your opinion, does the poison act immediately on the nervous system, or must it first be absorbed?”

Answer.—“It must first be absorbed.”

Question.—“The symptoms, you say, are uniform. Will you describe them?”

Answer.—“The animal for about five or six minutes does not appear to suffer, but moves about gently; when the poison begins to act it suddenly falls on its side; there is a trembling, a quivering motion of the whole of the muscles of the body, arising from the poison producing violent and involuntary contraction. There is then a sudden paroxysm or fit, the fore legs and the hind legs are stretched out, the head and the tail are drawn back in the form of a bow, the jaws are spasmodically closed, the eyes are prominent; after a short time there is a slight remission of the symptoms, and the animal appears to lie quiet, but the slightest noise or touch reproduces another convulsive paroxysm; sometimes there is a scream, or a sort of shriek, as if the animal suffered from pain; the heart beats violently during the fit, and after a succession of these fits the animal dies quietly. Sometimes, however, the animal dies during a spasm, and I only know that death has occurred from holding my hand over the heart. The appearances after death differ. In some instances the rigidity continues. In one case the muscles were so strongly contracted for a week afterwards, that it was possible to hold the body by its hind legs stretched out horizontally. In an animal killed the other day the body was flaccid at the time of death, but became rigid about five minutes afterwards. I have opened the bodies of animals thus destroyed.”

Question.—“Could you detect any injury in the stomach?”

Answer.—“No. I have found in some cases congestion of the membranes of the spinal cord to a greater extent than would be accounted for by the gravitation of the blood. In other cases I have found no departure from the ordinary state of the spinal cord and the brain. I ascribe congestion to the succession of fits before death. In a majority of instances, three out of five, I found no change in the abnormal condition of the spine. In all cases the heart has been congested, especially the right side. I saw a case of ordinary tetanus in the human subject years ago, but I have not had much experience of such cases. I saw one case last Thursday week at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. The patient recovered.”

Question.—“You have heard the description given by the witnesses of the symptoms and appearances which accompanied Cook’s attacks?”

Answer.—“I have.”

Question.—“Were those symptoms and appearances the same as those you have observed in the animals to which you administered strychnia?”

Answer.—“They were. Death has taken place in the animals more rapidly when the poison has been administered in a fluid than in a solid form. They have died at various periods after the administration of the poison. The experiments I have performed lately have been entirely in reference to solid strychnia. In the first case the symptoms began in seven minutes, and the animal died (including those seven) in thirteen minutes. In the second case the symptoms appeared in nine minutes, and the animal died in seventeen. In the third case the symptoms appeared in ten minutes, and the animal died in eighteen. In the fourth case the symptoms appeared in five minutes, and death took place in twenty-two. In the fifth case the symptoms appeared in twelve minutes, and death occurred in twenty-three. If the poison were taken by the human subject in pills it would take a longer time to act, because the structure of the pill must be broken up in order to bring the poison in contact with the mucous membrane of the stomach. I have administered it to rabbits in pills.”

Question.—“Would poison given in pills take a longer period to operate on a human subject than on a rabbit?”

Answer.—“I do not think we can draw any inference from a comparison of the rapidity of death in a human subject and in a rabbit. The circulation and absorption are different in the two cases. There is also a difference between one human subject and another. The strength of the dose, too, would make a difference, as a large dose would produce a more rapid effect than a small one. I have experimented upon the intestines of animals, in order to reproduce the strychnia. The process consists in putting the stomach and its contents in alcohol, with a small quantity of acid which dissolves the strychnia, and produces sulphate of strychnia in the stomach. The liquid is then filtered, gently evaporated, and an alkali added—carbonate of potash, which combines with the sulphuric acid, and precipitates the strychnia. Tests are applied to the strychnia, or supposed strychnia, when extracted. Strychnia has a peculiar strongly bitter taste. It is not soluble in water, but it is in acids and in alcohol. The colour tests are applied to the dry residue after evaporation. Change of colour is produced by a mixture of sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash. It produces a blue colour, changing to violet and purple, and passing to red; but colouring tests are very fallacious, with this exception,—when we have strychnia separated in its crystallised state we can recognise the crystals by their form and their chemical properties, and, above all, by the tetanic symptoms and death when administered through a wound in the skin of animals.”[44]

Question.—“Are there other vegetable substances from which, if these colouring tests were applied, similar colours could be obtained?”

Answer.—“There are a variety of mixtures which produce similar colours;[45] one of them also has a bitter taste like strychnine.[46] Vegetable poisons are more difficult of detection than mineral: the tests are far more fallacious. I have endeavoured to discover the presence of strychnine in animals I have poisoned in four cases, assisted by Dr. Rees. I have applied the process I first described. I have applied the tests of colouring and taste. In one case I discovered some by the colour test. In a second case there was a bitter taste, but no other indication of strychnine. In the other two cases there were no indications at all. In the case where it had been discovered by the colour test, two grains had been administered; and in the second case, where there was a bitter taste, one grain. In one of the cases where we failed to detect it, one grain, and, in the other, half a grain had been given. I account for the absence of any indication, because it is absorbed in the blood, and is no longer in the stomach. It is in a great part changed in the blood. When administered in large doses there is a retention of some in excess of what is required for the destruction of life.”

Question.—“Supposing a minimum dose, which will destroy life, has been given, could you find any?”

Answer.—“No. It is taken up by absorption, and is no longer discoverable in the stomach. The smallest quantity by which I have destroyed an animal is half a grain. There is no process with which I am acquainted by which it can be discovered in the tissue.[47] As far as I know, a small quantity cannot be discovered.”

Question.—“Suppose half a grain to be absorbed into the blood, what proportion does it bear to the total quantity of blood circulated in the system?”

Answer.—“Assuming the system to contain the lowest quantity of blood—25lb.—it would be one-fiftieth of a grain to a pound of blood. A physician once died from a dose of half a grain in twenty minutes. I believe it undergoes some partial change in the blood which increases the difficulty of discovering it. I never heard of its being separated from the tissues in a crystallised state. The crystals are peculiar in form, but there are other organic crystallised substances like them, so that a chemist will not rely on form only. After the post-mortem examination, a portion of the stomach was delivered to me by Mr. Boycott, covered with bladder, tied and sealed. The jar contained the stomach and the intestines. I have experimented upon them with a view to discover if any poison was present. I sought for prussic acid, morphia, strychnia, veratria, tobacco poison, hemlock, arsenic, antimony, mercury, and other mineral poisons, but only found small traces of antimony. The parts on which I had to operate were in the most unfavourable condition that could possibly be. The stomach had been cut completely from end to end; all the contents were gone, and the fine mucous surface, on which any poison, if present, would have been found, was lying in contact with the outside of the intestines—all thrown together. The inside of the stomach was lying in a mass of intestinal foecal matter. That was, I presume, the fault or misfortune of the person who dissected, but it seemed to have been shaken about in every possible way in its journey to London.[48] By my request the spleen, two kidneys, and a small bottle of blood, were sent up to me. We had no idea where the blood came from. Each part of the liver, one kidney, and the spleen, all yielded antimony. It was reproduced, or brought out by boiling the animal matter in a mixture of hydrochloric acid and water. Copper, in the shape of foil and gauze in a sort of web of fine copper, was introduced, and the antimony was found deposited on the copper. The quantity of antimony was less in proportion in the spleen than in the other parts. I detected some antimony in the blood. We applied the tests of Professor Brande, Dr. Rees, and others. It is impossible to say how recently it had been administered, but I should say shortly before death, that is, within some days. The longest period at which antimony can be found in the blood after death, within my knowledge, is eight days; the earliest period, within my knowledge, eighteen hours. A boy died within eighteen hours after taking it, and it was found in his liver. It is usually given in the form of tartar emetic; it acts as an irritant, and produces vomiting. If given in repeated doses, a portion would find its way into the blood and the system, beyond what was ejected. If it continued to be given after it had produced certain symptoms, it would destroy life. It may, however, be given with impunity.”

Referring to the symptoms previously proved in Cook’s case, the witness said—

“Vomitings produced by antimony would cause those symptoms. If given in small quantities, sufficient to cause vomiting, it would not affect the colour of the liquid with which it was mixed, whether brandy, wine, broth, or water. It is impossible to form an exact judgment when the antimony was administered, but it must have been two or three weeks at the outside before death. There was no evidence that it was administered within some hours before death. It might leave a sensation in the throat—a choking sensation—if a large quantity was given at once. I found no trace of mercury during the analysis. If a few grains had been taken recently before death, I should have expected to find some trace. If a man had taken mercury for a syphilitic affection within two or three weeks, I should have expected to find it. It is very slow in passing out of the body. As small a quantity as three or four grains might leave some trace. I recollect a case in which three grains of calomel were given three or four hours before death, and traces of mercury were found. Half a grain three or four days before death, if given in divided doses more favourable for absorption, would, I should expect, leave a trace. One grain would certainly do so.” The witness agreed with the opinion of the other witnesses as to the causes of the deaths of Mrs. Smyth, Agnes French, and the other lady (Mrs. Dove), and of the attack of Clutterbuck, and that the symptoms in Mr. Cook’s case appeared to be of a similar character. As a professor of medical science, he did not know any cause in the range of human disease, except strychnia, to which the symptoms in Cook’s case could be referred.

The cross-examination of Dr. Taylor was necessarily very diffuse and lengthy; with the exception, however, of the part in which it was sought to raise a prejudice against the witness as a partisan, to which I have previously referred, it was so important that, like the examination in chief, it must, in justice to all parties, be reported at length.

Mr. Serjeant Shee read the letter written by Dr. Taylor to Mr. Gardner:

I omit here the numerous questions about Mr. Mayhew’s visit, and take up the cross-examination with the witness’s opinion of Cook’s symptoms.

Mr. Serjeant Shee then referred to the case, and called attention to the fact that the only statement as to time was that in three hours the patient lost his speech, and was seized with violent convulsions.[51]

Dr. Rees and Professor Brande briefly but decidedly confirmed the statements, and coincided with the opinions expressed by Dr. Taylor, the latter witness speaking as to an experiment made by him to test the accuracy of the previous one, with reference to the supposed presence of antimony, which enabled him to state positively that that poison was isolated by it. Professor Christison, of the University of Edinburgh, author of the well-known treatise on poisons, was then called, and gave the following evidence:—

Some further questions were put to the witness by the learned counsel for the prisoner in reference to opinions expressed by him in his work, and he explained that this work was written twelve years ago, and that the experience he had since obtained had modified some of the opinions he then entertained.

With the examination of this witness, the medical and scientific evidence for the prosecution was closed.

MEDICO-SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENCE.

The conflict in the testimony given by scientific experts in this case, will be more clearly shown if, instead of deferring it to its original position, after the speech for the defence, the evidence of the eminent medical men and analysts is at once contrasted with that of those called for the prosecution. The two points mainly in contest were, (1.) Were the symptoms in Cook’s case such as could only be produced by strychnia, or could they have arisen from other diseases, and especially from one of the forms of ordinary tetanus? (2.) If strychnia had been given, could it not have been discovered by chemical analysis?[53] Under the first head came the consideration of Cook’s mode of life and general state of health, and his excitement at the victory of his horse at such a critical period of his fortunes, as predisposing causes to one or other of the various diseases to which the witnesses for the defence were prepared to attribute the symptoms and the result. Under the second, the success that uniformly attended such analysts as Mr. Herapath in detecting, even twenty times less than the fiftieth part of a grain of strychnia, and the inference that as it was not discovered by such eminent analysts as Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees, that none had been given. If this inference was fair, it would follow that, however mysterious the causes of the death of Cook might have been, and the symptoms of his attacks difficult of being referred to any known form of disease, yet it was not proved that he died of strychnia, and that therefore Palmer was entitled to an acquittal. “According to the witnesses for the Crown,” said Serjeant Shee, “the poison of strychnia is of that nature, that when it has done its fatal work, and become absorbed into the system, it ceases to be the thing it was when it was taken into the system; it becomes decomposed, its elements separated from each other, and, therefore, no longer capable of responding to the tests which, according to Taylor, would certainly detect the presence of undecomposed strychnia. They account for the fact that it is not detected, and for their still believing that it destroyed Mr. Cook, by this hypothesis. Now it is only an hypothesis: there is no foundation for it in experiment: it is not supported by the evidence of any eminent toxicologists but themselves; it was the theory of Dr. Taylor, which he propounds in his book—but he propounds it as a theory of his own; he does not vouch, as I remember, any eminent toxicologist in support of it.”

Against this theory, among other eminent men, the defence called Mr. Nunneley, of Leeds, who had assisted Mr. Morley (previously called for the prosecution) in the case of Mrs. Dove, Dr. Letheby, the medical officer of health of the city of London, and Mr. William Herapath. Of these three experts it will be advisable to give the evidence at some length, contenting oneself with summarising that of the other scientific witnesses who agreed with them in rejecting, as a scientific heresy, the hypothesis of Dr. Taylor.

The evidence of Mr. Nunneley covered both points—the character of Cook’s symptoms and the discovery of strychnia. “He had been, he said, in large practice for more than twenty-five years, and had seen four cases of idiopathic tetanus, all of which did not commence with lockjaw; in one of them lockjaw not becoming so marked as to prevent the person from swallowing once during the disease.”

“I assume,” said the witness, “that Cook was a man of very delicate constitution; that for a long time he had felt himself ailing, for which indisposition he had been under medical treatment; that he had suffered from syphilis; that he had disease of the lungs, and an old standing disease of the throat; that he led an irregular life; that he was subject to mental depression and excitement, and that after death appearances were found in his body to show this to have been the case. There was an unusual appearance in the stomach. The throat was in an unnatural condition. The back of the tongue showed similar indications. The air vessels of the lungs were dilated. In the lining of the aorta there was an unnatural deposit, and there was an unusual appearance in the membranes of the spinal marrow. One of the witnesses also said there was a loss of substance from the penis. That scar on it could only have resulted from an ulcer. A chancre is an ulcer, but an ulcer is not necessarily a chancre. The symptoms at the root of the tongue and throat I should ascribe to syphilitic inflammation of the throat. Supposing these symptoms to be correct” (which they were not), “I should infer that Cook’s health had not for a long time been good, and that his constitution was delicate. His father and mother died young. Supposing that to have been his state of health, it would make him liable to nervous irritation. That might be excited by moral causes. Any excitement or depression might produce that effect. A person of such health and constitution would be more susceptible of the injurious influence of wet and cold than one of a stronger one. Upon such a constitution convulsive disease is more likely to supervene. I understand he had three attacks on succeeding nights, occurring about the same hour. As a medical man I should infer from this that they were of a convulsive character—in the absence of other causes to account for them. Convulsive attacks are as various as possible in their forms and degrees of violence: it is not possible to give a definite name to every convulsive symptom. There are some forms of convulsion in which the patient retains consciousness. Those are forms of hysteria, sometimes found in the male sex. It is also stated that there are forms of epilepsy in which the patient retains consciousness.”

To Lord Campbell.—“I cannot mention a case in which consciousness has been retained during the fit. No such case has come under my notice.”

Examination continued.—“I know from reading that, though rarely, it does sometimes occur. The degree of consciousness in epilepsy varies very much. In some attacks it is wholly lost for a long time. Convulsive attacks are sometimes accompanied by violent spasms and rigidity of the limbs—they sometimes assume tetanic complexion. I agree with Dr. Copland that convulsions arise from almost any cause. Affections of the spinal cord, or eating indigestible food, will produce them. I know of no case in which they resulted from retching and vomiting. I agree with Dr. Copland that they sometimes end immediately in death. The immediate proximate cause of death is frequently asphyxia. Death from spasm of the heart is often described as death by asphyxia. I have seen convulsions recurring—in various cases. The time at which a patient recovers his ease after a violent attack of convulsions varies very much. It may be a few minutes, it may be hours. From an interval between one convulsion and another I should infer that the convulsions arose from slight irritation in the brain or the spinal cord. When death takes place in such paroxysms there is sometimes no trace of organic disease to be found by a post-mortem examination. Granules between the DURA MATER and the ARACHNOID are not common at any age. I should not draw any particular inference from their appearance. They might or might not lead to a conjecture as to their cause and effect. I do not form any opinion upon these points. They might produce an effect upon the spinal cord. There are three preparations in museums where granules are exhibited in the spinal cord, in which the patients are said to have died from tetanus. Those are at St. Thomas’s Hospital.[54] To ascertain the nature and effect of such granules the spinal cord ought to be examined immediately after death. Not the most remote opinion could be formed upon an examination made two months after death, more especially if the brain had been previously opened. Independently of the appearance of granules, it would not after that period be possible to form a satisfactory opinion upon the general condition of the spinal cord. If there were a large tumour, or some similar change, it might be exhibited; but neither softening nor induration of the structure could be perceived. The nervous structure changes within two days of death. To ascertain minutely its condition it is necessary to use a lens or microscope. That is required in an examination made immediately after death. I have attended cases of traumatic tetanus. That disease commonly begins with an attack upon the jaw. One of the cases of idiopathic tetanus that I have seen was my own child. In three of those cases the disease began with lockjaw. The fourth case commenced in the body, the facility of swallowing remaining. I have within the last twelve months made post-mortem examinations of two persons who had died from strychnia. I did not see the patients before death. In both cases I ascertained by chemical analysis that death had been caused by strychnia. In both I found the strychnia. In one case—that of a lady aged twenty-eight years—I made my examination forty-two hours after death, and in the other thirty hours. In the former case the body had not been opened before I commenced my examination.” [The witness read a report of this examination, in which it was stated that the eyelids were partially open, the globes flaccid, and the pupils dilated. The muscles of the trunk were not in the least rigid; indeed, they were so soft that the body might be bent in any direction. The muscles at the hip and shoulder joints were not quite so flaccid, but they allowed these joints to be easily moved; while those of the head and neck, forearms, &c., were rigid. The fingers were curved, and the feet somewhat arched. All the muscles, when cut into, were found soft and dark in colour. The membranes of the liver were exceedingly vascular. The membrane of the spinal cord was much congested. There was bloody serum in the pericardium; the lungs were distended, and some of the air cells were ruptured. The lining membrane of the trachea and bronchial tubes was covered with a layer of dark bloody mucus of a dark chocolate colour. The thoracic vessels and membranes were much congested, and the blood was everywhere dark and fluid.] After reading this report the witness continued:—“In the second case I made my examination thirty hours after death. I first saw the body about twelve hours after death. It was a woman somewhere near twenty years of age.” [The witness also read the report of the examination in this case. The appearances of the body were substantially similar to those presented in the previous case.] “In two other cases I have seen a patient suffering from over doses of strychnia. Neither of those cases was fatal. In one case I had prescribed the twelfth of a grain, and the patient took one-sixth. That was for a man of middle age. Strychnia had been given in solution. In a few minutes the symptoms appeared. They were a want of power to control the muscles, manifested by twitchings, rigidity, and cramp, more violent in the legs than in any other part of the body. The spasms were not very violent. They continued six hours before they entirely disappeared. During that time they were intermittent at various intervals. As the attack passed off the length of the intervals increased. At first their length was but a few seconds. The spasms were not combated by medical treatment. The other case was a very similar one. The quantity taken was the same—double what I had prescribed. I have experimented upon upwards of sixty animals with strychnia. Those animals were dogs, cats, rats, mice, guinea pigs, frogs, and toads. The symptoms of the attack in all animals present great resemblances. Some animals are, however, much more susceptible of its influence than others are. The period elapsing between the injection of the poison and the commencement of the symptoms has been from two minutes to thirty,—more generally five or six. I administered the poison occasionally in solution, but more generally in its solid state. It was sometimes placed dry upon the back of the tongue, and some fluid poured down the throat; sometimes it was enclosed between two portions of meat; sometimes mixed up with butter or suet, and sometimes rolled up in a small piece of gut. To frogs and toads it was administered by putting them into a solution of strychnia. I have also applied it direct to the spinal cord, and in other cases to the brain. The first symptom has been a desire to be quite still; then hurried breathing; then slavering at the mouth (when the poison had been given through that organ); then twitching of the ears, trembling of the muscles, inability to walk, convulsions of all the muscles of the body, the jaws being generally firmly closed; the convulsions attended by a total want of power in the muscles, which on the least touch were thrown into violent spasms with a galvanic-like shock. Spasms also come on if the animal voluntarily attempts to move; that is usually the case, but occasionally the animal is able to move without inducing a recurrence of the spasms. These spasms recur at various periods, but do not always increase in violence. The animals die after periods varying from three hours to three hours and a half. In the cases where the animals live longest, the paroxysms occur at the longest intervals. In all cases in the interval before death the rigidity ceases (I know no exception to this) and the muscles become quite soft, powerless, and flaccid. The limbs may be put in any position whatever. There is but little difference from ordinary cases of convulsive death in the time at which the rigor mortis comes on. I have destroyed animals with other poisons, and there is very little difference between the rigidity in their cases and that in the cases of death from strychnia. In the two women I have mentioned the rigor mortis was much less than is usual in cases of death from natural disease. I have known fatal cases of poisoning animals by strychnia in which there has between the first and the second paroxysm been an interval of about half-an-hour, but that is not common. I have examined the bodies of upwards of forty animals killed by strychnia. I have invariably found the heart full on the right side; very generally the left ventricle firmly contracted, and the blood usually dark, and often fluid. There is no particular appearance about the spine. I have experimented with other poisons upon upwards of 3000 animals, and have written upon this subject. It very often happens that in the case of animals dying suddenly from poisoning the blood is fluid after death. That also happens in cases of sudden death from other causes. I have attended to the evidence as to the symptoms exhibited by Cook on the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. The symptoms on Sunday night I assume to have been from great excitement. Cook described himself as having been very ill, and in such a state that he considered himself mad for a few minutes. He stated that the cause of this was a noise in the street. These symptoms in the three nights I have mentioned, do not resemble those which I have seen follow the administration of strychnia. Cook had more power of voluntary motion than I have observed in animals under the influence of this poison. He sat up in bed, and moved his hands about freely, swallowed, talked, and asked to be rubbed and moved, none of which, if poisoned by strychnia, could he have done. The sudden accession of the convulsions is another reason for believing that they were not produced by strychnia. Other reasons for believing that the convulsions were not produced by strychnia are their sudden accession without the usual premonitory symptoms, the length of time which had elapsed between their commencement and the taking of the pills which are supposed to have contained poison, and the screaming and vomiting. I never knew an animal which had been poisoned with strychnia to vomit or scream voluntarily. I apprehend that where there is so much spasm of the heart there must be inability to vomit. In the cases related in which attempts were made to produce vomiting they did not succeed. There is such a case in the 10th volume of the Journal de Pharmacie, in which an emetic was given without success. The symptoms exhibited after death by animals poisoned by strychnia differ materially from those presented by the body of Cook. In his case the heart is stated to have been empty and uncontracted.”

Lord Campbell.—“I do not remember that. I think it was said that it was contracted.”

Mr. Baron Alderson.-”According to my note, Dr. Harland said that the heart was contracted, and contained no blood.”

Examination continued.—“The lungs were not congested, nor was the brain. In the case of animals which have recovered the paroxysms have subsided gradually. I never knew a severe paroxysm followed by a long interval of repose. I have experimented upon the discovery of strychnia in the bodies of animals in various stages of decomposition, from a few hours after death up to the forty-third day, in which latter case the body was quite putrid. It has never happened to me to fail to discover the poison. I have experimented in about fifteen cases.”

Question.—“Supposing a person to have died under the influence of strychnia poison in the first paroxysm, and his stomach to have been taken out and put into a jar on the sixth day after death, must strychnia have, by a proper analysis, been found in the body?”

Answer.—“Yes. If the strychnia be pure, such as is almost invariably found among medical men and druggists, the test is nitric acid, which gives a red colour, which in a great measure disappears on the addition of protochloride of tin.[55] If the strychnia be pure, it does not undergo any change on the addition of sulphuric acid, but on the addition of a mixture of bichromate of potash, with several other substances it produces a beautiful purple, which changes to varying shades until it gets to be a dirty red. There are several other tests. In this case the stomach was not, in my opinion, in an unfavourable condition for examination. The circumstances attending its position in the jar and its removal to London would give a little more trouble, but would not otherwise affect the result. If the deceased had died from strychnia poison it ought to have been found in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. I have seen this poison found in similar portions of animals which had been killed by it. I have also seen it found in the blood; that was by Mr. Herapath, of Bristol.”

Question.—“Could the analyses be defeated or confused by the existence in the stomach of any other substance which would produce the same colours?”

Answer.—“No. Supposing that pyroxanthine and salicine were in the parts examined, their existence would not defeat the analysis. Pyroxanthine is very unlikely to be found in the stomach. It is one of the rarest and most difficult to be obtained. The distinction between pyroxanthine and strychnia is quite evident. Pyroxanthine changes to a deep purple on the addition of sulphuric acid alone, and the bichromate of potash spoils the colour. In strychnia no change is produced by sulphuric acid. It requires the addition of the bichromate to produce the colour.”

Question.—“Supposing the death to have been caused by a dose of strychnia, not more than sufficient to destroy the animal, would it be so diffused by the process of absorption that you would not be able by these tests to detect it in any portion of the system?”

Answer.—“No; I believe it would not. That question had occupied my attention before I was called upon to give evidence in this trial. My reason for stating that strychnia when it has done its work continues as strychnia in the system is, that those who say some change takes place, argue, that as food undergoes a change, so does poison; it becomes decomposed. But the change in food takes place in digestion; consequently its traces are not found in the blood. Substances like strychnia are absorbed without digestion, and may be obtained unchanged from the blood. They may be administered in various ways.”

Question.—“In your judgment, will any amount of putrefaction prevent the discovery of strychnia?”

Answer.—“To say that it is absolutely indestructible would be absurd, but within ordinary limits, no. I have found it at the end of forty days. The emptier the stomach, the quicker the action of strychnia.”

On cross-examination by the Attorney-General, the witness, who, to judge from the expressions that passed between them, assumed an antagonistic position to the prosecution, after admitting that perhaps half of his sixty experiments had been made in conjunction with Mr. Morley, and spread over thirty years; that some had been made after the Leeds case, and some in reference to the present, and that he had been in consultation with the prisoner’s attorney since the case at Leeds, to whom he had transmitted its details, he thus continued:—

In reply to a request by Mr. Grove, Lord Campbell intimated that in the opinion of the Court experiments could not now be shown. This defect of evidence has been cured by the Vivisection Act, before referred to.

In addition to these analytical chemists, Professor Rogers, of the St. George’s Medical School, London, described an experiment he had lately made on a dog to which he had given two grains of strychnia. He had not taken out its stomach and its contents, together with some of the blood, until three days after death, and had put off the analysis of the latter for ten days, when it had become putrid, and that of the stomach and its contents for a month or five weeks, yet found in both portions strychnia in large quantities. This witness maintained that unless the contents of the stomach in Cook’s case had been lost, their being shaken would only make the process of detection more difficult, but admitted that if strychnia had been in his stomach it would be found smeared over its mucous membrane, which, it may be remembered, was not sent to Dr. Taylor.

Dr. Francis Wrightson, a pupil of Liebig, of Giessen, a teacher of chemistry at a school in Birmingham, described two similar experiments on animals, with the same results as Professor Rogers. He expressed his decided opinion that strychnia could be detected in a mixture of bile, bilious matter, and putrifying blood and in the tissues in extremely minute quantities indeed, and that five or six days after death he should expect to find it, if it had been given—unless the dose had been entirely absorbed. The clearness and decision with which this witness gave his evidence elicited the well-deserved commendation of Lord Campbell. On cross-examination by the Attorney-General, he was asked—

Question.—“Supposing that the whole dose was absorbed into the system, where would you expect to find it?”

Answer.—“In the blood.”

Question.—“Does it pass from the blood into the solids of the body?”

Answer.—“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.”

Question.—“If it be present in the stomach, you find it in the stomach; if it be present in the blood, you find it there; if left by the blood in the tissues, you find it there?”

Answer.—“Precisely so.”

Question.—“Suppose the whole had been absorbed.”

Answer.—“Then I would not undertake to find it.”

Question.—“Suppose the whole had been eliminated from the blood, and had passed into the urine, should you expect to find it in the blood?”

Answer.—“Certainly not.”

Question.—“Suppose the minimum dose which will destroy life had been taken, and absorbed into the circulation, then deposited in the tissues, and then a part eliminated by the action of the kidneys; where would you search for it?”

Answer.—“In the blood, in the tissues, and in the ejections; and I would undertake to discover it in each of them.”

Mr. Partridge, the professor of Anatomy at King’s College, gave the following evidence, attributing the death of Cook to the granules found on his spine at the post-mortem examination:—

With reference to the existence of these granules, Mr. Oliver Pemberton, anatomical lecturer at Queen’s College, Birmingham, who was present with Professor Bolton when Cook’s body was exhumed, in January, for the special purpose of arriving at a more satisfactory decision on this point than had been effected at the first post-mortem examination, was called for the defence. He gave it as his opinion, in which Professor Bolton agreed, that the spinal cord was not then in a condition to enable him to judge as to what was its state immediately after death; the upper part, where it separated from the brain, being green from decomposition, and the other part, though better preserved, not soft enough for that purpose. This point was, therefore, left in a far from satisfactory position.

A Dr. G. Robinson, of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Dispensary, also supported the spinal granules theory, and considered that from his habits of life Cook was predisposed to epilepsy. He admitted, however, on cross-examination, that “he had never seen symptoms of epilepsy proceed to anything like the extent as in Cook’s case; never saw a body so stiff in epilepsy as to rest on its head and heels; nor such symptoms, except in tetanus, and that the extreme form of epilepsy was always accompanied by unconsciousness.” “The granules,” he thought, “were likely to have irritated the spinal cord, and yet no indications remain after death; they might have produced Cook’s death.”

The last important medical witness called for the defence, Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson, physician, of London, took the prosecution somewhat by surprise by attributing Cook’s death to Angina pectoris, a cause not as yet hinted at. As the counsel for the Crown were not prepared with information requisite for an effective cross-examination on this point, at the close of the prisoner’s case the Attorney-General asked leave to recall this witness, as he was then prepared with the books required for that purpose. The Court, however, refused the application, and the evidence therefore must be accepted with caution.

CASES OF TETANUS BROUGHT FORWARD FOR THE DEFENCE.

In answer to the cases of undoubted poisoning by strychnia proved on the part of the prosecution, four cases of tetanus were brought forward on behalf of the prisoner, with the object of showing that the symptoms then exhibited were identical with those in Cook’s case, and, therefore, raising the presumption that he might have died from ordinary tetanic convulsions, and not from those produced by strychnia.

The first of these cases was described by Mr. Robert Edward Gay, a member of the College of Surgeons, who had attended a patient of the name of Forster for tetanus in October, 1855. Apparently, at first the patient was suffering only from sore throat and its usual attendant pains in the neck and upper portion of the spine, for which he was duly treated. On the fourth day of his illness the muscular pains extended to the face, and particularly to the lower jaw, and by evening lockjaw had come on, with pains of the muscles of the bowels, legs, and arms. “He became very convulsed throughout the entire muscular system, had frequent involuntary contractions of the arms, hands, and legs; his difficulty of swallowing increased, and not a particle of food, solid or liquid, could be introduced into the mouth, the attempt to do so bringing on violent convulsions; so strong were they, that I could compare him to nothing but a piece of warped board.” The head was thrown back, the abdomen thrust forward, the legs frequently drawn up and contracted; the attempt to feed him with a spoon, the opening a window, or placing the fingers on the pulse, brought on violent convulsions. While the patient was suffering in this manner, he complained of great hunger, 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 was insensible on the 12th, and continued so till he died. There was no sore or hurt about his body, and Mr. Gay attributed his death to an inflammatory sore throat, from cold and exposure to the weather, assuming a tetanic form, from the patient being a very nervous, excited, and anxious person. Mr. Gay, whilst satisfied that this was a case of idiopathic tetanus, admitted that he never met with such another case; that it was altogether progressive from the first onset; that although for a short time there was a remission of symptoms, they invariably recurred, and that the locking of the jaw was the very first symptom that made its appearance.

In another case, at the Royal Free Hospital, in 1843, on the 28th of July, a boy was brought in with the middle toe of his left foot smashed by a stone, which Mr. John Gay amputated. The accident had happened a week before, and the wound became very unhealthy. When the surgeon first saw him, his mouth was almost closed, and continued so until the 1st of August, but a small quantity of medicine could be introduced.

“During the first three days,” said Mr. J. Gay, “his paroxysms were of unusual severity; he complained of a stiff neck, and during the first night 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, and the muscles of the face in a state of great contraction. He was in the same state the next day, but at two o’clock there was much less rigidity of the muscles, especially those of the abdomen and back. On the following morning the rigidity had gone, he opened his mouth and could talk; he was thoroughly relieved. He had no return of spasms till half-past five on the following day. He then asked the nurse to change his linen, and as she lifted him up in 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 ended his life. Before the paroxysm came on the rigidity had been completely relaxed. Tartar emetic (containing antimony), which I gave on the second and third day, did not produce vomiting; the rigidity of the muscles of the chest would go far to prevent it. The wound might have rubbed against the bed when he was raised, but I don’t think it possible. Some peculiar irritation of the nerves would give rise to the affection of the spinal cord. There may be various causes for this irritation of the spinal cord, which ends in tetanus, but it would be very difficult merely from seeing symptoms of tetanus, and in the absence of knowledge of how it had been occasioned, to ascribe it to any particular cause. No doubt the death took place in consequence of something produced by the injury of the toe.”

The seriousness of the wound in this case, in comparison with any signs of wounds found on Cook’s body, and the severity of the shock occasioned by such a painful accident, renders this example almost valueless.

In a third case, at the London Hospital, on the 22nd of March of 1856, a patient, aged thirty-seven, was brought in about half-past seven in the evening. When in the receiving room, he had one paroxysm, and another soon after when in the ward. After the first, his pulse was feeble and rapid, his jaws closed and fixed, an expression of anxiety on his countenance, and his features sunken; he was unable to swallow, and the muscles of the abdomen and the back were somewhat tense. After the second paroxysm, his body became arched for about a minute. He was quieter for a few minutes, had a third attack, and died. He had some old neglected sores of a chronic character, particularly at the right elbow, a peculiarly sensitive spot, and Mr. Ross, the house-surgeon, who attended the case, admitted that the disease had been coming on since the morning, that he had felt symptoms of lockjaw at breakfast, and had had successive attacks all the afternoon before coming to the hospital. Here again the case had been progressive until death, and commenced with lockjaw, the admitted signs of ordinary tetanus as distinguished from that due to poison.

The last case proved was that of Catherine Wilson, of Garnkirk, near Glasgow, who “was attacked with a fit,” as she deposed, “in October last year at night, felt heavy all the day from the morning, but had no pain till night. My first pain,” she said, “was in the stomach, and then I had cramp in the arm, and became quite insensible.” By the administration of chloroform the spasms were relieved, and she recovered.

Dr. William Macdonald, of Edinburgh, who saw the case about an hour after the attack, admitted that lockjaw came on in about an hour or two after he was called in.

This witness was also put forward as a medical expert in cases of strychnia, and attributed Cook’s death to “epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications,” and was subjected to the following cross-examination by the Attorney-General:—

Having thus reported the medico-scientific evidence pro and con, we pass on to the moral evidence—the purchase of poison by the prisoner, and his acts during Cook’s illness and subsequent to his death.

PURCHASE OF POISON BY PALMER.

The proof that Palmer purchased strychnia on two separate occasions immediately before the convulsive attacks of which Cook died rested on the evidence of two druggists’ assistants at Rugeley. One of these, Charles Newton, assistant to Mr. Salt, swore that about nine o’clock on the Monday evening, the 19th of November, Palmer came to his master’s shop, asked for three grains of strychnia, which he gave him, without charge, as he knew him as a medical practitioner of the town. Next morning, between eleven and twelve, Roberts, the assistant of Hawkins, another druggist in Rugeley, was asked by Palmer for two drachms of prussic acid, for which he brought a bottle with him. Whilst Roberts was preparing this, Newton, the former witness, came into the shop, and Palmer, putting his hand on Newton’s shoulder, said he wished to speak with him, and together they stepped out into the street, when Palmer asked some questions about Mr. Edwin Salt going to a farm about fourteen miles from Rugeley. Whilst they were talking, a Mr. Brassington joined them, and began to speak to Newton about some accounts for Mr. Salt, on which Palmer went back into Hawkins’s shop and asked for six grains of strychnia and two drachms of Batley’s solution of opium.

“Whilst I was preparing them,” said Roberts, “Palmer stood at the shop door with his back to me, looking into the street. I was about five minutes preparing them. He stood at the door till they were ready, when I delivered them to him—the prussic acid in the bottle he had brought, the strychnia in a paper, and the opium in a bottle. He paid, and took them away. No one else was in the shop.”

As soon as Palmer had left, Newton came in, and spoke to Roberts about Palmer’s visit, and no doubt was struck with the information he received. At that time he did not mention to his master Palmer’s purchase of the strychnia because, he said, Palmer and Salt were not friends, and he was afraid that the latter might blame him for having given Palmer the strychnia. “I first mentioned it,” said Newton, “to Boycott, the clerk to Mr. Gardner, the solicitor, at the Rugeley station, when I and a number of witnesses were assembled for the purpose of going to London. He took me to Mr. Gardner’s. I told him what I had to say, and he took me to the solicitor of the Treasury.” Counsel for the defence tried to elicit from him that he had given as his reason for not mentioning it before that he was afraid of being prosecuted for perjury. “No,” he replied; “I did not give that as a reason, but I stated to a gentleman that a young man at Wolverhampton had been threatened by George Palmer because he had said at the inquest on Walter Palmer that he had sold the prisoner prussic acid, and he had not entered it in the book, and could not prove it. I stated at the same time that George Palmer said he could be transported for it. The inquest on Walter Palmer did not take place until five or six weeks after that on Cook.”

Not only, however, did Newton[60] not mention this purchase of strychnia when before the coroner, but he did not state that on the 25th of November he was sent for about seven in the evening to Palmer’s house, where he found the prisoner in his kitchen, sitting by the fire reading.

“He asked me,” he now said, “how I was, and to have some brandy and water. No one else was there. He asked me what was the dose of strychnia to kill a dog. I told him a grain. He asked me what would be the appearance after death. I told him that there would be no inflammation, and that I did not think it could be found. Upon that he snapped his finger and thumb in a quiet way and exclaimed, as if communing with himself, ‘That’s all right.’ He made some other commonplace remark, which I do not recollect. I was with him altogether about five minutes.”

Though he appears to have related the story of the dog at an earlier date, it was not until the Tuesday before the trial that he said a word to anyone about the purchase of the strychnia.

To contradict the evidence of Newton, the inspector of police at the Euston station was called to prove that the last train for Rugeley left at 2P.M., and that if Palmer went by the five o’clock express he would not get to Stafford until 8.45, and would then have nine miles to travel to reach Rugeley. It was, however, remarked by the Attorney-General that Newton’s words were “about nine o’clock,” and “that everyone knows how easy it is to make a mistake of half an hour or three quarters of an hour, or even an hour, if your attention is not called to the circumstances within a week or a fortnight, or three weeks afterwards.” Not content with this evidence, counsel for the defence called one Jeremiah Smith, an attorney, of Rugeley, and intimate friend of the prisoner’s mother, who swore that on the night in question he saw Palmer get out of a car coming in the direction from Stafford at ten minutes past ten, and went with him to Cook’s room. The exhibition made by this fellow in the box was disgusting. For some time he declared that he had never had anything to do with the applications for the enormous insurances on Walter Palmer’s life; would not acknowledge his signature to them as a witness, and only after a most vigorous cross-examination admitted that he witnessed them on the application of the prisoner. He it was who made the application to the Midland Insurance Company for the policy of £10,000 on the life of Bate, the person whom Palmer represented as a gentleman of property with a fine cellar of wine, but whom the insurance agent found hoeing turnips in a field of Palmer’s, and with six months’ rent in arrear for the room in the farm-house which he occupied. The credit of Newton was set up by the desperate attempt of Mr. Jeremiah Smith.[61]

ACTS OF THE PRISONER DURING COOK’S ILLNESS AND AFTER HIS DEATH.

On Thursday, the 15th of November, Cook returned from Shrewsbury with Palmer to the “Talbot,” at Rugeley, complaining of being poorly. It will be remembered that he had been sick at Shrewsbury after partaking of the brandy and water in Palmer’s company. Next day he dined with Palmer, and came back to the inn between nine and ten at night, as the witness Barnes said, sober. Early the next morning (Saturday) Palmer was in his bedroom, and sent for a cup of coffee for him. Mills, who brought it up, did not see him drink it; but when soon after she went into his room she found he had vomited it in the chamber. Palmer was in and out frequently, and promised to send Cook some soup; for this he sent Ann Rowley, a charwoman to the “Albion Inn,” who brought it to Palmer in his kitchen, left it there about five minutes with him, whilst she went about her other work, and then, by Palmer’s orders, took it to the “Talbot,” with a message that Jerry Smith, a mutual friend who had dined with them on the Friday, had sent it.[62] Cook, seeming unwilling to take this, Palmer said he must have it. It was taken up again; Cook drank it, and shortly after vomited. Again, on the Sunday, Palmer sent a jobbing gardener in his employ with a covered cup of broth to the “Talbot,” of which Mills, who took it up to Cook’s room, tasted about two tablespoonsful, and was so sick that she had to go to bed. Whether Cook drank this or not was not distinctly proved, but the cup was afterwards seen empty in the kitchen of the hotel. What followed as to the pills sent by Dr. Bamford, and the others produced by Palmer, is already fully given in Mills’s evidence. Immediately after Cook’s death, Palmer was found by Barnes searching the pockets of Cook’s coat and under his pillow, and the bank-notes which Cook had had only a few days before, his betting-book, which had been seen on his dressing-table, and the letters that had been on his chimney-piece, had disappeared.[63] Previously to this time Palmer had been very short of money, being pressed for small debts, but immediately afterwards was in funds, paying small bills, and depositing £50 in a local bank. On Tuesday evening (20th), when Cook was in such a serious state, Palmer sent for Cheshire, the Rugeley postmaster, and asked him to fill up the body of a cheque on Weatherby for £350 in Palmer’s favour, which he said that he would take over to Cook to sign. That cheque was sent to Weatherby’s that night, and returned by them to Palmer, as Weatherby, not having yet received the stakes Cook had won, was not in funds to meet it. That cheque was called for by the prosecution, but not produced by the prisoner. Again, on the Thursday or Friday after, between six and seven in the evening, Palmer sent for Cheshire. “When I arrived,” said the witness, “I found him in the kitchen, and he immediately went out, and shortly after returned with a quarto sheet of paper in his hand. He gave me a pen, and asked me to sign something. I asked what it was, and he replied, ‘You know that Cook and I have had dealings together, and this is a document he gave me some days ago, and I want you to witness it.’ I said, ‘What is it about?’ He said, ‘Some business that I have joined in with him, and which is all for his benefit, and this is the document stating so.’” Cheshire refused, and Palmer, saying perhaps they would not dispute Cook’s signature, took it away. This document was also called for, and not produced.[64]

On Friday, 23rd, Mr. Stevens, who had married the widow of Cook’s father some years before, and was executor to his grandfather’s will, arrived in Rugeley, saw Palmer, and asked him about his stepson’s affairs. “There are £4000 of his bills out,” said Palmer, “and I am sorry to say my name is to them, but I have got a paper drawn up and signed by him to show that I never had any money from them.” Mr. Stevens expressed great surprise, and said, “I fear there will not be 4000 shillings to pay you.” Then, after discussing his stepson’s affairs, Mr. Stevens said, “Well, whether he has left anything or not, poor fellow, he must be buried,” on which Palmer immediately said, “Oh, I will bury him myself, if that is all.” Mr. Stevens at once refused, and expressed his intention of removing the body to London for interment, so as not to inconvenience the inn people. “Oh,” said Palmer, “that is of no consequence, but the body ought to be fastened up; as long as the body is fastened up, it is of no consequence.” Whilst Mr. Stevens was talking with the persons in the room, Palmer went out, and on his return, when asked by Stevens to recommend an undertaker, said, “I have been and done this. I have ordered a shell and a strong oak coffin.” Mr. Stevens expressed his surprise, and insisted on giving instructions himself to the undertaker.

Later in the day, after dinner, on Mr. Jones reporting to Stevens, who had asked him to go up to Cook’s room for that purpose, that he could not find any betting-book or papers, Palmer said, “Oh, it’s no manner of use if you do find it.” “No use,” replied Stevens, “I am the best judge of that.” Again said Palmer, “It’s of no manner of use.” “I am told it is,” was the reply; “my son won a great deal of money at Shrewsbury, and I ought to know something about it.” “It is of no use, I assure you,” replied Palmer; “when a man dies, his bets are done with; and besides, Cook received the greater part of the money on the course.” “Very well,” replied Stevens, “the book ought to be found, and must be found,” when Palmer said, in a quieter tone, “It will be found, no doubt.” The room was then locked by Mr. Stevens’s order, but the book was never found.

Mr. Stevens returned to London to see his solicitor, and on his way back met Palmer (who had been to London to pay Pratt £100, and caution him against giving any information about Cook’s affairs), and told him his intention of having a post-mortem examination. Apparently agreeing with that, Palmer offered to introduce him to a local solicitor to conduct it, which was declined; but, added Mr. Stevens, “I said, ‘Mr. Palmer, if I should call in a solicitor to give me advice, I suppose you will have no objection to answer any question he may put to you.’ I altered my tone purposely; I looked him steadily in the face, but although the moon was shining, I could not see his features distinctly. He said, with a spasmodic convulsion of the throat, which was perfectly apparent, ‘Oh no, certainly not.’” Later in the evening Palmer came to Mr. Stevens and renewed his conversation about the bills, hoping that affairs would be settled pleasantly, and was told by the stepfather that “they could be only settled in Chancery.” Palmer, at that time, denied that he had attended Cook in a medical capacity.

On the 17th of November, Ishmael Fisher, who was Cook’s usual racing agent, received a letter from Cook requesting him to pay Pratt £200, which he would repay him on the following Monday, when the Shrewsbury bets would be settled at Tattersall’s. Much to his surprise, he was not employed as usual, and in consequence lost the money he had advanced, for on the 19th Mr. George Herring, another betting man, got a letter from Palmer to call on him at the latter’s lodgings, in London, at half-past two that day. He did so.

On the 26th of November, the post-mortem examination was held, at which Palmer was present, and the incidents of the pushing of the jar containing the contents of the stomach and the cutting of its coverings occurred; and if the evidence of Myatt, the postboy, is to be taken as true, Palmer tried to bribe him to upset the fly in which Mr. Stevens and his solicitor’s clerk were to take the jar to the Stafford station, en route to London,

James Myatt, examined by Mr. James.—“In November last I was postboy at the ‘Talbot Arms,’ Rugeley. I know Palmer, the prisoner, and I remember Monday, the 26th of November last. I was ordered on that night, a little after five o’clock, to take Mr. Stevens to the Stafford station in a fly. Before I started I went home to get my tea, and on returning from my tea to the ‘Talbot Arms’ I met the prisoner. He asked me if I was going to drive Mr. Stevens to Stafford. I told him I was.”

Question.—“What did he say to you then?”

Answer.—“He asked me if I would upset them.”

Question.—“Them? Had anything been said about a jar?”

Answer.—“He said he supposed I was going to take the jar.”

Question.—“What did you say then?”

Answer.—“I said I believed I was.”

Question.—“What did he say after that?”

Answer.—“He said—‘Do you think you could upset them?’”

Question.—“What answer did you make?”

Answer.—“I told him ‘No.’”

Question.—“Did he say anything more?”

Answer.—“He said—‘If you could, there’s a £10 note for you.’”

Question.—“What did you say to that?”

Answer.—“I told him I could not. I then said, ‘I must go, the horses are in the fly ready for us to start.’ I do not recollect that he said anything more about the jar. I said, that if I didn’t go somebody else would go. He told me not to be in a hurry, for if anybody else went he would pay me. I saw him again next morning, when I was going to breakfast. He asked me then who went with the fly. I told him Mr. Stevens, and, I believed, one of Mr. Gardner’s clerks.”

Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee.—“Were not the words that Palmer used—‘I wouldn’t mind giving £10 to break Stevens’s neck?’”

Answer.—“I don’t recollect the words ‘break his neck.’”

Question.—“Well, ‘upset him.’ Did he say, ‘I wouldn’t mind giving £10 to upset him?’”

Answer.—“Yes; I believe those were the words. I do not know that Palmer appeared to have been drinking. I don’t recollect that he had. I can’t say that he used any epithet, applied to Stevens—he said it was a humbugging concern altogether, or something of that. I don’t recollect that he said Stevens was a troublesome fellow, and very inquisitive. I don’t remember anything more than I have said. I do not know whether there was more than one jar.”

Whilst the analysis of the contents of the jar was being conducted in London, the coroner opened an inquest at Rugeley. Palmer, now fully aware of his danger, determined to use his influence over the postmaster to get the earliest information of the results of the analysis, and to make a friend of Ward, the coroner. With the latter object, he sent a hamper of fish and game to the coroner from London on the 1st of December, writing the direction himself, but not otherwise letting Ward know from whom they came, which he professed to wish to be kept secret. To Cheshire, the postmaster, with whom he had long been on very friendly terms, receiving from him his mother’s and Cook’s letters, on the 2nd of December he hinted the importance of his knowing anything that might pass through the post between Dr. Taylor and the local solicitor. In consequence, on the Wednesday following, he is told by Cheshire the substance of the letter, already quoted, written by the analyst to Mr. Gardner on the previous day. On this Palmer, on the 8th, writes to a poulterer at Stafford to have some game ready for his messenger, and sends Bate over for it, to take it, with the following note, to the coroner:—

Bate goes to the poulterer, re-directs, and sends the game by a lad, and then finds his way to the inn, where the coroner is smoking, calls him out of the billiard-room, and privately gives him the letter.

On the 14th of December the adjourned inquest is to be held, and Dr. Taylor’s evidence taken. On the previous day, therefore, Bate is again summoned by Palmer, and sent to borrow a £5 note of Thirlby, and on his return, Palmer being still ill in bed, is told by him to look in a drawer for another, but can only find one for £50. At this juncture the sheriff’s officer arrives to arrest him on one of the overdue bills, Bate is sent out of the room, and on his return commissioned to take a note to the coroner, and to be sure that no one sees him deliver it. This he succeeds in doing between the “station” and the “Junction Hotel,” where he slips it slily into Ward’s hand. Not liking all this secrecy, Bate had hesitated at accepting the mission, and asked that some one else should be sent, when Palmer replied, “Why, George, as to this poor fellow Cook, he was the best pal I ever had in my life; and why should I have poisoned him?” and then added, “I am as innocent as you, George.” The inquest proceeded, and in addition to the evidence of the symptoms attendant on Cook’s death, Dr. Taylor gave his, and Roberts proved the purchase of strychnia only a day before Cook’s death. Palmer was summoned, but professed to be too ill to come, and on the next day a verdict of wilful murder against him was returned, and a warrant issued for his transfer to Stafford jail. After a few days’ detention in his own house, Palmer was conveyed to jail, in such a state of despondency that he appears to have determined to starve himself to death, and would probably have done so, but for the threat of compulsory measures by the Governor. Soon afterwards all his property was seized under a bill of sale and sold, his racehorses alone realising four thousand guineas.[65]

THE DEFENCE.

Of Mr. Serjeant Shee’s address to the jury in the defence of the prisoner, which occupied, without wearying, the attention of the Court during eight hours on the seventh day, only a brief analysis can be given. The main points on which he insisted were—First, the erroneous nature of the medico-scientific evidence in referring the symptoms exhibited in Cook’s case to tetanus from strychnia, on which he was prepared to contradict it by witnesses of equal character and credit in the profession. Secondly, the probability, amounting as near as possible to a certainty, that if the death had been occasioned by strychnia, the presence of that poison should have been detected by the analysts. Thirdly, the similarity of the symptoms in the case to those of cases of traumatic or idiopathic tetanus of late occurrence, to be described by the doctors who had attended them. As the mass of evidence by which he sought to support these propositions has been already reported, it is needless to recur to it. We may therefore pass on to the moral evidence, only pausing to extract the noble passage descriptive of the mechanism of the human frame, with which he introduced the former subject, and his picture of Cook’s state of mind from before his victory at Shrewsbury until his death.

In opening the portion of his case that Cook’s death was attributable to causes other than strychnia, Serjeant Shee adroitly concealed the names of the diseases to which his witnesses were prepared to attribute it. Until, therefore, his cloud of witnesses had been passed through, the prosecution did not know, except from the cross-examination of their own medico-scientific witnesses, to what technical points they had to shape their reply.

In support of his contention that Cook’s death could be fairly attributed to ordinary convulsions, the learned Serjeant gave the following graphic sketch of the state of his mind at the period of Shrewsbury races, and from then to his death:—

In dealing with the “moral evidence,” counsel first attacked the motive imputed by the prosecution, and sought to show from the correspondence, as well as from the conduct of the parties, that at the moment when Palmer was charged with killing Cook, he was his best and indeed the only friend whom he could look to to assist him in his severe financial troubles.

In September Palmer had negotiated this bill with Pratt professedly for Cook’s benefit, and had received from Pratt a crossed cheque to Cook’s order for £385, and a wine warrant for £65, and at the same time, on his own account, £315 in cash, and the imputation by the Crown was that he forged Cook’s endorsement and took the money. The improbability of his doing this, as Cook was certain, had he done so, to have complained of it during the months that elapsed between the giving of the bill of sale on his horses and his death, was urged by Mr. Shee, who ventured to offer as an explanation the suggestion that as Cook wanted cash on that day, Palmer gave him his £315, and with his consent endorsed Cook’s name on the cheque and paid that to his own account. Again he dealt with the circumstance of Cook’s cheque for £350, the body of which was drawn by Cheshire, and, as Palmer said, taken by him on the 20th November to Cook for him to sign in his sick room. That cheque, it will be remembered, was not produced, but

Again, he tried to depreciate the evidence of Mills as to the symptoms of Cook’s attacks, on the ground—not, indeed, that she had been tampered with by the prosecution—because then, he said, he was certain that she would not have been called—but “that she had been instructed in the various symptoms by the repeated private examinations to which she had been subjected,” dwelling on the omission from her evidence before the coroner that she had been so violently sick after tasting the broth, and on the other discrepancies in, and omissions from, her description of the symptoms when there, and when in court.

“Upon all occasions,” said the learned counsel, “I am most reluctant to attack a witness who is examined on his or her oath, and particularly if he be in a humble position of life. I am very reluctant to impute perjury to such a person; and I think that a man who has been as long in the profession as I have been must be put a little to his wits’ end when he rushes upon the assumption that a person whose statements have, after a considerable lapse of time, materially varied, is, therefore, necessarily, deliberately perjured. The truth is, we know perfectly well, that if a considerable interval of time occurs between the first story and the second, and if the intelligent and respectable persons who are anxious to investigate the truth, but who have still a strong moral conviction—upon imperfect information—of the guilt of the accused person, will talk to witnesses and say, ‘Was there anything of this kind?’ or, ‘Anything of that kind?’ the witnesses at last catch hold of the phrase or term which has so often been used to them, and having in that way adopted it, they fancy they may tell it in court.”

He also attacked the conduct of Mr. Stevens, the stepfather, for, as he said, “goading and irritating Palmer into incautious expressions, by insinuating that he had stolen a trumpery betting-book that could not be of use to anyone;” and attributed Palmer’s anxiety to nominate a local solicitor to manage affairs to the nature of the pecuniary transactions, so much relying on honour, making them far more easy of adjustment by a friendly than by a hostile agent. As for Myatt, the postboy’s, story of the bribe for upsetting the fly, he attributed that to a personal feeling against the “meddlesome old gentleman,” as he called Stevens, and not to any idea of destroying the probable proofs of his delinquency. His marked attention to Cook during his illness he attributed to the interest he necessarily felt in his life, and the sending of broth and other things from his own house to the wish to save expense at a time when neither of them were too well off. “Would he,” said Serjeant Shee, “dream of sending poisoned broth to an inn, where it was sure to be tasted by the cook?”

In addition to the scientific witnesses which he would call to rebut those of the prosecution’s, he would prove that Cook, previously to the Shrewsbury meeting, was suffering severely from a syphilitic state of throat, and applying to Palmer for remedies for it—that Palmer could not have been in Rugeley at the time at which Newton swore that he sold the strychnia to him, and that the incident at the “Raven,” at Shrewsbury, of the brandy-and-water was a fiction. To what this evidence of previous illness amounted, and how the two witnesses who were to negative Newton and disprove the scene at the “Raven” fared when put in the box, will be seen in the report of their examination.[67] Great stress was of course laid on Palmer’s not only calling in Dr. Bamford, but sending for Mr. Jones, Cook’s firmest friend, to witness what proved his last day of life, and on the improbability of Palmer tampering with the medicines under such professional supervision.

“Is it conceivable that if Palmer meant to slay Cook with poison in the dead of night, he would previously have insured the presence in his victim’s chamber of a medical witness, who would know from his frightful symptoms that the man was not dying a natural death? He brings a medical man into his room, and makes him lie within a few inches of the sick man’s bed, that he may be startled with his terriffic shrieks, and gaze on those agonizing convulsions which indicate the fatal potency of the poison. Can you believe it? He might have dispatched him by means that defy detection, for Cook was taking morphia medicinally, and a grain or two more would have silently thrown him into an eternal sleep;[68] but instead of this he sends to Lutterworth for Jones. You have been told that this was done to cover appearances. Done to cover appearances! No, no, no! You cannot believe it. It is not in human nature. It cannot be true. You cannot find him guilty. You dare not find him guilty on the supposition of its truth. The country will not stand by you if you believe it to be true. You will be impeached before the whole world if you say that it is true. I believe in my conscience it is false, because, consistently with the laws that govern human nature, it cannot be true.”

“The incident of his being found searching the clothes and under the pillow,” said counsel, “ought not to be looked upon as suspicious, as Mills, who came into the room at the time, thought no suspicion of it, and there was nothing but the evidence of a kind and considerate character in his having ordered the shell and the coffin; nor was it possible to torture into a presumption of guilt the few words of irritation which may have fallen from him in the course of a conversation in which Mr. Stevens treated him with scorn, not to say with insolence.” And then, alluding to the entry as to the effects of strychnia in one of his medical books, the learned Serjeant turned it most adroitly to his own purpose, as the basis of a peroration so telling in its language and perfect in its construction that it must be preserved intact.

THE REPLY.

The greater part of the tenth day was occupied with the reply of the Attorney-General, dealing in the first part with the medico-scientific evidence brought forward for the defence, and contrasting it with that on the part of the prosecution, and in the latter part pressing home with all his force of criticism and power of language the suspicious acts of the prisoner before and after the death of Cook. Between idiopathic and traumatic tetanus he drew the distinction, “supported,” as he said, “by the evidence of men who had seen, not here and there a stray case, but numerous instances of that disease, that the former was a disease of days, and even weeks, and not of hours or minutes.” He pointed out that such were really the symptoms in the cases adduced for the defence, and ridiculed the notion that the old ulcers of the spring of the year, with which Dr. Savage had dealt successfully, could be assigned as the causes of this form of disease in Cook’s case, and then criticised seriatim the other forms of convulsive disease to which the witnesses for the defence attributed it. After referring to the statements of Dr. Savage and Mr. Stevens as to the state of Cook’s health prior to his departure for Shrewsbury races, he thus dealt with the evidences of his state of health offered by the prisoner’s witnesses:—

Then, after pointing out how the two cases of this disease put forward by the defence were cases of days and hours, and, not like Cook’s, of minutes, he proceeded to deal with the suggestion of idiopathic tetanus.

Again, on Mr. Nunneley’s suggestion that it might be a case of general convulsions accompanied by tetanic symptoms, said the Attorney-General.—

“Well, but pause a moment, Mr. Nunneley; have you ever seen one single case in which death arising from general convulsions, accompanied by tetanic symptoms, has not ended in the unconsciousness of the patient before death? ‘No, I never knew such a case—not one. But in some book or other I am told that there is such a case reported;’ and he cites one, not for that purpose, I think, but with reference, to general convulsions being sometimes accompanied by tetanic symptoms and ending in death, from a very eminent author of the present day, Dr. Copland. Dr. Copland is living and Dr. Copland might have been called—was not called, notwithstanding the challenge which I threw out. Why? Because it is infinitely better in such a case to call together from the east and west practitioners of more or less obscurity, instead of bringing to bear upon the subject the light of science which is treasured in the breasts of the eminent practitioners with which this city abounds.”

Again, on Mr. Partridge’s evidence of the probable effect of the granules on the spinal marrow,

“I called his attention,” he said, “to what had evidently not been done before, namely, the symptoms of Mr. Cook’s case, and asked him in simple, straightforward terms whether, looking at these, he would pledge his opinion, in the face of the medical world and the Court, that this was a case of arachnitis, and he candidly admitted that he would not assert it.”

Against Dr. Macdonald’s epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications, he cited the following from that gentleman’s cross-examination:—

“Did you ever know a case of epilepsy, with or without tetanic complications, in which consciousness was not destroyed before the patient died? He said ‘No, I cannot say I ever did, but I have read in some book that such a case occurred.’ Is there anything to make you think this was epilepsy? ‘Well, it may have been epilepsy, because I do not know what else to ascribe it to, but I must admit that epilepsy is characterised generally by unconsciousness.’ Well, then, what difference would tetanic complications make? That he is unable to explain.”

With the final suggestion of Angina pectoris, he could not deal so minutely as with the four preceding ones.

“The gentleman,” he said, “who was called at the last moment would not have escaped quite so easily if I had had the books to which he referred under my hand, and been able to expose, as I would have done, the ignorance or presumption of the assertion he dared to make. I say ignorance or presumption; or, what is worse, an intention to deceive. I assert it in the face of the whole medical profession, and I am satisfied I shall have a verdict in my favour.”

He then concluded this part of his speech by calling attention to the fact, that three of the witnesses for the prisoner, Mr. Partridge, Dr. Robinson, and even Dr. Letheby, strongly as he was biased for the defence, agreed with Sir B. Brodie and the other medical witnesses for the Crown, that, “in the whole of their experience, learning, and information, they knew of no known disease to which the symptoms of Mr. Cook could possibly be referred—a fact the importance of which it was impossible to exaggerate.”

Assuming, then, that all were agreed, that from the time that the final paroxysm set in, the symptoms were similar to those of strychnia tetanus, he dealt with the point which the defence had raised—which he admitted deserved their most attentive consideration—that there were points of difference, which had led some of the witnesses to the conclusion that they could not have resulted from that cause.

“Let us see,” he said, “what they are. In the first place, they showed that the period which elapsed between the supposed administration of the poison, and the first symptoms, was longer than they have ever observed in animals upon which they have experimented. The first observation which arises is this: that there is a known difference between animal and human life, in the power with which certain specific things act upon their organization. It may well be that poison administered to a rabbit will produce its effect in a given time. It by no means follows that it will produce the same effect in the same time on an animal of a different description. Still less does it follow that it will exercise its baneful influence in the same time on a human subject. The whole of the evidence on both sides leads to establish this fact, that not only in individuals of different species, but in individuals of the same species, the same poison and the same influence will produce effects different in degree, different in duration, different in power. But again, it is perfectly notorious that the rapidity with which the poison begins to work depends mainly upon the mode of its administration. If it is administered in a fluid state it acts with great rapidity. If it is given in a solid state its effects come on more slowly. If it is given in an indurated substance it will act with still greater tardiness. Then what was the period at which this poison began to act after its administration, assuming it to have been poison? It seems, from Mr. Jones’s statement, that Palmer came to administer the pills somewhere about 11 o’clock, but they were not administered on his first arrival, for the patient, as if with an intuitive sense of the death that awaited him, strongly resisted the attempts to make him take them; and no doubt these remonstrances, and the endeavours to overcome them, occupied some period of time. The pills were at last given. Assuming—which I only do for the sake of argument—that the pills contained strychnia, how soon did they begin to operate? Mr. Jones says he went down to his supper, and came back again about 12 o’clock. Upon his return to the room, after a word or two of conversation with Cook, he proceeded to undress and go to bed, and had not been in bed ten minutes before a warning came that another of the paroxysms was about to take place. The maidservant puts it still earlier, and it appears that as early as ten minutes before twelve the first alarm was given, which would make the interval little more than three-quarters of an hour. When these witnesses tell us that it would take an hour and a half, or two hours, we see here another of those exaggerated determinations to see the facts only in the way that will be most favourable to the prisoner. I find in some of the experiments that have been made that the duration of time, before the poison begins to work, has been little, if anything, less than an hour. In the case of a girl at Glasgow it was stated that it was three-quarters of an hour before the pills began to work. There may have been some reason for the pills not taking effect within a certain period after their administration. It would be easy to mix them up with substances difficult of solution, or which might retard their action. I cannot bring myself to believe that if in all other respects you are perfectly satisfied that the symptoms, the consequences, the effects, were analogous, and similar in all respects to those produced by strychnia, you will conclude that in this case strychnia was not administered, and found your conclusion on the simple fact that a quarter of an hour more than usual may have elapsed before the pills operated. But they say the premonitory symptoms were wanting. They assert that in the case of animals the animal at first manifests some uneasiness, shrinks, and draws itself into itself, as it were, and avoids moving; that certain involuntary twitchings about the head come on, and that there were no such premonitory symptoms in Cook’s case. I utterly deny the proposition. I say there were premonitory symptoms of the most marked character. He is lying in his bed; he suddenly starts up in an agony of alarm. What made him do that? Was there nothing premonitory there—nothing that warned him the paroxysm was coming on? He jumps up, says, ‘Go and fetch Palmer—fetch me help! I am going to be ill as I was last night!’ What was that but a knowledge that the symptoms of the previous night were returning, and a warning of what he might expect unless some relief were obtained? He sits up and prays to have his neck rubbed. What was the feeling about his neck but a premonitory symptom, which was to precede the paroxysms that were to supervene? He begs to have his neck rubbed, and that gives him some comfort. But here they say this could not have been tetanus from strychnia, because animals cannot bear to be touched, for a touch brings on a paroxysm—not only a touch, but a breath of air, a sound, a word, a movement of any one near will bring on a return of the paroxysm. Now, in three cases of death from strychnia we have shown that the patient has endured rubbing of the limbs, and received satisfaction from that rubbing. In Mrs. Smyth’s case, when her legs were distorted, she prayed and entreated that she might have them straightened. The lady at Leeds, in the case which Dr. Nunneley himself attended, implored her husband between the spasms to rub her legs and arms in order to overcome the rigidity. That case was within his own knowledge, and yet in spite of it, although he detected strychnia in the body of the unhappy woman, he dares to say that Cook’s having tolerated the rubbing between the paroxysms is a proof that he had not taken strychnia. Then there is the case of Clutterbuck. He had taken an overdose of strychnia, and suffered from the reappearance of tetanus, and his only comfort was to have his legs rubbed. Therefore, I say that the continued endeavour to persuade a jury that the fact of Cook’s having had his neck rubbed proves that this is not tetanus by strychnia, shows nothing but the dishonesty and insincerity of the witnesses who have so dared to pervert the facts. But they go further, and contend that Cook was able to swallow. So he was before the paroxysms came on. But nobody has ever pretended that he could swallow afterwards. He swallowed the pills, and what is very curious, and illustrates part of the theory, is this, that it was the act of swallowing the pills, a sort of movement in raising his head, which brought on the paroxysm of which he died.”

Having thus called attention to the fact, that against the three cases of undoubted poisoning by strychnia (those of Mrs. Smyth, Mrs. Dove, and Mr. Clutterbuck), the sufferers in which begged to be rubbed, all that could be set up was, that animals when thus poisoned could not bear to be touched, the Attorney-General dealt with the fact of the rigidity of Cook’s body after death, on which Mr. Nunneley relied as a proof that it could not be a case of strychnia poisoning. He cited the evidence of Mr. Herapath, the very next analyst called by the defence, that in two of his experiments on animals “the bodies had been indurated and contorted,” as well that of Dr. Taylor that one of the animals in his experiments was so rigid after death that it could be held out in an horizontal position in the air as though it were on its four legs on a plane surface. “What,” he said, “are you to think of the honesty of this sort of evidence? “Again, on the question of the fulness or emptiness of the heart, he thus accounted for the variation of the symptoms:—

“It is obvious to any one who reflects for a single moment that the question whether the heart shall be found compressed, or the lungs congested must depend upon the immediate cause of death, and we know that in cases of tetanus death may result from more than one cause. All the muscles of the body are subject to the exciting action of this powerful poison, but no one can tell in what order those muscles will be affected, or where the poisonous influence will put forth the fulness of its power. If it acts on the respiratory muscles, and arrests the play of the lungs, and with it the breathing of the atmospheric air, the result will be that the heart will be left full. But if some spasm seizes on the heart, contracting it and expelling from it the blood that it contains, and so produces death, the result will be that the heart will be found empty. So that you never have perfect certainty as to how these symptoms will manifest themselves after death; but that is again put forward as if the fact of the heart being empty is a conclusive fact of the death not having taken place from strychnia. Yet those men who come here as witnesses under the sanction of scientific authority, must have heard both these cases spoken to by medical gentlemen who had examined those two unfortunate patients after death, and who told us that in both cases they found the heart empty. That gets rid of that matter. As death takes place from one or other of these causes, so will be the appearance of the heart, the brain, and the body after death. There is nothing in this for a single moment to negative the conclusion which you would otherwise arrive at from the other symptoms.”

For the difficulty which he admitted arose from the non-discovery of strychnia by the analyst, he assigned another reason besides that of the condition of the stomach and other parts from the negligence imputed to those who had conducted the post mortem examination—namely, the probable smallness of the fatal dose. In all the cases of experiments on animals in which the poison had been detected, the doses had been one or even two grains, yet half a grain would prove fatal; and where so little as that had been given in experiments, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees had failed to detect it. On the partisanship of Mr. Herapath, sitting by the side of the prisoner’s counsel, prompting questions, and on his assertion that he believed that Cook had been killed by strychnia and that Taylor could and ought to have detected it, his remarks were those rather of a French Public Prosecutor than an Attorney-General.

“I do not say that alters the fact; but I do say that it induces one to look at the credit of those witnesses with a very great amount of suspicion. I reverence a man who, from a sense of justice and a love of truth—from those high considerations which form the noblest character of man—comes forward in favour of a man against whom the world may turn in a torrent of prejudice and aversion, and who stands and states what he believes to be the truth. But I abhor the traffic in testimony to which, I regret to say, men of science sometimes permit themselves to condescend.”

Whether Newton was believed or not—and he showed how his statement was confirmed by Roberts’s account of Palmer’s conduct at the time of the second purchase of poison, he urged that of the latter fact there could be no doubt, and asked what was done with that strychnia. That Palmer obtained this strychnia was not controverted, and what he did with it was not attempted to be satisfactorily accounted for.

“Purchased for whom? for what? If for a patient why is he not produced? If for any other purpose, let us at least have it explained. Has there been a shadow of an explanation? Alas, I grieve to say, none at all. Something was said, in the outset of the case, about dogs that had been troublesome in the paddocks, but that was in September. If there was any recurrence of this, why are not the grooms here to prove this? Some one must have assisted Palmer to destroy these dogs. Where are those persons? Why are they not called? Not only are they not called, they are not even named. My learned friend does not venture to breathe even a suggestion.”[69]

As for the witness called to disprove the incident of the brandy and water at Shrewsbury, his solitary evidence, that of one of the prisoner’s associates, he urged, would not stand for a moment against those of the witnesses who had spoken for the prosecution. As for the attempt to prove that Palmer could not have been in Rugeley at the time when Newton swore that he purchased the strychnia, Mr. Jeremiah Smith’s antecedents, the disgraceful part he had played in the insurance transactions, let alone his exhibition in the witness-box, he added, deprived his evidence of credit.

Again, antimony was undoubtedly discovered in the body, and yet no one is known to have given it to Cook, unless Palmer did so in the broth, the toast and water, and the coffee that he pressed him to take, and provided for him. On the question of motive so anxiously laboured by the defence, it was enough simply to repeat, the amounts of the debts pressing on Palmer, and to bear in mind how drowning men will catch at a straw. Cook’s bets, which Palmer had collected, staved off immediate pressure; and had not Mr. Stevens, whose conduct as Cook’s relative the Attorney-General earnestly defended, insisted on the post-mortem, and thus brought about the inquest and this inquiry, it was possible that the insurance office might have paid the policy on Walter’s life, and the forged bills been thus redeemed in time to save exposure. Cook also was valueless to help Palmer to keep these bills alive; even Pratt, the 60 per cent. money-lender, would not discount his acceptance for £500 without the security of a bill of sale on his horses.

Better acquainted with turf doings than his opponent, the Attorney-General smiled at the idea, that because a man was another’s confederate on the turf therefore he made himself responsible for his debts, or that Cook, with all his friendship for Palmer, would beggar himself for his sake.

“Joint engagement they had but one, the £500 bill secured on Sirius and Polestar, and it was to meet this, and free his horses, that Cook gave £300 out of his receipts at Shrewsbury to Palmer to send up to Pratt, and wrote to Fisher to advance the other £200. No £300 was sent up, and the £200, with the bets collected by Herring, went not to free this bill, but to stop Pratt’s action on the forged bill of £2000 of Palmer’s. It was no doubt true that after a man’s death, his bets were irrecoverable and his betting-book useless. It was, however, useful to enable Palmer to give a list of bets to Herring to collect, the proceeds of which were turned to his own use, and the previous collection of which Palmer withheld from Stevens. In the same way would have gone the cheque for £350 for the stakes—whether a forgery or not—but for the accident of their not having paid over in time. Had Cook lived, the closely approaching claim on his £500 acceptance, which he believed to have been settled, would have revealed the whole transaction.” [Again, the Attorney-General pressed for the production of the £350 cheque filled up by Cheshire.] “Why should Cheshire be asked to fill it up? Just about this time Palmer was to meet Dr. Bamford and Jones in consultation—why not ask Mr. Jones, the trusted friend of Cook, tell him the same story as he did Cheshire, and not send for the latter? From the day that this cheque was drawn till he was arrested on the bill, Palmer had undisturbed possession of his own papers—from the day of his arrest till his trial the papers had been in safe custody. Why, then, is it not produced? Can you help drawing the inference that the transaction will not bear the light? Look, again, at the claim of £3000 or £4000 of bills on Cook’s estate, the document Cheshire refused to witness, which is also not produced—the letter to Pratt that he must have Polestar, and the instructions not to give any information on Cook’s affairs. Can you doubt that they were all part of one fraudulent and flagitious design, for the full completion of which the death of Cook was a necessary thing?”

Palmer’s conduct at the post-mortem, the tampering with the cover of the jar—by whom?—his anxiety to upset Mr. Stevens when in charge of it, because, it had been urged, of “his prying meddlesome curiosity;” his presents and letters to the coroner; his prompting Cheshire to tamper with the letter from Dr. Taylor; his anxiety to know, and to let the coroner know, that strychnia had not been found; his suggestion to call Smith (what a witness Jeremiah would have made!); his assertions of previous epileptic fits, and his hope “that the verdict to-morrow would be that he died of natural causes, and thus end it,” were all dwelt upon: “little things, if taken individually, but taken as a whole,” said the Attorney-General, “as I submit to you, leading irresistibly to the conclusion of the guilt of this man.”

In concluding this masterly speech, though in some parts too like fighting for a verdict, the Attorney-General criticised the assertion by Serjeant Shee of his belief of the prisoner’s innocence:—

“You have, indeed, had introduced into this case one other element, which I own, I think, had better have been omitted. You have had from my learned friend the unusual, I think I may say the unprecedented, assurance of his conviction of the innocence of his client. I can only say upon that point that I think it would have been better if my learned friend had abstained from giving such an assurance. What would he think of me if, imitating his example, I should at this moment declare to you, on my honour, as he did, what is the intimate conviction which has followed from my own conscientious consideration of this case? My learned friend also, in his address, of which all admired the power and ability, adopting a course which is sometimes resorted to by advocates, but which, in my mind, involves more or less a species of insult to the good sense or good feeling of the jury—endeavoured to intimidate you, by an appeal to your consciences, from discharging firmly and honestly the great and solemn duty which you are called upon to perform. My learned friend told you that, if your verdict in this case should be ‘guilty,’ the innocence of the prisoner would one day be made manifest, and that you would never cease to regret the verdict which you had given. If my learned friend were sincere in that—and I know that he was, for there is no man in whom the spirit of truth and honour is more keenly alive—if he said what he believed, I can only answer that it shows how, when a man enters upon the consideration of a case with a strong bias on his mind, he is liable to err. I think then that my learned friend had better have abstained from making any assurance which involved his conviction of the prisoner’s innocence. I think, further—in justice and consideration to you—that he should have abstained from representing to you that the voice of the country would not sanction the verdict which you might give. I say nothing of the inconsistency which is involved in such a statement, coming from one who but a short hour before had complained in eloquent terms of the universal torrent of passion and of prejudice by which he said that his client would be borne down; but in answer to my learned friend I say this to you:—Pay no regard to the voice of the country, whether it be for condemnation or for acquittal; pay no regard to anything but to the internal voice of your own consciences, and to that sense of duty which you owe to God and man upon this occasion, seeking no reward except the comforting assurance that when you look back to the proceedings of this day you will feel that you have discharged to the utmost of your ability and to the best of your power the duty which it was yours to perform. If on a review of this whole case, comparing the evidence on one side and on the other, and weighing it in the even scales of justice, you can come to the conclusion of innocence, or can even entertain that fair and reasonable amount of doubt of which the accused is entitled to the benefit, in God’s name acquit him; but if, on the other hand, all the facts and all the evidence lead your minds, with satisfaction to yourselves, to the conclusion of his guilt, then—but then only—I ask for a verdict of ‘guilty’ at your hands. For the protection of the good, for the repression of the wicked, I ask for that verdict by which alone—as it seems to me—the safety of society can be secured, and the demands, the imperious demands of public justice, can be satisfied.”

THE JUDGE’S CHARGE.

As the learned Judge’s charge occupied the whole of the eleventh and until half-past four on the twelfth day, and was necessarily protracted by his reading in detail nearly all the voluminous evidence to the jury, it would be impossible to give it in full. I shall, therefore, limit this report to such of his observations, as have not already been given in the notes to the evidence of the various witnesses to whom they applied.

Contrasting the practice in foreign countries of raising the probability of guilt, from the fact of the previous commission by a prisoner of other crimes against other persons, and even of a totally different character to that with which he then stands charged, Lord Campbell warned the jury that they must deal with him now as if he were an entirely innocent man, and confine their attention solely to the evidence bearing on the crime itself. He warned them also that the expression of his counsel’s opinion, that the prisoner was innocent, meant no more than the plea of “Not Guilty,” and that the most inconvenient consequences would follow from regarding it in any other light. Neither was it necessary, as a point of law, that the poison by which it was charged that the murder was effected, should be found in the body, or seen to be administered. They must look to the medical evidence to see whether the death was from that poison, or from natural causes, and to the moral evidence, whether that showed that the prisoner not only had the opportunity, but that he actually availed himself of that opportunity, and administered the poison. He then proceeded to read over the evidence, commencing with that showing the indebtedness of Palmer to Pratt, in which Cook had no liability, and then taking up the joint liability of Palmer and Cook to the same person in connection with the loan secured on Cook’s horses. With reference to the former transactions he called attention to Palmer’s letter to Pratt, “not to let Cook’s friends know what money Cook had ever had from him,” remarking, “that it was written at a time when the stepfather was making inquiries of a nature certainly very disagreeable to Palmer.” On the latter correspondence he called attention to the cheque for £375, sent by Pratt for Cook, on which Palmer wrote the endorsement, and admitted “that it was very properly argued for the defence, that it was possible that Cook had authorised some one else to write it;” but coupled with it the circumstance that on the 13th of November Palmer was in a state of embarrassment, and that on the 20th he could pay Armshaw two £50 notes, and that on the 22nd he could pay a further £50.

After next reading the evidence of Wright, the attorney of Birmingham, to show how heavily Palmer was indebted to his brother, besides to Pratt, and alluding to the bill of sale of all his property, he laid great stress on the non-production of the cheque on Weatherby for £350, the production of which would have settled the question whether or not it was forged with the intention of appropriating it to his own use. Mr. Serjeant Shee here interposing with the remark that Weatherby thought the signature genuine, Lord Campbell replied:—

“Mr. Weatherby said the body of the cheque was not in Cook’s handwriting, and he had paid no attention to the signature. You, gentlemen, must consider the evidence with regard to this part of the case. The cheque is not produced, though it was sent back by Weatherby to Palmer. It is not produced” [here the judge read the evidence of the search for papers at Palmer’s]. “It might have been expected that the cheque so returned to Palmer, who professed to set store upon it, and to have given value for it, would have been found, but it is not forthcoming. It is for you to draw whatever inference may suggest itself to you from this circumstance.”

The judge then alluded to the fact of Palmer remaining in the neighbourhood after suspicion had been excited against him, as of importance, and worthy of being taken into consideration, though, as he added, “he might have done so, perhaps, thinking that from the care he had taken nothing would be discovered against him,” and that neither the bills nor the document by which Cook was said to have admitted his liability on them were produced, and closed this portion of the evidence.

On the incident of the brandy-and-water at Shrewsbury, the learned judge remarked, “What a mysterious circumstance it was, that Cook, after he had stated his suspicions, still retained his confidence in Palmer—was still constantly in his company—during the few remaining days of his life, still sent for him whenever in distress; and, in fact, seemed to a great extent to be under his influence.” In a subsequent part of his charge, when dealing with the evidence for the defence, he contrasted the evidence of Myatt in contradiction to that of Brooks and Fisher, and left the jury to draw their own conclusion which they would believe. Cook’s letter to Fisher to pay Pratt the £200 was also here read and commented on, and the jury left to infer why he did not go to London as he proposed, and why he put the collection of his bets in Herring’s hands instead of Fisher’s—“if he did so.”

Coming now to the illness at Rugeley, he said, “he was bound to declare that not one fact had been adduced to prove that Mills had been bribed, or that Mr. Stevens had read over the newspaper to her, to influence her evidence in a particular direction: it was a gratuitous assertion, unsupported by evidence, and distinctly denied.” Whether the difference of Palmer’s dress when he ran over, as described by Mills or Barnes, was of sufficient importance, was a question for the jury, and also whether Mills’s deposition before the coroner, and her evidence in Court (the deposition was read) was not substantially the same. On the letter from Palmer calling in Jones, cited by the defence as a proof of innocence, he said:—

“It is important, however, to consider at what period of Cook’s illness Jones was sent for, and in what condition he was when Jones arrived. Palmer’s assertion in the letter was, that Cook had been suffering from diarrhoea, and of this statement we have not the slightest confirmation in the evidence. When Jones, looking at Cook’s tongue, observed it was not the tongue of a bilious attack, Palmer’s reply was, ‘You should have seen it before.’ What reason could Palmer have for using these words, when there is not the slightest evidence of Cook having suffered from such an illness?” Then, having had Jones’s deposition before the coroner read, he added, “It is for you to say whether in your opinion this deposition at all varies from his evidence given here: I confess that I see no variation, and no reason to suppose that his evidence is not the evidence of sincerity and truth.”

After observing that the evidence of Dr. Savage showed that previous to his departure for Shrewsbury Cook was in better health than he had been for a long time, the learned judge read the evidence of Newton, and his deposition before the coroner. Remarking on his omitting to mention the first purchase of strychnia until the Tuesday morning, when coming to London, he said:—

“You will observe that though there has been an omission, there is no contradiction. You are then to consider what is the probability of his inventing this wicked lie—a most important lie, if lie it be. He had no ill will towards the prisoner at the bar, he had never quarrelled with him, and had nothing to get by injuring him. I cannot see any motive for his inventing a lie to take away the life of the prisoner. No inducement was held out to him by the Crown. He says himself that no inducement was held out to him, and that at last he disclosed this circumstance from a sense of duty. If you believe his evidence, it is very strong against the prisoner.” And then, reading the evidence of Roberts and remarking that he was not cross-examined or in any way contradicted, he added—“If you couple that with the statement of Newton—believing that statement—you have evidence of strychnia having been procured by the prisoner on the Monday night before the symptoms of strychnia were exhibited by Cook; and by the evidence of Roberts, undenied and unquestioned, that on Tuesday six grains of strychnia were supplied to him. Supposing you should come to the conclusion that the symptoms of Cook were consistent with strychnia, then a case is made out for the Crown. The learned counsel did not favour us with the theory he had formed in his own mind with respect to that strychnia. There is no evidence—there is no suggestion—how it was applied; what became of it.[70] That must not influence your verdict, unless you come to the conclusion that Cook’s symptoms were consistent with death by strychnia. But if you come to that conclusion, I should shrink from my duty—I should be unworthy to sit here—if I did not call your attention to the inference, that if he purchased that strychnia, he purchased it for the purpose of administering it to Cook.”

Then, after vindicating the conduct of Mr. Stevens in relation to the loss of the betting-book, Lord Campbell alluded to the pushing of the jar, at the post-mortem, as probably an accident, and its removal as “nothing more than the pushing, were it not coupled with evidence afterwards given, which might lead to the inference that there was a plan to destroy it and prevent the analysis of its contents.” He saw no reason to doubt the evidence of the postboy, and did not believe that Stevens had given Palmer such provocation as to induce him to offer Myatt a bribe to upset him. “That is not indeed a decisive proof of guilt, but it is for you to say whether the prisoner did not enter on that contrivance to prevent an opportunity of examining the jar, which might contain evidence against him.”

Cheshire’s evidence as to filling up the cheque, and being asked to witness Cook’s signature, as if he was present, to the document professing to admit his liability on Palmer’s bills; his subsequent dealing with Dr. Taylor’s letter to Mr. Gardner; Palmer’s letter to the coroner stating the result of the analysis; his presents to the coroner; and his instructions to Bate not to let anyone see him deliver his letter to Mr. Ward, together with the instructions to Herring about Cook’s bets, were then carefully reviewed before entering on the medico-scientific evidence offered on the part of the prosecution.

The evidence of this class of witnesses has been so fully reported, that it is needless to repeat the Judge’s passing comments on their descriptions of the symptoms of tetanus as consistent with those in Cook’s case, and with those exhibited in the cases of undoubted poisoning by strychnia, detailed by the medical men who had attended the several patients. With reference to the results of the analysis by Drs. Taylor and Rees, and of the effect of their evidence, the learned Judge made the following comment on their experiments on animals:—

“There is here a most important question for your consideration. Great reliance is placed by the prisoner’s counsel, and very naturally so, upon the fact that no trace of strychnia was detected in the stomach of Cook by Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees, who alone analysed it and experimented upon it. But, on the other hand, you must bear in mind that we have their own evidence to show that there may be and have been cases of death by strychnia in which the united skill of these two individuals has failed to detect the presence of the strychnia after death. Both Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees have stated upon their oaths that in two cases where they knew death to have been occasioned by strychnia—the poison having, in fact, been administered with their own hands—they failed to discover the slightest trace of the poison in the dead bodies of the animals on which they had experimented. It is possible that other chemists might have succeeded in detecting strychnia in those animals and strychnia also in the jar containing the stomach and intestines of Cook; but, however this may be, it is beyond all question that Dr. Taylor and Dr. Rees failed to discover the faintest indications of strychnia in the bodies of two animals which they had themselves poisoned with that deadly drug. Whatever may be the nature of the different theories propounded for the explanation of this fact, the fact itself is deposed to on oath; and, if we believe the witnesses, does not admit of doubt.” With regard to the letter from Dr. Taylor to Mr. Gardner, stating that neither strychnia, prussic acid, nor opium had been found in the body, his lordship said, “this letter was written before Cook’s symptoms had been communicated to them; but they had been informed that prussic acid, strychnia, and opium had been bought by Palmer on the Tuesday. They searched for all these poisons, and found none. The only poison they found was antimony, and they did not, therefore, in the absence of symptoms, attribute death to strychnia, as they could not at that time; but they say it might have been produced by antimony, as they say that the quantity found in the body was no test of the quantity taken into the system.”—“For the discovery of strychnia Dr. Taylor experimented upon the bodies of animals which he had himself killed by this poison, but in them no strychnia could be found. I do not know what interest Dr. Taylor could be supposed to have to give evidence against the prisoner. He was regularly employed by the Crown, and knew nothing of Palmer until he was called upon by Mr. Stevens, and the jar was given to him. He could have no enmity against the prisoner and no interest whatever to misrepresent facts.” [On being reminded that Dr. Taylor’s experiments on the two rabbits were not made until after the inquest,] “that,” said Lord Campbell, “makes no difference. If that experiment was made this morning the fact would be the same. Against Dr. Rees there is not even the imputation of having written an indiscreet letter to a newspaper. Yet Dr. Rees concurs with Dr. Taylor, that these rabbits were killed by strychnia; that they did whatever was in their power, according to their skill and knowledge, to discover strychnia, as they did with the contents of the jar, and that no strychnia could be discovered. As to antimony, he corroborates the testimony of Dr. Taylor. Antimony is a component of tartar emetic; tartar emetic produces vomiting, and you will judge from the vomiting at Shrewsbury and Rugeley whether antimony may have been administered to Cook at those places. Antimony may not have produced death, but the question of its administration is a part of the case which you must most seriously consider.”

Having then read the evidence of Professor Brande, Dr. Christison, and Dr. John Jackson, Lord Campbell, at eight o’clock, reserved the evidence for the defence to the next day.

On resuming his charge the next morning, Lord Campbell commenced by a brief summary of his previous remarks.

“The evidence for the prosecution certainly did present a serious case against the prisoner. It appeared that in November last he was most seriously embarrassed, and that he had to make payments for which he was entirely unprepared. There were actions against himself and his mother, and he had no credit left in any quarter. Cook by the races at Shrewsbury became master of £1000, and the inference had been drawn that Palmer formed a design of appropriating it to his own purposes, in order to relieve himself from his embarrassments. Again, it was proved that the prisoner drew a cheque in the name of Cook which was a forgery, for the purpose of appropriating to himself Cook’s property. What would have been the effect of the survival of Cook under those circumstances it would be for the jury to consider. No doubt, if Cook had lived, that cheque would have been brought forward, and would have led to an exposure of all Palmer’s delinquencies. With respect to the joint liability of Cook and Palmer, it was said that it was disadvantageous to Palmer that Cook should die; but there seemed to be some doubt whether it was not the intention of Palmer to possess himself of the whole of Cook’s property, and in that case he had a direct interest in his death. Then as to the medical evidence which had been adduced for the prosecution. The jury had heard the evidence of able and honourable men, who said that the deceased did not die a natural death, and that the symptoms were consistent with death by strychnia, and not consistent with death by ordinary tetanus. There was no point of law which required that the strychnia should be found in the body of the deceased, and it would therefore be for the jury on this point to consider whether the evidence of the prosecution was sufficient, or whether they could rely upon the answer which had been put in by the defence. There was direct evidence that the prisoner procured the poison of strychnia on Monday and Tuesday. What he did with it was not for him in that place to affirm. It was impossible for the jury not to pay attention to the conduct of the prisoner before and after the death of Cook, and they would not fail to consider, as part of those circumstances, his very remarkable proceedings in reference to the betting-book, which had never been discovered.”

He then proceeded to consider the evidence tendered by medical and scientific experts for the defence.

“Then as to the evidence which had been put in for the defence, the jury had had before them gentlemen of great ability and high honour, who had given in detail the results of their experience. With that evidence he would now proceed to deal.” [The learned judge read in extenso the voluminous evidence of Mr. Nunneley, the surgeon, of Leeds.] “The jury had heard the manner in which Mr. Nunneley had given his evidence, and they must form their own opinion of it. Certainly he seemed to display an interest in the case not altogether consistent with the character of a witness. He differed very much from several witnesses who were examined for the prosecution, and particularly in reference to rigidity being produced by strychnia after death. These and similar questions were for the jury. The next witness who was examined was Mr. Herapath, of Bristol, a very eminent analytical chemist, who had paid great attention to the subject of poisons. That gentleman said that where there had been death by strychnia it ought to be discovered. But it appeared, on cross-examination, that he had expressed an opinion, on another occasion, that Cook died from strychnia, but that Dr. Taylor had not taken the proper means to find it. After adverting to the evidence of Mr. Rogers, his lordship read that of Dr. Letheby, of the London Hospital, the medical officer of the City of London, of whom he said that he seemed to prove that cases of this sort were very variable, and that he admitted that the Romsey case was an exception. Now, while these exceptional cases existed, it could hardly be said that the principles laid down by Dr. Letheby were sufficient to rebut the evidence in chief. His lordship next referred to Mr. Gay’s case of the omnibus conductor. This, he said, was a case of idiopathic tetanus. The jury would say, on comparing it with the symptoms in Cook’s case, whether his was also a case of idiopathic tetanus. The great weight of evidence seemed to show that Cook’s was not a case of idiopathic any more than it was a case of traumatic tetanus. Mr. Gay’s case differed altogether from that of Cook, and as far as he could see there was no analogy between them. Passing next to the evidence of Mr. Ross, and to his case of a man, who died from ulcers, his lordship remarked that he did not see why this case was brought before the Court unless to prove that Cook’s was of the same sort. This was a case, whether of idiopathic or traumatic tetanus, in which it was sought to prove that death was caused by bruises on the body. But there were no bruises of any sort about Cook, and therefore the analogy failed. In reference to the important evidence of Dr. Wrightson, who said he had detected strychnia in putrifying blood and decomposed matter, and that strychnia did not under such circumstances decompose, he must say that this witness was a scientific and honourable man, and had spoken throughout with proper caution. According to Dr. Wrightson, the discovery of the poison should have been proved, but at the same time his evidence did not overthrow the case for the prosecution; and it would be for the jury to say whether, in the event of poison actually being in the body, the tests employed to detect it were sufficient. Referring to the evidence of Mr. Partridge, his lordship said that the witness had stated that the symptoms in Cook’s case did not correspond with what he should have expected to have found from strychnia, but he spoke from his own experience, and he admitted that the symptoms were very variable; and he did not seem, therefore, to speak with any degree of certainty upon the subject. Mr. Gay’s case of a boy who suffered from tetanus from an injury to his toe was, his lordship thought, not at all analogous to that of Cook; nor was that of the young woman who had an attack of tetanus without any apparent cause, and recovered, as deposed to by Dr. McDonald. The last witness had given his opinion that Cook died from epileptic convulsions, accompanied with tetanic complications, and this he thought might have been produced by mental or sensual excitement. The jury would see to what length this witness went, and it would be for the jury to say what weight they attached to his evidence. Having adverted to several cases adduced by the defence, and which his lordship considered bore no analogy to Cook’s, he read the evidence of Dr. Robinson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, who ascribed the death to epilepsy. He then passed on to Dr. Richardson, who narrated the particulars of a remarkable case of angina pectoris, to the symptoms of which disease he said Cook’s bore a remarkable resemblance. The witness, his lordship said, seemed a most respectable man, and he said that the symptoms in this case were consistent with those arising from strychnia, and that if he had known as much of strychnia at that time as he did now, he should have searched for it in that case. It would be for the jury to consider whether Cook’s symptoms were consistent with strychnia, and if so, that ought to lead them as to the opinion they should form on the case. His lordship having adverted to the evidence of Catharine Watson, the girl who was attacked with tetanus in Scotland, and to other witnesses who were recalled, said this was all the medical evidence that had been adduced by the counsel for the defence of the prisoner. But then, gentlemen, said Lord Campbell, comes that most important question, whether the symptoms of the deceased were consistent with death by poisoning with strychnia. You will say whether your opinion upon that subject is altered by the evidence given on the part of the prisoner. Several of the witnesses called by the prisoner seem to admit (although, of course, you will form your own judgment upon it) that those symptoms were consistent with strychnia, although, in the absence of evidence to show that strychnia was administered, they could not come to such a conclusion.”

Lord Campbell’s subsequent remarks on the witnesses who were called to contradict those for the prosecution as to the state of Cook’s health, the incident of the brandy and water at Shrewsbury, and the possibility of Palmer arriving in Rugeley from London at the time spoken to by Newton, have already been given in previous notes. In conclusion, he said,

After some further remarks from Mr. Serjeant Shee, Lord Campbell told the jury that not only must they be satisfied that the symptoms described agreed with the supposition that the deceased died from strychnia, but that it was administered by the prisoner.

The jury retired at 2.20, and at 3.45 returned a verdict of guilty, and Lord Campbell passed sentence of death, to be carried out at Stafford jail.

The prisoner heard the sentence perfectly unmoved. At one time he drew himself up, as if about to make some remark, but did not attempt to speak. He stood quite calm, and when his Lordship had concluded, turned round and walked from the dock with the same coolness as he had shown during the whole of his protracted trial.

Contrasting the procedure in this memorable trial with what it might and no doubt would have been in a criminal court in France, Mr. Justice Stephen makes the following remarks:—“Not less remarkable than the careful way in which all topics of prejudice were avoided was the extreme fulness and completeness of the evidence as to facts really relevant to the case. Nothing was omitted which the jury could properly want to know, nor anything which the prisoner could possibly wish to say. No case could set in a clearer light the characteristic features of English Criminal Law—namely, its essentially litigious character, and the way in which it deals with scientific evidence. A study of the case will show, first, that evidence could not be more condensed, more complete, more clearly directed to the point at issue; secondly, that the subjection of all the witnesses, and especially the scientific witnesses, to the most rigorous cross-examination is absolutely essential to the trustworthiness of their evidence. The clearness and skill with which the various witnesses, especially those for the defence, were cross-examined, and forced to admit that they could not really distinguish the symptoms of Cook from those of poisoning by strychnia, was such an illustration of the efficiency of cross-examination as is rarely indeed afforded.”

“The defence was by far the least impressive part of the trial, but that was mainly because there was nothing to say. It was impossible to suggest any innocent explanation of Palmer’s conduct. It was proved to demonstration that he was in dire need of money in order to avoid a prosecution for forgery; that he robbed his friend of all he had by a series of devices which he must instantly have discovered if he had lived; that he provided himself with the means of committing the murder just before Cook’s death; and that he could neither produce the poison he had bought, nor suggest any innocent reason for buying it. There must have been some mystery in the case which has never been discovered. Palmer, at and before his death, was repeatedly pressed to say whether he was guilty or not, and told that everyone would believe him guilty if he did not emphatically deny it. He could only say Cook was not poisoned by strychnia, and I have reason to know that he was anxious that Mr. Herapath should examine the body for strychnia, though aware that he could detect the 1-50,000th part of a grain. He may have discovered some way of administering it which would render detection impossible, but it is difficult to doubt that he used it; for if not, why buy it?”[71]

THE LEEDS POISONING CASE.

EARLY LIFE OF THE PRISONER.

The prisoner, the son of a respectable leather manufacturer at Leeds, had been, from his childhood to his seventh year, more than usually fractious, mischievous, ill-natured, and irrational in his tricks: putting lighted candles more than once in a basket and locking them in a cupboard: pouring some kind of spirits on his bedroom curtains and setting them on fire: chasing his sisters with a red-hot poker and threatening to burn them: hanging a cat by its tail out of window: cutting himself with knives and writing his name with his blood: an irregular and inapt scholar, especially in his religion.[73] The usher at his first school, where he was from the age of ten to thirteen years, regarded him “as a boy of very low intellect, great inability of mind, great want of moral power, evil and vicious propensities. Once, when he had got a pistol, he told his schoolfellows he was going to shoot his father—a dull boy, and a had boy. I then thought him insane, but did not feel myself in a position to object to his being flogged.”[74] Mr. Highley, the master of this school, spoke strongly of Dove’s bad conduct, which he attributed to his reasoning powers being very limited. “He appeared,” said the witness, “to have no idea of any consequences; to be deprived of reason. I am satisfied he was labouring under an aberration of intellect.”[75] Having been expelled from his school, his father took the opinion of a Mr. Lord, a schoolmaster, as to what was best to be done with the boy. “I could make no impression on his heart or his head,” said Mr. Lord. “He could not appreciate what I said. He listened, but I could make no impression—get no rational answers. When I heard of his engagement I told his future wife’s brother-in-law that inquiry ought to be made about Dove on account of his unaccountable irrational conduct.” By Mr. Lord’s advice, he was sent to learn farming, for more than five years, with a Mr. Frankish. Here again his mischievous and cruel propensities were exhibited—putting vitriol on the tails of some cows, burning half-grown kittens with it, putting it into the horse-trough, and setting fire to the gorse. He was as unapt a scholar at farming as at religion and grammar. Again, when he went to another farmer for a year, he was the same dull unpractical pupil. He was now sent to America for a short visit, returning with travellers’ stories of his adventures of unusual wildness and incredibility. Still, however, he was deemed by his father capable of being trusted with a farm, where his mischievous and extravagant conduct astonished his servants, and made them regard him as “not of a sound mind.”[76] At this time, 1852, he married, quarrelling or playing with his wife like a child, and changed his farm more than once, without apparent reason. Other witnesses spoke to the incoherence of his conversation: of his lying on the ground and crying without a cause; complaining of noises in his house; trying to reap his own corn in a green state; exhibiting conjuring tricks, and talking of having put a spell on the steward of the proprietor of one of his farms. Eventually, in consequence of his intemperate habits, he had to give up farming and remove into the outskirts of Leeds, where he lived on an annuity of £90 a year, left to him by his father, who died in 1854. With nothing to do, he became an habitual drunkard, aggravating his eccentricities, stimulating his mischievous propensities, and stupefying himself as to the consequences of his actions to himself.[77] With such propensities, it may be conceived that his wife led a wretched life; that quarrels were frequent; that at one time he threatened her with a pistol; and that eventually, after a very few years, they occupied separate beds, and rarely met, except at meals. Unfortunately for both of them, an arrangement for a separation was broken off by the interposition of injudicious friends, and until the beginning of 1856 they endured their miserable life together.

HISTORY OF THE CASE.

It was at this time that the enquiries into the death of Cook at Rugeley were filling the newspapers, and the evidence on the inquest became matter of popular discussion. Among Dove’s friends was one Harrison, known as the Witchman of Leeds, who, according to his own account, was “a dentist, a water caster, a caster of nativities, and a believer in the stars.” On hearing this man read, in a public-house, the results of the analytical examination of Cook’s body by Dr. Taylor, as related at the inquest, and that gentleman’s statement of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of discovering strychnia by chemical analysis, Dove appears to have been forcibly struck by the revelation. He asked Harrison either to make or get him some strychnia, and, when he refused, said he could get it elsewhere. Probably at that time the idea of poisoning his wife was first entertained by him. Unfortunately he had no difficulty in obtaining the necessary poison, as he was intimately acquainted with Mr. Morley, the surgeon of Leeds, who had attended the Dove family for many years, and was a constant visitor to his surgery. Subsequently, therefore, to his acquiring knowledge of what had happened in Palmer’s case, he had repeated conversations with one of Mr. Morley’s pupils about strychnia; and on the 10th of February, on the plea that his house was infested by rats, and that he was worried by his neighbour’s cats, he obtained from him ten grains of this deadly poison. This he placed about the house in a careless way, and destroyed a cat, the body of which he buried in the midden. Again on the 17th he got four or five grains more of strychnia, promising the pupil who gave it to him the skin of a grey cat which he professed to be about to poison with it. At this time, the pupil was of opinion that Dove noted whereabouts on the shelf the bottle of strychnia was placed. A few days after he was seen by Mr. Morley’s coachman in the surgery alone, with the gas turned up, which, as the coachman came near, he turned down, and in an apparent flurry, meeting him at the door, gave as his excuse that he had come to light his pipe.[78] The suggestion of the prosecution was that at this time, knowing where the bottle of strychnia was kept, he took the opportunity of helping himself to some more of the poison. During all this time it was evident, from his conversations on strychnia and the impossibility of its detection, that he had studied Palmer’s case.

Previously to Sunday, the 24th of February, Mrs. Dove had not been well, but on that day appeared quite recovered. On the Monday, however, when she went upstairs with her servant to make the beds, she was suddenly taken ill, staggered, became paralysed, twitched and jumped, and when put on the bed, on the slightest touch either of her body or the bedclothes, had renewed convulsions. Dove, who was downstairs, was sent for, and went for the doctor, to whom he said that his wife had been ill all night, and asked if his wife died would there be a coroner’s inquest?[79] After two or three hours the convulsions passed away, and the patient remained free from pain. Dove’s attention to his wife was suspiciously marked. He gave her medicine with his own hands; called in a neighbour to attend to her, and seemed greatly distressed at her condition. Three days after, a second attack of the same nature occurred, and again he told the doctor he was sure his wife would die. She was seen to cry bitterly, and heard to say that she was sure the medicine, of the bitter taste of which she complained, was killing her. Next evening a third attack came on, with the same symptoms. And on the 28th Dove predicted that she would have another attack about ten that evening; at that hour he gave her the medicine, and in half an hour afterwards another and more severe attack came on, so severe that she said, “Oh dear, I thought it was all over.” In all these attacks after a time the spasms and convulsions passed away, and she was apparently only suffering from exhaustion after them, and otherwise quite well. On Saturday Dove, who had gone out, returned much in liquor, and at 8 P.M. gave her her medicine. “It is very disagreeable,” she said, “hot and bitter.” He washed out the glass and wiped it as usual, saying, “I always wash it out; medicine is always such nasty stuff.” Within half an hour of taking this dose an attack more than usually violent came on, and after a series of spasms and convulsions the poor creature died about twenty minutes to eleven that night.

Struck with the resemblance of the symptoms of Mrs. Dove’s attacks to those due to poisoning by strychnia, and hearing from his pupil of the purchase of that drug by the prisoner, Mr. Morley, who had attended her, decided on having a post-mortem examination. This Dove, who had on her first attack asked Morley’s pupil whether Mr. Morley would have a post-mortem examination if his wife died, tried to prevent, on the plea of his having promised his wife that it should not be allowed, and his horror at the desecration of her body. Mr. Morley, however, obtained the consent of Dove’s mother, and persevered. On the examination of the body by himself and Mr. Nunneley, the surgeon, and the subsequent chemical analysis of its different parts, every test proved the presence of strychnia in large quantities. During the examination of the body, blood to the extent of a crown piece fell on the floor of the room, and a week after the spaniel of a woman who was cleaning the room was supposed to have licked it, and as she left on the completion of her work, was attacked with violent spasms, fell on its back, and died at once. On the examination of its body strychnia was also detected. The prisoner, who after his wife’s funeral had wandered about, asking Harrison and other persons whether it was safe to go back, and talking about the possibility of the wife having taken the strychnia by accident, as he had carelessly placed it in his razor case, and put it about in the house, was subsequently arrested and put upon his trial. It is needless to give in detail the evidence of the persons by whom the above facts were proved, which were hardly traversed by counsel for the defence. The testimony with reference to the symptoms and the results of the post-mortem examination cannot, however, with safety be abridged, seeing the importance attached to this case in Palmer’s trial.

THE SYMPTOMS.

Ann Fisher, who took her daughter’s place in the house in consequence of the latter’s illness, said—

“On Saturday and Sunday Mrs. Dove appeared pretty well, and on the latter day went to church. On Monday, February 25, after breakfast, she complained of her legs, and said she felt curious, and fell in the bedroom whilst helping witness to make the beds. Witness caught her in her arms, and called up Dove, who went for Mrs. Witham (next door neighbour), and witness put Mrs. Dove to bed. She started, and twitched, and jumped, and, even if witness touched the bedclothes, or walked across the room, complained that it made her worse. Mr. Scarth (Morley’s assistant) came and gave some medicine, and she felt better. The jerkings continued from two to two and a half hours. She lay on her right side, and her breathing was rather difficult: she was quite sensible the whole time. She seemed better in the afternoon, and pretty well the next morning. On Wednesday, the 27th, she had another attack, beating, jumping, and starting; complained about her legs and back being very bad: said there was a stiffness in them; they seemed paralysed, and she could not move them about. She lay on her side, and her breathing was very bad when she had these attacks on her. She was better after the medicines on the two occasions on which I gave them to her myself. I cannot recollect Thursday, but on Friday night, about 10 P.M., I was called up into the bedroom. Dove was dressed, standing by the bedside holding her hand. Her back was quite arched, and she was making a great noise in her inside. She said, ‘Oh dear, I thought it had been my last.’ Her breathing was very difficult. She complained about her jaws being stiff. I stayed with her till about 2 A.M., and she was better, and I went to bed. Next morning she said she was very poorly, and could not take any coffee. She had had no rest all night. She took some coffee afterwards, and had a little rest. In the afternoon Mrs. Witham was with her. She appeared much better then, washed herself and rubbed her legs, which seemed to ease her. She became worse at 8.30 P.M. The bell was rung: Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Witham were with her. Dove was out—had gone out about a quarter to half an hour. She then moaned and screamed; her body was quite arched and her feet projected right from her body, and she was in that state till twenty minutes to eleven, when she died. Before she died she grasped the hands of Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Witham, who were holding hers, so hard that it hurt them. Dove came back at about ten: she was then in great agony. As soon as he saw me, he told me he was going to Mr. Morley’s for medicine, and that if Mrs. Wood wanted to go home, I was to go up and take her place. When he returned with the doctors, she was dead.”

Mrs. Witham,[80] the next door neighbour who attended the deceased almost daily, confirmed Mrs. Fisher’s account of the earlier symptoms, and gave the following details of the night of her death:—

“On Saturday, March the 1st, I saw her again about 2.30 P.M. She seemed better, and I remained with her till about six. At 3.30 P.M. I gave her her medicine. Mr. Morley came at four, when she seemed well. I got the food he ordered for her, and she seemed better than I had seen her before. Dove was there, and when I told him I had given her the medicine, he said she ought not to have it until about five. I was sent for again later to sit with her until Mrs. Fisher came, as Dove was going for medicine. He was rubbing her legs, and asked her to kiss him, which she did. Shortly after, he gave her her medicine. He went to the washstand, and came back with a glass in one hand, with the medicine and water in the other. He was at the washstand time enough to pour out the medicine. Mrs. Wood was present. After she had taken it, Mrs. Dove complained that it was very hot, and asked for a lozenge. Dove took the glass to the washstand, and said he always washed it out after giving the medicine. He then left, as he said, to get more medicine. In about a quarter of an hour she complained of her back: her head was thrown back. I took hold of her hand, and she grasped it so tightly I could not get it away. Her eyes looked fixed. I put my hand to them: they did not move. Her features were very much distorted, and her teeth clinched. We both took hold of her hands, which she grasped so tightly that I could not bear it. Mrs. Wood was going to rub her back. She said, ‘Oh, don’t; lift me up,’ and I and Mrs. Wood tried to do so. Her back was arched, her body quite stiff, her legs stretched out. I did not notice her feet. We lifted her up, and put a pillow under her back. She rested on her shoulders, and the bottom part of her back, until the pillow was placed under her. The symptoms grew more violent, but she could speak. Her breathing was loud and difficult. She shrieked several times—a sort of scream. In about half an hour she could speak no longer. We could not be positive if she was sensible, and at twenty minutes to eleven she died. Dove came in after she had ceased to speak, threw off his coat, and was going to rub her legs, when I said she could not bear it. Mrs. Wood said something to him, and he left the house immediately. When the doctors came she had been dead some minutes.”

On cross-examination the witness said—

“That when she gave her the medicine about three o’clock, deceased complained that it was bitter, as witness found it was on tasting it: (it contained aloes). That when the attack came on she appeared to lose her senses very soon, her eyes being fixed, and not speaking: this was in about an hour. She spoke until half an hour after her attack, but not until forty minutes. She was in better health and spirits on the Saturday than she had been all the week. She was rubbed after each fit, and it seemed to relieve her. The jumpings and twitchings went on, on the Saturday, and she was then some hours still, and then they began again.”

Mrs. Wood added the following particulars of the last attack:—

“I went at twenty minutes to eight on the Saturday evening and found her sitting up; her husband and Mrs. Witham were with her. About eight she asked her husband for her medicine; he went out of the room to get it, and returned in about a minute with it, and gave it to her. She said it was very bitter, very hot, and very nasty, and that she thought she would get better if the attack did not return. I recommended her to try and put it off. In about a quarter of an hour after taking the medicine she began to be ill. I asked Mrs. Witham to go round and take her hand, saying, ‘this Gird is coming on.’ She was propped up with pillows. In a short time she said, ‘Off the bed’ and repeated it three times. I thought at that time she wished to get off the bed. Mrs. Witham said, ‘Oh no, we cannot.’ I do not think she was sensible after she said ‘Off the bed’ the first time. She died at twenty minutes to eleven. Dove went for the doctors; when he returned she was dead.”

Mr. Scarth, Morley’s pupil, who attended on the 25th of February, at the request of the prisoner, in Mr. Morley’s absence, said—

“I found Mrs. Dove in bed with very minute twitchings of the muscles of the face and arms, and her teeth closed—hands clinched—head thrown slightly back, and the shoulders likewise, and her feet stretched straight out with the legs. Again I saw her at seven on the Thursday night, the symptoms were the same, but her principal complaint was of pain in the shoulders and back. Her shoulders were thrown back. The attack passed off whilst I was there in about five minutes. I gave her the draught prescribed by Mr. Morley, and the convulsions ceased and did not return, and I ordered her the repetition of the draught.”

This witness had the cat dug out of the midden, in which the prisoner said he had buried it, and was present when Mr. Morley and Mr. Nunneley experimented on it.

MEDICAL AND ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE.

Mr. George Morley, a surgeon at Leeds, who had always attended the Dove family, was called in to the deceased in December, 1855, when he found her suffering from disordered digestion and nervous excitement. She improved, and he subsequently only saw her at long intervals till the 25th of February; on that day, he said—

It is unnecessary to give in detail the first portion of this report, in which, from a most careful examination of all parts of the body, it was evident that the death could not be attributed to any known organic disease. With the exception of a slight appearance of congestion in the intestines, every part of the body was in a healthy state, and the stomach contained only usual food. The report then continued:—

“No appearance of irritation from any mineral or other irritant poison, nor any odour of any poison recognizable by smell. Hence we searched for strychnia. We divided the stomach and its contents into three parts:—(1.) The brown pulpy mass in the stomach; (2.) The mucous and all other matters that could be removed from the stomach; (3.) The stomach itself. By the usual tests we obtained strychnia from each of these. The spirituous extracts were also unusually bitter. In the contents of the intestines we found only faint traces. We obtained the body of the cat, that had been poisoned some time before, and proved that it is possible to discover strychnia in a dead body some time after death. The result was decidedly the same evidence as we had from the human body.”

The report then gave the details of the processes by which the strychnia had been detected. (1.) Taste; (2.) Nitric acid, producing a red colour (the test for brucia); (3.) Acetic acid and solution of chloride of gold, producing a yellowish-white precipitate (of doubtful value); (4.) Concentrated sulphuric acid and solution of bichromate of potash, both in powder and in solution, producing the purple colour; (5.) The application of the same tests to strychnia itself with the same results, by each of them separately, and repeated with such variations as could detect any error that might have crept in, and the conclusion to which the analysts came that the stomach contained strychnia enough to cause death.

The report then described the effects of administering portions of the spirituous extracts proved to have contained strychnia to several animals, five in number. In the cases of four of these, two rabbits, one mouse, and a guinea-pig, the liquid was given by inoculation through small openings either in the cellular tissues beneath the skin, or into one of the mucous cavities of the body; and in the case of one of the mice, by the mouth. In three cases death followed at the respective intervals of two, twelve, and fifty minutes after the introduction of the poison; and in one case—that of a rabbit—although for a time it remained nearly dead, it afterwards revived, and eventually recovered. In the case of the pig, the effects were much more slight; the spasms were not so violent as to throw it down and entirely disable it, but on the following day it was found dead, with the muscles rigid, and the hind legs extended, as if from poison. “The symptoms preceding death, in all the cases, were, disturbed respiration, general distress, convulsive twitchings and jerkings, tetanic spasms, a peculiar out-stretching of the legs, and general rigidity, exactly those commonly produced by strychnia.” The same effects, for the sake of comparison, were produced in a parallel series of experiments on animals with ordinary strychnia, which, as a series, were not more severe, or more rapidly fatal. “These experiments,” said the analysts, “which add the test of physiological effect to that of the chemical reagent, directly confirm our analysis, and taking them in connection with the analyses and with the symptoms observed during life, and with the appearances noted after death, they afford, in our opinion, the most complete proof that the death of Mrs. Dove was from the poisonous effects of strychnia, and from no other cause.”

The witness then spoke from his own personal knowledge of cases of poisoning by strychnia, and continued:—

“I cannot refer the death to any other cause, nor the symptoms during life, as described by the witnesses Witham, Fisher, and Wood. There is no other substance that will produce such symptoms and appearances. I tried similar experiments on a little dog, with the same results. Strychnia is not a cumulative poison. The effect of of it passes off entirely by a gradual subsidence of the spasms. In part the strychnia is absorbed in the blood, in part it passes off by the secretions, part remains in the stomach, its carbon, hydrogen, and other constituents broken up. If not decomposed, it would act on other animals. The series of symptoms produced by strychnia were complete. I have no doubt that each of the several attacks were produced by strychnia. Several of the medicines I sent to Mrs. Dove were bitter, containing aloes and gentian, and hot, containing ammonia and ether. The effects of strychnia would follow from in a few seconds to an hour and a half, depending on the constitution of the person, and state of the stomach, and how the strychnia was administered. Assuming that Mrs. Dove took no food or tea, I should refer the time at which she took the strychnia to the time at which she took the medicine. That would be the natural time for the attack; she would be attacked in a quarter to half an hour after taking it. The strychnia I had in my surgery was a soft white powder, fine, but not so fine as salt. There is a form of pure crystallised strychnia more like salt. I should judge that she had taken two to three grains to produce the results of Saturday night. You might take two or three grains between your finger and thumb: a quarter of a grain would kill a dog. I have examined one of the bottles of medicine which I sent to Mrs. Dove; it is the same as I sent.”

The witness also related the following conversations with the prisoner:—

“During the post-mortem examination, I had a conversation with the prisoner at his mother’s. He asked me what we had found in the analysis—had we found poison? I said the analysis was not complete, and could not give any answer till it was. I said we had not found any natural causes of death. He asked me, ‘If poison was found, what would the jury say? ‘ I replied, that ‘They could only say it was taken by accident, or intentionally, or given to her by some one.’ He wished me to let him know before the inquest if we had found poison. I had inquired about his getting poison, and asked him how often. He replied, ‘Only once, and that he had it to kill mice, as well as cats; had placed it in his razor-case, and told his wife that it was the poison Palmer used; that it was a deadly poison, and she must not touch it.’ I never told him there should be no examination.”

On cross-examination by Mr. Bliss, after speaking to his having attended the Dove family for many years, but seen but little of the prisoner before he came to Leeds, the witness said—

“When the conversation about strychnia took place, the prisoner asked me if I suspected him, and said, ‘Should I have done it openly if I had intended to do it? Should I have come to your surgery for it or have talked openly about it to other people? Could I have been so cruel?’ That was the first time that I named strychnia to any relative. I examined the little dog and have no doubt it died of strychnia. They brought me a piece of carpet and the board on which was blood, but I discovered no strychnia. I could not; the quantity was too small. I think the stains in the carpet and on the board could not have contained strychnia enough to have poisoned the dog. I discovered very little blood in the intestines. Strychnia is exceedingly bitter. One part in 40,000 would be bitter, less would be perceptibly bitter. There was a considerable quantity of fÆces in the intestines, and three or four ounces of digested food. Mrs. Dove’s medicines were alkaline. I saw Mrs. Dove every day from Monday to Saturday, and she told me her ailments. I found nothing in the body to account for death but the strychnia taken on Saturday. Strychnia is not soluble in alkali. The symptoms I have heard to-day, prior to those on Saturday, are additional to what I saw. Hysteria would have left no symptoms. There was nothing inconsistent with strychnia having been administered before in the appearances of the body. The engorged state of the lungs and the condition of the brain favoured that view. I say this guardedly. She might with this condition of body have been better on Saturday, as congestion would pass away quickly. I found no symptoms on Saturday of the brain or lungs being engorged. She was better in health, in spirits, and in appetite. Mrs. Witham’s and Mrs. Fisher’s statements have changed my opinion. The symptoms they describe are all to be found separately in hysteria. Mr. Scarth’s account also influenced me, which I did not hear until after her death. It was my opinion at the time that she was affected with hysteria. In a paroxysm from strychnia it is possible that a patient might wish to be rubbed, but it is not what I should ‘À priori,’ look for. Touch sometimes renews the spasms, but it depends upon the stage. The desire not to be touched is a symptom of strychnia. After hearing of her symptoms I prescribed a liniment to be rubbed. It consisted with the dose of strychnia said to have been administered that she should be better on Saturday. The effect of hysteria would be to gorge the vessels of the brain and lungs. Not shrinking from touch was consistent with strychnia, but a desire not to be touched was an indication of it.”

On re-examination, the witness said—

“There are several cases in which persons labouring under strychnia had desired to be rubbed. Parts of the body might fall on the floor as well as the blood.

“By a Juror.—If strychnia were put in the medicine it would not alter the colour of it, it might have left a powdery deposit. I never knew a case of hysteria cause death with such external appearances as in Mrs. Dove’s case.”

Mr. Thomas Nunneley, professor of surgery in the Leeds College of Medicine, who was examined in Palmer’s case on behalf of that prisoner, and then maintained that if Cook had been poisoned by strychnia it would have been found in his body by the chemical and other tests as late as the sixth day after his death, confirmed the statements in the joint report, and the opinion of Mr. Morley, that Mrs. Dove had died from the effects of strychnia. His experiments on strychnia in the cases of animals had been carried on for over thirty years, and he was of opinion that, “though he should not have anticipated the improvement spoken of on the Saturday, yet that it was not inconsistent with her having taken strychnia on the Friday.” On cross-examination by Mr. Bliss, he gave the following evidence:—

Dr. Christison, the eminent writer on poisons, also agreed with Mr. Morley and Mr. Nunneley as to the cause of the symptoms. He admitted that “it was just possible to attribute them to hysteria, but had never seen such a combination of symptoms in an hysteric case. He thought it was unusual for a person to be insensible before death in a case of strychnia, but he had seen it lately in the case of an animal killed by that poison—the symptoms were exactly those which would be produced by an overdose of strychnia in the prior attacks.”

Dr. Hobson, who had seen the deceased with Mr. Morley a few minutes after her death, “saw nothing either in her countenance or position that he thought particular, and admitted that all the symptoms described before those of Saturday might be accounted for in an aggravated form of hysteria, but would not expect a person who suffered under such a form of hysteria to be conscious, nor did he attribute these symptoms to that disease.”

Mr. Teal, who had been in practice in Leeds for thirty-four years, agreed “in the symptoms being entirely in accord with strychnia, and though he had seen hysteria simulate strychnism, he had never seen it entirely resemble the entire group of symptoms represented in this case; had he heard only of the symptoms before Saturday, he should have considered them in strict accordance with the effects of that poison; and even if he had heard of hysteric symptoms before, he should have suspected strychnia, but would not deny the possibility of their being consistent with hysteria.” In reply to a juryman, he added the following evidence on the probable reason for the state of the prisoner’s mind:—

“Excessive drinking without producing delirium tremens might cause the conduct of the prisoner, described by Harrison,[81] as to spirits and noises. He might have any delusions when under the influence of drink, but when sober such a man might be sound in mind and without delusions, and when partially drunk might have delusions without suffering under delirium tremens.”

Mr. Richard Hey, who had been in practice in York for twenty-seven years, and concurred with the other medical men, on cross-examination, said—

“I have had experience in hysteria, and have seen cases in which many of the symptoms would be the same as those described. The freedom from affection of the brain would lead me to suspect it to be strychnia. I think the violent twitchings and spasms, and the extreme pain they produced, would make a very marked distinction from the effects of hysteria. I have never seen instances of screaming out from pain in hysteria. I have heard of screaming out. They complain of pain, but not violent pain. The spasm consequent on strychnia would, I imagine, induce a patient to be rubbed as in ordinary spasms and cramp, but I never saw spasms so intense as in those spoken of in strychnia. One of the most marked symptoms in strychnia, in aggravated cases, is not being able to bear to be touched, but it is not so in slight attacks.” Re-examined.—“I never knew touching or walking across a room not bearable in hysteria, or pain in the jaws, or all these things combined in hysteria.”

The last witness called by the prosecution, Mr. William Hey, who had been in practice in Leeds for thirty-seven years, was equally of opinion that the symptoms were inconsistent with any known disease, but consistent with the effects of strychnia, and with nothing else. “Had he heard only the evidence of the symptoms down to Friday night, her hysterical temperament, and her recovery on the Saturday, he should not have attributed them to hysteria, but he should have thought it a most extraordinary case.”

THE PRISONER’S ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS.

In addition to the acts and statements of the prisoner reported in the “Early Life of the Prisoner” and the evidence already given, Miss Fisher deposed to his very violent threats against his wife, especially when in liquor; his telling her on one occasion “to mind her own business, or he would do her job for her”; his threatening her with a knife and striking her, and telling her “he would give her a pill”; and to his wife saying, in his presence, “If I should die, it is my wish, Elizabeth, that you should tell my friends to have my body examined”; to his writing a letter to the witchman Harrison, asking him “to torment his wife when at Manchester, as she was not a right woman”; and telling the witness that Harrison had told him that his wife’s days would end in February. He also told another witness (Elizabeth Thornhill, a charwoman) that Harrison had told him that his wife would not live long, and that he would marry the lady next door (Mrs. Witham).

Whilst the inquest was proceeding he asked Mrs. Witham how it was going on, and when she said to him, “It is a very suspicious thing that you gave her the medicine at eight o’clock and that she became ill a quarter of an hour after,” he replied, “If they ask me if I gave the medicine, I shall say I did not; and if they ask if she took it herself, I shall say I do not know.”

To Margaret Gray, another witness, he stated on the Friday that his wife was ill of spasms, and he did not think she would live over Saturday night.

To Mary Hicks he more than once stated that he was sure his wife would die, and that Mr. Morley would want a post mortem examination, as he did in his father’s case, but that he would object to it, as he had promised his wife to do; that he should probably soon marry again; and when Mrs. Hicks told him to go back, as his wife might have another attack, he said she would not until half-past ten or eleven, and made no reply when again asked if the attacks were periodical. On the Sunday morning after his wife’s death, he told this witness that there was to be an inquest, and when she asked why, said, “Oh, we live in a bad neighbourhood, and have not lived happily together. It is all nonsense.” To the Rev. H. T. Sturgeon, the clergyman of Burley, whom he asked to visit his wife, and to whom he professed to be very anxious about her spiritual welfare, he assigned as his reason for not calling in further advice (as recommended by Mr. Morley) his fear of offending that gentleman. To a man of the name of Rose, a baker, whose name even he did not know, and whom he met by accident in a dram shop on the Thursday before his wife’s death, he said that he thought his wife would die, and told him “not to come to him till he saw her death in the paper, and then, if he lighted on a woman that would suit him, to bring her down to his house, as he could not do without one if his wife died.”

To Harrison, the watchman, on the Thursday after his wife’s death, when giving him a card for her funeral, he said there was an inquest on her. When Harrison asked why, the prisoner said, “Can they detect a grain or a grain and a half of strychnia?” “Why,” replied Harrison, “have you given her any?” “No,” replied Dove; “but I got some of Morley’s man to kill cats, and some might have been spilt and she have got it.” Again Harrison saw him the next day, when he said, “Mr. Morley has told me they have found poison in my wife. Could they take me if I go back?” “I should,” replied Harrison. “If you are innocent, go back; what occasion have you to be frightened? They will not take you if you are innocent,” and Dove then went away.

To his wife’s mother, Mrs. Jenkins, who came to his house after her daughter’s death, he said at breakfast on the Friday, the day of the adjourned inquest, “Do you know that a sprinkle of oil of almonds will kill a person? Arsenic you can detect in a body after 20 years. Belladonna you cannot; one is a mineral, the other a vegetable. There is a poison like this”—taking up a piece of salt—“in a man you can detect it, in a woman you cannot.” He told her also that he could not think but that he should marry again. When he talked about the poisons another person, a Mrs. Risdon, was present.

To Mr. Scarth, a pupil of Mr. Morley’s, who, in consequence of the latter’s engagement, was the first to see her on the 25th of February, he put the question whether Mr. Morley would require a post mortem examination if his wife died. Scarth replied that Mr. Morley generally did on all his patients who died suddenly, when the prisoner said, “I will not consent.” “Probably,” said Scarth, “as you did when your father died.” “His wife,” replied Dove, “would not consent.”

On the close of the case for the prosecution, Mr. Bliss called on the counsel to put into the box the remainder of the witnesses whose names were on the back of the bill, and Mr. Hardy, in the absence of his leader, declining to take this responsibility, Baron Bramwell, on the authority of the case of R. v. Woodhead, ruled that the prosecutor need not do so, but was bound to have the witnesses in Court so that they might, if required, be called by the defence.[82]

THE DEFENCE.

Though the defence of the prisoner was mainly rested on the question of his sanity, Mr. Bliss urged on the jury that the circumstantial evidence against him was inconclusive, turning the openness of the prisoner’s acts and conversations, and his attention to his wife during her attacks, to the best advantage. On the question of his sanity, in addition to the mischievous and cruel acts that had been elicited in cross-examination, he cited as further proof his belief in witchcraft and his frequent consultations with the witchman Harrison, and his request to that person to torment his wife, professedly to force her to return to his bed. The witchman, said counsel, not contemplating the murderous result, encouraged him, and held out such promises of future happiness that the desire ripened into practice, and the wife was murdered. Even after detection was inevitable, the confidence of the dupe remained unimpaired, and he firmly believed that the witchman could rescue him from his doom. As a proof of this insane belief the following letter written in his own blood, which had been found in his pocket when in jail, was read:—

MEDICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE DEFENCE.

In support of the plea of insanity, in addition to the witnesses already referred to in the introduction to this case, three medical witnesses of tried experience in lunacy, Dr. Caleb Williams (for 30 years the medical attendant at the York Asylum), Dr. Pyeman Smith (of the Leeds Lunatic Asylum), and Mr. John Kitchen (of The Retreat, at York), were called for the defence, whose evidence, it is only fair, should be given in some detail.

Dr. Williams, who had been in Court during the whole trial, and had also examined the prisoner with Mr. Kitchen a few days before the trial, was decidedly of opinion, from the evidence he had heard, that the prisoner was of unsound mind, and that his violent emotions and his belief in supernatural agency were indications of it.

“Taking into account,” said the witness, “that he had written and said similar things before about selling his soul to the devil, I think that his letter to the devil was not simulated. It appears to be written with blood. I had conversation with him about that letter when I saw him, and he told me it was written under satanic influence. The result of that conversation was that, in my opinion, it was not simulated. I have no doubt that his illusion, that he had sold himself to the devil, was a real one. I believe his incantations spoken of were connected with his belief in supernatural agency; and I think his saying that he had put a spell on the steward arose from the same belief.[83] The letter to his schoolmaster, in which he declared his sanity, is very like what is done by insane persons—they declare they are sane. His talking to various persons about strychnia showed the weakness of his mind. The effect of drink on a lunatic are to make him violent and dangerous. Persons liable to insanity would exhibit a tendency and inclination to drink. I think from what I have heard he has not the power of controlling his emotions and passions. None of them at all times.[84] There would be periods when he would have control over some. The circumstance of his shooting the cat showed an uncontrollable impulse to injure or take life; and seeing it was not expended in injuring the man, he shot the cat. The effect of confining a person for several weeks on strictly sober diet, who has before been subject to get drunk, would be to reduce him to a calm condition. The Castle diet is sober (Dove’s prison). From all I have heard and seen, I consider his powers of mind, during the fatal week were probably influenced by his notions regarding supernatural agency, and that consequently he was the subject of a delusion. During that week, labouring under such delusions, he might retain his power of adapting means to an end, and of judging of the consequences. He could not under those delusions have the power of resisting any impulse.”

On cross-examination by Mr. Overend, after repudiating the notion that his evidence was tinged by religious objections to capital punishment, the witness said:—

On re-examination, Dr. Williams said—

In reply to questions by the Judge, the witness said:—

The witness wished to say with regard to the question as to shooting the cat, that he thought the impulse of destruction was so strong at the time, that he could not control it, and must have shot something.[87]

Dr. Pyeman Smith, the proprietor of a private lunatic asylum at Leeds for the past 15 years, though, from what he had heard and seen, he was prepared to declare that Dove was of unsound mind during the fatal week, and had been so for the last 20 years, admitted, on cross-examination, that he did know right from wrong during that period. He, however, on re-examination, qualified this admission.

Mr. Bliss objected to this line of examination by the judge.

The Judge.—“I am entitled to, and in my opinion bound to, and I will put the questions.”

Witness then continued—

Mr. John Kitchen, superintendent of The Retreat at York, where the patients averaged a hundred, also agreed with the previous medical witnesses, that Dove was of unsound mind during the fatal week. He, however, admitted that “during that period he knew right from wrong, had some knowledge of the difference—some knowledge that he was committing murder—and that if found out he would be punished.” This admission he sought to explain away, on re-examination, protesting that what he meant was “that Dove knew he was killing his wife, but did not know he was doing a wrong act—that he would know in proportion as he knew the difference between right and wrong.”

On re-examination, he said:—

“There are dangerous wards in some asylums, but I should not expect to find the greatest number of impulsive cases in that ward. Sometimes impulsive lunatics are dangerous. The keepers have an influence over them—a mental influence. They formerly worked on their fears, and thus kept patients under control. There is a madness which consists in a propensity to kill. If a stranger was left with such a one in a room alone, I should expect him to exercise his propensity and kill him; and yet, probably, that patient would yield his keeper obedience. Probably the fear of some chastisement would induce fear of his keeper.”

THE JUDGE’S CHARGE.

The greater portion of Baron Bramwell’s charge was necessarily occupied by reading over and commenting on the evidence produced by the prosecution—that the death of the wife had been due to the administration of strychnia, and that the prisoner had opportunities of administering it. The evidence on these points has been already so fully reported that it is needless to give this portion of his exhaustive summing-up. His remarks on the rule of law on the plea of insanity, and on the nature of the insanity suggested by the medical witnesses, are too valuable to be omitted.

Again, after going carefully through the evidence in the case, and pointing out the application of the different classes of proofs, the learned Baron said that “he thought none of the instances of strange conduct adduced when the prisoner was a boy evidence of insanity more than might be found in the conduct of a perverse, ill-conducted boy;” and contrasted the opinions of the witnesses as to his being almost an idiot with the letters written by him, which exhibited no traces of mental incapacity.[88] In commenting on the opinions of the medical men of experience in insanity, he adopted the judgment of Dr. Lushington in the Dyce Sombre case, “that the facts to which they depose, and not their opinions alone, were of weight;” and added “that he sincerely believed that the jury were as capable of judging as these mad doctors.”

“Two of them,” continued the learned judge, “were of opinion that the contemplation of a crime constituted insanity, if it were only contemplated enough. Then it was said that a man who had a propensity to vice, to cruelty, to crime, was insane. Take the case of a man found guilty at these assizes of a crime. It is found that he has twice been convicted before and in prison half a dozen times, and that he has a general propensity to commit crime. In such a case, why should not Dr. Williams come forward and say, “You are wrong. He is insane; you ought not to punish him.” If they believed these experts you would take away protection from the community, because they would have a check less to prevent the commission of crime. It would be affectation in him to say that he did not set a value on this scientific evidence. But he would rather take his own independent opinion, than that of others, on the facts. But it was not for him to do more than comment, and for the jury to judge of its value—of the conduct of the prisoner, of his letters, and of the arguments before them.”

After a brief consideration the jury returned a verdict of “guilty, but recommended him to mercy on the ground of his defective intellect.” Sentence of death was passed on him, and he was executed at York.

THE PRISONER’S CONFESSIONS.

A day or two before his execution Dove dictated two long and extraordinary statements of his connection with the “Witchman,” and the part played in the tragedy by this dangerous man, which contrast strongly with the evidence given by Harrison himself, and probably disclose facts which that person was glad to conceal at the time of his examination.

In the first of these statements he details his earlier interviews with the “Witchman” on the subjects of recovering lost cattle, removing strange noises from his house, and the bewitching of his live stock, in which Harrison appears to have played off on him the common tricks of his trade. His confidence in this fellow was unfortunately largely increased by his prophecying that Dove’s father would die before a certain Christmas Day—he died on Christmas Eve—and led him to consult the “Witchman” about his wife when he first conceived his violent hatred towards her.

“About August, 1855,” he says, “I had some unpleasantness with my wife, and went over to Harrison at Leeds, told him of it, and he promised to make it all right. He told me I must let him know by letter how things went on. In two days after this I wrote him that my wife was no better, and that he must do something to make peace. I sent this by Fisher, a porter at the railway station, to post. Mrs. Dove knew I had written, but not what about. She therefore sent the servant to Fisher, got back the letter, took out what I had written, and put in a blank sheet.[89] I did not know this at the time, but, hearing some whispering, wrote another letter, and posted it myself about two o’clock. At three I went myself to Harrison, who told me he had received a blank sheet, and asked why, and I told him. I then informed him of the unpleasantness and unhappiness with my wife, and he said ‘You will never have happiness till she is out of the way.’ I said ‘How do you know that.’ He said ‘Come upstairs and I’ll tell you, for I’ve got your nativity marked out.’ [Upstairs he showed him a paper with the signs of the Zodiac, and hieroglyphical forms and numbers, which he describes at length.] Harrison then read out of a book my destiny. Between twenty-seven and thirty-two all would go against me. I should have nothing but misfortunes; that at thirty-two the sun and moon would come into conjunction, and then everything would be in my favour; that at thirty-two I should lose my wife, marry again, and have a child, and an addition to my fortune; and that for my sake he did not care how soon it was here, for until then I should never be a happy man; that after ‘thirty-two’ everything would go well for a few years. He made other remarks as to different periods of my life.”

Then follow the usual enquiries about the kind of person that was to be his second wife.

In the second statement he gives details of his administration of the strychnia, declaring that even when he got the second portion of that poison from Mr. Morley’s pupil he had no intention of poisoning his wife, but only intended it for the cats. His first attempt was with the jelly his sister Jane had sent, of which, it may be remembered, the wife, on the score of its bitterness, took only a spoonful. He then goes on:—

“On the Saturday, after Fisher left,[91] I took the paper containing the strychnia out of my razor-case and put it in my waistcoat-pocket, and then went to my mother’s house. In the afternoon I had previously called at Mr. Morley’s for my wife’s medicine. It was an effervescing draught, in two bottles. At my mother’s that evening I took the cork out of one of the bottles and touched the wet end of it with the strychnia. On that Saturday evening my wife took some of the draught in Mrs. Witham’s presence. Mrs. Witham tasted it, and said it tasted bitter. The draught was not shaken that night before taken. My wife did not suffer from the effects at all. On my way from my mother’s that night I threw away the remainder of the strychnia. I cannot tell you the feelings of my mind when I put the strychnia into the jelly and the mixture. I did not think at the moment as to its effects and consequences. On the Sunday following, which was the 24th of February, I went to the surgery; and there being no person there at the time, I took perhaps ten grains of strychnia and folded them in paper, and when I got home placed it in the stable. On the Monday morning I gave my wife her medicine—the effervescent mixture—about half-past nine, and at ten she had the attack mentioned by Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Witham. At the time she took it she complained very much of the bitterness, and said she would tell Mr. Morley about it. There were three or four doses left in the bottle after that draught was taken, and I broke the bottle in my wife’s presence, fearing Mr. Morley might taste it. The mixture was changed on the Monday; the mixture then given was very bitter. On Tuesday night or Wednesday morning I applied the wet end of the cork of the medicine-bottle to the strychnia, as before. I think there might be from half to a grain of strychnia on the cork when I put it into the bottle. I shook the mixture up. There were only two or three doses in the bottle. I don’t remember my wife having an attack on the Wednesday. She took her medicine that day. On Thursday I got another bottle of medicine from Mr. Morley, and I again applied the wet end of the cork to the strychnia as before. About the same quantity adhered. The last dose of that medicine was taken on Friday night about ten, and my wife was taken seriously ill in half an hour, but she had no arching of the back, as far as I can remember. Mrs. Fisher is mistaken in that point, but her statement in other respects is true, I believe. On that Friday night I got another bottle of medicine from Mr. Morley’s, directed to be taken four times a day. I did not put any strychnia into that bottle, or upon its cork. Mrs. Witham gave a dose out of that bottle in the afternoon of Saturday.[92] The strychnia was in the stable, where I had first placed it, and there was none in the razor-case on that day, nor during any part of that week. I was drinking at Sadlefee’s public-house on that Saturday, and was more or less affected with drink all that afternoon and evening. About three in the afternoon I went to the stable and took a grain and a half of strychnia out of the stable and put it in another paper, which I placed in my waistcoat-pocket. I put that strychnia into the wine-glass which contained a little water—I believe the water left in the glass by Mrs. Witham after giving my wife the third dose in the afternoon, but I have no recollection as to the time I put the strychnia into the glass. I gave the mixture in the evening, as stated by Mrs. Witham and Mrs. Wood in their evidence. I poured the mixture into the glass which contained the water and strychnia. I did not put the strychnia into the wine-glass in the presence of Mrs. Witham and Mrs. Wood. I know that I put it in before, but cannot tell how long before giving the medicine. I did not, when I gave the medicine on the occasions mentioned, think of the consequences; but when I saw my wife suffering on the Saturday night, it flashed across my mind that I had given her medicine, and that she would die from the effects. I was muddled before this, and did not know what I was doing. When the thoughts of her death crossed my mind, I regretted what I had done, and believe that if Mr. Morley had come in at that moment I should have told him what I had given her, so that he might have used means to restore her. I cannot disguise the anguish I felt when I returned from Mr. Morley’s and found her dead. Palmer’s case first called my attention to strychnia, but I never should have thought of using that or any other poison for the purpose of taking my wife’s life but for Harrison, who was always telling me that I should never have any happiness till my wife was out of the way.”[93]

TRIAL OF SILAS BARLOW FOR THE WILFUL MURDER OF ELIZA SOPER.

Before The Honorable Mr. Justice Denman, at the Central Criminal Court, November 27, 1876.

For the Prosecution: Mr. Poland and Mr. Beasley.
For the Defence: Mr. Fulton and Mr. Grubbe.

HISTORY OF THE CASE.

The prisoner, an engine driver on the South-Western Railway, about a year before the trial, on being left a widower, had formed a connection with the deceased, who, with their infant, came to lodge at the house of a Mrs. Wilson, in Leopold Street, Vauxhall, in August, 1876, under the name of Smith, where she was occasionally visited by the prisoner, who passed as her husband. Apparently they lived together on kindly terms, and were in fairly comfortable circumstances. On the 3rd of September the prisoner visited her about half-past eight in the evening, and stayed an hour. Up to that day the deceased had been in good health. As soon, however, as the prisoner had left, she came down from her room, knocked at the landlady’s door, and complained to her that she was very sick from the sarsaparilla which he had given her. “Her lips were white, she was very nervous, and appeared hardly able to stand,” said Mrs. Wilson. “I had never seen her so before. She went upstairs, and when I went to bed I went to her. She was retching very much, and sitting in a chair. I then went away. Next morning I saw her; she came downstairs and said she was very bad—worse. She could not stand, and had to lean against the wall. During the day she became better.”

THE SYMPTOMS.

The prisoner came again on the Sunday following, the 10th, at the same time as before.

“The deceased,” said Mrs. Wilson, “was at the street door, talking to me, with her baby, and in perfect health. They went up into their room, and in about an hour the prisoner knocked at my room door and said his wife had had two fits. I ran upstairs and found her lying across the bed; the prisoner was in the room. She was in a kind of fit or convulsion. I sent the prisoner for some brandy and water. She became a little conscious, and taking me by the hand said ‘Don’t touch me.’ She had been unconscious, but the moment she was touched she went into convulsions. Her feet and hands were clenched, and she was drawn quite backwards, her back forming an entire arch. She was not conscious then. The prisoner was holding her all the time. About half past ten I sent him for Dr. Miller, who came at once, and applied mustard plasters, remaining with her about five minutes, and the prisoner going back with him for medicine. She was slightly conscious when Dr. Miller came, and more so afterwards. Her feet were quite white(?)[94] the toes being drawn backwards to the soles of the feet. I did what the doctor told me, but it did not do her any good. I tried to give her the medicine, but she could not take it, and went off in a swoon. She had licked the spoon. She then had dreadful convulsions, one in particular, when it took the prisoner and me to hold her. Her neck was drawn backwards and quite arched. After that she became quite conscious, and said it was the nasty sarsaparilla that made her ill. The prisoner said ‘Oh no. I have taken more of it than you.’ He also said ‘I have given her two pills and taken two myself.’ She complained of a dreadful pain in her heart, and continued unconscious, coming to herself a little at times, but very slightly. The convulsions were dreadful, and she died about two o’clock on the eleventh. She seemed to drop instantly after a dreadful convulsion. I gave her two doses of the medicine the doctor sent. I had not seen any sarsaparilla in the room.”

On cross-examination by Mr. Fulton, after stating that she had never heard any quarrels between the prisoner and the deceased, she gave the following further particulars as to the symptoms:—

“In the evening, when I was called in, her eyes were partly closed during the convulsions; her breathing very hot (hard?) and at most suspended; her teeth entirely clenched and also her hands during the convulsions. She wanted to be sick shortly before her death; her lips were pale, and remained so until her death. The prisoner tried to move her, when she became sick, and she went into convulsions. He helped to hold her, and said he could not imagine what was the matter with her; seemed distressed, and sat on the bed holding her. To all appearance he was kind to her but not affectionate. She was more unconscious than conscious during the whole time. About twelve o’clock she appeared quite conscious. She had to move herself so that she could be sick, and caught hold of the bed head, and then went again into convulsions. Virtually she was unconscious the whole time. Dr. Miller came a second time, and she told him she had had some fearful fits, but I cannot recollect whether I said anything about the ‘arching.’ There was none when he saw her, but her feet were curved, and I told him about the ‘shakings,’ I mean the ‘convulsions.’ I first heard from the coroners officer that she had died of strychnia. I had previously told him the symptoms attending her death, but don’t remember telling him of the ‘arching.’ He said there was every appearance of her having died from strychnia.”

MEDICAL EVIDENCE.

James Miller, medical assistant at the Vauxhall dispensary, before that with Mr. Scott, a general practitioner, and previously an insurance agent, gave the following account of the case:—

“About twenty minutes to eleven on the 10th of September I was called by the prisoner to his wife, who he said had had two fainting fits. I found her lying on the bed, dressed, and quite conscious. She lay very quietly. She said she had severe pain in the legs, and that she had fainted twice. I asked her if she had complained during the week. She said only of pains in the head. I found the calves of her legs very rigid, her feet turned slightly inwards, the toes of each foot inclined towards the other as she lay, cramp in the lower limbs, her arms quiet. She beat her breast at times. Her hands were partly closed, her heart very excited, and her breathing slightly laboured. Her heart continued excited all the time I was there, about five minutes. I asked her what she had taken. She said a cup of tea in the morning and a herring at tea. She said she had pain in her head all the last week. I believed she was suffering from epilepsy. On leaving, the prisoner returned with me; I made up a bottle of medicine, antispasmodic, which he took away with him. I never saw her again alive.”

On cross-examination he said—

“He did not notice any such ‘arching’ as the witness Wilson spoke of, nor did she mention it to him as one of the symptoms. Nor should he call what he saw of the feet ‘arching.’ He had only seen one case of epilepsy before—that was twelve months ago—and the symptoms in it were very similar to what he saw in the deceased. He saw the body immediately after death; there was no ‘arching’ of it then. If there had been he should have seen it. She was lying, with her clothes on, on the bed. If there had been any marked rigidity of the body he should have observed it; that was a quarter of an hour after death.”

Re-examined by Mr. Poland.—“She had her clothes on when he saw her, and part of her body might have been covered with the bedclothes. In the case of epilepsy he referred to, the person died in six hours. He prescribed no pills, only the mixture.”

Proof was then given of the finding in the prisoner’s room of six bottles of medicine, a box with two pills,[95] and a packet of powder in dirty paper, and of their delivery to Dr. Lees, and subsequently to Dr. Bernays for analysis. It was not, however, until suspicions were aroused by other circumstances (the finding of the body of the infant in the river) that a post-mortem examination was held by Dr. Lees, and the contents of the stomach and other interior parts of the body analysed by him, and subsequently handed to Dr. Bernays for the same purpose. In one of the bottles Dr. Bernays found a distinct sediment of Prussian blue, pointing clearly to the use of some vermin killer. Subsequently two kinds of these dangerous preparations were submitted to and analysed by him.

ANALYTICAL EVIDENCE.

Dr. Lees, M.D., of the Brixton Road, on the 18th of September made a post-mortem examination of the body in conjunction with a Dr. Lewis. They found no morbid appearances to indicate the cause of death—the limbs were somewhat rigid, the body fairly nourished, and the stomach showed no sign of irritant poison.

“It contained,” said the witness, “six ounces of a thin reddish fluid. I put the stomach and contents into a jar, and the viscera into another. I received the bottles from the constable and the paper of powder, and saw some pills at the inquest. Among the bottles was one of the larger ones, which appeared to have contained a few ounces of good sarsaparilla—it was empty and rinsed out. One bottle contained about two grains of dried powder, adhering to the bottle. I added to the bottle a few drachms of water, two drachms of spirits of wine, thirty drops of hydrochloric acid, and two grains of dried powder. My purpose up to that time was to test for strychnia, but it was frustrated. What I had done was not sufficient to enable me to form an opinion. I had previously analysed a portion of a two-ounce phial, containing half a drachm or thirty drops of a reddish brown fluid—half a spoonful. I first tested five drops, and obtained clear evidence of strychnia. I was enabled to separate from the rest a substance that yielded strychnia. I used three separate tests; the second time with ten drops, and obtained needle-shaped crystals. I showed the colour to Dr. Bernays. I did not test the bottle for any other purpose. I left the rest (five drops) in the bottle and corked it up. Half a grain of strychnia is a fatal dose. I have been in practice fourteen years, and am of opinion that if Mrs. Wilson’s description of the symptoms is correct, they were consistent with death from strychnia. They only resemble the disease known as idiopathic tetanus. If Mrs. Wilson’s description is correct, the symptoms were not consistent with anything I know except death by strychnia—it came on so rapidly. If strychnia were administered in solution, the symptoms would come on in a very few minutes. Strychnia occasionally produces irritation of the stomach. The symptoms of poisoning by it are the rapid occurrence of twitchings in the limbs and rigidity of the muscles of the limbs, usually commencing in the lower extremities; the sense of weight on the chest, the extension of the spasms to the muscles of the trunk, the arching back of the head, the intervals of consciousness, the absence of any great difficulty in swallowing, and death in six hours. Mr. Miller’s evidence is consistent with death from strychnia.”

The cross-examination was, as in Mrs. Wilson’s case, directed to the eliciting admissions in favour of the opinion, at first adopted by Mr. Miller, that the death was due to epilepsy.

“Leaving out the ‘arching’” (opisthotonos), said the witness, “I should hesitate to say she died of strychnia; it is a leading symptom, and also that the intellect was clear at intervals. Vomiting is not usual in epilepsy. It was eight days after death that I examined the body. There was then no rigidity beyond what I might expect in death. The lungs were congested, the heart flabby and decomposed, spongy from putrefaction, and containing a little coagulated blood. Taking the appearances of the whole post-mortem examination, there were no marked ones to account for death.”

Dr. A. J. Bernays, professor of chemistry at St. Thomas’s Hospital, to whom the bottles and powder found in the room, the jars with the stomach, intestines, and viscera, and a bottle supposed to contain vomit,[96] had been handed on the 28th of October, reported the results of his analysis of their contents.[97]

“In the organs (the lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, intestines, spleen, and blood) he found no poison of any kind. The stomach was inflamed, and there was a trace of strychnia, but of no other poison. In one bottle of medicine, opium, myrrh, but no strychnia, were found, and in another only peppermint and asafoetida. The powder was innocuous, consisting of old mustard and fenugreek. In one nearly empty bottle was found a distinct sediment of Prussian blue, one of the usual ingredients in ‘vermin powder.’ He was satisfied that what Dr. Lees showed him on a watch glass was strychnia; on testing, it was found to contain the 1000th part of a grain. On the 31st of October the inspector brought two packets labelled Battle’s Vermin Killer. Poison. Lincoln—a light blue powder, a threepenny and a sixpenny packet. The first consisted of fifteen grains, containing wheat flour, Prussian blue, and crystallised strychnia. The second packet, of the same composition as the first, weighed thirty grains. The amount of strychnia was—in the threepenny packet 10·69 per cent., in the sixpenny packet 10·06 per cent., corresponding to 1·6 grains in the smaller packet. On the 9th November a threepenny and sixpenny packet of Butler’s Gloucestershire Vermin and Insect Killer for killing rats and mice, &c., was received, marked poison. The weight of the two was fifty-six grains. It was a grey powder, containing flour, soot, and barium carbonate, but no strychnia; but another packet of the same contained flour, soot, strychnia, but no barium carbonate. These ‘vermin killers,’ if used at all, should never be made or sold except by the legitimate pharmaceutists of the country, and under proper precautions.”

Mr. Justice Denman.—“A very proper suggestion for the consideration of the legislature.”

Mr. Thomas Stephenson, M.D., lecturer in chemistry at Guy’s Hospital, agreed with Dr. Lees and Dr. Bernays, and had no doubt of the correctness of their experiments.

It was also proved by the prisoner’s brother-in-law that the prisoner was in the habit of taking sarsaparilla, and that whilst the prisoner lodged with him, the witness had been using Battle’s Vermin Killer, as he was troubled with mice in his room. This he had bought at a shop in the Vauxhall Road, but he did not recollect having any of it left, or of the prisoner using it in his room. The prisoner had left Mrs. Wilson a few hours after the woman’s death, saying he was going to telegraph down the line and would be absent till the evening. He did not return until about nine on the morning of the 11th, when he said his cousin would take the child, which Mrs. Wilson dressed and gave to him, and never saw it again until the 15th, when it was lying dead in a public-house at Battersea, having been found drowned in the river. He also promised Mrs. Wilson that he would attend the woman’s funeral, but did not, and told her on one occasion that he always had strychnia by him.

For the defence Mr. Fulton urged that the evidence of the “arching” of the body was very vague, and rested only on the word of Mrs. Wilson, who had not mentioned this important symptom either to the doctor or the coroner’s constable, and that without that symptom the death might be accounted for by epilepsy, and the first opinion of Dr. Miller justified. He endeavoured to minimise the evidence of the analysts, and argued that the conduct of the prisoner in his attendance on his wife was a strong proof of his innocence. “Motive,” he said, “there appeared to be none, as from his wages the prisoner was quite able to bear the expense of the mother and child.”

The jury, however, returned a verdict of “guilty,” and the prisoner was executed on the 2nd of December, admitting the justice of his sentence, and that he was a party to the death of the child, but saying others were in it.