The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-24 00:00:00

.~- MAy 24, 1856. have known that as - sure as ever he sent into the kitchen broth containing antimony the cook would take it and be ill• Her statement is not credible, and cannot be vlied on• - - - - The same additional exaggeration was noticeable in her statement concerning the coffee ordered by palmer, and drank by Cook, on the Saturday. Then in her testimony as to the expression uttered by Cook on Tuesday morning —first it was that Cook said " the pills made him ill," then " the pills which Palmer gave him made him ill." Again, before the coroner, she said nothing about Palmer being in tle bedroom on Monday night. Now it was, "he was there between nine and ten." But the most nportant point of all was, that in her description of Cook's sufferings she grouped together symptoms, so ne consistent, and others wholly inconsistent, with death by strychnine; and after the case of Mrs. Dove, in February last, it was remarkable that Mills, never mentioning it previously, made use of the word " twitchings," an expression used by a witness before the coroner in that case. In her present evi dence Mills stated as follows : Cook said, " I can't lie down; I shall be suffocated if lie down. Oh, fetch Mr. Palmer !" The last words he said very loud. I did not observe his legs, but there was a sort of jumping or jerking about his head and neck and his body. Sometimes he would throw back his head upon the pillow, and then raise it up again. He had much diffi culty in breathing. The balls of his eyes projected very much. He screamed again three or four times while I *Ls in the room. He was moving and knocking about all the time. He ask me to rub his hands. I did rub them, and he thanked me. I noticed him " twitch." I gave him toast•anil•water. His body was still jerking and jumping. When I put the spoon to his mouth he snapped at it and got it fast between his teeth, and seemed to bite it very bard. In snapping at the spoon he threw forward h s head and neck. He swallowed the toast and•water, sid with it the pills. Palmer then handed him a draught in a wineglass. Cook drank this. He snapped at the glass as he had done at the spoon. He seemed as though h 3 could not exactly control himself. Since the coroner's inquest Mills, it was to be r miembered, had had several interviews with Mr. Stevens, Cooks executor, and Mr. Gardner. Sergeant Shee then alluded to Palmer's conduct at tie post-mortem examination, and appealed to the circumstances of his position at Rugeley, suspected a id without many friends, as sufficient to explain his n iwillingness to let the Jar go away. His expression of satisfaction to Dr. Harland was consistent with this view. Then his asserted offer to Myatt of a 101. wte to upset the jars, upon litlyatt's own cross e tamination turned out to be an offer to upset Mr. S evens, who had behaved in a severe, scornful, not to sty insolent, manner towards Palmer. The words used by Palmer were "10/. to upset him," and would it not be improbable that a medical man, who had administered powerful doses of strychnine, should have hoped to escape detection by upsetting a jar of the intestines, while the liver, spleen, and tissues re mauled behind ? The evidence of Newton, the druggist's assistant, that Palmer purchased a q utatity of strychnine on Monday night, was incre d.ble. Newton swore that Palmer obtained from him at nine o'clock on Monday night three grains of strychnine, whereas he was prepared to prove that Palmer could not have been there at thst time. Palmer had that day been in Londop, a ,d, if he were bent upon poisoning Cook, would it nit have been safer and easier to have obtained the a rychnine in London than in Rugeley? And lastly, hi; writing for Jones to come over to Cook he re• girded as an irrefragable proof of Palmer's innocence ; for was it conceivable that, if Palmer meant to slay Cook with poison in the dead of the night, he would previously have insured the presence in his vic tim's bedroom o! a medical witness, who would know fr en the symptoms that the man was not dying a n aural death ? In conclusion, the learned sergeant appealed to Palmer's early life, his love for his wife ',the prisoner here burst into tears and covered his face with his hands), the fact that he would prove that it was the wife who made the manuscript notes in the medical books, and the conduct of his family, as additional proots of his innocence, and he called upon the jury to stem the torrent of prejudice and to rest assured that the time would come when the innocence of Palmer would be made fully apparent. The speech of the learned sergeant occupied exactly sight hours in delivery, and at its close the court • Ijourned. THURSDAY. The examination of the medical witnesses for the defence was commenced this day. Professor Nunne -11 was first called, and in a lengthened evidence de clared hls belief, from the delicate nature of Cook's health, induced by previous dissipation and here (Nary constitutional weakness, predisposing him to nervous irritation and excitement of brain, that the disease he died from was of a convulsive character, impossible in the present state of medical science to be accounted for. Within tie last twelve months he had made post-mortern examinations of two per sons killed by strychnine. In both cases he disco vered the poison ; and wßeu strychnine had been .. ..+•......~.-..~+•....:~.-+..rte THE PRESS. taken he believed it impossible to fail in detecting the poison if the proper tests were used. in death from strychnine, the muscles were soft, powerless, and flaccid, and the right side of the heart full. He had made experiments with strychnia upon upwards of forty animals, and inva riably found the right side of the heart full. Cook had more powers of voluntary motion than he had ever known animals to possess under the influence of this poison. Cook's sickness indicated an injured state of the brain, which wuuld account for the suc cessive convulsive attacks, for which there was no name. He believed he died from convulsions arising from a combination of symptoms. In strychnine the convulsive twitchings were the first symptoms, in tetanus the last. After strychnine no animal could bear to he touched, and Cook asked to be rubbed. Mr. Herapath said the detection of strychnine under any circumstances of animal decompositiou but reduction to dry powder, was certain. He had never failed, and was perfectly sure that he would detect the fifty thousandth part of a grain if unmixed with organic matter. If he mixed ten grains with 70,000 grains of water, he could detect the poison in one tenth part of a grain of that water. Mr. s3gers was of opinion that strychnine must unquestionably have been discovered in Cook's body if it had been present and the right tests used. The contents of the stomach being shaken up would make no difference. Dr. Letheby had for a series of years made many experiments upon the bodies of animals killed by strychnine, and of one person poisoned by the nux vomica. The symptoms described in Cuok's case did not accord with the symptoms he had witnessed in the case of those animals. They differed in this respect:— In the first place I never witnessed the long interval be tweeu the administration of the poison and the commence ment of the symptoms which is said to hays elapsed in this case. The longest interval I have known has been three-quarters of an hour, and then the poison was admi nistered under most disadvantageous circumstances. It was given on a very full stomach, and in a form uneasy of solution. I have seen the symptoms begin in five minutes. The average time in which they begin is a quarter of an hoar. In all cases I have seen the system has been in that irritable state that the very lightest excitement, such as an effort to move, a touch, a noise, a breath of air, would send the patient off in convulsions. It is not at all pro bable that a person, after taking strychnia, could pull a bell violently. Any movement would excite the nervous system, and bring on spasms. It is not likely that a person in that state could bear to have his neck rubbed. He bad no hesitation in saying that strychnine, of all poisons, either mineral or vegetable, was the most easy of detection : I never failed to detect strychnine where it had been ad ministered I have made post-mortem examinations on various animals killed by it. I have always found the right side of the heart full. The shaking about of the contents of the stomach with the intestines in a jar would not prevent the discovery of strychnia if it had been admi nistered. In strychnine poisoning there was great uniformity in the effects. Cook's actions were wholly inconsistent with what he had observed in strychnine cases, and his death was wholly irreconcileable to any disease he had ever heard of, or was acquainted with, natural or artificial, and as at variance with poisoning by strychnine as with every thing else. Mr. R. E. Ga) detailed the symptoms of a case of idiopathic tetanus arising from cold and exposure actin; upon a nervous and irritable temperament, in which the patient lived for fourteen days under a succession of attacks of violent convulsions and in voluntary muscular contractions, with loud screaming. On a post-mortem examination being made an in flammatory sore throat was discovered, to which, with the exposure, he attributed death. The court then adjourned. FRIDAY, The court was densely crowded on this morning, and an evident increase of interest in the trial exhibited by the audience. Mr. Ross, surgeon to the London Hospital, was the first witness examined. He merely stated a re cent case of tetanus admitted to the hospital. Poi soning by strychnine was suspected. The symptoms were laborious breathing, rapid feeble pulse, paroxysms of convulsive spasms, lockjaw, and muscu•• lar rigidity about the back and abdomen. The patient died in half an hour after three convulsive attacks. On making a post-mortem examination, the nerves of the tongue, throat, and fames were found very delicate. No strychnine was discovered, but there were two chronic sores near the ulna nerve. Dr. Wrightson, a pupil of Liebig, was examined with reference to the discovery of strychnine after ingestion. It was a poison easily detected, even in the tissues. He denied the theory of Dr. Taylor that it became absorbed and decomposed. A man killed by strychnine administered two hours before his death the poison would certainly be discoverable in the first instance in the stomach. . Mr. Partridge, Professor of Anatomy at King's College, said that such granules as were found in Cook's spinal cord would be very likely to produce inflammation of the membrane, tetanus, and death. He could form no positive opinion of the cause of Cook's death. On cross-examination by tho At torney-General, Mr. Partridge said the symptoms were in part consistent and in part inconsistent with death by strychnine. In the whole course of his experience he never knew a death like Cook's result from natural causes. (This answer produced a pro found sensation in the court, as Mr. Partridge was considered one of the principal witnesses for the defence.) Mr. Gay detailed the symptoms of a case of trau matic tetanus, brought on by a crushed toe, under his care in the Free Hospital. The symptoms con sisted of violent convulsive attacks at periods of thirty hours, and rigid contraction of the muscles of the back and neck during those attacks. The boy lived under these attacks for seventeen days. Hi* impression was that the convulsions were brought on by irritation of the nerves of the spinal cord. Mr. Wm. M'Donald, of Edinburgh, had had great experience in tetanus. Very slight irritation would produce convulsions. The causes of tetanus con vulsions were hitherto undiscovered:— Any internal alteration of the secretions might produce idiopathic tetanus. Exposure to cold or damp would de so. So would mental excitement. Gritty grannies in any pelt of the system connected with the nervi,nB system would produce tetanus. I have seen small milliary tuber cies, the only assignable cause on the brain fur death ter u lasting in convulsions. As to the discovery of strychnine, it was most easy. fie denied Dr. Taylot's theory of " decomposition " in to to. Its effects, also, were most marked. A great increase of saliva was at once observable. For a man to pull a bell violently, while under the influence of a dose of strlchnine sufficiently powerful to cause death, was highly improbable. He attached little importance to the symptoms described in this case, as be had seen similar symptoms developed from many different causes. In reply to Mr. Kenealy as to what he attributed the cause of Cook's death, witness replied . My opinion is, that_ it was epileptic convulsions with tetanic combinations. That is the nearest approach to it from post-mortem appearances, Cook's case being ao dif ferent from those I have described. A dose of strychnine sufficient to destroy life in one paroxysm would not have required even one hour to produce effect. Epileptic seizures very often recur about the same hour. If the man were in so excited a state as to be silent two or three minutes atter his horse winning a race, then afterwards exposed himself to wet and cold, was attacked by convul sions, died, and after death gritty granules were found in the spinal cord, I am of opinion that any one of these causes might have produced his death. The witness was then subjected to a close cross examination by the Attorn, y-General, with the view to show the general character of epilepsy, and the effe 't of opium and morphine pills upon a person so predisposed. Mr. M'Donald said opium would most likely accelerate the symptoms, and morphia would accelerate rather than tranquillise a disposition to congestion of the brain. Dr. Bainbridge and Mr. Steady deposed to the general variety of symptoms in convulsive diseases. Dr. Robinson ascribed Cook's death to tetanic con vulsions. Gritty granules in the region of the spinal cord would produce irritation and convulsions. There was a peculiar convulsive disease known as spinal epilepsy. Cook's case was one of real epilepsy ; his sitting up in bed arose from a sense of suffocation — a premonitory symptom. Dr. Richardson had frequently known contortions of the feet and legs and great rigidity of the limls accompany death from convulsion. Death from angina pectoris and from strychnine was very similar in appearance—the same muscular rigidity, open eyes, and clenched bands. Suffering from a re lapse, a patient would enjoy perfect health between the attacks. Dr. Wnghtson was recalled, and said that strych nine, if taken in small doses, would become ab sorbed, but would be discoverable in the spleen and liver. The court then adjourned. Mu. HENRY MAYHEW has addressed a letter to the papers contradicting an assertion made by Dr. Taylor s in his evidence in Palmer's case, with reference to the publication in the Illustrated Times, to the effect that Mr. Mayhew obtained from him a statement concerning the ltugeley poisonings in a surreptitious manner. Mr. Mayhew states that he bad Dr. Tay lor's verbal and written permission to publish what he communicated, and that Dr. Taylor himself corrected the proof of the article of the publication of which he now complains. Mr. Mayhew likewise publishes a letter from Mr. S. Edwards, who was the interview between Dr. Taylor and place, and who wrote the article which from the printer who forwarded Edwards and the printer bear ow statement, as to the legitiwato use Taylor's information. vise puonsnes a was present when and himself took ich appeared. and the proof. Mr. Aut Mr. Mayhew's use made of Pr.