Passing to Dr. Letheby’s evidence his lordship remarked, after reading it, that the exceptions which in cross-examination the doctor allowed he had met with in his experience, of the effects and symptoms of strychnine, were sufficient to neutralise the evidence in chief so far as it went to rebut that of the prosecution.
The next witness was Dr. Guy, who spoke to having seen a case of idiopathic tetanus in an omnibus conductor. Remarking upon this evidence, his lordship said it was for the jury to say whether the symptoms in this case sufficiently corresponded with those of the deceased, to bring the two cases into the same class; but it must be observed that there was a difference in the symptoms, while there was strong evidence on record, which went to show that the deceased’s case was neither traumatic nor idiopathic tetanus.
The next evidence was that of Mr. Ross, who instanced a case where a man had died from tetanus induced by ulcers on the body; but his lordship reminded the jury that, in the case of the deceased, there was no evidence whatever that he had suffered from wounds or sores of any kind.
Speaking of the evidence of Dr. Wrightson, who had discovered strychnine in putrefying blood and decomposed matter, and who had given an opinion that strychnine never decomposed, his lordship told the jury that the doctor, who was a man of eminent scientific attainments and unimpeachable honour, had given his evidence with becoming caution. The doctor seemed to think, that the poison, if administered, ought to have been found, and in dealing with this part of the case the jury would have to consider whether it might not have existed in this case, and yet have defied the tests employed to discover it.
Referring to the evidence of Dr. Partridge, his lordship said it was remarkable in this—that the symptoms of the deceased did not strictly correspond with those he should have expected in the case of a death from strychnine.
His lordship next read the evidence of Dr. Guy, who spoke to a case of tetanus in a child of eight years of age, supervening from an injury to the great toe, and expressed his opinion that there was no analogy between that and this case, while the witness, his lordship added, had declared it to be his belief that attacks of tetanus could always be traceable to some collateral cause. His lordship then read the lengthy evidence of Dr. McDonald, of Edinburgh, who attributed the death of Cook to “epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications,” adding that it was within the range of probability that the convulsions in this case before the fatal attack were the result of mental excitement. His lordship reminded the jury that this was the only witness who had given a positive opinion as to the cause of death; the cause he had described, and it might, according to the witness, have arisen from mental, moral, or sexual excitement. It was for the jury to say what weight they attached to this testimony in the face of the other mass of medical evidence leading to a different conclusion. Having disposed of other witnesses, his lordship came next in order to the evidence of Dr. Richardson, who had described a remarkable case of angina pectoris, and had pronounced an opinion that the symptoms as described in Cook’s case presented a singular similarity to those of the strange case referred to. It was for the jury to determine whether the deceased died from an attack of the same disease; but on cross-examination the witness admitted that the symptoms in his case might hive resulted from strychnine, but at the time it occurred the effects of strychnine were not so well understood as at the present day, or he would have searched for it. Both in that case, as in Cook’s case, the symptoms were, the witness said, not inconsistent with poisoning by strychnine, and that was one of the questions the jury had to decide. Having read Catherine Watson and Dr. Wrightson’s evidence, his lordship said this closed the medical portion of the defence, and perhaps this would be the fitting moment for an adjournment.
The Court accordingly adjourned for twenty minutes.
On the Court resuming,
His Lordship continued his charge. They had now (he said) to deal with, the evidence of facts adduced by the defence. The first witness of this kind was Matthews, the inspector of police at Euston-square, and from his evidence, it might be taken as probable that on the Monday before the death the prisoner went down from London to Rugeley by the five o’clock express train. The next witness was Mr. Foster, the farmer, who had known the deceased for some years, and who was called to speak to the state of Cook’s health; but his lordship thought the testimony of this witness, as bearing upon that particular point, was very slender. Myatt came next, who had spoken to the brandy and water incident at Shrewsbury, and who returned with the prisoner and the deceased from Shrewsbury to Rugeley on the Thursday before the decease. This evidence, his lordship said, was intended to show that the prisoner could not have tampered with the deceased’s glass; it was inconsistent with the evidence of Fisher and Mrs. Brooks, who were called for the prosecution, and it would be for the jury to decide between them. Then they came to the evidence of Mr. Serjeant, who saw the deceased’s tongue and mouth a fortnight before the death, and the jury must decide whether the appearances which the witness saw were consistent with the deceased’s state of health as represented by the evidence for the prosecution. His lordship then read the evidence of Mr. Jeremiah Smith, the solicitor, of Rugeley, and also the three letters written by Cook to Smith with reference to some bills which were due or overdue, the allusions to an alleged improper intimacy between the witness and the prisoner’s mother, and Smith’s denial of his handwriting in a document produced by the prosecution, and purporting to bear his signature and the signature of Walter Palmer.
To this point his Lordship directed special attention, remarking that as the witness said he had no doubt that he had received the document from William Palmer, the question for decision was whether William Palmer had forged Smith’s signature. Remarking generally upon the evidence of this witness, the Lord Chief Justice said it was a question for the jury to decide—what reliance was to be placed on the testimony of this man, who had denied his signature to the instrument produced, and then allowed that it might be his signature. Then they had his acknowledgment that he had received £5 from the prisoner; and the jury must ask themselves whether he had received that £5 for attesting the signature of Walter Palmer. There was also the fact of his being concerned in effecting an insurance upon the life of Walter Palmer for £13,000, when he knew that Walter Palmer had no means of livelihood except through an allowance from William Palmer or his mother. And they must also take into consideration his admission that he had been concerned in endeavouring to effect an insurance for £10,000 on the life of Bates, whom he knew to be a man living in lodgings at 6s. 6d. per week, and that he got himself appointed agent to an insurance society for that purpose.