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 During that time my attention had been withdrawn by the examination.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 24 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 door near which Palmer was standing was not the one by which he had 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. The jar had, since I last saw it, been cut through both bladders. The cut was hardly an inch long. It had been done with a sharp instrument. I examined the cut. The edges were quite clean. No part of the contents of the jar could have passed through it. Finding this cut, I said, “Here is a cut; who has done this?” Palmer, and Mr. Devonshire, and Mr. Newton all said that they had not done it, and nothing more was said about it. 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. He said, “I had rather you would take it to Stafford than take it there.” I made no answer that I remember. I took it to Mr. Frere’s house. After doing so, I returned to the Talbot Arms. I left the jar in Mr. Frere’s hall, tied and sealed. Immediately upon finding the slit in the cover, I cut the strings and altered the bladders, so that the slits were not over the top of the jar. I resealed them. After going to Mr. Frere’s I went to the Talbot Arms. I went into the yard to order my carriage, and while I was waiting for it the prisoner came across to me. He asked me what I had done with the jar. I told him that I had left it at Mr. Frere’s. He inquired what would be done with it, and I said it would go either to Birmingham or London that night for examination. I do not recollect that he made any reply. When I re-covered the jar, I tied each cover separately, and sealed 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 there on behalf of Palmer.
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: In the course of the post-mortem examination Palmer said, “They won’t hang us yet.” I am not sure whether that observation was addressed to Dr. Bamford, or whether he prefaced it by the word “Doctor.” I think that he first said it to Dr. Bamford in a loud whisper, and afterwards repeated it to several persons. I had said to him that I had heard that there was a suspicion of poisoning. I made notes in pencil at the time of the post-mortem, and I wrote a more formal report from those notes as soon as I got home. The original pencil notes are destroyed. I sent the fair copy to Mr. Stevens, Cook’s father-in-law, the same evening. They were not produced before the coroner. 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 I think that it would be slight. I do not believe that they were enlarged glands. I should not say that deceased’s lungs were diseased, though 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, but I made an examination which was satisfactory to me, without one. The brain was carefully taken out; the membranes and external parts were first examined, and thin slices of about a quarter of an inch in thickness were taken off and subjected to separate examination. I think 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 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. 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 were cicatriced 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, that would produce tetanus.
Mr. Charles James Devonshire, undergraduate of University of London, late assistant to Dr. Monckton, examined by Mr. Huddleston: I made the first post-mortem examination of the body of Mr. Cook in November last. The body was pale and stiff; the hands were clinched, and the mouth was contorted. I opened the body. The liver was very healthy. The heart also seemed healthy, but it was perfectly empty. The lungs contained a considerable quantity of dark fluid blood. The blood was perfectly fluid. The brain was healthy throughout. I examined the medulla oblongata, and about a quarter or half an inch of the spinal cord. It was perfectly sound. I took out the stomach, and opened it with a pair of scissors. I put the contents in a jar, which was taken to Mr. Frere’s, the surgeon. I obtained the jar from Mr. Frere’s on Monday, in the same state as it was before, and I gave it Mr. Boycott, clerk to Mr. Gardner, the attorney. I examined the body again on the 29th, and took out the liver, kidneys, spleen, and some blood. I put them in a stone jar, which I covered with washleather and brown paper, and sealed up. I delivered that jar also to Boycott. Palmer said at the examination that we should find syphilis upon the deceased. I therefore examined the parts carefully, and found no indications of the sort. I also took out the throat. The papillæ were slightly enlarged, but they were natural, and one of the tonsils was shrunk.
Cross-examined by Mr. Grove, Q.C.—Tetanic convulsions are considered to proceed from derangement of the spine, and from complaints that affect the spine. These derangements are not always capable of being detected by examination. In examining the body of a person supposed to have died from tetanus, the spinal cord would be the first organ looked to. About half an inch of the spinal cord, exterior to the aperture of the cranium, was examined on the first occasion. I was not present when the granules were discovered on the second examination. The learned counsel was proceeding to cross-examine this witness upon some minute points of a scientific nature, when
Baron Alderson, interposing, said,—When you have all the medical men in London here, you had better not examine an undergraduate of the University of London upon such points, I should think.
Dr. Monckton, examined by the Attorney-General: I am a physician in practice, and reside at Rugeley. On the 28th of January I made a post-mortem examination of the spinal cord and marrow of the deceased, J. P. Cook. I found the muscles of the trunk in a state of laxity, which I should attribute to the decay of the body which had set in; but that laxity would not be at all inconsistent, in my opinion, with a great rigidity of those muscles at the time of death. The muscles of the arms and legs were in a state of rigidity, but they were not more rigid than usual in dead bodies. The muscles of the arms had partially flexed the fingers of the hand. The feet were turned inwards to a much greater extent than usual. I carefully examined the spinal cord. The body was then in such a condition as to enable me to make a satisfactory examination of it; and if prior to death there had been any disease of a normal character on the spinal cord and marrow, I should have had no difficulty in detecting it. There was no disease. I discovered certain granules upon it. It is difficult to account for their origin, but they are frequently found in persons of advanced age. I never knew them to occasion sudden death. I agree entirely with the evidence which has been given by Dr. Harland.
This witness was not cross-examined.
Mr. John Boycott, examined by Mr. Welsby: I am clerk to Messrs. Landor, Gardner, and Landor, attorneys at Rugeley. On the 26th of last November, I received a jar from Mr. Devonshire, covered with leather and brown paper, and sealed up. I took it to London, and delivered it on the next day to Dr. Taylor, at Guy’s Hospital. On a subsequent day I received another jar, similarly secured, from Mr. Devonshire, and I also brought that to London and delivered it to Dr. Taylor. I was not present at the inquest on Cook’s body, and did not fetch Newton to be examined there. On Tuesday last, when at the Rugeley station, previous to my departure for London, Newton came and made a communication to me. He knew that Mr. Gardner was not there; and when we reached London I took him to Mr. Gardner, and heard him make the same communication to Mr. Gardner which he had made before to me.
This witness was not cross-examined.