It was not that, however, of which this man died. The charge is, that having been prepared by antimony, he was killed by strychnine. You have, no doubt, heard of the vegetable product known as nux vomica. In that nut or bean there resides a subtle and fatal poison which is capable of being extracted from it by the skill of the operative chemist, and of which the most minute quantity is fatal to animal life. From half to a quarter of a grain will destroy life—you may imagine, therefore, how minute is the dose. In the human organization the nervous system may be divided into two main parts—the nerves of sensation, by which a consciousness of all external sensations is conveyed to the brain; and the nerves of motion, which are, as it were, the agents between the intellectual power of man and the physical action which arises from his organization. Those are the two main branches having their origin in the immediate vicinity of the seat of man’s intellectual existence. They are entirely distinct in their allocations, and one set of nerves may be affected while the other is left undisturbed. You may paralyse the nerves of sensation and may leave the nerves which act upon the voluntary muscles of movement wholly unaffected; or you may reverse that state of things, and may affect the nerves and muscles of volition, leaving the nerves of sensation wholly unaffected. Strychnine affects the nerves which act on the voluntary muscles, and it leaves wholly unaffected the nerves on which human consciousness depends; and it is important to bear this in mind—some poisons produce a total absence of consciousness, but the poison to which I refer affects the voluntary action of the muscles of the body, and leaves unimpaired the power of consciousness. Now, the way in which strychnine acting upon the voluntary muscles is fatal to life is, that it produces the most intense excitement of all those muscles, violent convulsions take place—spasms which affect the whole body and which end in rigidity—all the muscles become fixed, and the respiratory muscles in which the lungs have play are fixed with an immovable rigidity, respiration consequently is suspended, and death ensues. These symptoms are known to medical men under the term of tetanus. There are other forms of tetanus which produce death, and which arise from other causes than the taking of strychnine, but there is a wide difference between the various forms of the same disease, which prevents the possibility of mistake.
The learned counsel then explained the different symptoms which characterise traumatic tetanus and idiopathic tetanus, which latter is of comparatively rare occurrence in this country; but, as this is a matter which will be hereafter dwelt upon with great detail in the medical testimony, it is unnecessary to burden our report with it at any length here:—(He then continued.) I have reason to believe that an attempt will be made to confound those different classes of disease, and it will be necessary therefore for the jury to watch with great minuteness the medical evidence upon this point. It will show that both in traumatic and idiopathic tetanus the disease commences with the milder symptoms, which gradually progress towards the development and final completion of the attack. When once the disease has commenced, it continues without intermission, although, as in every other form of malady, the paroxysms will be from time to time more or less intense. In the case of tetanus from strychnine it is not so. It commences with paroxysms which may subside for a time, but are renewed again; and, whereas other forms of tetanus almost always last during a certain number of hours or days, when we deal with strychnine we deal with cases not of hours but of minutes—in which we have no beginning of the disease, and then a gradual development to the climax; but in which the paroxysms commence with all their power at the very first, and terminate, after a few short minutes of fearful agony and struggles, in the dissolution of the victim. Palmer was a medical man, and it is clear that the effect of strychnine had not escaped his attention; for I have a book before me which was found in his house after his arrest, called Manual for Students Preparing for Examination at Apothecaries’ Hall; and on the first page, in his handwriting, I observe this remark, “Strychnine kills by causing tetanic fixing of the respiratory muscles.” I don’t wish to attach more importance to that circumstance than it deserves, because nothing is more natural than that, in a book of this kind belonging to a professional man, such notes should be made; but I refer to it to show that the effect of poison on human life had come within his notice.
I now revert to what took place after the arrival of these people at Rugeley. They arrived on the night of Thursday, the 15th of November, between ten and eleven o’clock, when Mr. Cook took some refreshment and went to bed. He rose next morning and went out, and dined that day with Palmer. He returned to the inn about ten o’clock that evening, perfectly well and sober, and went to bed. The next morning, at an early hour, Palmer was with him, and from that time throughout the whole of Saturday and Sunday he was constantly in attendance on him. He ordered him coffee on Saturday morning. It was brought in by the chambermaid, Elizabeth Mills, and given to the prisoner, who had an opportunity of tampering with it before giving it to Cook. Immediately after taking it the same symptoms set in which had occurred at Shrewsbury. Throughout the whole of that day and the next, the prisoner constantly administered various things to Cook, who continued to be tormented with that incessant and troublesome sickness. Again, toast-and-water was brought over from the prisoner’s house, instead of being made at the inn, as it might have been, and again the sickness ensued. It seems also that Palmer desired a woman named Roney to procure some broth for Cook from the Albion. She obtained it and gave it to Palmer to warm, and when Palmer had done so he told her to take it to the Talbot for Mr. Cook, and to say that Mr. Smith had sent it—there being a Mr. Jeremiah Smith, an intimate friend of Cook. Cook tried to swallow a spoonful of the broth, but it immediately made him sick, and he brought it off his stomach. The broth was then taken down stairs, and after a little while the prisoner came across and asked if Mr. Cook had had his broth. He was told, “No; that he had tried to take it, but that it had made him sick, and that he could not retain it on his stomach.” Palmer said that he must take it, and desired that the broth should be brought upstairs. Cook tried to take it again, but again he began to vomit and throw the whole off his stomach. It was then taken down stairs, and a woman at the inn, thinking that it looked nice, took a couple of tablespoonfuls of it; within half an hour she also was taken severely ill. Vomiting came on, and continued almost incessantly for five or six hours. She was obliged to go to bed, and she had exactly the same symptoms which manifested themselves in Cook’s person after he drank the brandy and water at Shrewsbury. On that Saturday, about three o’clock, Dr. Bamford, a medical man at Rugeley, was called in, and Palmer told him that Cook had a bilious attack—that he had dined with him on the day before, and had drunk too freely of champagne, which had disordered his stomach.
Now, I shall show to you, by the evidence of medical men, both at Shrewsbury and Rugeley, that although Palmer had on one or two occasions represented Cook as suffering under bilious diarrhœa, there was not, during the continuance of the violent vomiting which I have mentioned, a single bilious symptom of any sort whatever. Dr. Bamford visited him at half-past 3, and when he found Mr. Cook suffering from violent vomiting, and the stomach in so irritable a state that it would not retain a tablespoonful of anything, he naturally tried to see what the symptoms were which could lead him to form a notion as to the cause of that state of things. He found to his surprise that the pulse of the patient was perfectly natural—that his tongue was quite clean, his skin quite moist, and that there was not the slightest trace of fever, or, in short, of any of those symptoms which might be expected in the case of a bilious man. Having heard from Palmer that he ascribed his illness to an excess of wine on the previous day, he informed Cook of it, and Cook then said, “Well, I suppose I must have taken too much, but it’s very odd, for I only took three glasses.” The representation, therefore, made by Palmer, that Cook had taken an excess of champagne, was not correct. Coffee was brought up to Cook at 4 o’clock when Palmer was there, and he vomited immediately. At 6 some barley-water was taken to him when Palmer was not there, and the barley-water did not produce vomiting. At 8 some arrowroot was given him, Palmer was present, and vomiting took place again. These may, no doubt, be mere coincidences, but they are facts, which, of whatever interpretation they may be susceptible, are well deserving of attention, that during the whole of that Saturday Palmer was continually in and out of the house in which Cook was sojourning; that he gave him a variety of things, and that whenever he gave him anything sickness invariably ensued. That evening Dr. Bamford called again, and finding that the sickness still continued he prepared for the patient two pills containing half a grain of calomel, half a grain of morphia, and four grains of rhubarb.
On the following day, Sunday, between 7 and 8 o’clock in the morning, Dr. Bamford is again summoned to Cook’s bedside, and finds the sickness still recurring, but fails to detect any symptoms of bile. He visited him repeatedly in the course of that day, and on leaving him in the evening found, that though the sickness continued, the tongue was clean, and there was not the slightest indication of bile or fever. And so Sunday ended. On Monday, the 19th, Palmer left Rugeley for London—on what business I shall presently explain. Before starting, however, he called in the morning to see Cook, and ordered him a cup of coffee. He took it up himself, and after drinking it Cook, as usual, vomited. After that Palmer took his departure. Presently Dr. Bamford called, and, finding Cook still suffering from sickness of the stomach, gave him some medicine. Whether from the effect of that medicine, or from whatever other cause, I know not; but it is admitted that from that time a great improvement was observed in Cook. Palmer was not present, and during the whole of the day Cook was better. Between 12 and 1 o’clock he is visited by Dr. Bamford, who, perceiving the improvement, advised him to get up. He does so, washes, dresses, recovers his spirits, and sits up for several hours. Two of his jockies and his trainer called to see him, are admitted to his room, enter into conversation with him, and perceive that he is in a state of comparative ease and comfort, and so he continued till a late hour. I will now interrupt for a moment the consecutive narration of what passed afterwards at Rugeley to follow Palmer through the events in which he was concerned in London. He had written to a person named Herring to meet him at Beaufort-buildings, where a boarding-house was kept by a lady named Hawks. Herring was a man on the turf, and had been to Shrewsbury Races. Immediately on seeing Palmer he inquired after Cook’s health. “Oh,” said Palmer, “he is all right; his medical man has given him a dose of calomel and recommended him not to come out, and what I want to see you about is the settling of his accounts.” Monday, it appears, was settling-day at Tattersall’s, and it was necessary that all accounts should be squared. Cook’s usual agent for effecting that arrangement was a person named Fisher, and it seems not a little singular that Cook should not have told Palmer why Fisher should not have been employed on this as on all similar occasions.
On this point, however, Palmer offered no explanation. He was himself a defaulter, and could not show at Tattersall’s. He produced a piece of paper which he said contained a list of the sums which Cook was entitled to receive, and he mentioned the names of the different persons who were indebted to Cook, and the amounts for which they were respectively liable. Herring held out his hand to take the paper, but Palmer said, “No, I will keep this document; here is another piece of paper, write down what I read to you, and what I have here I will retain, as it will be a check against you.” He then dictated the names of the various persons, with the sums for which they were liable. Herring observed that it amounted to £1,020. “Very well,” said Palmer, “pay yourself £6, Shelly, £30, and if you see Bull, tell him Cook will pay him on Thursday or Friday. And now,” he added, “how much do you make the balance?” Herring replied that he made it £984. Palmer replied that the tot was right, and then went on to say, “I will give you £16, which will make it £1,000. Pay yourself the £200 that I owe you for my bill; pay Padwick £350, and Pratt £450.” So we have it here established, beyond all controversy, that Palmer did not hesitate to apply Cook’s money to the payment of his own debts. With regard to the debt due to Mr. Padwick, I am assured that it represents moneys won by that gentleman, partly from Cook, and partly from Palmer, but that Mr. Padwick held Palmer to be the responsible party, and looked to him for payment. The debt to Pratt was Palmer’s own affair. Such is the state of things as regards the disposition of the money. Palmer desired Herring to send cheques to Pratt and Padwick at once, and without waiting to draw the money from Tattersall’s. To this Herring objected, observing that it would be most injudicious to send the cheques before he was sure of getting the money. “Ah, well,” said Palmer, “never mind—it is all right; but come what will, Pratt must be paid, for his claim is on account of a bill of sale for a mare.” Finding it impossible to overcome Herring’s objection to send the cheques until he had got the money at Tattersall’s, Palmer then proceeded to settle some small betting transactions between himself and that gentleman amounting to £5, or thereabouts. He pulled out a £50 note, and Herring, not having full change, gave him a cheque for £20. They then parted, Palmer directing him to send down word of his proceedings either to him (Palmer) or to Cook. With this injunction Herring complied, and I shall prove in the course of the trial that the letters he wrote to Cook were intercepted by the postmaster at Rugeley. Not having received as much as he expected at Tattersall’s, Herring was unable to pay Padwick the £350; but it is not disputed that he paid £450 to Pratt.
On the same day, Palmer went himself to the latter gentleman, and paid him other moneys, consisting of £30 in notes, and the cheque for £20 which he had received from Herring, and a memorandum was drawn, and to which I shall hereafter have occasion to call attention. So much for Palmer’s proceedings in London. On the evening of that same day (Monday) he returned home. Arriving at Rugeley about nine o’clock at night, he at once proceeded to visit Cook, at the Talbot Arms; and from that time till ten or eleven o’clock he was continually in and out of Cook’s room. In the course of the evening he went to a man named Newton, assistant to a surgeon named Salt, and applied for three grains of strychnine, which Newton, knowing Palmer to be a medical practitioner, did not hesitate to give him. Dr. Bamford had sent on this day the same kind of pills that he had sent on Saturday and Sunday. I believe it was the doctor’s habit to take the pills himself to the Talbot Arms, and intrust them to the care of the housekeeper, who carried them upstairs; but it was Palmer’s practice to come in afterwards, and evening after evening, to administer medicine to the patient. There is no doubt that Cook took pills on Monday night. Whether he took the pills prepared for him by Dr. Bamford, and similar to those which he had taken on Saturday and Sunday, or whether Palmer substituted for Dr. Bamford’s pills some of his own concoction, consisting in some measure of strychnine, I must leave for the jury to determine. Certain it is, that when he left Cook at eleven o’clock at night, the latter was still comparatively well and comfortable, and cheerful as in the morning. But he was not long to continue so. About twelve o’clock the female servants in the lower part of the house were alarmed by violent screams, proceeding from Cook’s room. They rushed up, and found him in great agony, shrieking dreadfully, shouting “Murder!” and calling on Christ to save his soul. He was in intense pain. The eyes were starting out of his head. He was flinging his arms wildly about him, and his whole body was convulsed. He was perfectly conscious, however, and desired that Palmer should be sent for without delay. One of the women ran to fetch him, and he attended in a few minutes. He found Cook still screaming, gasping for breath, and hardly able to speak. He ran back again to procure some medicine; and on his return Cook exclaimed, “Oh dear, doctor, I shall die!” “No, my lad, you shall not,” replied Palmer; and he then gave him some more medicine. The sick man vomited almost immediately, but there was no appearance of the pills in the utensil.
Shortly afterwards he became more calm, and called on the women to rub his limbs. They did so, and found them cold and rigid. Presently the symptoms became still more tranquil, and he grew better; but the medical men will depose that the tetanus that afflicted him was that occasioned by strychnine. His frame, exhausted by the terrible agony it had endured, now fell gradually into repose; nature asserted her claim to rest, and he began to dose. So matters remained till the morrow, Tuesday the 20th, the day of his death. On the morning of that day, Cook was found comparatively comfortable, though still retaining a vivid impression of the horrors he had suffered the night before. He was quite collected, and conversed rationally with the chambermaid. Palmer meeting Dr. Bamford that same day, told him that he did not want to have Cook disturbed, for that he was now at his ease, though he had had a fit the night before. This same morning, between the hours of eleven and twelve o’clock, there occurred a very remarkable incident. About that time Palmer went to the shop of a certain Mr. Hawkings, a druggist, at Rugeley. He had not dealt with him for two years before, it being his practice during that period to purchase such drugs as he required from Mr. Thirlby, a former assistant of Mr. Hawkings, who had set up in business for himself. But on this day Palmer went to Mr. Hawkings’s shop, and, producing a bottle, informed the assistant that he wanted two drachms of prussic acid. While it was being prepared for him, Mr. Newton, the same man from whom he had on a former occasion obtained strychnine, came into the shop, whereupon Palmer seized him by the arm, and observing that he had something particular to say to him, hurried him into the street, where he kept talking to him on a matter of the smallest possible importance, relating to the precise period at which his employer’s son meant to repair to a farm he had taken in the country. They continued to converse on this trivial topic until a gentleman named Brassington (or Grassington) came up, whereupon Mr. Newton turned aside to say a few words to him. Palmer, relieved by this accident, went back into the shop, and asked, in addition, for six grains of strychnine and a certain quantity of Batley’s liquor of opium. He obtained them, paid for them, and went away. Presently Mr. Newton returned, and being struck with the fact of Palmer’s dealing with Hawkings, asked out of passing curiosity what he had come for, and was informed.
And here I must mention a fact of some importance respecting Mr. Newton. When examined before the coroner, that gentleman only deposed to one purchase of strychnine by Palmer at Mr. Salt’s surgery, and it was only as recently as yesterday that with many expressions of contrition for not having been more explicit, he communicated to the Crown the fact that Palmer had also bought strychnine on Monday night. It is for you, gentlemen, to decide the amount of credit to be attached to this evidence; but you will bear in mind that whatever you may think of Mr. Newton’s testimony, that of Mr. Roberts, on whom there is no taint or shadow of suspicion, is decisive with respect to the purchases which the prisoner made on Tuesday at the shop of Mr. Hawkings. I now resume the story of Tuesday’s proceedings with the observation that Cook was entitled to receive the stakes he had won at Shrewsbury. On that day Palmer sent for Mr. Cheshire, the postmaster of Rugeley. He owed Cheshire £7 odd, and the latter, supposing that he was about to be paid, came with a stamped receipt in his hand. Palmer produced a paper, and remarking “that Cook was too ill to write himself,” told Cheshire to draw a cheque on Weatherby’s in his (Palmer’s) favour for £350. Cheshire thereupon filled up a piece of paper purporting to be the body of a cheque, addressed in the manner indicated to the Messrs. Weatherby, and concluding with the words, “and place the same to my account.” Palmer then took the document away, for the purpose, as he averred, of getting Cook’s signature to it. What became of it I do not undertake to assert; but of this there is no question, that by that night’s post Palmer sent up to Weatherby’s a cheque which was returned dishonoured. Whether it was genuine, or like so many other papers with which Palmer had to do, forged, is a question which you will have to determine. And now, returning to Cook, it may be observed that in the course of that morning coffee and broth were sent him by Palmer, and, as usual, vomiting ensued and continued through the whole of the afternoon.
And now a new person makes his appearance on the stage. You must know that on Sunday, Palmer wrote to Mr. W. H. Jones, a surgeon, of Lutterworth, desiring him to come over to see Cook. Cook was a personal friend of Mr. Jones, and had occasionally been in the habit of residing at his house. It is deserving of remark that Palmer, in his letter to Jones, describes Cook as “suffering from a severe bilious attack accompanied with diarrhœa,” adding, “it is desirable for you to come and see him as soon as possible.” Whether this communication is to be interpreted in a sense favourable to the prisoner, or whether it is to be taken as indicating a deep design to give colour to the idea that Cook died a natural death, it is at least certain that the statement that Cook had been “suffering from a bilious attack attended with diarrhœa,” was utterly untrue. Mr. Jones being himself unwell, did not come to Rugeley till Tuesday. He arrived at about three o’clock on that day, and immediately proceeded to see his sick friend. Palmer came in at the same moment, and they both examined the patient. Mr. Jones paid particular attention to the state of his tongue; remarked, “That is not the tongue of bilious fever.”