Did you allow him to publish this—“Dr. Taylor here requested us to state that, although the practice of secret poisoning appeared to be on the increase, it should be remembered that by analysis the chemist could always detect the presence of poison in the body?”—I did not request him to state anything of the kind. I do not remember whether that was on the slip. Had I seen it, I should have struck it out. I remember seeing on the slip, “And that when analysis fails, as in cases where small doses of strychnia had been administered, physiology and pathology would invariably suffice to establish the cause of death.” I did not strike that out. I did not think of it circulating among the class of persons from whom jurors would be selected. I think the public ought to know that chemical analyses are not the only tests on which they can rely. I don’t remember the passage—“Murder by poison could be detected as readily as murder in any other form, while the difficulty of detecting and convicting the murderer was felt in other cases as well as in those where poison was employed.” The article has been very much altered. It was a disgraceful thing. I have not seen Mr. Mayhew since. Seeing in The Times an advertisement, stating that this information had been given by me, I wrote to him demanding its withdrawal, and that demand was complied with. That was on the Thursday or Friday.
Did you say to a gentleman named Cook Evans, that you would give them strychnia enough before they had done, or words to that effect?—No; I do not know the person.
Or to any one?—No. I never used any expression so vulgar and improper. You have been greatly misinstructed.
Or, “He will have strychnia enough before I have done with him?”—It is utterly false. The person who suggested that question to you, Mr. Johnson, has been guilty of other falsehoods. In the letter to Sir George Grey, and on other occasions, he has misrepresented my statements and evidence.
What did you do with the medical report to which you referred?—It was a private letter from Dr. Harland to Mr. Stevens.
Mr. Justice Cresswell: It was memoranda made by Dr. Harland at the time.
Cross-examination continued: Cook’s symptoms were quite in accordance with an ordinary case of poisoning by strychnia.
Can you tell me of any case in which a patient, after being seized with tetanic symptoms, sat up in bed and talked?—It was after he sat up that Cook was seized with those symptoms.
Can you refer to a case in which a person who had taken strychnia beat the bed with his or her arms?—It is exactly what I should expect to arise from a sense of suffocation.
Do you know any case in which the symptoms of poisoning by strychnia commenced with this beating of the bed-clothes?—There have been only about fifteen cases, and in none of those was the patient seized in bed. Beating of the bed-clothes is a symptom which may be exhibited by a person suffering from a sense of suffocation, whether caused by strychnia or other causes. A case has been communicated to me by a friend, in which the patient shook as though he had the ague.