Witness.—“It might predispose him to vomit.”
Attorney-General.—“I am not speaking of ‘mights.’ Do you think that the excitement of three minutes on the course on Tuesday accounts for the vomiting on Wednesday night.?”
Witness.—“I do not. I find no symptoms of excitement or depression reported between that time and his death. The white spots found in the stomach of the deceased might, by producing an inflammatory condition of the stomach, have brought on the convulsions that caused death.”
Attorney-General.—“But the gentlemen who made the post-mortem examination say that the stomach was not inflamed.”
Witness.—“There were white spots, which cannot exist without inflammation. There must have been inflammation.”
Attorney-General.—“But these gentlemen say there was not.”
Witness.—“I do not believe them. Sexual excitement might cause epileptic convulsions with tetanic complications. The chancre and syphilitic sores were evidence that Cook had undergone such excitement. That might have occurred before he was at Shrewsbury.”
Attorney-General.—“Might sexual excitement produce epilepsy a fortnight after it occurred?”
Witness.—“There is an instance on record in which epilepsy supervened upon the very act of intercourse.”
Attorney-General.—“Have you any instance in which epilepsy came on a fortnight afterwards?”