Answer.—“Not more than is usual in cases of death from ordinary causes. The limbs were rigid, but not more than usual.”
Question.—“In the face of the medical profession I ask you whether you signed a report stating that ‘the hands were curved and the feet decidedly arched by muscular contraction,’ and whether you meant by those words that there was no more than the ordinary rigidity of death?”
Answer.—“Certainly; I stated so at the time.”
Question.—“Where? In the report?”
Answer.—“No; in conversation. Allow me to explain that a distinction was drawn between the muscles of the different parts of the body. I heard Mr. Morley’s evidence with regard to experiments on animals, and his statement that ‘after death there was an interval of flaccidity, after which rigidity commenced more than if it had been occasioned by the usual rigor mortis.’”
Question.—“You don’t agree with that statement?”
Answer.—“I do not. I generally found the right side of the heart full.”
Question.—“Does the fact of the heart in Cook’s case having been found empty lead you to the conclusion that death was not caused by strychnia?”
Answer.—“Among other things, it does. I heard the evidence of Dr. Watson as to the case of Agnes Sennett, in which the heart was found distended and empty: also of Dr. Taylor, as to the post-mortem of Mrs. Smyth. No doubt he stated that the heart in that case was also empty.”