Question.—“Suppose the whole had been absorbed.”
Answer.—“Then I would not undertake to find it.”
Question.—“Suppose the whole had been eliminated from the blood, and had passed into the urine, should you expect to find it in the blood?”
Answer.—“Certainly not.”
Question.—“Suppose the minimum dose which will destroy life had been taken, and absorbed into the circulation, then deposited in the tissues, and then a part eliminated by the action of the kidneys; where would you search for it?”
Answer.—“In the blood, in the tissues, and in the ejections; and I would undertake to discover it in each of them.”
Mr. Partridge, the professor of Anatomy at King’s College, gave the following evidence, attributing the death of Cook to the granules found on his spine at the post-mortem examination:—
“These granules,” said the witness, “would be likely to cause inflammation, and no doubt that inflammation would have been discovered if the spinal cord or its membranes had been examined shortly after death. It would not be likely to be discovered if the spinal cord was not examined until nine weeks after death. I have not seen cases in which this inflammation has produced tetanic form of convulsions, but such cases are on record. It sometimes does, and sometimes does not produce convulsions and death.”
Question.—“Can you form any judgment as to the cause of death in Cook’s case?”
Answer.—“I cannot. No conclusion or inference can be drawn from the degree or kind of the contractions of the body after death.”