Could you form an opinion whether it could be detected under these circumstances on the coats of the stomach?—Not knowing the dose administered and the powers of absorption, I cannot say with absolute certainty it would be detected, but I should think it in the highest degree probable if a moderate dose had been administered.
Could you form any opinion from the fact that death had taken place after one paroxysm, and in an hour and a half after the ingestion of the poison, whether it was a considerable or an inconsiderable dose?—I cannot give a decided opinion.
Lord Campbell—I cannot allow this gentleman to leave the box without expressing my high approbation of the manner in which he has given his evidence.
R. Partridge
Mr. Richard Partridge, examined by Mr. Grove—I have been for many years in practice as a surgeon, and am Professor of Anatomy at King’s College. I have heard the evidence as to the symptoms of Mr. Cook and as to the post-mortem examination. In my opinion it is most important in a case of convulsion that the spinal cord should be examined after death. The gritty granules that were found would be likely to cause inflammation of the arachnoid membrane, which would be discoverable if the spinal cord had been examined shortly after death. If examined nine weeks after it is not likely it would be discovered. Although I have not seen such a case, there are cases on record that such inflammation, if it existed, would be capable of producing tetaniform convulsions. The medical term for such inflammation of the arachnoid is arachnitis, or inflammation of the membrane. That disorder produces convulsions and death. I should not say universally; sometimes it does not result in death. I could not form any positive judgment as to the cause of death in Mr. Cook’s case. I have heard the evidence as to the state of contraction after death. No inference at all can be formed of the degree of contraction, or the kind of contraction, that I heard described. If I find the back curved and the body resting on its back and feet after death, I should infer that he died of that form of tetanus which convulses the muscles of the back. Various degrees and varieties of rigidity occur after a natural death. The clenching of the hands or the semi-bending of the feet are not uncommon in cases of ordinary death.
Cross-examined by the Attorney-General—The granules from which arachnitis might have proceeded were, I understand, situated in the inner surface of the fibrous investment of the cord. They are occasionally found in these parts; not commonly. They are signs. Arachnitis, producing convulsions, has never come under my personal observation, nor has it satisfactorily come under my observation without producing convulsions. It is a very rare disease.
Are you enabled to state from the recorded cases the course of the symptoms of the disease?—No.
Do not you know it to be a disease of considerable duration?—The cases have varied in duration; commonly days at the shortest. Arachnitis is accompanied with paralysis if they live.
Would it, considering the connection that there is between the spinal cord and the brain, affect the brain by sympathy, or otherwise, prior to death?—No.
In these cases, where granules have produced arachnitis, do you happen to know whether the granules have been considerable in point of size?—It has varied in different cases.