LORD CAMPBELL--Serjeant Shee, that is not _the_ question that I have submitted to the jury; it is _a_ question. I told them that unless they considered that the symptoms were consistent with death by strychnia they ought to acquit the prisoner.
Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--It is my duty, my lord, not to be deterred by any expression of displeasure at my stating it; I am accountable not only to your lordships, but I am accountable to a much higher tribunal; and I am bound to submit to you what occurs to me to be the proper question to be put to the jury in this case--it is your lordship’s duty to overrule it if you think proper. I submit to your lordships that the question, whether the symptoms of Cook’s disease were consistent with death by strychnia is a wrong question, unless it is followed by this, “and inconsistent with death by other and natural causes”--and that the question should be, whether the medical evidence establishes beyond all reasonable doubt the death of Cook by strychnia--it is my duty to submit that to your lordship.
LORD CAMPBELL--Gentlemen of the jury, I did not submit to you that the question upon which your verdict alone was to turn was whether the symptoms of Cook were consistent with death by strychnia, but I said that that was a most material question for you; and I desired you to consider that question with a view to guide your judgment as to whether he died from natural disease, or whether he did not die by poison, by strychnia administered by the prisoner. Then I went on to say that if you were of opinion that the symptoms were consistent with death from strychnia, you should go on to consider the other evidence given in the case, whether strychnia had been administered to him; and whether strychnia had been administered to him by the prisoner at the bar; and those are the questions that I again put to you. If you come to the conclusion that those symptoms were consistent with the strychnia, do you believe from the evidence that it was strychnia, and do you believe that that strychnia was administered by the prisoner at the bar? Do not find a verdict of guilty unless you believe that the strychnia was administered to the deceased by the prisoner at the bar. But if you believe that, it is your duty to God and man to find a verdict of guilty.