Cross-examined by Mr. JAMES--I do not know how long before I was called in she had this quarrel. I learned that during the quarrel she had had a blow given her on her side by her husband. I observed the setting in of the lockjaw at that time. I saw her in March, 1855, when she was under my care for about a week. The locking of the jaw continued the whole week. She has never got thoroughly well. She has tetanic extensions of the limbs in any case of excitement. In my opinion the disease is in action in her system at the present time.
Dr. GEORGE ROBINSON, examined by Mr. KENEALY--I am a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal Medical Chirurgical Society of London, and physician to the Newcastle-on-Tyne Dispensary and Fever Hospital. I have devoted considerable attention to pathology, and have published essays on it. I have practised as a physician for ten years. From the symptoms I have heard described my opinion is that Mr. Cook died from tetanic convulsions, by which I mean, not the disease of tetanus, but convulsions similar to those witnessed in tetanus. Convulsions of that kind occasionally assume the nature of epilepsy. I know of no department of pathology which is more obscure than that of convulsive diseases. I have been present at post-mortem examinations of persons who died from convulsive diseases. I have sometimes seen no morbid appearance whatever, and in other cases the morbid appearances which were visible were common to a variety of diseases. Convulsive diseases undoubtedly depend very much on the state of the nerves. They are all connected with disorders of the nervous action. The brain has great influence in producing convulsive diseases, but the spinal cord has a greater influence. The presence of gritty granules in the neighbourhood of the spinal cord would be likely to produce convulsive diseases. There is such a disease as spinal epilepsy, which is accompanied by strong convulsions, which might resemble in a great degree those described in the present case. Periodicity would belong to convulsions arising from spinal epilepsy. I should think from the evidence I have heard that Mr. Cook’s mode of life would predispose him to epilepsy.