By LORD CAMPBELL--As soon as the poison is taken into his system?--No. It requires a certain time. You must have the first symptoms of poison developed. It would be after the first symptoms.
Examination resumed--What would be the effect of a man pulling a bell violently if he was poisoned by strychnia?--I think it would be extremely probable, if the dose had been sufficient, to destroy life, provided the symptoms had made their appearance. I quite agree with Mr. Herepath that, if a sufficient dose to poison has been administered, it can and ought to be discovered. I have heard the medical evidence that was given in this case and the evidence as to the symptoms. The symptoms I attach very little importance to as the means of diagnosis, as you may have the same symptoms developed from many different causes. There is one principal reason I have, which is this--a dose of strychnia sufficient to destroy life in one paroxysm would hardly require an hour and a half or two hours. The cause of death was from convulsions, epileptic convulsions with tetanic symptoms.
Does the interval of repose from the Monday night to the Tuesday at all operate on your judgment in coming to that conclusion?--If my opinion that it was of an epileptic character were correct, it would.
It is your opinion that if that were of an epileptic character--then what follows?--The intermission from the Monday night would be considered important, as epilepsy seizures very often recur about the same hours, as I have seen them.
Assuming that a man was in such an excitable state of mind that he was silent for two or three minutes after his horse winning a race, that he exposed himself to cold and damp, that he excited his brain by drinking, and he was attacked by violent vomiting, and after his death gritty granules were found in the neighbourhood of his spine, could not, in the present instance, such a death as it was arise from these causes?--Any of these causes might aggravate or hurry it.
You say any one of those causes?--Might cause it.
Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--I am a general practitioner at Garnkirk, near Glasgow, general surgeon to the ironworks, and parochial medical officer. I have had personal experience of two cases of idiopathic tetanus--this one I have recorded and another.