LORD CAMPBELL--This is not satisfactory; we cannot ask witnesses what faith they give to the evidence of the witnesses as contrasted with the depositions. This witness’s opinion ought to be founded on the _viva voce_ evidence of the witnesses given during the trial.
Examination resumed--The previous state of health of Mr. Cook had some effect on my judgment.
State your own grounds in your own way for that opinion?--If I take the evidence which has occurred in Court--
By LORD CAMPBELL--The evidence of the symptoms of John Parsons Cook as stated by the witnesses?--Not merely the symptoms, but the general state of health.
But we have nothing to do with that. The witness should give his opinion on the symptoms described, and then state what influences the other facts may have had on his mind.
By Mr. SERJEANT SHEE--Do you remember the accounts that were given of what was said or supposed to be syphilitic sores?
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL--But there was no such thing said.
Mr. BARON ALDERSON--Supposing a person had syphilitic sores, what would you say then? That is the proper way of putting it.
LORD CAMPBELL--We must take it that medical men are not to be substituted for the jury.
Mr. JUSTICE CRESWELL--If I were to suggest a mode of meeting the thing it would be this--let the gentleman describe what he assumes to be the state of the deceased’s health at the time, then the Attorney-General may say he is not justified in assuming.
Examination resumed--Will you do that having heard the evidence?--I assume him to have been a man of very delicate constitution; that for a long period he felt himself to be ill, for which he had been under medical treatment; that he had suffered from syphilis; had disease of the lungs; had an old-standing disease of the throat; led an irregular life; was subject to mental excitement and depression; that after death traces were found in his body which show this to have been the case; there was found an unusual appearance within the stomach; the throat was in an unnatural condition; the back of the tongue showed similar indications; the lungs were in an emphysematous condition, that is, the air cells dilated; in the lining of the aorta or large artery of the body there was an unnatural deposit; and there was a very unusual appearance in the membranes of the spinal marrow. These are the indications which are unnatural in the post-mortem examination. I should also state it is described by one of the witnesses that there was a loss of substance of the penis. The symptoms on the root of the tongue and the throat I ascribe to syphilitic inflammation of the throat. From these symptoms I have described I should infer that his health had not been good for long, and that his constitution was delicate. It was also stated that his father and mother had died young, and that the brother and sister were both delicate. That being the state of health of Mr. Cook, he would be liable to nervous irritation. Excitement or depression might bring it on. Exposure to wet and cold would have a greater effect than on a healthy person. It is a condition of the constitution when a convulsive disease is more likely to supervene.