Would not the difficulty of action of the respiratory muscles producing death tend to leave the heart full?--I do not think it was asphyxia.
Then I think I may take you as differing from the great mass of authorities on strychnia poisoning?--I don’t know; I think there are differences of opinion on that subject. Persons sometimes have convulsions after poison by morphia. The time in which convulsive symptoms come on after morphia would depend on the dose entirely. I cannot say whether it would be later than strychnia. It is not a question I have devoted attention to.
Re-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--In death resulting from tetanus I should not expect to find anything peculiar about the heart. I heard the evidence of the gentlemen who examined the spinal cord after Mr. Cook’s death. From their description it appeared to me that those parts were in such a condition that any indication of disease might have been discovered.
Sir BENJAMIN BRODIE, examined by Mr. JAMES--I was surgeon at St. James’s Hospital for a great number of years, and have had a considerable practice. I have had many cases of death from tetanus. Death from idiopathic tetanus is very rare in this country. I heard the description of the symptoms attending the death of Mr. Cook. As far as the spasmodic contraction of the muscles is concerned, the symptoms resemble those of traumatic tetanus; as to the course the symptoms took, that was entirely different. I heard about the attack on the Monday night and its ceasing, and the patient being comfortable and composed during the Tuesday, and then the attack again about ten minutes before twelve on the Tuesday night. The symptoms of traumatic tetanus always begin, so far as I have seen, very gradually; the stiffness of the lower jaw being, I believe, invariably the symptom first complained of; then the contraction of the muscles of the back is always a later symptom; the muscles of the extremities are affected in a much less degree than those of the neck and trunk, except in some cases where the injury has been in a limb, and an early symptom has been a spasmodic contraction of the muscles of that limb. I do not recollect a case in which in ordinary tetanus there was that contraction of the muscles of the hand which I understand was stated to have existed in this instance. Ordinary tetanus rarely runs its course in less than two or three days, and often is protracted to a much longer period; I know one case only in which the disease was said to have terminated in twelve hours.
