Palmer finished his business in town by going to Pratt. He paid him £50, so that this, the £450, and Fisher’s £200, with £600 Palmer had previously paid, wiped off £1300. He then returned to Rugeley, arriving there at an hour which was certainly mistaken by the prosecution, and which derived its chief importance from the story told by Jeremiah Smith of his meeting Palmer returning much later, and the account he gave of their movements together. If his story were true, that of the witness Newton, who spoke to the purchase by Palmer from him of strychnia that night, would be suspect. As it was, doubt was cast upon it by Newton never mentioning it until the day of the trial. Cook during Palmer’s absence had no sickness, though in the morning Palmer, who had gone early to the hotel, had given him coffee, and Cook had vomited. But after Palmer left for London Mr. Bamford had come, and given him a new medicine. It was arguable, therefore, that the irritation of the stomach was soothed by the new medicine. Cook dressed, got up, recovered his spirits, and saw and talked with several people, and so he continued till night. This has the most important bearing, as will be seen by the medical evidence, on the vital point whether Cook’s symptoms were either those of strychnia poisoning, or idiopathic or traumatic tetanus, or of some other form of nervous disease with tetanic convulsions.
On Palmer’s return to Rugeley he went to see Cook, and he remained, going in and out of his room, until about eleven o’clock. He then left, and about twelve the house was alarmed by violent screams from Cook’s rooms. I shall refer the reader for the details of this illness to the evidence.
According to the prosecution Palmer had gone previously on that night to Newton, who was the assistant of a surgeon at Rugeley named Salt, and had purchased three grains of strychnia. This was Newton’s statement. Whilst Palmer was away in London Mr. Bamford had sent to the Talbot Arms the same sort of pills, in which were morphia, calomel, and rhubarb. They were taken by the maid upstairs, and put in the usual place for Palmer to administer, as he had done before.
The Attorney-General put his case thus to the jury, “It will be for you to say whether Cook took the pills prepared by Mr. Bamford, and which he had taken on the Saturday and Sunday night, or whether, as this accusation suggests, the prisoner substituted for the pills of Mr. Bamford some of his own concoction in which strychnia was mixed.”