The state of Cook’s health previous to the incident at Shrewsbury was of the utmost importance. It was admitted by the prosecution that Cook was delicate of chest, but otherwise he was asserted to be hale and hearty. In May of 1855 he had consulted Dr. Savage for supposed syphilitic symptoms. He suffered from his throat, and had some eruptions about his mouth, and he had been taking mercury. Dr. Savage stopped this treatment, and advised that the symptoms were not those of syphilis. The post-mortem showed the cicatrised wound of an old chancre, but not of anything recent. The defence sought to show that Cook’s death was connected with his history of ill-health.
When the races were over Palmer and Cook returned together to Rugeley--a curious fact, seeing that Cook had accused Palmer of putting something into his glass. Cook stayed at the Talbot Arms, which was opposite to Palmer’s house, and it was at this inn that Cook’s death occurred. Their arrival was on the night of Thursday, the 15th of November. When asked how he was Cook said that he was better than he had been at Shrewsbury. Cook dined next day with Palmer, and nothing happened that night. Early on Saturday morning Palmer saw Cook in his bedroom, and ordered him some coffee, which was brought there by Elizabeth Mills, the chambermaid, who gave most important evidence as to the various episodes of the illness until the death on the night of Tuesday, the 20th November. The coffee was given to Palmer, and he gave it to Cook, Mills having left. “Immediately after that the same symptoms set in which had taken place at Shrewsbury, and throughout the whole of that day and the next day” (Saturday and Sunday) “the prisoner constantly administered everything to Cook.” One incident was a bowl of broth being obtained by Palmer through a woman named Rowley. She was sent for it to the Albion, an inn in Rugeley. She took it to Palmer’s house and put it in a saucepan on the kitchen fire to warm. Palmer, whilst she was absent in the back kitchen, poured the broth into a basin, brought it to her, and told her to take it up to Cook, and say Smith had sent it. This was Jeremiah Smith, an attorney in Rugeley, a common friend of Palmer and Cook. A spoonful of the broth made Cook sick. But the full significance of this intended inference is not seen until we take the evidence of Mills that she drank a spoonful and became sick in about half an hour, and had to go to bed.