They Hanged My Saintly Billy (64 page)

To
quote
a
tithe
of
the
evidence
on
the
above
subjects
would protract
our
comment
far
beyond
convenient
limits.
Indeed,
we find
so
much
that
is
criticizable
in
the
evidence,
the
addresses
of Counsel,
and
the
charge
to
the
jury,
that
our
own
patience
as
well as
that
of
our
readers
would
soon
suffer
exhaustion.
However,
a letter
written
to
The Times
by
F.
Crage
Calvert,
Esq.,
F.C.C.,
a Cheshire
chemist,
about
his
discovery
of
strychnia
in
the
bodies
of several
wilfully
poisoned
hounds—at
least
three
weeks
after
death —convinces
us
that
Professor
Taylor's
theory
of
'perfect
absorption'
is
quite
fallacious.
So
does
another
written
to
the
same
newspaper
by
Professor
Herapath,
the
greatest
analytic
chemist
now alive
among
us,
whom
the
Attorney-General
browbeat
and
flustered
during
the
trial.
He
once
found
strychnia
in
a
fox
dead
for over
two
months.

How
Professor
Herapath
came
to
be
subpoenaed
by
the
Prosecution
is
a
curious
story.
According
to
an
anonymous
letter received
by
the
Crown
lawyers
from
Keynsham
in
Somersetshire,
the
Professor
had
publicly
declared:
'I
have
no
doubt
that there
was
strychnia
in
Cook's
body,
but
Professor
Taylor
could not
find
it.'
Professor
Hcrapath
was
known
to
be
at
loggerheads with
Professor
Taylor,
whom
he
looked
upon
as
an
ignorant theorist,
and
seems
to
have
incautiously
made
some
such
remark to
Mr
Twining,
the
Mayor
of
Bristol,
and
a
party
of
his
friends. Yet
it
had
been
based
on
partial
newspaper
accounts
of
the
case, including
a
most
inaccurate
one
printed
by
The Illustrated Times.
This
anonymous
letter
also
reported
him
as
saying:
'A
word
from mc
would
hang
that
man!'—but
the
remark
was,
in
effect,
made by
Mr
Twining.
The
Attorney-General
eagerly
seized
on
Professor
Herapath's
observation
which
he
had
read
as
meaning
that
strychnine
might
evade
the
analysis
of
even
the
most
experienced analyst;
whereas,
in
truth,
the
Professor
had
merely
referred
to Professor
Taylor's
incompetence.
At
the
trial,
the
Attorney-General
realized
his
mistake,
and
was
skilful
enough
to
repair
it with
Pharisaic
ingenuity
by
entangling
Professor
Herapath
in
his talk.

If
we
may
give
our
studied
opinion
for
what
it
is
worth,
founding
it
upon
that
of
Mr
John
Robinson,
the
well-known
lecturer
on
Medical
Jurisprudence,
and
others,
equally
distinguished,
we will
say
that
the
sore
on
Cook's
body—where,
according
to
the evidence,
excoriation
of
a
syphilitic
scar
had
been
rubbed
off— was
well
capable
of
inducing
tetanus,
especially
in
one
who
frequented
stables;
for
stables
breed
the
disease.
To
this
we
will,
however,
add
that
the
nightly
recurrence
of
Cook's
attacks
rather suggests
an
obscure
nervous
disorder—'epileptic
convulsions
with tetanic
symptoms,'
as
Dr
Bamford
called
it—which,
in
his
weakened
state,
Cook
could
not
resist.
Dr
Palmer,
in
all
probability, had
assisted
this
weakness,
for
a
felonious
object,
possibly
by
introducing
tartar
emetic
into
Cook's
toast-and-wate
r;
but
never, we
are
convinced,
did
he
foresee
or
desire
that
it
should
have
a fatal
ending.

It
may
be
objected
that
epilepsy
seldom
makes
its
first
appearance
in
mature
persons
and
that,
if
Cook
had
previously
experienced
epileptic
seizures,
this
fact
would
surely
have
come
out
in the
trial.
But
such
epileptic
seizures
as
occur
only
late
at
night, when
the
patient
is
suff
ering
from
gastric
disturbances,
or
has worked
himself
up
to
an
anxious
frame
of
mind,
often
escape general
remark;
and
if
Dr
Jones,
a
capable
physician
and
Cook's country
neighbour,
diagnosed
epilepsy,
he
must
have
suspected
a proneness
to
this
unusual
disorder.
The
suggestion
that
Dr
Palmer procured
three
grains,
and
then
another
six
grains,
of
strychnia— in
his
own
home-town,
too—for
the
purpose
of
murdering
his friend,
afterwards
adjusting
the
dose
so
nicely
as
to
leave
no vestige
of
the
crime—this
seems
to
us
one
of
the
most
far-fetched that
we
have
ever
heard.

Chapter XXII

THE
VERDICT

M
ANY
incidents
in
this
trial,
we
confess,
surprised
us
unpleasantly.
Mr
Baron
Alde
rson,
who
shared
Lord
Chief Justice
Campbell's
partiality
for
the
Prosecution,
made
even
less attempt
to
conceal
it,
and
frequently
amused
himself
by
suggesting
questions
to
Mr
James,
Q.C.,
the
Counsel
for
the
Crown. He
would
raise
his
hands
in
feigned
astonishment
if
evidence favourable
to
Dr
Palmer
was
elicited
by
cross-examination;
stare at
the
jury
with
a
look
of
incredulity
and
contempt
if
Serjeant Shee
called
attention
to
such
evidence;
and
assist
the
Lord
Chief Justice
in
overruling
almost
every
legal
objection
raised
by
the Defence.
Once,
when
Mr
Serjeant
Slice
asked
a
medical
witness: 'Where
are
the
pathionic
glands?',
Mr
Baron
Alderson
started angrily
from
his
seat
and
exclaimed
in
loud
tones:
'Humbug!' To
another
similar
question
he
answered
for
the
witness:
'You will
find
that
in
any
encyclopaedia.'