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At a special Court of Common Council held on Monday, -the freedom of the City Mae presented to Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons. The Court

was fully attended, not only by City notables, but by ladies from the West-end of the metropolis. Sir John Rey delivered a complimentary address to Sir Edmund, reviewing his career, from his daring in Java when yo ng, to his recent services in the Black Sea. Sir Edmund made a brief but hearty reply.

A second special meeting of the Court of Proprietors of the East India Company, held on Wednesday, confirmed the vote of the previous week, granting.apension of 50001; per annum to the Marquis of Dalhousie. Should the President of the Board of Control concur, all the legal forms necessary to validate the pension will have been complied with.

A deputation from the Early Closing Association waited on Sir George Grey on Tuesday, for the purpose of inducing the Government to set the example of introducing the Saturday half-holiday into the public offices, the arsenals, dockyards, and Government establishments generally. Sir George replied to the representations of Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. Lilvrall, and others, that the dockyard-labourers must work at all hours ; and that during the sitting of 'Parliament the public offices cannot be dosed at two o'clock on Saturdays. He also observed that the clerks in the public offices are not much in need of a weekly half-holiday The " Sons of the Clergy," en association instituted in 1665, held the enniversary festival on Wednesday. The ceremonies of the day begin With divine service in St. Paul's, and close with a dinner at the Mer- chant Tailor's Hall. At both places collections are made for the charity. n is calculated that an average of 1200 persons—clergymen disabled by age or sickness, and the widows or daughters of clergymen—are an- nually relieved by the society. The sum collected on Wednesday was considerable.

Earl Granville presided, on Wednesday, over the jubilee anniver- dry of the Society of Friends of Foreigners in Distress. It seems that 88,675 foreigners from various states have been relieved by the society since it was founded. During the same period the receipts amounted to 125,1781.; the expenditure to 126,166/. The result of Earl Granville's appeal to the gentlemen who dined on Wednesday at the London Tavern was the handsome contribution of 3000/.

The Peace Society celebrated the fortieth year of its existence by a meeting on Tuesday, in Finsbury Chapel. Mr. Charles Hindley occu- pied the chair; the attendance was of the thinnest. Mr. Hindley con- gratulated them on the happy change which had taken place since they last met—the conclusion of peace, a cause of great joy and satisfaction. He made a practical suggestion, that the American Peace Society should be urged to endeavour to impart to the Government of the United States the same peaceful feelings which pervade the breasts of our own. The Secretary contributed two facts : the Society has held 150 meetings, and Circulated 200,000 publications ; its income is 16781. ; its balance 400/.

Whatever may have been the violent intentions of those persons known as the "roughs" in relation to the stoppage of the bands of music in the

Parks, they were not carried out on Sunday last. The rain fell in torrents at irregular intervals, and thus prevented the assemblage of large masses ; yet in spite of the weather there were bodies of well-dressed persons in Ken- sington Gardens, the Regent's Park, and Victoria Park. The only shadow of

a disturbatee during the day seems to have taken place in Kensington Gar- dens, where the said "roughs" disported themselves with considerable free-

dom, uttering rude jokes; breaking the trees, performing antics on the platform erected for the band, and finally singing "Rule Britannia," with more noise than melody. Persons went about delivering bills ; and one or two made speeches, for or against the band-playing: but with these de- ductions the cause of order triumphed.

A meeting was held in the Vestry Hall of St. Pancras on Monday,— Mr. W. D. Cooper in the chair,—" to elicit the opinion of the public upon the recent stoppage of the bands in Kensington Gardens and the Parks, by order of the Government." A letter was read from Mr. Charles Dickens, begging that his name might be put down for 101. towards any fund that it might be thought needful to raise for paying expenses that might be incurred " in peaceably and numerously repre- senting to the governing powers that the harmless recreation they have taken away is very much wanted." Sir Benjamin Hall came in about the middle of the proceedings, and made a speech. " What would they say when he told them that a compromise wasjire- posed—that he had been actually told that had he been contented with Ken- sington Garden, he would not have been interfered with. But what would his constituents have said had he been so hypocritical as to say that that wasright in Kensington Gardens which was wrong in Victoria and Regent's Parks ? Those who went to Kensington Gardens had music in their own

homes. It was his duty, as a representative of the people and as a Minister of the Crown, to see that all classes were equally dealt with. He had per- sonally visited the various Parks: and could bear testimony to the excellent

conduct of those who were essentially the people—so careful were the people of the Parks, that it required nothing more than their own good sense to protect them. In giving a band to the people on Sunday, he was under the

conviction that he was doing no wrong to God or man. lie would ask those who were opposed to him not to condemn because they did not agree on all

points. It was with deep regret that he had been compelled to discontinue the recreation he had provided. One thing in conclusion : he would urge upon the people to continue that conduct which up to this time was so ad- mirable—a continuance of such conduct would at least convince the oppo- nents to the bands that they have been wrong."

The upshot of tho meeting was, that resolutions were unanimously voted approving of music in the public Parks on Sunday afternoon, and

appointing a deputation to wait on Lord Palmerston to represent to him the state of dissatisfaction that prevails among the working classes at the discontinuance of the music.

A second meeting, held on Wednesday, in the Great Hall, Broadway, Westminster,—Sir John Shelley in the chair,—arrived at substantially the

same conclusions. There was a variety in the proceedings. On the re-

solution expressing " regret and indignation " at the suspension of the music, Mr. Rochford Clark, premising that he had memorialized the Queen to discontinue her Sunday band at Windsor, moved an amend- ment against Sunday music. It met, however, with but five or six sup- porters; the rest of the meeting voting for the original resolution.

A third meeting—the coming forward of Marylebone—was held on Wednesday, in Hall's Riding-school, Albany Street. It was addressed by Sir Benjamin Hall, Lord Raynham, Mr. Soden, and others. The re- solutions were favourable to Sunday music. A deputation was appointed to convey the views of the meeting to Lord Palmerston, and a memorial to be presented to the Queen.

The letter purporting to emanate from Sir B. Hall, which appeared in our impression of Saturday, is, it appears, what is called a hoax. The silly practical joker who concocted it has reason to be thankful that the unfavourable state of the weather, yesterday, prevented the assembling of a crowd so numerous that its disappointment might have broke out in turbulence. Since no harm has come of his folly, it is tot worth while to try to unearth the fool. Daily News, May 19.

The trial of William Palmer at the Central Criminal Court has been eon- tinned every day, to the exclusion of all other business. The case for the prosecution was not closed until Wednesday morning. Nearly the whole of Saturday and Monday were taken up with the exam+ nation of medical men ; but before the first medical witness was called George Bates was examined. He said he was brought up as a farmer, and that he had looked after Palmer's stud. He had dined with Cook at Palmer's. He deposed that he had sent some game to Mr. Ward, the Staf• ford Coroner, by the direction of Palmer ; and that he had delivered a letter to Ward from Palmer.

The medical witnesses called for the prosecution were—Mr. Thomas Blizard Curling, surgeon to the London Hospital ; Dr. Todd, physician at King's College Hospital ; Sir Benjamin Brodie ; Dr. Daniell, late surgeon to the Bristol Hospital ; Mr. Samuel Solly, surgeon to St. Thomas's Hoeg+ tal ; Dr. Henry Corbett, physician of Glasgow ; Dr. Watson, surgeon at the Glasgow Infirmary ; Francis Taylor, surgeon and apothecary at Ramsey ; Mr. Morley, surgeon ; Mr. Edward D. Moore, surgeon ; Dr. Alfred Swayne Taylor, lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence at Guy's Hospital ; Dr. Rees, lecturer on Materia Medics at Guy's Hospital ; Professor Brand°, of the Royal Institution ; Professor Christison, of the University of Edinburgh ; and John Jackson, physician. These witnesses were examined with the view of ascertaining the symptoms of the two kinds of tetanus—* "idiopathic," a tetanus produced without any external wound, and "trau- matic ' tetanus, arising from external injuries; the former is rare in England, the latter more frequent. All the medical witnesses agreed in stating that a sore throat or a syphilitic sore would not pro- duce real traumatic tetanus. It is one of the characteristics of tetanus that the consciousness is not affected. Mr. Curling said that the symptoms attending the death of Cook as described by the witnesses were not cone aistent with any form of traumatic tetanus that had ever come under his observation. The symptoms were not those of the tetanus of disease. He knew of no case in which traumatic tetanus occurred within a quarter of an hour after the reception of an injury. The character of the spasms of epi- lepsy is not tetanic. Dr. Todd said that the term tetanus ought not to be applied to disease produced by poisons. Sometimes the convulsions of epi- lepsy assume somewhat of a tetanic character, but they are distinct from tetanus. He was of opinion that in Cook's case there was neither apoplexy nor epilepsy. Strycluea and breccia will produce tetanic convulsions. Strychnia acts more slowly in a solid than in a fluid form. If the dose were large, the muscles would be convulsed, the head and back bent, the trunk bowed, the extremities stiffened and jerked out. The difference between tetanus produced by strychnine and other tetanus is that the former is short in duration ; the latter mild at first but stronger as it proceeds. " From all the evidence I have heard, I think that the symptoms which pre- sented themselves in the case of Mr. Cook arose from tetanus produced by strychnine." Cross-examination did not shake this opinion. Sir Benjamin Brodie gave very distinct evidence. The gist of his statements is as follows —" I do not believe that death in the case of Mr. Cook arose from what we ordinarily call tetanus, either idiopathic or traumatic. I never knew teta- nus result from sore throat, or from a chancre, or from any other form of syphilitic disease. The symptoms were not the result either of apoplexy or of epilepsy. Perhaps I had better say at once, that I never saw a case in which the symptoms that I have heard described here arose from any dis- ease." Under cross-examinatiou, Sir Benjamin said, in reply to a dispa- raging question from Sergeant Shee, that he thought the description of the symptoms " had been very clearly given." Mr. Solly said, he had seen many cases of tetanus, but no case at all like that of Cook—" the symptoms in that case are referable neither to apoplexy, epilepsy, nor to any disease he ever witnessed."

Dr. Corbett gave very remarkable evidence. A patient in the Glasgow Infirmary, Agnes Sennett alias Agnes French, had taken three strychnine pills, each containing a quarter of a grain. The pills were intended for a paralytic patient. "The symptoms were these,—there was a strong retrac- tion of the mouth ; the face was much suffused and red ; the pupils of the eye were dilated; the head was bent back; the spine was curved ; and the muscles were rigid and hard like a board ; the arms were stretched mit ; the hands were clinched ; and there were severe paroxysms recurring every few seconds. She died in about an hour and a quarter after taking the pills. When I was called first the paroxysms did not last so long ; but they in- creased in severity. According to the prescription there should have been a quarter of a grain of strychnine in each pill, and this woman had taken three. The paralytic patient was to have taken a pill each night, or one each night and morning, I forget which. There was spasmodic action and grind- ing of the teeth. She could open her mouth and swallow. There was no lock-jaw or ordinary tetanus. When the body was opened, the heart was found contracted and empty." Dr. Watson corroborated this; adding, " She seemed perfectly conscious." [It was further supported by the testi- mony of Mary Kelly, a patient in the Infirmary at the tame.] Here also evidence was put in of two other cases of death by strychniX. te. One was that of a Mrs. Smyth, who in 1848 died by the carelessness of a chemist at Romsey, who substituted strychnine for salacite. Caroline Hick- son, nurse and lady's maid in Mrs. thuh's family, described her death. Mrs. Smyth took a wine-glass of her medicine, and in five or ten minutes afterwards she was taken ill. "She screamed loudly, and her teeth were clinched. She asked to have her arms and legs held straight. I took hold of her arms and legs, which were very much drawn up. She still screamed, and was in great agony. She requested that water should be thrown over her and I threw some. Her feet were turned inwards. I put a bottle of hot water to her feet, but that did not relax them. Shortly before she died, sho said she felt easier. The last words she uttered were—' Turn use over. We did turn her over on the floor. She died a very few minutes after she had spoken those words. She died very quietly. She was quite oonscionse and knew me during the whole time. About an hour and a quarter elapsed from the time I gave her the medicine till she died." Mr. Francis Taylor, surgeon, corroborated this evidence. Mr. Morley, surgeon, described the symptoms attending the death of t lady presumed to have died from strychnine, and in whose body strychnine was found. [The name was not mentioned, but it is obviously the Leeds case.] Dr. Taylor's examination and cross-examination occupied one entire sitting of the Court. Dr. Taylor described the operation of the poison on the human frame, in which it must be absorbed before it can Pot on the ner- vous system ; he described the symptoms that uniformly follow the taking

of strychnine, and the experiments he had made on rabbits. Dissection showed no injury to the stomach ; in three out of five cases there was no

change in the condition of the spine. Death takes place more rapidly when the poison is administered in a fluid than in solid form. " If the poison were taken by the human subject in pills, it would take a longer time to act, because the structure of the pill must be broken up in order to bring the poison in contact with the mucous membrane of the stomach." He de- scribed how he had attempted to reproduce the strychnine given to the ani- mals ; that he had obtained it by the colour-test—a very fallacious test—in one case, and by taste in another. Asked to account for failure to obtain it where it was knoWn to have been administered, he said it was absorbed in the blood—a great part changed into blood. 'Where it was found, there was the retention of some in excess of what was required for the destruction of life. The parts of Cook's body submitted to him were in the most un- favourable state. "The stomach had been completely cut from end to end ; all the contents were gone ; and the fine mucous surface, on which any poi- son, if .present, would have been found, was lying in contact with the outside Of the intestines—all thrown together. The inside of the stomach was lying in the mass of intestinal feculent matter." At his request, the spleen, two kidneys, and a small bottle of blood, were sent. Antimony was found in them. The question was put---" As a professor of medical science, do you know any cause in the range of human disease except strychnine to which the symptoms in Cook's case can be referred ?" Answer—" ' I do not." Sergeant $hee subjected Dr. Taylor to a long cross-examination, the aim of which was to shake the credit of the witness. He asked, for instance, if Orfila did not find antimony in a dog four months after injection ?—" Yes, but the animal had taken about forty-five grains." " Antimony had been found in the bones ?"—" Yes ; when it has been long enough in the body it.passes into the bones." But those were not the experiments of Orfila ; Sergeant Shee would find that Orfila was quoting the experiments of another person. Sergeant Shee read the first opinion of Dr. Taylor and Dr. Bees, to show that at first they imputed the death of Cook to the effects of anti- mony. Dr. Taylor said, that was a perversion of his meaning. He was told that Cook had been in good health seven or eight days before he died, and that he died in convulsions; natural cause was found to account for death; antimony was found throughout the body; had there been a large quantity he should have said the man had died from it, but as only a small quantity was found, he said he "might have died." . Sergeant Shee also wished to make out that dogs were better for experiments than rabbits; but he did not succeed. He challenged Dr. Taylor with writing a letter to the Lancet prejudicing the case of the accused. Dr. Taylor said," he wrote the letter to correct errors and answer comments. Sergeant Shee also asked whether Dr. Taylor did not allow pictures of himself and Dr. Rees to appear in the Illustrated Rates, together with an article ? Dr. Taylor said he did not allow the "caricatures" to be published in that paper, neither did he give information for an article. "The publication of that article was the most disgraceful thing he ever knew—it was the greatest deception that ever was practised on a scientific man." The witness gave it as his deliberate opinion that Cook's symptoms were quite in accordance with an ordinary, case of poisoning by strychnine. Reexamined by the Attorney-General, he said—" At the time I wrote to Mr. Gardner [the letter Cheshire intercepted] I had not learned the symptoms which attended the attack and death of Cook. I had only the information that he was well seven days before he died, and had died in convulsions." - Dr. Rees concurred with Dr. Taylor. Professor Christison, who stated that he had made many experiments with strychnine, said that "the result- of his experience induced him to come to the conclusion that the symptoms exhibited by Cook are only referable to strychnia, or the four poisons con- taining it. He should not expect, he had never been able to find, a trace of Strychnine after death." Dr. Bamford gave his evidence on Tuesday. In it occurred this pas- sage. "I found the body stretched out, resting on the heels and the back of the head, as straight as possible, and stiff. The arms were extended - down each side of the body, and the hands were clinched. I filled up the certificate, and gave it as my opinion that he died from apoplexy. Palmer asked me to fill up the certificate. I had forms of certificates in my posses- sion. When Palmer asked me to fill up the certificate, I told him that, as Cook was his patient, it was his place to fill up the certificate. He said he had much rather I did it; and I did so. I was present at the post-mortem examinetion. After it was over, Palmer said, We ought not to have let that jar go.' That was all he said."

Mr. Pratt, solicitor, was examined to show that Palmer was labouring under great pecuniary embarrassments at the time of Cook's death. He read extracts from a long correspondence between himself and Palmer, from Which it appeared that he had advanced very large sums to Palmer on bills at 60 per cent interest, payable monthly ; that he put a pressure on Palmer for payment ; and that he had issued writs against him and his mother, whose acceptance was on many of the bills. After the death of Cook, Pal- titer wrote a " strictly private and confidential" letter to Pratt. " My dear Sir—Should any of Cook's friends call upon you to know what money Cook ever had from you,'way don't answer that question, or any other about money matters, until I have seen you." Mr. Strawbndge, the manager of the Rugeley Bank, proved that a number of bale for large amounts, purporting to have been accepted by Palmer's mother, were forgeries.

Mr. Weatherby deposed, that on the 21st November he received a letter from Palmer, dated the nth, enclosing a draught for 360/. in his favour,

p rting to be from Cook, and requesting that a check for the amount

t be forwarded to him. He returned the check, as the funds to pay it

not arrived from Mr. Frail, Clerk of the Course at Shrewsbury. Palmer then wrote requesting him not to part with any money that might come into his hands on account of Cook.

The caw for the prosecution having closed on Wednesday morning, Mr. Sergeant Slice at once began the defence ; and his opening speech occupied eight hours in delivery. Admitting in the most distinct manner that means had been taken by the Crown to insure a fair trial, he entered upon the case. As a preliminary step, he dwelt upon the fact that no strychnine was found in the body of Cook, and that Dr. Taylor's first conclusion was that he might have died from the effects of antimony. He proposed to combat Dr. Taylor's theory, that strychnine, after it has done its work, becomes ab- sorbed and will no longer respond to chemical tests, H by the evidence of emi- nent analytical chemists, namely, Dr. Nunneley, Dr. Letheby, Dr. Nicho- las Parker, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Rogers, and Mr. erapath. Ail these gen- tlemen contend, that if one-fiftieth part of a grain has entered the system, it can and must be discovered by tests known to chemists. Having so far cleared the way, he dealt first with the question of motive • endeavouring, by the aid of the letters read by Pratt, to make out that Palmer had an interest in the life of Cook ; that they had a joint interest in racing matters ; that COok's death saddled Palmer with the liability to pay a bill of 500/. nego- tiated for Cook's benefit ; that Cook's death caused the immediate ruin of Palmer. He watched the bedside of his Mend ; attended him as a brother ; called his friends around him ; slept by his bedside—murderers do not sleep by their victims. Would Palmer, who knew that strychnine caused a hor- Able death, risk such a scene as that described by Jones of Lutterworth, Cook's friend ? Impossible ! Having disposed of the alleged motive of the prisoner, Sergeant Shee then examined the evidence, to ascertain whether the symptoms before and the condition of the body after death were consist- ent with the theory that Cook died by poison. This he did by syphilis, on Cook's recIdess, licentious life, his sufferings from syphi • his anxiety at the Shrewsbury races, his elation when he had won, his imprudence in walking about on the damp course ; and combining all these, the Sergeant found in them the explanation of his sudden death. A large portion of his speech under this head consisted in throwing discredit on Dr. Taylor, whose assertions, based on the evidence of chambermaids, had led to the Coroner's verdict. " Merciful Heaven I" he exclaimed, " in what _position are we placed for the safety of our own lives and those of our families, if, on evidence such as this, men are to be put upon their trial for foul murder as often as a sudden death occurs in any household ! If science is to be allowed to come and dogmatize in our courts, —and not science that is successful in its operations or exact in its nature, but science that is baffled by its own tests, and bears upon its forehead the motto, ' A little learning in a dangerous thing,'—if, I say, science such as this is to be suffered to dogmatize in our courts, and to utter judgments which its own processes fail to vindicate, life is no longer secure, and there is thrown upon judges and jurymen a weight of responsibility, too grievous for human nature to endure." He insisted that the convulsions exhibited by Cook were not tetanic at all, but ordinary convulsions; and, quoting several passages from a medical work by Dr. Copland, describing con- vulsions, he contended that not one of the symptoms of Cook as described by the witnesses but might be classed under some one of the varieties of convulsions described by Dr. Copland. But he would bring men of the highest eminence to tell them that Cook's symptoms were those of general convulsions. He devoted much time to throw doubts upon the worth of the evidence of Elizabeth hills ; intimating that her statements, especially the statement about her sickness after tasting the broth sent over to the Talbot Arms by Palmer, had been suggested by questions. He tried to show that Palmer's attempt to bribe the postboy' Myatt, to upset them," did not refer to Mr. Stevens, Mr. Boycott, and the "jar," but to the men alone. He described Newton's evidence as improbable,and suggested that if Palmer wanted strychnine he might have bought it in London. On the whole, he rested the defence on the absence of motive,. the probability that Cook died from natural causes, and the impossibility of believing that Palmer would have chosen strychnine, when a grain or two of morphia more than the dose Cook took medicinally would have killed him.

There was a good deal of "eloquence" in the speech of the learned Ser- geant. Here is a specimen, from the peroration—" If you find ayoung man devoted to such a woman, loving her dearly, and marrying her for the love he bears her, you may depend upon it that he is a man of a libmane and gentle nature, little prone to deeds of violence. To such a woman was Palmer attached in his youth; and I will bring you proof positive to show that the

volumes cited against were the books he used when a student, and that the manuscript passages are in the handwriting of his wife. His was a mar- riage of the heart. He loved that young and virtuous woman with a pure and generous affection; he loved her as he now loves her first-born, who awaits with trembling anxiety the verdict that will restore him to the arms of his father, or drive that father to an ignominious death upon the scaffold. IThe prisoner here covered his face with his hands and shed tears.] Here in this book I have conclusive evidence of the kind of man that Palmer was wren years ago. I find in its pages the copy of a letter addressed by him while still a student to the woman whom he afterwards made his wife. It is as follows- ' My dearest Annie—I snatch a moment from my studies to write Ice your dear, dear little self. I need scarcely say that the principal inducement I have to work- is the desire of getting my studies finished, so as to be able to press. Tour dear little form In my arms. With best, best love, believe me, dearest Annie, Your own *u.usx.'

Now this is not the sort of letter that is generally read in courts. of _jus- glee. It was no part of my instructions to read that letter : but the VOA was put in to prove that this man is a wicked, heartless savage despertido and I show you what he was seven years ago,—that he was a man who loved a young woman for her own sake—loved her with a pure and virtuous affection—such an affection as would in almost all natures be a certain an- lidote against guilt. Such is the man whom it has been my duty to defend upon this occasion ; and upon the evidence that is before you I cannot be- heve him to be guilty. Don't suppose, gentlemen, that he is unsupported in this dreadful trial by his family and his friends. An aged mother, who may have disapproved of some part of his conduct, awaits with trembling anxiety your verdict ; a dear sister can scarcely support herself under the suspense which now presses upon her ' • a brave and gallant brother stands by to defend him, and spares neither time nor trouble to save him from an awful doom."

At the close of this address there was some attempt at 'applause : it was repressed, and the Court adjourned.

On Thursday, the examination of witnesses for the defence began. The medical men examined on Thursday and Friday were Mr. Thomas Nunne-

ley, Professor in the Leeds School of Medicine; Mr. William Herepathr Professor of Toxicology at the Bristol School of Medicine ; Mr. Rogers, Professor of Chemistry. at St. George's Hospital ; Dr. Letheby, Professor of Toxicology and Chemistry at the London Hospital ; Dr. R. E. Gay-; Mr. Thomas Ross, house-surgeon at the London Hospital ; Mr. R. Mantell, one of the surgeons at the same hospital ; Dr. Wrightson, analytic chemist and teacher of chemistry at the Birmingham School ; Mr. R. .Partridge, Pro- fessor of Anatomy at King's College ; Mr. John (lay, surgeon ; Dr. M‘Do- nald, licentiate of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons - Dr. Bambridge, medical officer at St. Martin's Workhouse• Mr. Edward Austin. Steddy, surgeon, Chatham ; Dr. George Robinson, physician to the Neweastle-on- Tyne Dispensary and Fever Hospital ; Dr. Richardson, physician.

Mr. Nunneley is a member of several medical and learned societies, fo- reign and English ; he has been in practice between twenty and thirty

years ; has a large practice; has seen cases both of traumatic and idio- pathic tetanus. Of the later he has seen four cases ' • one of them did not commence with lockjaw, and the symptoms never became so marked as to prevent swallowing. 'He assumed that Cook was a man of licentious life and very delicate constitution ; his father and mother died young; he ap- peared to be of a very nervous and irritable temperament, greatly excited or depressed by, moral causes. There are, forms of convulsion in which the patient retains his consciousness ; forme of epilepsy in which he retains it ; forms of hysteria found in the male sex.

To a question by Lord Campbell—" I cannot mention a case in which consciousness has been retained during a fit."

Convulsions arise from almost any cause; in children from worms ; in adults from affections of the brain, hysteria, the taking of chloroform ,• af- fections of the spinal cord ; eating indigestible food. From the granules in the spinal cord he drew no particular inference. They might produce an effect upon the spinal cord. There are three preparations in museums where granules are exhibited in the spinal cord, in which the patients are said to have died from tetanus : those are at St. Thomas's Hospital. To ascertain the nature and effect of such granules, the spinal cord ought to be examined immediately after death. Not the most remote opinion could be formed upon an examination made two months after death, more especially if the brain had been previously opened. Independently of the appearance of granules, it would not after that period be possible to form a satisfactory opinson upon the general condition of the spinal cord. In three cases of idiopathic tetanus the disease began with lockjaw ; in the fourth case it commenced in the body ; and the facility of swallowing remained. Within the last twelve months he had made post-mortem examinations of persons who had died from strychnia ; in one case forty-two, in the other case thirty hours after death. In the former of these two cases, that of a woman twenty-eight years of age, the eyelids were partially open and the globes flaccid, and the pupils dilated. The muscles of the trunk were not in the least rigid ; indeed, they were so soft that the body might be bent in any direction. The muscles at the hip and shoulder joints were not quite so flaccid, but they allowed these joints to be easily moved; while those of the head and neck, fore-arms, &c., were rigid. The fingers were curved, and the feet somewhat arched. All the muscles, when cut into, were found soft and dark in colour. The membranes of the liver were exceed- ingly vascular. The membrane of the spinal cord was much congested. There was bloody serum in the pericardium ; the lungs were distended, and some of the air-cells were ruptured. The lining membrane of the trachea and bronchial tubes were covered with a layer of dark bloody mucus of a dark chocolate colour. The thoracic vessels and membranes were much congested, and the blood was everywhere dark and fluid. In the second case, that of a woman about twenty years of age, the symptoms were substantially the same. He had seen two cases of patients suffering from over-doses of strychnia, neither of them fatal. In one case the patient took one-sixth of a grain in solution. " In a few minutes the symptoms appeared. They were a want of power to control the muscles, manifested by twitchings, rigidity, and cramp, more violent in the legs than in any other part of the body. The spasms were not very violent. They continued six hours before they entirely disappeared. During that time they were intermittent at va- rious intervals. As the attack passed off, the length of the intervals increased. At first their length was but a few seconds. The spasms were not combated by medical treatment. The other case was a very simi- lar one. The quantity taken was the same—double what I had prescribed." He had administered the poison to animals with the following symptoms in succession —a desire to be quite still ; hurried breathing; slavering at the mouth, when the poison had been given through that organ ; twitching of the ears trembling of the muscles; inability to walk ; convulsion of all the muscles of the body, and firm closing of the jaws ; on the least touch the muscles thrown into violent spasms with galvanic-like shock. In all cases the heart was full on the right side, the left venticle firmly contracted, the blood dark and often fluid. There was no particular appeanuice at the spine. "In Cook's case, the symptoms on Sun- day night I assume to have been great excitement. Cook described himself as having been very ill_, and in such a state that he considered him- self mad for a few minutes. He stated that the cause of this was a noise in the street. These symptoms, in the three nights I have mentioned, do not resemble those which I have seen follow the administration of strychnia. Cook had more power of voluntary motion than I have observed in animals under the influence of this poison. He sat up in bed, and moved his hands about freely, swallowed, talked, and asked to be rubbed and moved ; none of which, if 'poisoned by strychnia, could he have done. The sudden acces- sion of the convulsions is another reason for believing that they were not produced by strychnia. Other reasons for believing that the convulsions were not produced by strychnia are, their sudden accession without the usual premonitory symptoms, the length of time which had elapsed between their commencement and the taking of the pills which are supposed to have con- tained poison, and the screaming and vomiting." The heart is stated to have been empty and uncontracted.

Lord Campbell—" I do not remember that ; I think it was said that the heart was contracted." Baron Alderson—" According to my note, Dr.

Harland said the heart was contracted, and contained no blood.' • The lungs were not congested, nor was the brain. If Cook had died from strychnia, it ought to have been found in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. There are several tests for discovering strychnia. It continues unchanged in the system, being absorbed without digestion. He had found strychnin at the end of forty days.

In cross-examination by the Attorney-General, Mr. Nunneley said that several of the experiments he had made lately in reference to the Leeds case were made conjointly with Mr. Morley. He did not know any case in which the rigour after death was greater than the usual "rigor mortis." In that opinion he differed from Mr. Morley, [who said that after an inter- val of flaccidity there is an unusual degree of the rigor mortis.]

Mr. Nunneley was subjected to very severe cross-examination. He said that he believed Cook to have been under the influence of morphia, which might assist in producing a convulsive attack. " Do you mean to say, on your oath, that you think he was in a state of excitement at Rugeley ?"— " I wish to give my evidence honestly. Morphia, when given in an in- jured state of the brain' often disagrees with the patient." " But what evidence have you as to the injured state of the brain ?"—" Sickness often indicates it. I can't say whether the attack of Sunday night was an attack of convulsions. I think that the Sunday attack was one of a similar cha- racter, but not so intense, as the attack of Tuesday, in which he died. I don't think he had con:ralsions on the Sunday, but he was in that condi- tion which often precedes convulsions. I think he was mistaken when he stated that he was awoke by a noise ; I believe he was delirious. That is one of the symptoms on which I found my opinion. Any intestinal irrita- tion will produce convulsions in a tetanic form. I have known instances in children. I have not seen an instance in an animal. Medical writers state that such cases do occur. I know no name for convulsions of that kind." Asked to repeat the particulars in which the case differed from the tetanus of strychnine, Mr. Nunneley said there was the sudden secession of convul- sions. " Sudden—after what ?"—" After the rousing by Jones." There was also the power of talking. " Don't you know that Mrs. Smyth talked and retained her consciousness to the end ? that her last words were Turn me over' ?"—" She did say something of that kind : no doubt, those were the words she used."

In animals the twitchings and difficulty of breathing have been premoni- feu symptoms. " When Cook felt a stiffness and a difficulty of breathing, and said that he should be suffocated on the first night, what were those but premonitory symptoms ?"—" Well, he asked to be rubbed; but, as far as experience goes with regard to animals—" The Attorney-General- " They can't ask to have their ears rubbed, of course." (A laugh.) Mr. Sergeant Shee said the witness was about to explain the effect of being rub- bed upon the animals. Cross-examination continued—" In no single in- stance could the animals bear to be touched." " Did not Mrs. Smyth ask to have her legs and arms rubbed ?"—" In the Leeds case the lady asked to be rubbed before the convulsions came on ; but afterwards she could not bear it, and begged that she might not be touched." " Can you point out any one point, after the premonitory symptoms, in which the symptoms in this case differ from those of strychnine tetanus ? "—" There is the power of swallowing, which is taken away by inability to move the jaw."—" But have you not stated that lockjaw is the last symptom that occurs in strych- nine tetanus? "—" I have. I don't deny that it may be. I am speaking of the general rule."

Mr. William Herepath had seen several cases of poisoning by strychnia in animals, and one in the human body. He had been able to detect the strychnia in all instances ; and if it had been in Cook's body it ought to have been discovered, even if the contents of the stomach had been shaken up. Mr. Herepath admitted that he might have expressed an opinion that strychnine had been taken, and that Dr. Taylor had not gone the right way to find it.. He had a strong opinion after reading various newspaper reports.

Dr. Henry Letheby .hacf witnessed various cases of poisoning by strych- nia and nux vomits in animals and the human body ; and ho described the symptoms, partly agreeing with the view taken by the witness for the Crown. He considered Cook's sitting up in bed and asking Jones to ring the bell as inconsistent with what ho had observed in strychnia cases. Mr. Baron Alderson—" What do you attribute Cook's death to ? "—" It is irreconcileable with everything with which I am acquainted." " Is it reconcileable with any known disease you have ever seen or heard of ?"— " No."

Reexamined by Mr. Sergeant Shea—" We are learning new facts every day ; and I do not at present conceive it to be impossible thin some peculiar- ity of the spinal cord, unrecognizable at the examination after death, may have produced symptoms like those which have been described."

Mr. R. E. Gay produced the description of a case of undoubted idiopathic tetanus. It occurred in a man named Foster, an omnibus-driver ; whom Mr. Gay found suffering from a sore throat which ho had had for about a week, in " the muscular pains of the neck and the upper coronet vertebrae. He was feverish, and presented all the symptoms of ordinary catarrh. I put him under the usual treatment for that disorder—saline draughts, and external embrocation to the neck, and gargles. On about the fourth day of my attendance the muscular pains extended to the face, and difficulty of swallowing came on; and the pains in the coronet vertebras increased, as did those of the muscles of the face, particularly of the lower jaw ; and on the afternoon of the same day the jaw became completely locked, and muscular pains came on in the bowels and the legs and arms, and the patient was very much convulsed throughout the entire muscular system. He had frequent contractions of the arms and hands, and afterwards the legs. The difficulty of swallowing increased, and not a particle of food, either solid or liquid, could be taken; and if introduced into the mouth the attempt to swallow the smallest portion brought on most violent convulsions. The convulsions were at times so strong throughout the entire system, that he could compare the appearance of the patient to nothing more than a warped board. The head was thrown back, the bowels, forced forward, and the legs were frequently run upwards and backwards. Any attempt to feed him with a spoon, the opening of the window, or placing the fingers on the pulse, frequently brought on violent convulsions. The patient com- plained of great hunger, and frequently called out, ' What shall I do ? I am hungry, and can't eat.' He was kept alive to the fourteenth day, en- tirely by injections of a milky and farinaceous character. He screamed re- peatedly., and the noises he made were more like a wild man than anything else. On the twelfth day he became insensible, and continued in that state until the fourteenth day, when he died. I have not heard the evidence in

i this case, but I thought it my duty to state the particulars of the case to the solicitor for the prisoner."

By the Attorney-General—" This I consider to be an ordinary case of idiopathic tetanus, and it is the only one of the kind I ever had to deal with. The disease was altogether progressive in its character; and although there i

was occasionally a remission of the symptoms, they invariably recurred. The locking of the jaw is among the very first symptoms that make their appearance. ' Here the Court adjourned until Friday.

At the Middlesex Sessions, on Tuesday, Caleb Smith, a young matt, pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud. 'T'he novelty in the case was that the culprit selected officers, of the Detective Police for his victims. He suc- cessively imposed on three officers, by pretending that he knew persons who were in possession of the Queen's plate recently stolen ; he agreed for a pre- sent fee and a future reward to introduce the officers to tho thieves ; he thus got food and money, and then slily slipped away : two guileless police- men each advanced him V. In the fourth case he pretended to give in- formation of a burglary. Smith urged that want had led him to play these tricks : he could obtain no employment to support himself and family ; if he begged he was locked up ; "if he went thieving the Police did the same "; so as a last resource he " bilked" the Police. Sentence, ten months' imprisonment.

There was a fatal explosion at Woolwich Arsenal on Saturday afternoon, in a small shed where a man and a boy were " meeting " detonating com- position for percussion-caps. The two persons in the shed were killed on the instant ; a carpenter and a labourer who were employed at a short dis- tance from the erection were fatally mangled by the concussion ; seven other persons were badly hurt, and one died in the course of the evening.

A Coroner's inquest on the bodies of these sufferers, and on that of Wil- liam Powell, who perished by an explosion of fireworks, was commenced on Tuesday. Only Powell's case was entered upon. It seems that he was en- gaged in drilling a hole in a tourbillon rocket ; a steel drill worked by a lathe was employed for this purpose ; he had been frequently cautioned to keep the drill cool, by taking it out and wiping it with wet cotton. It ap- pears probable that he neglected this precaution ; that the drill got very hot, and penetrated through the case to the composition in the rocket. Even then mischief might have been avoided if Powell had possessed pre- sence of mind to extinguish the rocket by plunging it into water ; but in- stead of doing so, he flung it from him, and thus ignited large quantities of squibs, and caused a great explosion among the combustibles in the shed.

On Thursday, the Jury pronounced Powell's death to have arisen from accident ; but recommended that so dangerous an operation as drilling rock- ets should not in future be performed in a place containing other combus- tibles. The verdict in the case of the sufferers by the other explosion was also "Accidental death." The Jury expressed their pleasure at learning that the buildings where dangerous operations are performed will speedily be removed to the marshes.