Suppose an examination at a longer interval than nine days after death failed to detect the inflammation of the arachnoid, that the spinal cord and its integuments had not undergone any decomposition, and that the appearance was perfectly healthy, should you be warranted in inferring there was inflammation?--I should not conclude there was inflammation. Prior to decomposition I should not. The examination was made by four medical men; are you of opinion that they would be competent judges as to decomposition?--[The question was objected to.] Does arachnitis not sometimes extend to a matter of months, even where it extends to death?--It might go on for months. Does it not affect the patient by a series of convulsions at recurring intervals?--That varies. Did you ever know, or hear of, or read of a case in which the patient died after a single convulsion of arachnitis?--Not a single one. What would be the concomitant symptoms; would it affect the rest of the patient or affect the general health?--I cannot say. [Sidenote: R. Partridge] Do you believe that a man could have twenty-four hours of complete repose?--No. In the interval between the convulsions could he be quite well?--No; he would have pain and uneasiness according to the situation of the muscles convulsed, the back usually. You have heard the symptoms, and I presume you have heard from the midnight of Monday till Tuesday Mr. Cook had complete repose. I now ask you if, in the face of the Court and of the profession, you will undertake to say that Mr. Cook’s death proceeded from arachnitis?--I should think not. The majority of the symptoms do not show arachnitis. You have mentioned that there were one or two of the appearances after death in Cook’s case which would be common to other cases, the semi-closing of the hand. Did you ever know, except in a case of tetanus, the hand so completely clenched as to require force to take the fingers away from the hand?--No, I do not. Have you ever known the feet to be so distorted as to be described by a medical man as assuming the form of a club foot?--Never. Did you hear the description given by Mr. Jones that when this man died the body was bowed so that, if he had turned it from its side upon its back, it would have rested on its head and on its heels?--I did. Have you any doubt that that indicates death from tetanus?--Not from some form of tetanic symptoms. I am only acquainted by reading and hearsay with the symptoms that accompany death from tetanus resulting from the administration of strychnia. From your knowledge of the subject, having attended to the symptoms described by Mr. Jones from the moment the paroxysm set in of which Mr. Cook died, and the symptoms and appearances attending his death, does it appear that these symptoms are consistent with death by strychnia?--Some are consistent and some are inconsistent. The long interval which occurred after the taking of the poison is inconsistent.