Dr. GEORGE ROBINSON, examined by Mr. KENEALY--I am a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and Fellow of the Royal Medical Chirurgical Society of London, and physician to the Newcastle-on-Tyne Dispensary and Fever Hospital. I have devoted considerable attention to pathology, and have published essays on it. I have practised as a physician for ten years. From the symptoms I have heard described my opinion is that Mr. Cook died from tetanic convulsions, by which I mean, not the disease of tetanus, but convulsions similar to those witnessed in tetanus. Convulsions of that kind occasionally assume the nature of epilepsy. I know of no department of pathology which is more obscure than that of convulsive diseases. I have been present at post-mortem examinations of persons who died from convulsive diseases. I have sometimes seen no morbid appearance whatever, and in other cases the morbid appearances which were visible were common to a variety of diseases. Convulsive diseases undoubtedly depend very much on the state of the nerves. They are all connected with disorders of the nervous action. The brain has great influence in producing convulsive diseases, but the spinal cord has a greater influence. The presence of gritty granules in the neighbourhood of the spinal cord would be likely to produce convulsive diseases. There is such a disease as spinal epilepsy, which is accompanied by strong convulsions, which might resemble in a great degree those described in the present case. Periodicity would belong to convulsions arising from spinal epilepsy. I should think from the evidence I have heard that Mr. Cook’s mode of life would predispose him to epilepsy. Cross-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--In all cases of epilepsy there are violent convulsions. I cannot tell you how many I have seen assume a tetanic character; perhaps twenty. Has it gone as far as opisthotonos?--Not the extreme opisthotonos of tetanus. The whole body has been straightened out and the head thrown back. I heard Mr. Jones describe Mr. Cook’s symptoms, that the body was so bowed that he could not raise it, so bowed that it would lean upon its heels and the back of its head if it had been turned over. [Sidenote: G. Robinson] Have you ever seen anything in epilepsy approaching to these symptoms?--I have never seen anything approaching to it. I have never seen a body so stiffened that it would rest on the head and heels. Is that symptom peculiar to tetanus?--You may have convulsions of the same character occurring from other causes--tetanic convulsions from the operation of various poisons.