Cook, John Parsons, -1855; Palmer, William, 1824-1856 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London
Then, gentlemen, let us take the conduct of the prisoner into
consideration in the after stages of the case, and also in one
remarkable particular--in an incident that took place on the day of the
death, on the evening of the preparation of the pills--and in his
conduct taken in all its circumstances I fear you will find but too
cogent proofs of his guilt. I begin with the Tuesday, the day of the
death. Mr. Cook had had what every one will admit to have been a most
severe fit on the night before. Dr. Bamford comes upon the Tuesday, but
not a word is said to him about it. He comes, and the prisoner is
solicitous that he shall not see Cook; and twice in the course of that
morning, when old Mr. Bamford is desirous of coming up to see the man,
the prisoner said, “He is tranquil and dozing; I wish him not to be
disturbed.” That may have been innocent, but on the other hand, if Dr.
Bamford had come at that time when the fit was fresh in Cook’s mind, the
probability is great that Cook would have told him what had happened the
night before. Cook does not see him till seven o’clock, when Mr. Jones
had arrived. One would have expected that, having been invited to come
by the prisoner, the first thing Mr. Palmer would have done would have
been to mention how he found him the night before. He talks of nothing
but about the bilious symptoms--bilious at Shrewsbury, bilious to Dr.
Bamford, and bilious to Mr. Jones; and thus he is represented throughout
by the prisoner at the bar, yet all this time the medical men agree in
saying that there was not a bilious symptom about him from beginning to
end; no feverish skin, no loaded tongue, and none of the concomitants of
a bilious condition. The moment Mr. Jones sees him, considering he had
heard that this man was suffering under a bilious affection, he says,
“That is not the tongue of a bilious patient.” The only answer he gets
is, “You should have seen it before.” When? When the man saw him at
Shrewsbury, or when Dr. Bamford saw him, they both found his tongue
perfectly clean; the irritation in the bowels was not the result of
natural action, but of the antimony; and not one single word does he say
to Mr. Jones of the fit that had taken place the night before. It is a
remarkable circumstance, when the three medical men are consulting at
the bedside, the patient says, “I will have no more pills--no more
medicine to-night,” intimating that his sufferings of the night before
he ascribed to the pills which he had taken. There is no observation
made by Mr. Palmer as to what had been the nature of the man’s attack
the night before, he having been called up in the dead of the night.
They go into an adjoining room to consult as to the best thing to be
done. The man had declared his aversion to taking any pills or medicine;
and Mr. Palmer immediately proposes that he shall take the same pills
that he took the night before. He says to Mr. Jones, “Do not tell him
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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