I was ill on the Monday when I received the letter, and did not arrive at the Talbot Arms, Rugeley, till half-past three on Tuesday afternoon. I saw Cook there, and he expressed himself as very comfortable, but said he had been very ill at Shrewsbury. I examined Cook in Palmer’s presence. His pulse was natural and his tongue was clean. When I remarked upon this to Palmer he said, “You should have seen it before.” I prescribed nothing for Cook at that time. I visited him several times in the course of that afternoon, and he seemed improved in every way. I gave him a little toast and water, which was in the room, and which he vomited. There was no diarrhœa as far as I was aware. Mr. Bamford, who I learned from Palmer had been attending, came about seven o’clock. He expressed his satisfaction with Cook’s improved state of health. Whilst Bamford, Palmer, and I were consulting what we should prescribe for him, Cook objected to the pills he had had the previous night. He said they made him ill. The three of us then withdrew, and Palmer proposed that Mr. Bamford should make up the morphine pills as before, but not to mention what they contained, as Cook objected so much to morphine. Mr. Bamford agreed to it, and went away. Palmer and I went into Cook’s room. I was in and out of the room during the whole evening, and he seemed very comfortable. I observed no more vomiting nor any diarrhœa. There were no bilious symptoms whatever, nor were there any signs of his having recently suffered from a bilious attack. About eight o’clock I went with Palmer over to his house. I returned to Cook’s room in about a quarter of an hour. Palmer came back about eleven o’clock with a box of pills. He opened them in my presence and showed me the directions on a slip of paper round the box. He remarked, “What an excellent hand for an old man upwards of eighty to write.” It was very good writing indeed. Palmer proposed to Cook to take the pills, but he protested, as they had made him so ill the previous night. Ultimately he did take them, and he immediately vomited into the utensil. Both Palmer and I, at his request, searched the utensil for the pills, but we found nothing but the toast and water, so that the pills were retained. After he vomited he lay down very comfortably, and we left him. Before he had taken the pills he had expressed himself stronger, and had got up and sat in a chair. During the evening he had been very jocose, speaking of what he should do during the winter, and of his future plans and prospects. After he had taken those two pills, at eleven o’clock, I went downstairs and had some supper. I returned about twelve to his room, had some conversation with him, and then went to bed, it being arranged that I should sleep in his room, which was a double-bedded one, that night. At the time I last talked to him he seemed rather sleepy, but quite as well as usual, and there was nothing to excite any apprehension in my mind.