Do you know any case of strychnia poison in which the patient has recovered from a paroxysm in as short a time as Mr. Cook did, he being well before the morning?--I do not remember any, but I can conceive in medical practice such cases. Do you know any case of strychnia poison in which there was so long an intermission of the paroxysm as between the two fits of Monday and Tuesday night?--No, I do not. As you choose to go upon rabbits, do you not know that it constantly happens, even in rabbits, that the spasm and the contraction instantly cease immediately with death, or just before death, and that the body becomes perfectly pliant?--No, I do not. It does so in some instances, in one out of five cases. [Sidenote: Alfred Taylor] Do you agree in this opinion of Dr. Christison--“I have not altered the statement as to this point in the former edition, that is, that the rigidity supervenes at an early period after death; yet I strongly suspect the authors who describe the spasm which precedes death to continue as it were without the rigidity that occurs after death must have observed inaccurately, for, in the numerous experiments that I have made and witnessed upon animals, flaccidity of limb continued after death”?--Dr. Christison speaks from his own experience; I speak from my own. Have you any reason to say that the clenching of the hand is a distinctive feature of strychnia poison?--It is the result of violent tetanic spasms. It occurs in other violent spasms. In all forms of convulsion?--No; the great point is this, that in tetanus it remains so; in other convulsions it comes and goes. Is it always so?--That is according to my knowledge. Re-examined by the ATTORNEY-GENERAL--I have met with three cases in a human subject in which it has appeared that the heart was found empty after death, where the death had taken place from strychnia. I think the emptiness of the heart is owing to spasmodic affection, the effect upon the heart in the last moment of life. I know of no reason why that should be more likely to be the case in the human subject than in a small animal like a rabbit. The only thing I would observe is, that I think the heart is generally more affected by the paroxysm, so that the blood accumulates. Suppose the paroxysms short and violent, and cause death in a few minutes?--That is the kind of case in which I should expect to find it empty. The rigidity after death in the cases where I found it always affected the same muscles, the muscles of the limbs, specially the muscles of the back. In the case of poisoning by strychnia, where the rigidity was relaxed in death, it returns while the body is warm. Would the rigidity of the extremities as long as two months after death, the clenching of the hands, and the twisting of the feet, afford you any indication of whether the person died of tetanus?--I have never known such a case. That would indicate, in my opinion, great violence of the spasm with which the party died.