Q. Would not the rupture of a blood vessel occasion death?
A. The rupture of a blood vessel undoubtedly would have occasioned death; but it would not in my apprehension have been attended with the same appearances.
Q. Might not a blood vessel in an effort to reach be broken?
A. I should conceive, that if, in an effort to reach, a blood vessel of that magnitude had ruptured that he must have died immediately without convulsions.
Q. But supposing a person recovering from convulsions, for he is stated to be inclined to sleep?
A. It is a case I am not supposing probable.
Q. Did you never hear of any person dying of an epilepsy or of an apoplexy with symptoms like those, being in convulsions?
A. I do not think the symptoms described as having taken place in Sir Theodosius Boughton are like to an epilepsy.
A. They were entirely in my opinion the effects of the draught.
Q. Might not an epilepsy or an apoplexy be accompanied with those symptoms?
A. I never saw either of them attended with an heaving at the stomach.
Q. When respiration grows feeble; is it not a common case that the muscles of the throat are very much relaxed?
A. All the effects that succeeded the draught I believe were the consequences of it; and if the muscles were relaxed or foam proceeded from the mouth, they were in consequence of it.
Q. Is it not commonly the case with persons who die of almost every disorder?
Q. Are not the muscles of the throat instrumental in respiration?
A. So far as to the passage of the air in and out.
Q. Is it not a very common appearance a few minutes before death, when respiration grows feeble for froth to issue from the mouth?
A. No, not commonly. I have seen it in epilepsies.
Q. What was your reason for supposing at one time that the deceased died of arsenick?
A. Every man is mistaken now and then in his opinion, and that was my case; I am not ashamed to own a mistake.
Q. Have you been very nice in your experiments; for instance, in the conveying the laurel-water into the animals?
A. If there was any want of nicety the subject had less of it than I intended.
Q. When an animal, suppose a dog or cat, is striving to refuse a draught you are forcing into its mouth, whether it is not common for some part of the liquor to get into the lungs?