494 Kidd V. Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
On the very same night that he wrote that letter he also forwarded to Dr. 
Voelcker, the Chemist, a sample of the cake ; Dr. Voelcker made his analysis, 
and that analysis he furnished to Mr. Wells. Mr. Wells then went np, I think 
himself, to London, and was there and laid the case before the Council. And 
now I will read to you what it is that thereupon the Council have written and 
said with regard to this matter. It is the Eeport of the Chemical Committee, 
not the Council itself. They made their examination and they said this 
(the learned Council here read the Report in question.) 
Now, gentlemen, that is the whole of the lihel in this case. The Plaintiff 
in his declaration, and his counsel at the bar, say that we charge by this 
libel that the cake contains poisonous materials and poison ; but I think with 
reference to that you will bo of opinion that it does not fairly bear that 
construction. So far from making that assertion, the Report itself speaks of 
this being a case of " so-called " poisoning ; and Avith regard to Mr. Wells' 
case, it states what are the elements of the cake, and what we charge against 
that cake is that it very much " resembled " the cake supplied to Mr. Eaton ; 
it does not say that it has the same qualities. And then it goes on to charge 
against it that it contains a variety of seeds, — "cotton-cake, rice, broken corn, 
and cocoa-nirt, apparently made from dirty linseed, and the sweepings of com 
warehouses." 
Now I shall prove to you what you have already heard from me with 
regard to the case of Mr. Wells, that the whole of his cattle were seized with 
serious symptoms immediately after eating of this cake. I shall also call 
before you Dr. Voelcker, and other gentlemen of skill and science, who will 
tell you that the cake does contain these things which are here mentioned, 
and will give you their judgments upon it. I cannot help thinking that if my 
learned friend had thought it right to put Mr. Kidd into the box, and the 
people in his employment, before it became my duty to call these gentlemen, 
it might have assisted the inquiry a great deal, because we shoitld then have 
had the advantage of knowing what it is that Mr. Kidd says was put into the 
cake. You see my friend has notice of what we charge as being the contents 
of the cake. He has Mr. Kidd and those who are employed in his mill here, 
who would have proved what the cake is made of, and you would have been 
in a better position if you could have heard their evidence, together with the 
evidence that I am about to lay before you. But, as I said before, my friend 
is master of his own case, and he thinks it more wise and prudent to keep 
Mr. Kidd out of the box, and prevent my getting the information from him 
which I might have had upon that inquiry. This much you know we have 
been able to extract, because we had a letter of Mr. Kidd's in our own 
possession, and we have obtained from Mr. Ayre the same information, that 
this is cake made expressly for Mr. Ayre by agreement with him, aiid that it 
does contain sesame cake and bran, as well as linseed. Whether or not a cake 
consisting of sesame cake, hnseed, and bran is a " best linseed cake " is a 
matter we may have to try in another cause ; but there is one thing I ought 
to explain with reference to sesame'. Sesame is a cake in ilself, and we 
shall learn, if we have any person who comes into the box to give us any 
information about it, — we shall certainly seek to inquire, — what is the process 
connected with that sesame cake. I believe it will tiu'n out that the sesamd 
cake is in itself a commercial article, and that it is broken up ami crushed 
together with linseed cake to make the cake in question. My friend, in 
opening his case, said that linseed cake was what everybody understands it to 
be, the residual jiroduct of linseed after it is crushed for the purpose of 
expressing the oil from it. That is, you know, the linseed which comes either 
from Calcutta or the IMack Sea. Now there is, no doubt, in all linseed a certain 
admixture of seeds, either put into it abroad or growing with the linseed, and 
as my friend ingeniously says, no doubt there arc various brands, one of them 
