510 HORSES POISON l£D BY ARSENIOUS ACID. 
“Mr. Orridge was counsel for the prosecution: Mr. Metcalfe 
defended the prisoners. 
“The case against Petch was first investigated. 
“ The facts will be tolerably fresh in the recollection of our 
readers, as a full report of the proceedings before the com- 
mitting magistrates appeared in our columns at the time. It 
will suffice here to give an outline of the case. The prisoner 
was horsekeeper in the service of the prosecutrix, a widow 
lady, carrying on the business of a farmer at Culford, and it 
was stated that he had been employed upon the same farm 
nearly all his life. On the 24th of April, young Mr. Mitchell 
had his attention called to the circumstance of some of the 
horses being ill, and among them was a valuable gelding 
named Punch, worth about £40. In the course of the night 
this horse died, and the nature of its illness as well as that of 
the others being fraught with suspicion, Petch was asked by 
Ellis, the farm bailiff, ^whether he had given them anything. 
The reply made was that he had given them nothing but 
what he had received from Ellis, whose duty it was to give 
out the corn. A farrier was sent for to attend to the surviving 
horses ; and Mr. Taylor, veterinary surgeon, of Bury, was 
called in to make a^post-mortem examination of the^dead 
horse Punch. He w 7 as satisfied, from the inflamed state of 
the stomach and other appearances, that a deadly mineral 
poison had been administered. To make sure that this 
opinion was not without foundation, the intestines were next 
forwarded to Dr. Sweeting, assistant to Mr. Image, of Bury, 
as well as the remaining corn and chaff left unconsumed in 
the manger. In both instances a quantity of arsenic was 
discovered, but no deleterious substance was found in the 
corn-bin, from which it was inferred by the prosecution that 
the poison was mixed with the food put into the manger. The 
three other horses died shortly afterwards in great agony, and 
there was no doubt whatever that death in every case re- 
sulted from the same cause. 
“As facts favorable to the prisoner, it was elicited that the 
horsekeepers took great pride in the condition and appearance 
of their horses, that the chaff mixed with the corn was cut 
and kept in an outhouse accessible to all the servants on the 
farm, and that the prisoner Petch was the first who gave 
information to Mr. Mitchell respecting the illness of Punch, 
that, in fact, he led it up to the house for his young master to 
look at. It was further elicited, that it was not unusual to 
give small doses of arsenic for the purpose of improving the 
coat. 
“The Judge asked Mr. Orridge if he had any further 
evidence ? 
