MISCELLANEA. 
395 
that he was invariably very careful in transacting his business. The deputy-coroner 
said the jury must decide whether the chemist had been guilty of such gross negligence 
that he ought to be indicted for manslaughter. After deliberating in private, the jury 
found that the deceased died from the effects of laudanum administered through misad¬ 
venture, and they accompanied the verdict with a severe censure of Mr. Robinson’s 
carelessness .—Manchester Guardian. 
Lead Poison in Cider. —An inquest has been held to inquire into the cause of 
death of Henry Davies, labourer, thirty-two years of age. It appears that the deceased 
was, with several other men, employed as a harvest labourer by Mrs. Burlton, of Lower 
Lyde, near Hereford. Seven or eight of them were seized with vomiting, cramp, 
spasms, and other symptoms of poisoning. Two medical men, Dr. Bull and Mr. J. C. Lane, 
were called in, and gave their opinion that the men were suffering from lead poisoning, 
and that the poison was held in solution in the cider of which they had each been 
drinking six or seven quarts a day. Before any medicine could be administered to 
Davies he died in great agony. The other men, whose lives were at one time despaired 
of, gradually recovered. A jar of the cider of which the men had been drinking 
(and safely sealed down) was sent to Professor Herapath, of Bristol, for analysis, and 
the result the Professor stated in the following terms :—“ I have received the jar of 
cider, and submitted it to analysis. I find that it contains salts of lead equal to one 
grain of metal in the gallon. With respect to your question, there can be no doubt 
that this is a large quantity for an accidental impregnation, and will produce very 
serious effects upon the human body; but whether that is the cause of death must be 
judged of by concurrent circumstances, as there is no weight of that metal fixed upon 
as fatal; but if there was good health before drinking, and illness commencing soon 
after and progressing until death, while others have been attacked with the same symp¬ 
toms in an inferior degree, and all those symptoms have this resemblance, the inference 
would be natural. Let me ask, were the edges of the gums blue ? was there windy colic 
without diarrhoea, cramps, pains in the limbs of a nervous or paralytic character, and 
loss of appetite? These questions the medical gentlemen will, no doubt, determine. 
I have had a great many cases of injury to human beings, and still more of injury and 
death to animals, but I do not recollect any death to man within my own experience. 
l r ou will perceive, then, that it is very difficult for me to speak positively without infor¬ 
mation.” The Coroner thereupon forwarded to the Professor a copy of the depositions 
taken on the first day’s inquiry, to which the Professor replied:—“After reading the 
published report of the inquest on Henry Davies, I have not the slightest doubt that 
his death was caused by cider poisoned with lead. Every symptom points to that 
metal, but the appearance of the gums and intestines is characteristic, and cannot be 
mistaken.” On the jury and medical men proceeding to the mill in which the cider 
was made last autumn, they fouud the lead that filled the interstices much corroded, 
and a great deal of it eaten away. Dr. Bull said the acid in the fruit acting upon the 
lead liberated it by corrosion and took it up. Both he and Mr. Lane mentioned a large 
number of similar cases that had from time to time come under their notice and treat¬ 
ment, in some of which they had recommended the afflicted to refuse to drink the cider 
offered them, and in such cases recovery had followed. The jury returned the following 
verdict:—“ That Henry Davies died from lead poison contained in the cider be had been 
drinking at Mrs. Burlton’s, of Lower Lyde. That the jury further say that they ex one _ 
rate Mrs. Burlton from any blame whatever, because no complaint that the cider was 
bad came to her knowledge. But they recommend her immediately to have al lier 
cider tested, and put away or destroyed if it should be found affected.” 
Poisoning by Laburnum Sark. —A case of poisoning by this substance has 
occurred in Yorkshire. A child had picked off some of the bark from laburnum twigs, 
with his teeth, and, in about eight hours, died with all the symptoms of irritant poison. 
A verdict accordingly was returned. 
Salivation by Mercurial Ointment. —At an inquest held lately at Preston, on 
the body of an inmate of the Walton-le-Dale workhouse, it was stated that the chief 
official, anxious to make the boys clean for the inspection of visitors, rubbed into the 
heads of eighty or ninety of the boys about half a tablespoonful of “blue ” ointment, 
which he obtained from the surgery. Next day they were all ill, and one died, when 
the doctor was informed of what had been done. 
