444 
MISCELLANEA. 
and the loaves were in due course sent out charged with the poison. There were no 
less than sixty cases, but as yet no death has been recorded.— Medical Times and Ga¬ 
zette. m 
A Hew Anaesthetic. —We learn that Dr. Prothero Smith has been making some 
observations on the administration by inhalation of the tetrachloride of carbon (CC1 4 ). 
It is stated that anaesthesia is rapidly produced by it (in some cases in the space of half 
a minute), and that its effects pass off very quickly. Dr. Prothero Smith has found it 
of great value in inducing quick and refreshing sleep. 
Accidental Poisoning by Careless Dispensing. —A child had been poisoned 
accidentally at Sheffield under circumstances best explained by the evidence of the prin¬ 
cipal witness at the inquest, in the report given in the ‘ Sheffield Daily Telegraph ’ for 
Wednesday, December 26, 1866. Mr. Robert Huddlestone, of Devonshire Street, came 
forward, and, in answer to the coroner, said that he had no objection to give evidence. 
He stated that, on Friday night last, he served Annie Browne (the first witness) with 
medicine for the deceased child. He intended to give her fever mixture and powder to 
act with the medicine. The powder was intended to be a slightly purgative one, and 
was wrapped up in a small white paper. It had no poisonous ingredients in it, and he had 
made it up while the girl was waiting. In the shop, at the same time, there was another 
girl wanting another powder, but he did not make that up at the same time. It was 
made up by Mrs. Huddlestone, and was composed of fifteen grains of morphia. It was 
wrapped up in a similar way to the other, but not directed. He was himself called out at 
the moment to a child that was choking with a spice marble next door but one. After¬ 
wards he delivered both powders to the girls, and each got the wrong one. He found 
that which Mrs. Huddlestone weighed up on the counter, and did not discover that he 
had made a mistake until half-past nine to a quarter to ten, when he was told by Mrs. 
Huddlestone that he had given the wrong one for Mrs. Scott’s child, and found there 
was something wrong. On returning home, he found that the other powder had been 
returned, so he was satisfied there was a mistake. He then made up some medicine to 
act as an emetic, and at once called in Dr. Keeling. He stayed with the child till it 
died, and used all the proper remedies in his power. The child died at twenty minutes 
past seven in the morning.—A Juryman: Had you begun to weigh the powder when 
you were called off? Witness: No. The Coroner: Were you excited by being called 
out to the child that was choking ? Witness: I was a little flurried.—Do you not wrap 
poisonous drugs in different coloured paper?—No.—Was there no direction on the 
morphia?—No, there was not. The party for ichom it was sent objected, for certain 
reasons , that any writing at all should be put on the powder, and, as 1 knew that she was 
aware of the nature of it, l did not write on it. —Are you not bound by law to write 
“ poison ” on all such drugs as that ?—I am not aware that such is the case. The verdict 
was recorded as follows:—“The child died from a quantity of morphia administered by 
mistake, and without any felonious intent.” We cannot help thinking that Mr. Hud¬ 
dlestone is very greatly to blame in the matter, and his reason for not labelling the 
highly poisonous powder described is extremely unsatisfactory. He certainly got off 
very easily. —British Medical Journal. 
A Trap to Catch Sunbeams. —In the optical room of the Conservatoire des 
Arts et Me'tiers at Paris, near a window, is an unpretending frame, containing half-a- 
dozen test tubes filled with powders, bearing a written descriptive label by M. Becquerel. 
Should any one pause before this object he need not be surprised if an attendant politely 
steps forward and closes the window-shutter, for darkness is required to reveal the beau¬ 
ties of the apparatus. The powders then exhibit in a most striking manner the pheno¬ 
menon of phosphorescence, each shining with a different-coloured light. A similar 
series of powders has been arranged for sale in a neat little box, and has been brought 
under our notice by Messrs. Harvey and Reynolds, of Leeds. It is called by its French 
makers the “ Phosphoroscope,” though this name has been applied to a very different 
instrument; but as a scientific toy it is likely to become known in England as “ A Trap 
to Catch Sunbeams.” Most of the powders are sulphides, and the brightest emanation 
probably, from the tube containing sulphide of barium. The phosphorescence may be 
induced by exposure to daylight for a few seconds, or to the light of a piece of magne¬ 
sium wire.— Laboratory. 
