I NTRAORDINARY DEATH FROM POISON. 
43 
Dr. Russell, Dr. Gilbert, Dr. Redwood, and some others. Mr. De la Rue, Dr. Fraukland, 
Mr. Abel, and Mr. Greville Williams were unfortunately prevented from attending. Iu 
proposing the toast of the evening, the chairman remarked upon the advantages which 
accrued to chemists from their having compressed into five goodly volumes an accurate 
abstract of the immense mass of chemical knowledge which had gone on accumulating 
up to the present time, and he complimented Mr. Watts upon the thoroughness and con¬ 
scientiousness with which this part of his labours had been performed—that he had not 
been content with giving crude abstracts of scarcely more crude material, but had pro¬ 
duced a complete system of singularly well-digested abstracts, bearing upon them the 
stamp of his own individuality. The health of Mr. Watts was then drunk with much 
enthusiasm; other toasts followed, including “ Success to the Messrs. Longmans,” and 
the party broke up after an evening of much enjoyment. 
SUICIDE OF A CHEMIST BY PRUSSIC ACID. 
An inquest was held on June 2 by Mr. Emsley, the Leeds borough coroner, touching 
the death of Mr. Joseph Ilaigh, a chemist and druggist, who carried on business in 
Briggate, and resided at Woodbine Place, and who was found dead in his shop on Sun¬ 
day morning. On Sunday morning last, the deceased, who was a well-known and 
much-respected tradesman, went to his shop, in accordance with his usual custom, be¬ 
tween eleven and twelve o’clock, and soon after he had entered, a person called Mr. 
Joseph Hollins, of Parsley, who was looking for a chemist’s shop in order that he might 
make a purchase, saw the door of his place of business open and went in. Upon pass¬ 
ing the threshold he saw the deceased stretched upon the floor quite dead. An alarm 
Avas raised, and Mr. Nunneley, the surgeon, who happened to be passing at the time, 
went to the shop, but found that deceased was beyond the reach of medical skill. A 
bottle of prussic acid, and also a bottle containing strychnine, being found near to the 
place where the deceased lay, a suspicion was entertained that he had poisoned himself, 
and, in consequence, Mr. Nunneley made a post-mortem examination of the body. He 
found, as he stated at the inquest yesterday, that the cause of death had been a large 
dose of prussic acid, from Avhich the deceased had died almost immediately after he had 
taken it. As to the*reason for Mr. Haigh having taken the poison, Mr. Joseph Walker, 
the solicitor and personal friend of his, stated that for some time past he had laboured 
under the impression, to Avhich he had upon more than one occasion given utterance, 
that his affairs were in an embarrassed state, and that he would soon be obliged to close 
his place of business. Mr. Walker also stated that from an examination into the books 
and papers of the deceased, he Avas able to say that there was no ground for this im¬ 
pression, and that it was a delusion. 
Mr. Storr, of Upper Fountaine Street, an old friend of the deceased, stated that he 
had heard the same story from his lips, and that, believing it to be a delusion, he had 
endeavoured to convince him of that, but in vain. He had noticed for some time past 
that Mr. Haigh had appeared to him to be in a very excitable frame of insanity. 
Upon this evidence the jury, acting under the direction of the coroner, returned a 
verdict to the effect, that the deceased had committed suicide by taking prussic acid 
whilst in a state of temporary insanity 
EXTRAORDINARY DEATH FROM POISON. 
An inquiry Avas held on June 23rd by Mr. Richards, deputy coroner, at Sion House, 
Lower Clapton, relative to the death, from the inhalation of poison, of Mr. Capel Henry 
Berger, aged twenty-eight years. 
Mr. C. Berrow Berger, Sion House, said that deceased lived with him, and Avas a 
colour manufacturer. He suffered for a fortnight past from a very severe toothache, but 
a dentist advised him to preserve the tooth and bear the pain. He was an accomplished 
chemist, and he tried all sorts of things to allay his sufferings. On Sunday, June 21, 
while at church he had to sit iu a great draught, and that brought on a relapse of the pain. 
In the afternoon he went to his room, according to his custom, and bolted himself in, 
for the purpose of spending some time in devotion. When his sister called him down 
to tea she could not make him hear, and ultimately Avitness broke open the door, and 
