98 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING BY STKYCHNIA. 
On Saturday, July 18th, Dr.Lankester,the coroner for Central Middlesex, held an inquest 
at Kensington Palace-gardens, Notting Hill, on the body of Miss Campbell, aged thirty- 
two, who died through taking a large dose of strychnia, having mistaken one bottle for 
another. It appeared that the deceased had been directed by her medical adviser to 
take, at mealtimes, five drops of liquid containing strychnia, and w r as supplied with a 
bottle in which was an ounce of liquid, containing four grains of that poison. On 
Thursday evening last, having dressed for dinner, she put the five drops into a bottle of 
water similar in appearance to her medicine bottle, and left them both on the toilette- 
table until ready to leave the room. She then put one of the bottles in her dress-pocket 
and proceeded to the dining-room, and while seated by a lady she poured the fatal dose 
into a glass and drank it. The moment she did so she frantically exclaimed, “ I have 
taken poison ; I am poisoned. I have taken the w r rong bottle !” She madly rushed 
into the drawing-room, where she afterwards received prompt medical attendance, but 
she died in half an hour. Dr. John Evans deposed to being called to the deceased on 
Thursday evening at seven o’clock, and saw her on the bed. She was pulseless. Her 
neck was bent back, her fingers were contracted, and she had all the symptoms of poison¬ 
ing by strychnia. She lived about ten minutes. The post-mortem examination show r ed 
that the muscles were rigid, and the fingers and toes contracted. Internally the lungs 
were gorged. There was a little blood in the right side of the heart, the left being 
empty, and the stomach was congested. The cause of death was poisoning by strychnia, 
the deceased having taking three grains. The coroner condemned the practice of vend¬ 
ing poisonous medicine in ordinary bottles. He said they should be dark-coloured and 
rough, to distinguish them from others. Had it been so in this case, the unfortunate 
lady would not have lost her life. He, however, wished it to be known that if common 
mustard or table salt had been immediately administered as antidotes, there might have 
been a beneficial result. The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental death by poisoning.” 
The following remarks on this case appeared in the 4 Express ’ of Monday, July 20th: 
—On Saturday an inquest was held, at blotting Hill, on the body of a lady, who died 
through swallowing a strong, in mistake for a weak, solution of strychnine. Her medi¬ 
cal adviser having directed that five drops of the more potent liquid should be diluted 
with water and taken at mealtimes, the lady proceeded to mix a draught, placing the 
dose in a bottle which, apparently, had previously held similar medicine, for it was iden¬ 
tical in form w r ith that containing the poisonous quantity of strychnine. Subsequently 
mistaking the bottles, she drank the wrong fluid and died in half an hour. In com¬ 
menting on this case, the coroner, overlooking, as we think, the real cause of this 
lamentable accident, condemned the practice of placing poisonous medicines in bottles of 
ordinary form, and suggested the use of danger bottles, dark in colour, and of rough ex¬ 
terior. Now, supposing two such bottles to be at the disposal of a patient, one having 
been empted by the due abstraction of daily doses, it is difficult to see how any pecu¬ 
liarity of colour, form, or surface would prevent the empty one being used as the vessel 
in which to carry away in the pocket a diluted portion of the stronger medicine. The 
cause of the accident in the present, and in many similar instances, would seem to be 
due to the growing practice of prescribing highly concentrated and poisonous medicines, 
the task of dilution being left to patients, nurses, and servants, who have other things 
to think about, instead of the dilution being allowed to remain, as formerly, part of the 
duty of the druggist. 
In the 4 Times ’ of July 21st, Mr. G. S. Pedler writes :— 
“ Sir,—Miss Campbell’s sad end, as reported in your columns of to-day, ought to 
suggest some plan of preventing a possible chance of its repetition. 
“ Great danger now exists from the fashion of ordering concentrated forms of medi¬ 
cine to be taken in drops or teaspoonfuls, as drops vary much in size, and the modern 
teaspoon holds twice the quantity held by the old teaspoon when it was adopted as a 
measure for medicine, and when liquor morphia , liquor strychnia, etc., were unknown 
even to the profession. 
“This danger is apparent, as shown in Miss Campbell’s case, from the fact of her 
single ounce bottle containing ninety-six doses, or enough to endanger the lives of 
