MISCELLANEA. 
187 
bed. About two hours afterwards the mother heard a moaning noise, and upon going 
upstairs found the child insensible, and with his eyes fixed. In about a quarter of an 
hour he complained of giddiness, and said, “ It is what the man sent that has made me 
so. I shall die; and if I do, you hang that man.” Mr. Woolley was sent for, who pre¬ 
scribed an emetic, and said the vomiting was to be kept up ; the child to be prevented 
from continuing asleep. The emetic acted, but the product was thrown away. The 
child grew worse, and on the following morning Mr. Larkin, a surgeon, was sent for, 
who applied the stomach-pump, but death took place in a few minutes. A post-mortem 
examination was made by Mr. Latham, who found large quantities of blood in the 
organs of the brain, and the blood generally in a very fluid state. The stomach was 
empty, and no trace of poison was found in it; he was, however, of opinion that death 
had resulted from some narcotic poison. The child who had been sent for the tincture of 
rhubarb pointed out the bottle from which she had been served. This bottle proved to 
be the one in which laudanum was kept. After the deliberation of the jury, the coroner, 
in addressing Mr. Woolley, said that the jury had found a verdict to the effect that there 
was no direct evidence to show the cause of the deceased’s death. Both the jury and 
himself felt that the medical evidence had to some extent failed. But there was no 
doubt in the minds of the jury, or in his own mind, that this child had died from having 
had poison administered to him that had been sold by him for tincture of rhubarb. Had 
the vomit been preserved, there would have been no legal doubt in the minds of the 
jury, and then he would have occupied a different position; but, inasmuch as it had 
been thrown away, and the medical evidence had in consequence not been of sufficient 
strength to justify a verdict of manslaughter, a legal doubt had been occasioned, and, 
acting upon his instructions, the jury had given him the benefit. He had, however, to 
caution him in their names, and to remark upon the very serious consequences which 
might result from a repetition of such conduct. In the event of another accident 
happening through Mr. Woolley’s dispensing, this case would be remembered. He was 
sorry to find, from inquiries he had made, that it was not the first time he had sold poi¬ 
son by mistake. He should like the public to know clearly and distinctly that the poison 
had been sold by him in mistake, and he trusted that the censure he was then called 
upon to administer would exercise a salutary influence. Mr. Woolley, who is about 
twenty-five years of age, and has been an articled apprentice to a surgeon, was much 
affected by the reprimand of the coroner. 
Poisoning by Prussic Acid. —An adjourned inquest was held at Coventry on 
Thursday, September 3rd, by Mr. Alfred Carter, coroner for part of the northern divi¬ 
sion of Warwickshire, at the village of Fillongley, near Coventry, on the bodies of Wil¬ 
liam Henry and Julia Dalby, husband and wife, who were suspected of having died from 
the effects of poison. The deceased man was a miller, and son of a farmer living near 
Hinckley, in Leicestershire; the woman, who was only about seventeen years of age, 
was the daughter of labouring people residing at Fillongley. They were married in 
February last, since which period they are believed to have lived very happily together. 
On Monday, the 24th August, the wife was found dead. In consequence of the sud¬ 
denness of her death, an inquest was hied on the body and adjourned, to enable a 
post-mortem examination to be made. On Monday, the 31st, the husband exhibited re¬ 
luctance to go to his work as usual. He went upstairs and lay down on the bed. A 
few minutes afterwards his mother-in-law saw him place a bottle on a box by the bed¬ 
side, and immediately fall back as though in a fit. He died almost instantly. The 
bottle placed on the box was labelled “ Poison—prussic acid.” A letter in the hand¬ 
writing of Dalby was found after his death, in which he stated that his wife had taken 
poison of her own accord, but with his knowledge, and that he had promised to follow 
her example. At the adjourned inquest Dr. Alfred Hill, public analyst for the borough 
of Birmingham, stated that he had made an examination of the intestines of the de¬ 
ceased woman, and had found prussic acid present in a quantity sufficient to cause death. 
It was further shown that during the last few weeks the husband had got the carrier 
between Bedworth and Arley to purchase for him several quantities of prussic acid, 
representing that he w r anted it for the horses. No evidence affording a clue to any mo¬ 
tive for the crime was forthcoming. The jury returned a verdict in the case of Julia 
Dalby of “ Wilful Murder ” against the husband, W. H. Dalby ; and in the case of the 
latter they gave a verdict of felo de se. 
Suicide by Prussic Acid. —An inquest has been held at Sheffield, respecting the 
death of a woman named Squires, who died in childbirth, in consequence of the improper 
