ACCIDENTAL POISONING BY LAUDANUM. 
35 
its use was attended with most beneficial effects in calming the excitement of the patient, 
and producing sleep. It was applied, either by clothes steeped in mustard and water, to 
the whole legs, and to the lower part of the abdomen ; or as a mustard plaster, composed 
of 1 part of mustard to 10 parts of linseed meal, spread upon brown paper, applied to the 
abdomen, interposing a piece of muslin to keep the skin clean ; or as a mustard-bath for 
the whole or part of the body. 
Dr. T. B. Henderson, in a communication to the ‘ Medical Times and Gazette,’ recom¬ 
mends the two following new remedies for gonorrhoea:— Oil of Yellow Sandalwood. The 
dose of this is from 20 to 40 minims, three times a day, diluted with 3 parts of rectified 
spirit, and flavoured with oil of cassia, or oil of cinnamon. It has the advantage of being 
a pleasant medicine, not liable to cause sickness, agreeable to the taste, and grateful to 
the stomach. In Dr. Henderson’s opinion, it is superior to both copaiba and cubebs. 
The other remedy is Gurjun Oil or Wood Oil , the product of Dipterocarpus turbinatus, 
an immense tree, growing in different parts of India. This remedy has been tried, by Dr. 
Henderson, only in cases where copaiba had been fully tried and failed. It w r as given in 
doses of a teaspoonful, two or three times a day, uncombined, and with marked success, 
without producing any inconvenient symptom. 
Although this is described by Dr. Henderson as a new remedy, it may be well to state 
that “ Wood-oil ” has long been used in India, and in this country it has sometimes 
been substituted for copaiba. 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING BY LAUDANUM. 
An inquest was held on Wednesday, May 24th, at Watchet, Somersetshire, before 
W. W. Munckton, Esq., on the body of Mr. Isaac Wood, a retired Custom-house officer, 
who died from the effects of a dose of laudanum taken by mistake. From the evidence 
of Mrs. Wood, his wife, it appeared that on the previous Friday morning, the deceased 
asked his wife to give him a dose of his medicine, but he appears to have been 
impatient of delay, and got out of bed and swallowed what he supposed to ha^e 
been his medicine, but on his wife entering the room she discovered that he had 
taken laudanum, which was kept on the mantelpiece by the side of a bottle containing 
medicine, which Mr. Wood was in the habit of taking for a pain in the. chest; 
both the medicine and the laudanum were obtained from Mr. Date, chemist, the 
laudanum having been supplied by Mrs. Date without any label,—in fact, according 
to the evidence of this witness, neither of the bottles were labelled. Mr. Yv right, 
surgeon, was immediately sent for, who stated that he found the deceased in a state 
of profound collapse; he was quite sensible, and told witness that he had taken about 
two teaspoonfuls of laudanum, but he was of opinion that a much larger quan¬ 
tity had been taken. Mr. Wright administered an emetic twice and ga\e other 
remedies, attending him until he died on the following afternoon. A post-mortem 
examination revealed extensive disease both of the brain and of the heart, and it was the 
opinion of witness that syncope was the cause of death, produced by prostration of the 
system, caused by the poison acting on the heart in its diseased state.. The jury 
returned a verdict that “ deceased died from taking a quantity of laudanum incautiously- 
administered by himself, in mistake for medicine.” The jury.subsequently &dded> y 1 *" 
“they strongly deprecated the selling or keeping of poisons in bottles to whichyabels 
were not attached, and recommended that the same be kept under lock and key. Mr. 
Date explained that the laudanum was sold by Mrs. Date in a hurry, and in consequence 
was not labelled. It w T as the first time that a bottle had been sent from his pre~ 
mises without a label, and he would take care that the same did not occur again. 1 ie 
Coroner commented on the dangerous practice of sending out drugs without labels, an 
although in this case the bottles were different in size, yet a person near-sighted as e 
deceased was reported to be, might easily make a mistake. This, however, was no 
excuse for the bottles not being labelled, and he thought that every one connected wi 
the accident was to blame. 
