136 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
the purpose of putting his affairs in order. To such a condition the magistrates could 
not of course agree, but it was arranged that he should be taken to his own house and 
kept under proper surveillance there until he could be conveyed to the prison at Carl- 
stad. During this temporary confinement, he made an attempt to commit suicide by 
opening a vein with a lancet, but this had only the effect of increasing the vigilance of 
his guards, who have never since for a moment lost sight of him. When put upon his 
trial, he at once declared his readiness to plead guilty to the charge brought against him 
of having given poison in the sacramental wine to Nils Pattersson, the widow Carin, 
and Daniel Anderson, the last of whom, however, had not fallen a victim to his attempt. 
He could assign no other reason for having done so but a desire to obtain from his 
parish the riddance of the burden which the maintenance of those indigent people had 
entailed upon it; but while he also confessed that he had poisoned the retired merchant, 
M. Lysen, who lodged in his house, he admitted that in that instance the hopes of gain 
by a succession to the estate of his victim had been the motive which had induced him 
to commit the crime. In that case he admitted that the poison had been given on three 
consecutive evenings in milk, and had consisted of arsenic, which he had extracted from 
a preparation that had been made for the destruction of rats —Pall Mall Gazette. 
According to the confession of the prisoner, since published, he appears to have been 
a conscientious poisoner; for he says that when he witnessed the miseries of the in¬ 
curably sick, he wished with all his heart that they might be released from such heart¬ 
rending misery, and he thought, « Were I in such miserable plight, I would bless him 
who hastened the end of my pain, and God would forgive that merciful one.” With 
this view, he says, “ I prepared a separate wine, as help in trouble.” He also thought 
that very few human beings pass to the other world in the course of nature—that is, 
when the powers of soul and body are worn out by age: some in the full vigour of life 
are their own murderers, some fall out of the hands of the most skilful physician into 
the grave. From this view of life, he came to the conclusion “ that the merciful God 
would not condemn me if I shortened the sufferings of a miserable creature !” 
BOOKS RECEIVED. 
Annual Announcement of the Faculty of Medicine of the M‘Gill University 
Montreal, for the Thirty-third Session. 1865-66. Montreal: J. C. Becket! 
(Pamphlet.) 
The Surgeon’s Yade Mecum; a Manual of Modern Surgery. By Kobert Druitt. 
Ninth Edition, much improved, and illustrated by 360 highly-finished wood engavin^s! 
London: Henry Renshaw, 356, Strand; John Churchill, 11, New Burlington Street. 
1865. 
Bathing ; How to do it, When to do it, and Where to do it. By Edgar Shepfard, 
M.D., etc. Reprinted from the ‘ Journal of Mental Science.’ London: Robert Hard- 
wicke, Piccadilly. 1865. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
A paper will appear in our next number, by Messrs. T. and H. Smith, on “An Anti¬ 
dote at once for Prussic Acid, Antimony, and Arsenic.” 
Patent Medicine Licence.— We remind our readers that this licence becomes due on 
the 1st of September. 
Chemicus (Boston).—Apply by letter to the Secretary, Civil Service Commission, 
Dean s Yard, Westminster. ’ 
A Chemist (Belfast).—There are two makers of the article, both claiming the “ true 
and original.” 
“ Inquirer.” Apply by letter to the Secretary, 17, Bloomsbury Square, giving name 
and address. ° & 
A Registered Apprentice (Leamington).—‘ The Preparation and Mounting of Micro¬ 
scopic Objects, by Phomas Davies. 
Instructions from Members and Associates respecting the transmission of the 
Journal before the 25th of the month, to Elias Bremridge, Secretary 17 
Bloomsbury Square, W.C. ’ ^ ’ 
