336 
MISCELLANEA. 
extended or will extend it is now impossible to say. The St. Louis dealer had sent the 
adulterated calomel all over the south-west, as well as to many sections in the west, and 
while the authorities are doing their best to obtain possession of the “ doctored ” stuff, it 
is not impossible that the fatal results of its use have not yet ended .—American Corr. of 
Standard. 
Suicide by Emerald Green.— On Wednesday, October 18th, an inquest was held 
in Lever Street, St. Luke’s, respecting the suicide of Mrs. Jane Secknall, aged fifty-one 
years. The deceased, the widow of a sergeant of the Metropolitan Police, admitted to 
a medical man having taken about a teacupful of emerald green, in consequence of 
having a row with a relative. Emetics were administered, but she expired in twelve 
hours after taking the emerald green. The post-mortem examination showed that there 
was a large quantity of arsenic in the stomach of deceased. The jury returned a 
verdict of suicide while of unsound mind. 
Suicide by Strychnine. —Mr. C. J. Carttar, coroner for West Kent, held an in¬ 
quest on the body of Frances Symonds, aged sixty-eight, a married woman, who 
committed suicide by swallowing a quantity of prepared powder usually sold for 
killing rats, and known as “Battle’s Vermin-killing Powder,” the ingredients of which 
contain a large portion of strychnine. The evidence showed that the deceased, who was 
addicted to habits of intemperance, left home on Sunday morning last and purchased a 
threepenny packet of the above powder at a neighbouring chemist’s, and on returning 
home mixed it in some liquid and drank it. The chemist at whose shop the poison was 
supposed to have been purchased said it was generally sold to persons who asked for it 
without any questions being put, and Dr. Cogan, who had been called to the deceased, 
said that a threepenny packet of the poison would contain a grain and a half of strych¬ 
nine, and that the deceased must have suffered excruciating agony. The Coroner said it 
could never have been the intention of the Legislature that such a compound should not 
come within the “Sale of Poisons Act.”* Verdict, “That the deceased committed sui¬ 
cide while labouring under temporary derangement.”— Times , Sept. 7. 
Suicide by Oil of Vitriol. —On Thursday, July 27th, Dr. Lankester held an 
inquest at the Silver Cup, Cromer Street, on Fanny Kemble, aged twenty-seven, who 
had committed suicide. Henry Kemble, 3, Brighton Street, King’s Cross, said, that 
deceased was his daughter. She worked as a dressmaker. On Sunday last she came to 
see witness, and she said to him, “Father, I am miserable.” Wherever I go to lodge, the 
people keep annoying me. They will have my life. I have asked the police to protect 
me, and they say that they will.” Witness now was of opinion that she was, when she 
said this, out of her mind. He replied to her at the time, “ I will see what I can do,” 
and he went out. When he came back he found that she had poisoned herself. She 
used to speak constantly about a sweetheart, but witness paid no attention to the matter. 
Evidence was given, that after the father of the deceased left the house the deceased 
went out with a teacup to a chemist’s, and returned with some oil of vitriol. She then 
locked herself in her room, and about an hour afterwards her brother, hearing of what 
had taken place, burst open the door, when she was found lying dead on the floor, with 
the cup by her side. The coroner having summed up, the jury returned a verdict of 
“ Suicide while of unsound mind.” Dr. Lankester said that death by oil of vitriol was 
so excessively painful that chemists were thrown off their guard when asked for that 
poison, as but few persons could possibly drink it. 
The Atlantic Ooze. —When the substance called ooze came up on the grapnel line 
of the “ Great Eastern,” from a depth of nearly two miles, it was simply a light-coloured 
mud, like that which a heavy shower makes in the streets of London. Mr. Ward, 
surgeon of the vessel, got a very small shellfish, just visible to the naked eye, from the 
grapnel line, which, on examination under a feeble microscope, looked like a young 
barnacle, and gave signs of life, but we had no savants among us. Whether he came up 
direct de profundis, or was a young truant wandering from his numerous family on the 
ship’s bottom, is questionable, but the weight of opinion was in favour of the latter sup¬ 
position. The ooze, as it is called, under the same scrutiny, presented none of the shells 
of which microscopists say it is altogether composed. Nay, they pretend to have found 
the fish in them still preserved by the natural pickle of the sea, which has made an in- 
* 1 here is no such Act in force, and if the “ Sale of Arsenic Act ” is alluded to, that of course 
would not apply. 
