528 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING BY ACONITE. 
accelerate the action of the heart, and any acceleration of the heart might hasten death. 
Probably you are aware that a man is responsible if he hastens the moment of death by 
the smallest degree; but the utmost that is said by the second medical man is that he 
inclines to the opinion that perhaps death was accelerated by taking aconite instead of 
henbane. The accused appears to have been a chemist of the highest respectability and 
the greatest caution, and the widow of deceased states that it is not at all by her desire 
that any proceeding should be taken. Probably it would be a matter of great importance 
to the accused if you did carefully examine whether that bill ought to be thrown out. 
It rests entirely with you. It is of great importance that chemists dealing with such 
powerful instruments as drugs should exercise due care and caution; but cases are to be 
judged by circumstances, and therefore I say the circumstances of this case are worthy of 
your attention on the grounds I have mentioned/* 
Notwithstanding the manner in which the learned judge had placed the case before 
thenvtne Grand Jury brought in a true bill against Richard Noakes for feloniously and 
wdfudy causing to be taken, by Samuel Boys, a certain deadly poison called aconite, 
and thereby slaying the said Samuel Boys, on the 21st of August, 1865. 
Mr. Besley conducted the case for the prosecution; Mr. Roupell and Mr. Merrifield 
appeared for the defence. 
The death had been caused by the administration of aconite by mistake, and it ex¬ 
cited some interest. 
The prosecution, it was stated, had not been instituted by the relatives of the deceased, 
but by the public authorities, who considered that a trial ought to take place. Mr. Boys, 
the deceased, was an old gentleman of the age of eighty, who resided at Lansdown 
lerrace, Brighton, and suffered from disease of the heart. He had been attended by a 
viiT 1 - W i prescribed for him thirty drops of henbane, to be taken occasionally, 
with a view to his relief. The deceased kept the drugs he used in a medicine-chest, in 
his own bottles, and among those he took were henbane and aconite. The prisoner 
(who is about sixty years old) was stated by the counsel for the prosecution to be a most 
respectable chemist, and he, from time to time, supplied Mr. Boys with drugs and medi¬ 
cines, and, among other things, for years with aconite, and on one or two occasions with 
henbane. I he last day he supplied any drugs was on the 16th of August, when two 
bottles were taken by Mrs. Boys to his shop “to be filled,” one of them being labelled 
Henbane, thirty drops,” and the other was labelled with the name of a medical oil 
which was required as a liniment, “ for outward application only,” and the bottle had 
those words also on it, but in smaller letters. It was admitted that on this occasion the 
prisoner himself had filled the bottles, which were sent to the house of the deceased, and 
given to his servant; and there was no doubt that they found their way to the medicine- 
chest of Mr. Boys. On the night of Sunday, the 20th of August, he felt an attack of 
his disorder, and said he would take a dose of the henbane, which he then accordingly 
did take, measuring it out himself in a “ drop-glass,” as it is called, which measures the 
number of drops. The dose, it will be borne in mind, was thirty drops (which was written 
on the outside of the bottle), and there was no reason to believe that it had been exceeded. 
Upon swallowing it, however, he observed that it “felt hot,” which, it appears, is a 
symptom of aconite. . About a quarter of an hour afterwards he said his limbs had be¬ 
come benumbed which also, it is stated, is a symptom of aconite. After this he felt 
sickness, which, again, is a symptom of that deadly poison. He became alarmed, and 
ooked at the bottle, having a suspicion that there was some mistake : but on looking at 
it and seeing it marked “henbane,” he said, “It’s all right.” He was extremely ill all 
mght, and early in the morning desired that the bottle should be sent to Mr. Noakes to 
see it it was right, retaining, however, a portion of it in the house. Not long afterwards 
he became drowsy, and in the course of the hour he died. The attention of the medical 
men was directed to the contents of the bottle in question, and they were satisfied from 
is pungent taste that it was aconite. A post mortem examination, however, disclosed 
e sea ot the cause of death was the heart, and it appeared that aconite acts on the 
heart, and is especially dangerous when the heart is diseased. 
-\ he f ? r .“ e Prosecution was that aconite was contained in the bottle, and there is 
no doubt that it is a deadiy poison, so that 30 drops would be certain to cause death. 
Ihe liquid in the bottle had been analysed, and found to be tincture of aconite, of which 
Ty U ^ s .o^ lci ent to cause death. The case for the prosecution was that Mr. 
Noakes had been guilty of criminal negligence in putting aconite into the bottle instead 
