THE VETERINARY MEDICAL ACT. 
639 
ACCIDENTAL POISONING BY LAUDANUM. 
Mr. Taylor, coroner, resumed an inquiry on Tuesday, April 10th, at the Coopers’ Arms 
Inn, Wakefield, relative to the death of Mr. Joseph Newsom, innkeeper, who had been 
poisoned under the following circumstances. Mr. Newsom for some weeks, past had 
been suffering from a bad cold, which caused him very restless and sleepless nights. On 
Saturday night he was talking to the company at his bar about the trouble his illness 
gave him, and a young man named Rigg went away, saying that he would get him 
something that would do him good. He shortly afterwards returned with a bottle 
containing about six ounces of a light-coloured watery fluid, and told Newsom to 
take half that night and half the next morning. Newsom followed the instruc¬ 
tions given, became very drowsy, wandered very much during the night, and was so 
dangerously ill next morning that Mr. Kemp, surgeon, was sent ior. The doctoi, 
however, arrived too late to be of any service, as the deceased shortly afterwards 
died, from the effects of a narcotic poison. A chemist and druggist named Denniston 
stated that Rigg came into his shop on Saturday, and asked for five or eight grains 
of quinine and six or eight drachms of opium. Witness told Rigg that half a drachm 
was a full dose under ordinary circumstances, but in such cases as delirium tremens a 
medical man might administer more. Rigg said the person for whom he wanted the 
medicine was labouring under some such complaint, and the witness added 2w drachms 
of laudanum to the quinine, and filled the bottle up with water. At Rigg’s request he 
put a label on the bottle, giving directions for three tablespoonfuls, or about a quarter 
of the contents, to be taken every three hours. When Rigg returned to the publichouse 
the bottle had no label upon it, and instead of following the directions.of the druggist, 
and givmo- Newsom a fourth of the bottle’s contents, he told him to drink off half. As 
regarded the statement of Rigg that the person for whom he intended the potion was 
suffering from delirium tremens , it was proved that Mr. Newsom had not s.uffeied from 
that complaint. The jury returned a verdict of Manslaughter against Rigg? but the 
coroner admitted him to bail. 
A BILL TO PREVENT ANY PERSON WHO HAS NOT OBTAINED THE 
DIPLOMA OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS 
FROM ASSUMING THE TITLE OF VETERINARY SURGEON. 
Whereas her present Majesty, by royal charter bearing date the eighth day of March, 
in the seventh year of her reign, did for herself, her heirs and successors, grant unto the 
persons therein named, together with such others as then held certificates of quali ca¬ 
tion to practise as veterinary surgeons, granted by the Royal Veterinary College oi 
London or by the Veterinary College of Edinburgh respectively, and such other persons 
as respectively then were and might thereafter become students of the Royal V etermary 
College of London, or of the Veterinary College of Edinburgh, or of such other vete¬ 
rinary college, corporate or unincorporate, as then was or thereafter should be established 
for the purposes of education in veterinary surgery, whether in London or elsewhere in 
the United Kingdom, and which her Majesty and her successors should under her or 
their sign manual authorize in that behalf, and should pass such examination as might 
be required by the orders, rules, and byelaws which should be framed and confirmed 
pursuant to the said charter, should by virtue thereof be members of. and form one body 
politic and corporate by the name of “ The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, by 
which name they should have perpetual succession and a common seal with power to 
sue and be sued, and to hold personal estate; and her Majesty did further dec are and 
grant that the veterinary art, as practised by the members of the said body politic and 
corporate, should be thenceforth deemed and taken to be and recognized as a profession 
and that the members of the said body politic and corporate, solely and exclusively ot 
all other persons whomsoever, should be deemed and taken and recognizee o e mem 
bers of the said profession or professors of the said art, and should be individually known 
