POISONING BY BELLADONNA. 
45 
the bottle again and delivered it back to Wade. I took a part of this portion and analysed 
it mvself S The result of my analysis was that it contained a salt of strychnine, and no 
morphine I applied the colour-tests, every one of which proved the presence of strych- 
nine P and the absence of morphine. Thirty minims of the solution—that is, half a gram 
of the contents of the bottle—were administered to a rabbit, which had arching of the 
back sardonic grin, pupils dilated, prominent eyes, and death ensued in less than one 
minute. Half a grain of morphia would not produce such effects upon a rabbit; it 
“ 1! The travdler^or the wholesale house in Bristol also gave evidence, but did not at¬ 
tempt to deny that the salt used as acetate of morphia had been supplied by mistake. 
The^j*ry,ite deliberating for some time, gave a verdict of “Poisoned by misadven¬ 
ture.” 
POISONING BY SUBSTITUTION OF STRYCHNIA FOR SUGAR. 
An inquest was held at the Town Hall, Gravesend, Feb 25th before Mr. E A. 
Hilder coroner for the borough, on the body of Catherine Sarah Cob ham, an infant, 
agedone year and nine months, who was accidentally poisonedwith strychnine dis¬ 
posed by a chemist in mistake for powdered sugar. The father deposed that his child 
had suffered from teething. On Tuesday evening, between five and six o clock, he went to 
the shop of Mr. Rosseter, chemist, 2, New Road, and asked for some medicine for the 
child Mr. Rosseter went into a dispensing-room adjoining the shop, and in a few minutes 
returned and handed to him two powders labelled “ Teething Powders, and told him to 
administer one of them to the child at bedtime. He did so; the infant fell asleep, and 
witness laid it on a pillow, and went to a reading-room in the neighbourhood On his re- 
turr^about teiTo’clock, he found the child quite stiff, her eyes staring and her hands 
clenched Dr. Gramshaw attended, but was unable to save her life. She ex P ired ^ a 
Quarter past one o’clock on the following morning. John Rosseter deposed that he 
was a registered chemist and druggist of sixteen years’ ex P eri ®° C ®’ t^te^ccurreime 
the business in the New Road of this town on the day of the unfortunate occurrence. 
On the evening of that day, when the last witness came for medicine for his child, he 
used medicines from two'bottles which were on the shelves in the'dispensmg-room 
One confined antimonial powder, and the other, as he believed at the time, powdered 
sugar^ but which wm afterwards found to be strychnine. Immediately after Mr. Cob- 
ham had left the shop he discovered that he had made a mistake, and, being au entire 
stranger in the town, could not tell who the purchaser was. He commumcat^ with 
the police and did everything in his power to find him, but without success Charles 
Davfs a chemist who had carried on business at the shop for a considerable time past, 
stlTei that he was in the house at the time, but not in the shop The bottle from 
which the poison was taken was labelled “ strychnia,” and was kept with other drugs 
indiscriminately in the dispensing-room. He attributed the, accident on t e„pai 
of Mr Rosseter to his having mistaken the word “strychnia, for saccharum. 
was not customary for chemists to label their bottles “poison, m addition to the ordi- 
naryTabel as to the contents. James Henry Gramshaw, M.D., stated that on arriving 
at the house of the first witness he found that the child was suffering from tetanic 
spasms and the symptoms were such as would be consequent on taking strychnine 
He applied the usual remedies in such cases, but they were of no avail, and the child 
expired shortly after one o’clock. The jury, after half an hour’s deliberation, returned a 
verdict of “ Death from misadventure,” appending thereto a censure upon the manne 
which the poisonous medicines had been kept. 
POISONING BY BELLADONNA. 
At Foxdale Isle of Man, on Saturday, May 22nd, Captain Bawden, of the Foxdale 
mines together with three miners, one of whom is named Thomas Christian went 
in searched a vein of lead which is supposed to be in the neighbourhood. After awhile 
feeling tired, they sat down to take rest. While sitting on the ground, Christian got 
