December 14, 1872.] 
THE PHARMx\CEUTlCAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS, 
475 
The defendant having been called, stated that he 
•simply asked the plaintiff for a price and received a 
pencil drawing, which he never ordered. He was posi¬ 
tive that he never ordered a plan, nor did he give him 
the contract. His last words to the plaintiff were, 
u That he would consider the matter over, and let him 
know in a day or two,” which statement was corrobo¬ 
rated by the defendant’s assistant, who was present and 
heard it. The plaintiff having asserted that it was im¬ 
possible for him to give the price required without 
making a drawing, His Honour allowed him two 
guineas and 10s. costs. 
Conviction under the Petroleum Act. 
At Sheffield, Henry Rose, oil dealer, was charged by 
the inspector of petroleum, with having exposed for sale 
some petroleum, in pint bottles, five of which had no 
labels upon them as required by the Act. The com¬ 
plainant stated that he met Rose’s boys in the street 
with trucks or handcarts containing petroleum oil and 
benzoline, and that he seized five bottles holding about 
a pint each, which were not labelled, though three of 
them bore some indications of having at some time had 
labels upon them. The defendant relied upon a pro¬ 
viso to one of the sections in the Petroleum Act, 
exempting persons keeping petroleum in small quanti¬ 
ties and under certain conditions from the necessity of 
obtaining licences, but the stipendiary ruled that the 
exemption applied to keeping petroleum only, and not 
to selling, conveying, or exposing for sale, and fined 
the defendant (who had been previously convicted for a 
.similar offence) 20s. and costs .—Sheffield Independent. 
Alleged Poisoning by Godfrey’s Cordial. 
An inquest was held in Hull on Friday, Nov. 29th, 
touching the death of a child four weeks old. The 
mother deposed that the day before the child died she 
thought it had a stomach-ache, and gave it nearly two 
tea-spoonfuls of Godfrey’s Cordial, which she bought at 
a chemist’s in Mytongate, without the admixture of 
water. The next morning, as it seemed ill, she took it 
to the doctor and told him what she had done, and he 
ordered her to give it some castor oil. The child died 
in the afternoon. 
W. L. Loten, chemist and druggist, 31, Mytongate, 
-said he recognized the mother, but did not remember 
selling her the cordial. Always waited on all the cus¬ 
tomers himself. Sold about half a gallon of Godfrey’s 
cordial per week, and the greater portion went out in 
cups, which he did not label. Sold one ounce for a 
penny. Made the cordial himself of 4 lb. treacle, 40 
drops oil of sassafras, 2 oz. sweet nitre, and 2 lb. boiling 
water. That was not the true Godfrey’s cordial, which 
was a patent medicine. Every druggist had a formula 
of his own for what he called Godfrey’s cordial. His 
cordial never contained any opiate or any poison what¬ 
ever. The cordial produced by the police had not been 
purchased at his shop. 
The medical evidence went to show that the child died 
-of pericarditis, and a verdict was returned accordingly. 
—Hull and North Lincolnshire Times. 
Alleged Acceleration of Death by a Cough 
Mixture. 
An inquest was held at Sheffield on Wednesday, De¬ 
cember 4th, on the body of Mrs. Lowe. It appeared 
from the evidence that for some time past deceased had 
heen suffering from bronchitis, and for a few days be¬ 
fore her death she had been very much worse. On 
Saturday her daughter went to Mr. Lockwood, drug¬ 
gist, South Street, Moor, for some cough mixture. That 
night she gave her mother half a tea-spoonful; and in 
the course of the night her mother herself took a similar 
quantity. She took some more on the following day. 
On Monday she was not able to get up, and her 
daughter in the course of the day and night gave her 
three doses of the mixture. When the daughter went 
to bed at night her mother was very ill, and groaned a 
good deal. On the following morning she found her 
mother was lying dead by her side. 
Mr. Willington, surgeon, who was called to the de¬ 
ceased after death, gave it as his opinion that death 
had been accelerated by a narcotic. She [had been, he 
said, a woman addicted to intemperate habits, and those 
habits would accelerate the effects of a narcotic. The 
mixture obtained from Mr. Lockwood was a narcotic. 
It was labelled “Essence of Linseed.” The label was 
calculated to mislead, as there was no linseed whatever 
in it. It was composed of morphia, chlorodyne, treacle, 
and some other sweet substances. 
The jury were of opinion that it was most improper 
for manufacturers and druggists to put a wrong label 
upon a medicine so frequently taken as a cough mix¬ 
ture. They returned a verdict to the effect that the 
deceased died suddenly from debility, accelerated by the 
administration of a narcotic inadvertently given; and 
they appended to' their verdict that “ the sale of narcotics 
under the name of essence of linseed is dangerous, and 
should be discontinued, and that the manufacturers of 
the said narcotic ought to have notice of this case and 
the opinion of the jury.” The coroner promised that 
he would communicate their opinion to the manufacturers» 
[*** In reference to the foregoing report, which is 
taken from the Sheffield Independent Messrs. Kay Bro¬ 
thers, of Stockport, request to be allowed to state that, 
although the surgeon’s statement may be true with re¬ 
gard to the essence of linseed prepared by Mr. Lock- 
wood, they deny its accuracy if applied to their prepara¬ 
tion. They state that the amount of narcotic contained 
in their “essence of linseed” is less than in an ordinary 
cough lozenge, and that it is really what it is labelled.— 
Ed. Pharm. Journ.] 
Alleged Attempt to Poison by Arsenic. 
On Monday last a boy named Hoy, aged twelve, wa s 
charged at the Clerkenwell police-court with attempting 
to poison his step-mother by administering to her a 
quantity of arsenic. It appeared from the evidence that 
on the previous Wednesday morning the prisoner, ac¬ 
cording to his usual custom, took his father and step¬ 
mother each a cup of tea which they drank while in bed. 
Two hours afterwards the woman was seized with vomit¬ 
ing and purging, and a burning sensation in the throat. 
On Saturday the boy again brought the woman a 
cup of tea, which, however, she not drinking, afterwards 
threw away, when she noticed a sediment at the bottom. 
This roused her suspicions, and the cup was taken to a 
medical man -who pronounced it to be arsenic. The 
father said he kept arsenic in his shop to poison rats, but 
he was not aware that anybody but himself knew of it. 
He saw the arsenic safe in a drawer about two months 
ago. Since then more than half of it had been removed, 
as well as the outside wrapper. The wrapper that was 
left had on it a poison label. The medical man stated 
that the sediment in the cup was arsenic mixed with a 
dark powder, probably charcoal. There was sufficient 
arsenic in the cup to poison more than a dozen persons. 
It corresponded with the arsenic in the drawer. 
The prisoner was remanded. 
Adulteration of Milk. —What is an 
Adulteration ? 
Several milk-dealers have been summoned before Mr. 
Raffles at the Liverpool borough police-court for adul¬ 
terating the milk sold by them. In two cases Dr. Brown 
deposed that specimens of milk purchased had been adul- 
