February 22, 1373.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
675 
Harriet Bord, nurse, said she had charge of the ward 
in which deceased lay. It was part of her duty to ad¬ 
minister and to order the administering of medicines 
under the direction of the head nurse. On the morning 
of the 13th, when nurse How came to give her report, 
she inquired whether the draught of senna ordered for 
the deceased had been administered. How said she had 
forgotten it, hut would administer it immediately. She 
went into the wai^l for that purpose, hut returned in 
about a minute, crying excitedly, “ Come, I have given 
the patient carbolic acid.” Witness at once hurried to 
the ward, and ordered some warm water with salt in it, 
which was brought immediately, but they could not suc¬ 
ceed in making deceased swallow it. In the meantime 
■she summoned Mr. Brabant, the resident physician, 
who arrived in a few minutes. He ordered an emetic 
and about an ounce of olive oil, the greater portion of 
which was swallowed by deceased. Dr. Barclay came in 
•soon afterwards, and by his orders the stomach-pump 
was applied repeatedly, but without effect, and deceased 
gradually sank, dying at five minutes to ten. 
By the Coroner: The medicines are kept in a cup¬ 
board in the wall, the carbolic acid being generally 
placed at the bottom. All the bottles were labelled. 
Nurse How had 24 patients to attend to. She had been 
up all night, her hours on duty being from 9.30 p.m. to 
9."30 a.m. Should certainly say that nurse How was 
sober. 
Louisa Taylor, another of the nurses, said that she 
filled both bottles on Wednesday. They were exactly 
alike, but had each a proper label. (The bottles were 
then produced; they were precisely similar in make and 
as to the colour of the contents.) 
Sarah How, the implicated nurse, having been duly 
^cautioned, then volunteered a statement on oath to the 
-effect that she found the bottle on the window-ledge 
above the cupboard, which was a usual place for medi¬ 
cines, but a vei*y unusual place for carbolic acid to be 
•kept. It unfortunately never occurred to her to doubt 
that the bottle contained senna. She poured out a mea¬ 
sure for the deceased, who drank off a portion of the 
liquid, and then stopped suddenly ; upon which she exa¬ 
mined the bottle carefully and found the contents to be 
carbolic acid. 
Mr. Todd, secretary to the institution, admitted that 
bottles of carbolic acid were left lying about in the man¬ 
ner described, but added that the authorities expected 
the nurses carefully to examine the labels. 
The Coroner, having summed up the evidence, the 
jury, after some deliberation, returned a verdict exone¬ 
rating the nurse from criminal neglect, at the same time 
.strongly censuring the hospital authorities. The verdict 
was received with some applause. 
The Coroner suggested that carbolic acid should be 
kept in strong stone bottles, which could be readily dis¬ 
tinguished from those containing medicine.— Standard. 
Poisoning by Essence of Bitter Almonds. 
The Wandsworth and Battersea District Times states 
that on Monday, February 10th, an inquest was held at 
Battersea on the body of a woman who had died the 
previous Friday from the effects of essence of bitter 
.almonds, taken while in an unsound state of mind. It 
was proved that deceased had previously threatened to 
commit suicide, and a verdict in accordance with the 
evidence was returned. 
Poisoning by Sfirit of Salt. 
On Saturday, February 15, an inquest was held at the 
North Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum on a patient who 
had drunk some spirit of salt which ho iound in a 
tinner’s shop on the premises during the absence of the 
man in charge. Medical assistance was obtained and 
the stomach pump used, but the patient died a few hours 
afterwards. It was stated that the deceased was not a 
suicidal patient, but would eat or drink almost anything 
that came in his way. A verdict of accidentally poisoned 
was returned, and the man who had left the poison ac¬ 
cessible was cautioned. 
Suicide by Vermin Killer. 
A case is reported from Driffield in which a young 
girl aged twelve years committed suicide by taking some 
Battle's Vermin Killer that had been purchased by her 
mother. From the evidence it appeared that the child 
assigned as a reason that she had been beaten by her 
mother, but there does not appear to have been any 
cruelty exercised. A verdict was returned accordingly. 
©Mtaqr. 
WILLIAM MOSS. 
On Sunday the 9th inst., Mr. William Moss, Pharma¬ 
ceutical Chemist, English Street, Carlisle, died suddenly 
at the age of 53 years. Mr. Mo3s was the local secre¬ 
tary of the Pharmaceutical Society for that city, and 
much respected by his brother tradesmen and friends. 
He was always anxious and desirous of advancing the 
interests of pharmacy, as instanced by his exertions as 
local secretary, and also as honorary secretary of the 
recently formed Carlisle Chemists’ Association. In con¬ 
nection with the latter, he undertook to conduct classes 
in materia inedica andjbotany, but his labours, we regret 
to say, have been cut short by an untimely death under 
the distressing circumstances recorded in another 
column. 
Notice has also been received of the death of the 
following 
On the 18th February, 1873, Mr. David Russell, Che¬ 
mist and Druggist, of Dundee. Mr. Russell was one of 
the Vice-Presidents of the British Pharmaceutical Con¬ 
ference on the occasion of its visit to Dundee in 1867, 
and exerted himself energetically to secure the success 
of the meeting. 
On the 2nd January, 1873, Mr. Henry Jenkin Ben¬ 
netts, Chemist and Druggist, of Helston, Cornwall. 
A Handbook of Chemical Technology. By Rudolf 
Wagner, Ph.D., Professor of Chemical Technology at 
the University of Wurtzburg. Translated by Wil¬ 
liam Crookes, F.R.S. J. and A. Churchill. 
So much has been said and written lately on the sub¬ 
ject of technical education in England, and so _ many 
fears have been expressed of our being beaten in the 
race for commercial pre-eminence by our continental 
rivals, that the appearance of an English translation of 
Wagner’s Chemical Technology is sure to create con¬ 
siderable interest. English literature is indeed not defi¬ 
cient in excellent works on technology, but, considering 
the enormously rapid development of applied science at 
the present day, it is obvious that a very few years are 
sufficient to render the best treatises on such subjects 
practically obsolete. 
To a certain extent, general works on technology must 
always be behind the time, since they can only deal with 
those processes which have been patented or otherwise 
published by their inventors, and, in a vast number of 
cases, manufacturers find it more profitable to keep 
secret the methods of which they have become possessed 
by experimental investigation, and which give them an 
advantage over competitors. And even in other cases, a 
considerable interval must, of course, elapse between the 
