GIG 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[January 28, 1871. 
Mr. Bean, after hearing this evidence, said that he 
thought the comatose state had been produced by the 
morphia. 
In consequence of Mr. Bean expressing an opinion 
that it would be difficult, from the decomposition of the 
body, to ascertain the actual cause of death, the jury 
decided not to order a post-mortem examination, and re¬ 
turned a verdict that the death occurred from misadven¬ 
ture, to which they added an expression of regret that 
the investigation had not taken place sooner .—The Old¬ 
ham Chronicle. 
Seizure of Worthless Tea in Dublin. 
Some time since, in the London papers, there appeared 
an account of a vessel landing in that port, having on 
board a cargo of what is termed “ lye tea.” The cargo 
was condemned in London, but it seems to have found its 
way to Dublin, for in the Southern Divisional Court Mr. 
Norwood and J. 0. Byrne applied for an order that some 
unsound tea should be destroyed. It was sold by auction 
in the Commercial Buildings, but the purchaser had it 
examined by the City analyst. The tea was found to be 
utterly worthless and useless. The Public Etealth Com¬ 
mittee were apprehensive lest this kind of tea should 
get into circulation. Mr. Barton made an order for its 
destruction. 
Sale of Petroleum without a Licence. 
At Sheffield, on Monday the 16th inst., Mr. John T. 
Dobb, druggist, appeared in answer to a summons 
charging him with selling petroleum without having a 
licence. In September, 1869, Mr. Dobb applied at the 
town clerk’s office for two licences for the sale of petro¬ 
leum at his shops in West Bar and Meadow Street 
respectively. Mr. Dobb was not satisfied with the li¬ 
cences granted and desired to be allowed to sell two 
hundred gallons; this permission the Gfeneral Purposes 
Committee of the Town Council would not grant. Mr. 
Dobb declined to take the licences for forty gallons, and 
since last September has been selling petroleum without 
holding a licence at all. He was fined £1 and costs.— 
Grocer. 
into a comatose state, and died within forty-two hours. 
A verdict in accordance with the evidence was returned. 
— Standard. 
Supposed Death from Subcutaneous Injection of 
Morphia. 
An inquest has been held at Manchester on the body 
of Mr. Sutcliffe, late Physician’s-Assistant at the Royal 
Infirmary, who was found dead. As it was generally 
reported that he was in the habit of using morphia by 
subcutaneous injection, a post-mortem examination was 
made. 
Dr. Buckley deposed that there was no morbid disease 
sufficient to cause death. The liver and kidneys were 
diseased; the other organs were in a healthy state, but 
congested. There was also congestion of the membranes 
of the brain. He found no traces of morphia in the sto¬ 
mach. He understood that deceased had been in the 
habit of taking subcutaneous doses of morphia, and a 
dose acting on a depressed system might be fatal. A 
solution of morphia and a morphia syringe had been 
found in the deceased’s room. The latter article might 
have been used, though he did not think it had. Prom 
what he knew of deceased, he did not think he would 
have intentionally taken an overdose of morphia. 
The jury returned a verdict of “ Death from toxaemia, 
aggravated by a dose of morphia taken as medicine to 
produce sleep .”—Medical Times and Gazette. 
Death from an Overdose of Opium. 
An inquest was held recently at Mitcheldean on the 
body of Mrs. Masson, the wife of a surgeon. It appeared 
from the evidence that the deceased had suffered severely 
from neuralgia, and frequently took opium to relieve the 
pain. On the occurrence of the last attack she seems to 
have taken an overdose. Two hours afterwards she fell 
On a Localized Outbreak of Typhoid Fever in- 
Islington during the Months of July and August 
1870, traced to the Use of Impure Milk. By Edward 
Ballard, M.D. London: Churchills. 
This interesting Report of Dr. Ballard’s, read origi¬ 
nally before the Association of Medical Officers of Health, 
and which has since appeared in a more or less complete 
form in several of the medical journals, has now been 
printed and published, in a pamphlet form, for that asso¬ 
ciation, in compliance with a resolution passed, after the 
paper was read, by the members present. The subject 
of the paper, although at the first glance purely medical, 
is really one of such wide-spread interest, treated in so 
masterly a manner, that we gladly take the opportunity 
of its publication in a separate form to give a brief 
resume of it, referring those of our readers who may 
desire fuller details to the pamphlet itself. 
A serious outbreak of typhoid fever having occurred 
within a limited area in the parish of Islington, which 
is under the sanitary supervision of Dr. Ballard, he was 
induced to make a thorough investigation for the causes 
which led to so startling an event. In the course of his 
inquiries he found that between July 3rd and September 
10th, 168 individuals, living in sixty-seven houses in 
this district, had suffered more or less severe attacks of 
typhoid fever, of whom twenty-six died. The area of 
the district in which these cases occurred is described as 
being the third part of the segment of a little more than 
half a circle, the radius of which is a quarter of a mile, 
formed by the North London Railway passing through 
it. Within the same period, in the whole of the rest of 
the parish (consisting of 3127 acres) there were twenty 
fatal cases. 
To the inquiry, how did the disease originate ? four 
different answers were suggested. These were—(1) some 
alterations made in the railway cutting by which an ex¬ 
tensive surface of fresh earth had been exposed, and, it 
was alleged, several old sewers and drains had been cut 
across; (2) the smell proceeding from the dung-shoot in 
a large yard where several hundred horses were kept ; 
(3) various local causes existing in the several houses 
invaded by the fever; and (4) the milk supplied by a 
tradesman in the neighbourhood. 
Careful investigations, based upon the first three sug¬ 
gestions were made; but it was found that although 
they might possibly have been sufficient to account for a 
small proportion of the cases, yet that neither indivi¬ 
dually nor collectively were they sufficient to explain the 
large number that had occurred. 
The fourth suggestion, that the disease had its origin 
in the supply of milk by a certain tradesman, was made 
under the following circumstances:—A lady, in whose 
family fever had occurred, was informed that four 
families of her acquaintance were also suffering from it. 
She remembered that she herself had, some little time 
before, changed her milkman, and had likewise induced 
these friends of hers to adopt the same tradesman. She 
formed her conclusions accordingly, and imparted them 
to her medical attendant. It happened that that gentle¬ 
man had attended the family of this very milkman. He 
made some cautious inquiries, and found that out of 
eleven families, members of which were under his care 
for typhoid fever, ten of them were supplied with milk 
from the same source. This discovery being communi¬ 
cated to Dr. Ballard, led to further inquiries, resulting 
in the establishment of an evident connection between 
the cases of fever which had occurred, and the supply of 
milk from this particular daily. 
We have not space here to reproduce the evidence 
