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THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[April 29, 1871. 
foci of contagion. Proper means for disinfecting bed¬ 
ding, clothing, etc., should also be provided in sufficient 
quantity. He had himself met with a poor man who 
complained that the stench of smallpox in his house 
was so great that he had not been able to sleep for 
•several nights. In the parish of St. James’s, West¬ 
minster, he had tried gas apparatus, but it was not 
sufficiently effective. He had now an oven in which 
the infected material was placed and the heat raised to 
2 o0°; this was found to be effectual for disinfecting 
beds, etc., without pulling them to pieces. He con¬ 
sidered these measures should be carried out universally 
by some higher authority and not left to the action of 
individual vestries. In the parish of St. James’s he had 
ascertained that in a population of 40,000 there was an 
•annual emigration of 2000, replaced by an immigration 
of a like number; and unless similar measures had been 
carried out in the parishes from whence these persons 
came, they rendered useless a great deal that had been 
done. As coroner he had held inquests in cases where 
unvaccinated children had died from smallpox, and 
although that had been looked upon by some persons as 
rather a sharp proceeding, he believed it had been of 
service by bringing home to the parents the effects of 
their negligence. 
An animated conversation followed, in which more 
than one speaker expressed a doubt as to the utility 
of revaccination, one gentleman saying that it was no 
more possible for a person who had been properly vac¬ 
cinated once to be successfully revaccinated, than for 
him to have the measles or hooping-cough a second 
time. 
In reply, Dr. Seaton said that he thought results had 
-proved the efficacy of revaccination. At the same time 
vaccination in the adult is a much more serious affair 
than in the infant, and he looked with disfavour upon a 
great deal of the revaccination which had been so 
fashionable lately at the West-End. He thought that, 
as a rule, the operation performed once in infancy and 
once in adolescence was sufficient, except in cases where 
the constitution might be supposed to have undergone a 
great change, as after eruptive fevers, etc. 
MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 
Monday . Medical Society, at 8 p.m. —Annual Oration. 
May 1 . Royal Institution, at 2 p.m. —Annual Meet¬ 
ing. 
London Institution, at 4 p.m. —“On Astro¬ 
nomy” (Educational Course). By R. A. 
Proctor, F.R.A.S. 
Tuesday . Royal Institution, at 3 p.m.—“O n the Geo- 
May 2. logy of Devonshire, especially of the New 
Red Sandstone.” By W. Pengelly, F.R.S. 
Wednesday... Society of Arts, at 8 p.'m. —“The Production 
May 3. of Artificial Cold.” By Professor John 
Gamgee. 
Thursday . Royal Society, at 8.30 p.m. 
•May 4. Linnean Society, at 8 p.m. 
Chemical Society, at 8 p.m. —“The Produc¬ 
tive Powers of Soils in Relation to the Loss 
of Plant Food by Drainage.” By Dr. 
Voelcker, F.R.S. 
London Institution, at 7.30 p.m. —“Econo¬ 
mic Botany.” By Professor Bentley. 
.Royal Institution, at 8 P.M. 
VACANCIES AND APPOINTMENTS IN CONNEC¬ 
TION WITH PHARMACY. 
The Editor will he glad to receive early notice of any 
'vacancies of pharmaceutical offices connected with public 
institutions, and likewise of appointments that are made, _ 
in order that they may he published regularly in the Journal. 
VACANCY. 
The Justices of the County of Worcester propose, at their 
Midsummer Sessions, to appoint an Analyst of articles of Food 
and Drink purchased within the said county. For particulars, 
apply to Mr. W. N. Marcy, Clerk of the Peace, at his office 
in Worcester. 
pwlianmttarjr anil fato fmcccMngs. 
Suicide by Carbolic Acid. 
Messrs. W. E. Jeffreys, M.R.C.S., and J. Hainworth, 
F.R.C.S., report in the Medical Times and Gazette a death 
from poisoning by carbolic acid, which occurred on the 
1 st inst. The deceased, who had been discharged re¬ 
cently from Betlilem Hospital, was found by his house¬ 
keeper on his bed, insensible and “snorting.” There 
was a strong smell of carbolic acid in the room, and a 
bottle containing some, which had been kept in the 
kitchen for cleansing purposes, was found on the drawers. 
Medical assistance was promptly obtained, but death 
followed in about fifty minutes after the supposed time 
of his taking the poison. The housekeeper estimated 
the quantity taken as between one and two tablespoon¬ 
fuls. 
At the post-mortem examination all the parts over 
which the acid had flowed were found whitened and 
hardened by the superficial cauterization of the epider¬ 
mis and epithelium, while a longer contact, as in the 
stomach, had caused a corrugation of tho epithelium and 
the breaking of it up into small particles. Upon the 
application of the B. P. test to the contents of the 
stomach, the characteristic reaction of carbolic acid was 
observed. 
Collision at the Stepney Station. 
By a collision which took place at the Stepney Junc¬ 
tion of the Black wall Railway, on Sunday afternoon, 
April 9th, a carriage belonging to a Blackwall train was 
driven by the engine of a Bow train partly over the 
railings and brickwork, so that it was only prevented by 
the couplings from falling into an engineer’s yard. The 
only passenger in the carriage was Mr. George Hunter, 
son of Mr. J. Hunter, Pharmaceutical Chemist, of High 
! Street, Gosport. He was bruised and very much shaken, 
and has received a severe shock to his system, but is now 
progressing favourably. 
Poisoning by a Salt of CorrEit. 
A singular instance of poisoning by copper was inves¬ 
tigated on Thursday by Mr. Price, coroner for Salford 
Hundred, at Audenshaw. The inquest was held on tho 
body of a young married woman, named Sarah Rogers, 
twenty-four years of age, who died at Hooley Hill, on 
the 24th ult., under circumstances that led the police to 
arrest her husband on a charge of administering poison. 
The inquiry had been adjourned for the purpose of an 
analysis of the contents of the stomach of the deceased. 
Dr. Calvert stated that he was induced to search for an 
| irritant poison. He looked in vain for traces of oxalic 
acid, arsenic, baryta, antimony, lead, bismuth, tin, mer¬ 
cury, and at last tested for copper, though he thought 
this substance was less likely to be found. Never dur- 
: ing an experience of thirty years had he found such 
i difficulty in detecting the presence of the poison for 
: which he was in search, owing to the stomach and in- 
: testines being emptied by excessive vomiting and purg- 
j ing. After much careful examination, he found a very 
I small quantity of copper in the stomach, a larger quan- 
) tity in the intestines, and portions in the liver. Bearing 
in mind the statement made by one of the witnesses 
i that deceased had been purged, and had vomited for 
I some days (seventy-two hours altogether), that only a 
small quantity of a salt of copper was required to produce 
death, and that it was easily removed from the body by 
