July 1, 1571.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
17 
•covered. After the -witness had got -well, she noticed 
that her taste had gone, and it did not return for some 
little time; On the same day she took hack the remainder 
of the chocolate-creams to Mr. Maynard, and told him 
of what had occurred. He assured her that she was mis¬ 
taken in supposing that it was the chocolate-creams which 
had affected her in the way described. Some more were 
brought and tasted, but they seemed all right. Mrs. 
Maynard also tasted one of those which the witness had 
originally bought, and found that there was nothing the 
matter with it. Mr. Maynard told her he was much 
obliged to her for coming, and he would communicate 
with his French agents. He also said that he should be 
willing for her to have any analysis made that she 
•desired. As she did not feel satisfied she went from Mr. 
Maynard’s to Mr. Schweitzer's, and after telling him the 
circumstances, asked him to make an analysis. He 
treated the matter lightly at first, thinking her nervous 
and fanciful, but, after having tasted one of the creams, 
he thought differently. He afterwards forwarded her 
the following result of his analysis:—- 
“ The cream cocoa consists of small, irregular, round 
cakes, filled with a soft white sugar composition. After 
•examination, it was found that this white composition of 
some of these cakes, or balls, had a distinct metallic taste, 
whilst others were perfectly free from it. This metallic- 
tasting sugar composition, when washed out of the cocoa 
enclosure, gave, when filtered, a clear colourless solution 
of a sw-eet but slightly metallic taste; it had also a faint 
reaction on litmus paper. When somewhat concentrated 
by evaporation, it gave white fiocculcnt precipitates with 
lime-water and with carbonated alkalies, the precipitate 
being soluble in excess of potash or ammonia. The pre¬ 
cipitate produced by sulphuret of ammonium had also a 
white colour. Chlorine and sulphuric acid were only 
present as traces. The metal with which the so-called 
cream of some of the cream-cocoa balls is impregnated 
is, m fact, zinc, m combination with a vegetable or or¬ 
ganic acid. It appears that this cream must be prepared 
in zinc vessels, where, when left long in contact and acid, 
those portions which are in contact with the sides of the 
vessel become impregnated with it, and when scraped 
off and introduced in the cocoa coating it, imparts to 
them a highly poisonous character.” 
In answer to Mr. Penfold, Miss Edmunds stated that 
she did not communicate the result of the analysis to 
Mr. Maynard, as he seemed so sceptical and prejudiced 
about it. 
Mr. Julius Schweitzer, analytical chemist, lung’s 
Road, was then called, and stated that the above was the 
result of his analysis. In answer to the Coroner, he said 
that the metallic poison he found in the creams was an 
■entirely different substance from the strychnia which 
Dr. Letheby found in those he had examined. In answer 
to Mr. Penfold, this witness said that he did not take 
any steps to have the result of his analysis communicated 
to Mr. Maynard. 
Mr. Penfold then asked that Maynard, and one or two 
of his assistants might be called to speak to the circum¬ 
stances under which the chocolate was received and sold 
in his establishment. 
Mr. Maynard accordingly stated that ho was a con¬ 
fectioner at 39, 40, and 41, West Street. After Miss 
Edmunds had complained of the chocolate-creams he 
caused a thorough investigation to be made, and he and 
his wife and Miss Page, one of the assistants, tasted a 
great deal of the stock, and could find nothing the matter. 
He was always particular to make a thorough investiga¬ 
tion if ever a complaint was made. He had never manu- ! 
factored any chocolate-creams himself, but always ob¬ 
tained them wholesale. Since February last he had 
obtained all his French sorts from a wholesale dealer in 
London? and he was positive that there was none of the 
previous stock now in the shop, for owing to the war 
they had been completely sold out about a fortnight 
before he obtained his supply from the new source.’ 
When the present stock was received in February it was 
handed over to Miss Page, and it would be proved that 
it was from some of these that Mr. Miller was supplied 
with the creams, which he gave to the deceased. When 
he spoke as though he had received complaints pre¬ 
viously he meant such as of the sweetmeats being 
flavoured with the wrong substance. Miss Edmunds’ 
complaint was the first of that character that he had re¬ 
ceived. He had a young family, and his youngest boy 
was in the habit of continually eating those very choco¬ 
late-creams. He had never been troubled with rats nor 
with mice in the shop, as he kept a cat for the purpose 
of destroying them. About a month ago some phosphoric 
paste was put in a pot-room, quite away from the shop, 
and on a different story, where the cat could not get. 
The Coroner remarked that it was evident that phos¬ 
phoric paste had nothing to do with the strychnia, and 
that Mr. Maynard was more fortunate than the chocolate 
manufacturers in France, for there they found that 
nothing but sheet-iron would keep the rats out. 
By Mr. G-ell.—When we found, after Miss Edmunds’ 
complaint, that there was nothing the matter with the 
rest of the stock, and not receiving any communication 
from her, we thought it was all fancy, and did not have 
any analysis made. The boxes of chocolate-creams that 
I have in my shop with the “ Cadbury ” label are English. 
The cakes are smaller, and in my shop the two sorts are 
kept entirely distinct. 
Miss Kate Pago, assistant to Mr. Maynard, was then 
called, and said that the French chocolate department 
was under her management, and after the goods were re¬ 
ceived from London they were placed in cases in the store¬ 
room. The average sale of French chocolate-creams was 
about four pounds a week. The English sort is made up 
in smaller cakes, and is all -white, the pink colour being- 
confined to the French. She could speak positively to 
all the glasses being empty before the fresh stock was 
received in February, because they cleared them all out 
for a gentleman. 
By the Coroner.—I cannot suggest any way in which 
the strychnine could have got into the chocolate while it 
was on Mr. Maynard’s premises, for no one had any¬ 
thing to do with it but myself. 
Annie Meadows, the assistant who sold the creams to 
Mr. Miller, said that she took them out of the case which 
the last wutness had filled. She asserted that those she 
gave to Mr. Miller were all white, but the Coroner stated 
that that gentleman had said that Mr. Maynard did 
not sell any with an ornament on the top, like some 
which it was stated that Mr. Miller had produced on the 
last occasion. 
Mr. Ware, the manufacturer of these chocolate-creams, 
said that he had been engaged in business since 1839, 
and had never had any complaint of this sort made before, 
though they had made hundreds of tons of the chocolate- 
creams. He then described the process of manufacture. 
The white or creamy part, he said, was pure sugar- 
boiled down to a certain pitch, and then treated with 
cream of tartar to “kill the grain” of the sugar. The 
colouring-matter in tho pink kinds was cochineal or 
carmine, and the flavour was imported by vanilla, otto 
of roses, or liqueurs. The chocolate of their manufacture 
was called French because they used French machinery. 
He admitted that they were troubled with rats, but not 
to any great extent. They used dogs, traps, and poison 
to exterminate them, but as the workmen were paid so 
much for each one they destroyed, he could not say what 
sort of poison they used. He remembered some paste 
being spread on bread-and-butter. All the mixing re¬ 
quired in the chocolate manufacture was done on marble 
slabs. 
The Coroner then summed up. IIo said that as tophe 
cause of death there could be no doubt, for sufficient 
strychnia had been found in the stomach to kill a child 
of that age, and the quantity found in the stomach after 
death was frequently but a traction of the quantity that 
