53 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[July 15,1871 r 
may be passed declaring- that dynamite shall be excluded 
from the operation of the said Act, and that dynamite 
and all other explosives used in mines and quarries may 
be placed on the 3ame footing and subject to the same 
restrictions as gunpowder is now by law subject to. 
HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
Pharmacy Act (1868) Amendment Bill. —July 10.— 
Petitions against this Bill were presented from— 
Chichester, by Lord H. Lennox. 
Congleton, by Mr. W. Egerton. 
Harwich, by Colonel Jervis. 
Launceston, by Mr. Lopes. 
Lewes, by Lord Pelham. 
July 11.—Petitions against the Bill were presented 
from— 
Biggleswade, by Mr. A. Russell. 
Caistor, by Mr. R. 'Winn. 
Gloucester, by Mr. Price. 
Great Yarmouth, by Sir E. Lacon. 
July 12.—A petition against the Bill was presented 
from Peterborough, by Mr. Whatley. 
Nitro-Glycerine Act (1869). — July 7.—A petition 
from Whitehaven w r as presented by Mr. C. Bentinck to 
the same effect as that mentioned above (House of Lords). 
Poisoning of Seventeen Children by Calabar 
Beans. 
An incident is reported from Liverpool, which, apart 
from the large number of children injured, is remarkably 
similar to one that occurred in the same town seven years 
since, and reported in this Journal.* 
On Monday last seventeen children, who with others 
had been playing on some waste ground in Boundary 
Street, where a quantity of rubbish —probably the sweep¬ 
ings of a ship or warehouse—had been deposited, were 
found to be suffering from the effects of poison. Amongst 
the rubbish the children had found a quantity of Calabar 
beans, some of which they had eaten. Eleven of the 
children were taken to the shop of Mr. Smith, druggist, in 
Athol Street, who immediately administered emetics and 
rubbed their chests with spirits cf turpentine. Medical 
assistance was obtained, and these and the other children 
were pronounced to be out of danger the same evening. 
The police have not yet discovered whence the rubbish 
came, or who were the persons culpable in depositing it 
in a public place. Three loads of the rubbish w r ere at 
once removed, and buried in a pit covered with clay. 
Poisoning by Prussic Acid. 
An inquest has been held in Liverpool on the body of 
Samuel Hudson, aged 40. It appeared from the evidence 
that the deceased was eccentric, nervous and irritable in 
manner, and in the habit of drinking. Latterly he seems 
to have been in money difficulties and depressed in his 
mind. On Saturday morning he went to Messrs. J. H. 
and S. Johnson’s, druggists, Church Street, and asked 
for an ounce bottle of prussic acid. He said that he 
wanted it for photographic purposes, and requested that 
it might be put into a peculiar-shaped bottle. Being a 
customer to the firm, and not appearing otherwise than 
usual, he wms served with the prussic acid. The same 
afternoon a workman employed by him found him lying 
dead in his workshop. 
Dr. W. J. Morris, from the Southern Dispensary, 
made a post-mortem examination of the body, and found 
that death had resulted from prussic acid, there having 
been more taken than would be certain to destroy life. 
Verdict—“Died from swallowing prussic acid, but 
how administered there was not sufficient evidence to 
show.” 
* 2nd Ser., Yol. VI., p. 131. 
Alleged Poisoning by Arsenic. 
Much excitement prevailed at Cambridge on Monday 
last, owing to the exhumation of a man named Day, and. 
the further examination of the widow of the deceased, 
who was reapprehended on Saturday in consequence of 
the detection of poison in a pudding on a second analysis 
made by Professor Liveing. The body was exhumed 
early in the morning, and the portions of it required by 
Dr. Letheby were sent to London in charge of an officer- 
At the police-court the town-clerk stated that since the 
last occasion of the woman appearing in court, Professor 
Humphry, Dr. Pagett and Professor Liveing had been 
consulted, and they were now awaiting the report of 
Dr. Letheby, but sufficient additional evidence would be 
given for a remand. 
Professor Liveing, Professor of Chemistry in the Uni¬ 
versity of Cambridge, said that he made an analysis of 
the pudding before the day of the adjourned inquest, 
but detected no poison. On Saturday last he made a 
further analysis of another part, and found some arsenic. 
The prisoner, who said that she was innocent and did. 
not put anything into the pudding, was remanded. 
THOMAS HAWKES TANNER, M.D. 
Medicine has lost an able and zealous practitioner iir 
Dr. T. H. Tanner, w r ho died at Brighton on the 7th inst.,. 
at the early age of forty-six. Dr. Tanner was educated,, 
we believe, at the Charterhouse and King’s College, 
London ; becoming a member of the Royal College of 
Surgeons of England in 1847, and graduating as Doctor 
of Medicine at St. Andrew’s in the same year. His career- 
will hereafter be cited as one of the first in which success 
was attained not by reputation won at hospitals or 
societies so much as in the pages of medical journals and 
of publications addressed to the student and the general 
practitioner. His works, most of which were enlarged, 
from their original tiny dimensions to stout octavos, en¬ 
joyed immense popularity with the candidate for exami¬ 
nation and the “ run-and-read ” physician. They were 
remarkable for the skill with which their author worked 
down the latest results of science to undergraduate appre¬ 
hension or to general practice, and were the means of 
winning him a professional name, which he was rapidly 
raising in the esteem of his brethren when death re¬ 
moved him from his wide circle of patients and friends. 
DR. A. KEITH JOHNSTON. 
The author of the ‘National Atlas,’ and still more oF 
the ‘Physical Atlas,’ deserves a passing notice at our 
hands. Dr. A. Keith Johnston died on Sunday at Ben- 
Rhydcling, in his sixty-seventh year. He was trained, 
for the medical calling in Edinburgh, the city of his- 
birth. Wisely, however, he devoted himself to the- 
science of geography, in its largest sense; and in 1843 
gained the applause of the learned at homo and abroad 
by his ‘ National Atlas,’ a work which cost h im fifteen, 
years’ research in the geographical literature of nearly^ 
every European tongue. This was succeeded by his- 
‘ Physical Atlas,’ which, suggested by Berghaus, super¬ 
seded that geographer’s work by its fulness and accuracy 
of information on the geology, meteorology, climatology, 
hydrography, magnetism, etc., of the globe, wuth the- 
vegetable and animal kingdoms which inhabit it. A_ 
member of every geographical society of note through¬ 
out the world, he took an active interest in the meteo¬ 
rological and epidemiological societies. He did much, 
for medical geography; and only a few weeks before his- 
death he received the Royal Geographical Society’s, 
medal in token of that body’s appreciation of his services. 
Greatly esteemed in private and public, he goes dowm to 
the grave with the honour of having done more for 
geography, from its humblest educational up to its- 
highest scientific aspects, than any man of his time. 
