298 
'THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 7,187L 
The text-hooks used in the classes will be those adapted 
to the object in view, and will be selected after consulta¬ 
tion with the teachers. 
Mr. Woodward will also give a special lesson to the 
members of the Chemists’ Association, at 7 p.m. on Tues¬ 
day, the 10th of October, in order to explain to them the 
course of instruction which will be followed in the class. 
If these arrangements should prove to be successful in 
the object for which they arc designed, it is probable 
that the Council of the Institute will give further facili¬ 
ties to candidates for these examinations before the be¬ 
ginning of the session of 1872. They will also make 
such changes in the arrangements now proposed, as may 
be found by experience to be for the benefit of the stu¬ 
dents who avail themselves of the system now intro¬ 
duced. 
farlranuntitrj an!) fato fmwtaijs. 
Poisoning by Nitric Acid. 
On Friday, September 29, Mr. Lnngham held an! 
inquest at Westminster Hospital on the body of Wil- j 
liam Collin, aged nine years, who resided with his 
parents at Peabody Square, Victoria Street. On Tues¬ 
day evening previous a young man, a friend of the family, 
was in the parlour, making experiments with a gal¬ 
vanic battery, and on the table were two ginger-beer 
bottles filled with nitric acid. While the young man 
was engaged in attending to the battery, the deceased, 
unperceived by any person, came into the room, and, 
taking up one of the bottles from the table, drank 
a large portion of the contents. Ho fell to the floor 
shrieking with agony, which was the first intimation of 
his being in the room. He was at once taken off' to the 
hospital, where every possible attention was paid to 
him, but ho died in a short time in a state of inde¬ 
scribable agony. A verdict was returned that deceased 
was accidentally poisoned by drinking nitric acid. 
A Child Poisoned by Strychnia. 
Dr. Lankester, the coroner for Central Middlesex, 
yesterday held an inquest at the ‘Stag’s Head,’ Hawley 
Road, Kentish Town, on the body of Mary Kate Row- 
botham, aged two and a half years, infant daughter of 
Mr. Samuel Rowbotham, an author. 
Mr. Samuel Rowbotham said he was a writer on che- 
mistry and scientific matters, and father of deceased. A 
short time ago he hatl a son at school in Kent who suf¬ 
fered from skin disease. He had the child home, and to 
cure him, intended to apply some strychnine, taking 
some out of his medicine chest, which he had kept by 
him over twenty years, and putting it on the mantel¬ 
shelf. On Thursday last the 28th ult., while engaged 
on a work which he had to get finished in a given time, 
his wife asked him to give deceased a dose of henbane. 
He got up abstractedly, and, as he thought, did so, 
placing the bottle back on the mantelshelf, when his 
little son said, “ Oh, papa, give me some, I like it.’’ He 
poured out ten drops, when the boy said, “ Oh, papa, I 
don t like this. lie then looked at the bottle (an ordi¬ 
nary common bottle) and was horror-struck to find he 
had taken the wrong bottle. 
Dr. C. F. Groom, said on proceeding to the house 
he found deceased suffering from lockjaw. He gave 
an emetic, but deceased expired in ten minutes. 'The 
cause of death was poisoning by strychnine. 
The coroner, remarking on the lamentable nature of 
the case, said this was another to be added to the list 
of deaths from poisoning caused by keeping dangerous 
fluids in common bottles. He had over and over°again 
warned the public of the dangers they run in so doing, 
and had recommended that all poisonous matters should 
be kept in conical bottles, because then the moment 
the bottle was touched it would be known as a bottle 
containing poison. He hoped that the public would see 
the force of this, and adopt this simple means of putting 
a stop to such accidents. 
The bottle containing the strychnine mixed with vine¬ 
gar was here handed to the jury to examine, when the 
foreman, instead of smelling the cork, placed the moutlx 
of the bottle to his lips to taste the mixture, and to the 
astonishment of those present would have taken more 
than was good for him had it not been for the speedy 
caution of the coroner. 
The jury returned a verdict of “ Death' by misadven¬ 
ture. ”— Standard. 
A Caution to Druggists. 
At the Birkenhead Police Court on Saturday, Sept- 
30, before Mr. Preston, a man, named James Craig, a 
labourer, living at 262, Price Street, was brought up in 
custody, charged with attempting to commit suicide by 
taking poison. 
Ann Tickle, a young girl, lodging in the same house 
as the prisoner and his wife, said that on Friday evening 
the former sent her to the shop of Mr. Reece, drug¬ 
gist, 239, Price Street, for sixpenny worth of laudanum. 
He told her if the druggist asked her what it was. 
for she was to reply that it was for a horse. She ob¬ 
tained the drug, and gave it to the prisoner, whoirt 
she then saw mix it with a gill of ale, which he took up¬ 
stairs to his own room; she did not observe him come 
down again, and soon afterwards she was told that he- 
had poisoned himself. 
The prisoner’s wife said, that on Friday evening 
her husband made an excuse to obtain her absence. 
When she returned she found him in a state of stupe¬ 
faction, but not unconscious, and able to deny that lie- 
had swallowed any poison; she, however, saw a cup be¬ 
side him, which smelt as if it had contained laudanum. 
Dr. Vacher, the house surgeon of the borough hospital, 
said that he received the prisoner on Friday evening-, 
the man being then in a deep sleep, and under the influ¬ 
ence of opium. He was now out of danger. 
Mr. John Reece, the druggist, was called. He saicl 
that the girl Tickle came to him for sixpennyworth of 
laudanum, which she said was for a horse, and without 
any distrust he gave her an ounce, the same thing: 
having occurred on the previous day. 
Dr. Vacher here said that an ounce was more tham 
enough to poison any man. 
The magistrate asked Mr. Reece if he was not aware 
that he should not sell poison in that manner, and with¬ 
out due precautions as required by law. 
Mr. Recce reiterated that he did not mistrust the girl, 
on account of the same thing having occurred on the 
previous day, and nothing wrong having come of it. 
The magistrate said to the druggist, that he had 
rendered himself liable to a penalty of £5 for not com¬ 
plying with the regulations of the Act of Parliament ; 
he ought not to have sold poison to a child like the girl 
Tickle. He (the magistrate) did not know whether any 
proceedings would be taken against him (Reece)—that 
would be seen hereafter. The witness had been very 
blamable in the matter; he ought not to have sold 
poison to any person unknown to himself, or who was* 
unaccompanied by some person whom he did know. 
In answer to the magistrate, the prisoner’s wife said 
that the poison was not sent by the druggist in a bottle> 
j but in a cup, which, however, was labelled “ poison.” 
! Mr. Preston cautioned Mr. Reece to be more careful 
: for the future; the prisoner might have lost his life 
through his carelessness, in which event he (Reece) 
would have been in a very unpleasant position. 
Mr. Preston remanded the prisoner, to ascertain how 
j his recovery progresses .—Liverpool Daily Dost. 
