856 
THE PHABMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 28, ]87L 
The Coroner said that the evidence was of a very un¬ 
satisfactory and conflicting- character, but the last wit¬ 
ness cleared herself and her daughter of any blame in 
the matter. They had taken the precaution of asking 
what might be given, and no doubt they thought that 
the quantity given was not likely to produce any ill 
effects upon the child. That relieved them from blame. 
Then they came to the question how far Mr. Parker had 
exercised the caution and care which were due from him. 
He had no doubt Mr. Parker believed that he might 
administer the quantity named without doing any harm. 
Therefore, he did not think they could censure him in 
the matter, but this case ought to act as a caution to 
him and to all other druggists. There was no doubt the 
death of the child had been caused by this poison. The 
questions for the jury were, in the first place, did they 
attach any blame to the parents; and, next, did they 
consider that Mr. Parker had been guilty of any want 
of care, or that he was exercising the judgment which 
he believed to be correct and was not, therefore, to be 
censured. All druggists in selling anything that might 
produce fatal consequences should be exceedingly 
guarded, and every one who purchased them should be 
cautious not to use beyond what was prescribed. 
The Foreman: It would be well to have it labelled 
“ poison.” 
The Coroner said there was an Act of Parliament 
which rendered that obligatory. 
The jury then returned the following verdict:—“ That 
the deceased died from the administration of sixty drops 
of syrup of poppies given by its mother, Mary Bell, 
medicinally, in ignorance of its poisonous properties and 
effects.” 
The deputy-coroner, D. Wightman, Esq., held an 
inquest last evening in Sheffield, on the body of a child 
five weeks old. 
Mary Smith, mother of the deceased, stated that the 
child had been ailing for some time previous to its death; 
that on Saturday it was seized with a bad cough, and. 
getting worse she sent for a neighbour, named Mrs. 
Simpson, who advised her to administer a little syrup of 
poppies. Mrs. Simpson also told her that it was quite 
harmless, and that she had been in the habit of giving 
it to her children when suffering from a bad cough. 
Witness went to the druggist’s shop and bought some, 
and gave the child three-parts of a teaspoonful. She 
guessed the quantity, but had no idea what a dose of it 
was. She nursed the child for an hour and a half, when 
it fell asleep, and was taken to bed. It remained there 
until four o’clock on Sunday, when witness became 
alarmed because of it not awaking. On making some 
inquiries witness was told that she had given the baby 
rather too much. On looking at the child later on, wit¬ 
ness thought it was dying, and immediately went for a 
doctor, who told her it was dead. Witness further stated 
that on Sunday morning she gave one of her children, 
three years of age, a teaspoonful, but that it had done it 
no harm. 
Mr. Smith, surgeon (the medical gentleman who had 
seen the deceased), said the symptoms were such as 
would be exhibited by any person who had died from an 
overdose of an opiate. A teaspoonful of syrup of poppies 
would be sufficient to poison two or three*children of the 
age of deceased. 
A verdict to the effect that “ Deceased had died from 
an overdose of poison, administered with no felonious 
intention,” was returned. The mother of deceased and 
Mrs. Simpson were then called in the room, and the jury, 
through the coroner, administered a very severe repri¬ 
mand to them both for their want of caution, and recom¬ 
mended them to bo more careful in future. 
SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART., 
K.C.B., LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., etc. 
This celebrated geologist and geographer died at his 
residence in Belgrave Square, on Sunday, October 22nd, 
aged nearly eighty years. He was the pldest son of Mr. 
Kenneth Murchison, of Tarradale, in Ross-shire, and his- 
wife Barbara, a sister of the late Sir Alexander Mackenzie, 
Bart., of Fairburn. He was born on the 19th of Fe¬ 
bruary, 1792, and received the early part of his educa¬ 
tion at the Grammar School attached to Durham Cathe¬ 
dral. Afterwards he studied for a few months at the 
University of Edinburgh. In 1807 he obtained a com¬ 
mission in the army, and, in 1808, served in the 36th 
Foot with the forces in Spain and Portugal under 
Lord Wellington, afterwards on the staff of his uncle 
General Sir Alexander Mackenzie, and finally as captain 
in the 6th Dragoons. He took part in several of the 
most important battles, carrying the colours of his regi¬ 
ment at Vimiera, and shared in the dangers of the retreat 
to Corunna under Sir John Moore. 
At the conclusion of the war, following out a suggestion 
of Sir Humphry Davy, he turned his attention to the 
study of physical science. His first contribution to the 
literature of the branch of science with which his name 
afterwards became so closely associated, was a paper read 
by him before the Geological Society in 1825, on the 
“ Geological Formation of the North-west Extremity of 
Sussex and the adjoining parts of Hampshire and Surrey.” 
In 1826 he was elected F.R.S. After some years of in¬ 
vestigation, at home and abroad, Mr. Murchison pub¬ 
lished the conclusions at which he had arrived concern¬ 
ing what he designated the Silurian system; for which 
he afterwards received the Copley medal of the Royal 
Society. 
In 1846, with M. Yerneuil, he commenced a geological 
survey of the Russian empire, under the countenance of 
the Imperial Government. Upon presenting his first 
report, the Emperor Nicholas bestowed on him a deco¬ 
ration and a colossal vase of Sibeiian aventurine, mounted 
on a porphyry column, and, three years afterwards, on. 
the completion of the survey, conferred upon him the 
grand cross of the order of St. Stanislaus. 
In 1854, Mr. Murchison published his best-known 
work, ‘ Siluria; or, the History of the oldest-known 
Rocks containing Organic Remains, with a brief sketch 
of the Distribution of Gold upon the Earth.” This leads- 
us to mention that although the discovery of gold in 
Australia was practically effected by others, the presence 
of the precious metal in the mountain ranges of that, 
continent, was previously inferred by Sir Roderick Mur¬ 
chison, from their similarity to the Ural Mountains. In 
his address as President of the Geological Society, in 
1844, he predicted the discovery of gold in Australia; 
and, in 1846, six years before that metal was practically 
worked there, he addressed a letter to the President of 
the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, inciting the 
unemployed Cornish tin-miners to emigrate and dig for 
gold in Australia. 
Sir Roderick, having acted for five years as Secretary 
of the Geological Society, became its President in 1831-2, 
and, again, in 1842-3. He assisted in the formation of 
the British Association, acting for several years, and 
presiding over its meeting at Southampton in 1846. In 
1844 he was elected President of the Royal Geographical 
Society,—a post which he held with a few intervals until 
recently, when he was succeeded by Sir Henry Rawlin- 
son. The persistency with which he has advocated the- 
necessity of sending assistance to Dr. Livingstone, and 
the faith that he has evinced in the safety of that tra¬ 
veller are too well known to need more than mention 
here. 
In 1855 he succeeded Sir Henry de la Beche as Director 
