January 20,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
597 
“ Margaret (the servant) has taken it and thrown it 
away.” He was quite unconscious when he died. 
Mr. Headlam : Is anybody else ill ? 
Mr. W. A. Patchett: Yes, Margaret (Mr. Harris’s 
servant) and my own servant are ill. 
Chief Inspector Henderson: When deceased com¬ 
plained of the burning in his throat, Margaret tasted the 
tea. He said, “ It is not in the tea, Margaret, hut in the 
milk.” She tasted the milk, and found it was hitter. 
Deceased desired her to throw both the milk and the tea 
away, but the woman, instead of doing so, took it to the 
scullery, where she met Mr. Patchett’s servant. Both 
tasted it and became ill. 
Mr. Patchett: The two women had the same symptoms 
as Mr. Harris. He asked deceased who put the poison 
in the milk, and he said, “ Mrs. Steele, I believe.” 
Mrs. Steele had been at the workhouse about eighteen 
months, and had always borne a very good character. 
Mrs. Steele -was not present when deceased made the 
statement about her. He was quite sensible, but not at 
that time apprehensive of dying. 
Margaret Lythgoe said that when she served Mr. 
Harris with his breakfast he appeared quite well. She 
obtained some milk from the workhouse dairy; half of 
which she put on the table and the other half in the 
scullery. Mr. Harris rang for her and asked her what 
she had put in his tea. He said, “There is something 
strange about it: will you be so kind as to taste it ?” 
She took a teaspoonful out of his cup and drank it. It 
burnt and tasted bitter—something like dandelion. She 
tasted the milk by itself. He had put only a little drop 
in his tea. She went for the remainder, and he drank 
all after tasting it. It was all right. She saw a person 
named Mrs. Steele in the room about half-past eight. 
Mr. Harris had not come out of his bedroom. His 
breakfast was on the table. After he had drunk of this 
milk, he went to the surgery to look after his patients, 
and when he came back he could scarcely get across the 
carpet. Mr. Harris told her to throw the other half 
gill of milk and the tea away. In answer to a question 
as to the effect the milk had on her, witness said she lost 
her eyesight and had a burning taste in her throat for 
half an hour. 
For the defence'it was urged that there was no evi¬ 
dence against the prisoner, but the magistrates decided 
on remainding her for a week. 
On Thursday Mr. Hereford, the city coroner, opened 
the inquest at his court, in St. John Street, touching 
the death of Mr. Andrew Harris. 
Mr. Samuel Buckley, house physician at the Royal 
Infirmax-y, said: Dr. Wilkins came to the infirmary 
about three o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, and re¬ 
quested me to take a galvanic battery down to the work- 
house, as the medical officer there was supposed to be 
suffering from atropine poisoning. I arrived there 
about a quarter-past three. The deceased was in bed, 
insensible and comatose. I noticed the pupils were 
largely dilated, and the face was flushed and swollen. 
Those symptoms remained until he died. I remained 
with him until about seven o’clock, when I was called 
away to the infirmary, and returned again about the 
time he died. Two or three times he was almost dead— 
pulseless, life being induced merely by an artificial 
respiration. The battery was applied. The opinion I 
formed when I first saw him was that the case was 
hopeless. Morphia injections were given subcuta¬ 
neously as an antidote to atropine. 
The Coroner: What made you think he had taken 
atropine ? 
Witness: It was merely a surmise from the symp¬ 
toms. The drug is commonly used in ophthalmic cases 
for dilating the pupils. I made a post-mortem examina¬ 
tion by the coroner’s order. 
Coroner: Were there any other symptoms, such as 
rigidity of the limbs, as further led you to surmise that 
the poison was atropine ? 
Witness: Nothing further than what I have stated. 
I .made the post-mortem examination yesterday after¬ 
noon. I was assisted by Dr. Carruthers, the late house- 
surgeon of the infirmary. Dr. Simpson, the physician 
of the infirmary, and other medical men were present. 
I found congestion of the brain, but not much, with 
effusion of bloody serum into the ventricles. The lungs 
were much congested, and the heart was filled with 
dark clotted blood. The stomach was empty, and con¬ 
gested in patches near the left side of the stomach. 
This might have been due to the use of the stomach 
pump, to the administration of an emetic of sulphate of 
zinc, or to efforts at vomiting. The remainder of the 
abdominal organs were slightly congested, but in other 
respects healthy. The dilatation of the pupils continued 
after death. I found no disease or lesion of any vital 
organs to account for death. I believe death to have 
been caused by poisoning. 
The Coroner. Do you entertain any doubt of that ? 
Witness: None. I believe death to be caused by 
poison acting directly on the brain. From the symp¬ 
toms I observed myself, and those observed by others 
previously to my seeing him, I concluded that atropine, 
the active ingredient of belladonna, was the only thing 
likely to be compatible with all the symptoms, although 
two other poisons should produce closely analogous 
results. The post-mortem symptoms I observed were 
such as I should expect to find from poisoning by atro¬ 
pine, though they are not definite or conclusive in cha¬ 
racter. 
The inquest was then adjourned until the 24th inst., 
to allow time for a chemical and physiological investi¬ 
gation of the contents of the stomach. 
The Brighton Poisonings. 
On Monday, January 15, the trial of Christiana Ed¬ 
munds for the murder of Sidney Albert Barker, four 
years of age, was commenced at the Central Ci’iminal 
Court. The evidence for the prosecution, so far as it 
concerned the obtaining of poisons by the prisoner, was 
nearly the same as that given at the preliminary inves¬ 
tigations before the magistrate, which will be found at 
pp. 176, 196, 215. 
In his speech for the defence, Mr. Serjeant Parry said 
he could not deny that the prisoner obtained strychnia 
from Mr. Garrett to the amount of 60 grains between 
the months of March and July last, but he confessed he 
was astonished to find that gentleman in so short a time 
supplied the prisoner with poison capable of killing sixty 
or seventy people, which she might have used as she 
pleased. The plea of insanity was that which was prin¬ 
cipally relied on by the defence, px-isoner’s father having- 
died in a lunatic asylum, and several of her relations 
having been afflicted with insanity. 
The jury returned a verdict of “ Guilty,” and sentence 
of death was passed upon the prisoner. 
Y^ear-Booic of Pharmacy: with the Transactions of 
the British Pharmaceutical Conference at the Eighth 
Annual Meeting held at Edinburgh, August, 1871. 
London: J. and A. Churchill. 1871. 
The appearance of the Yeai'-Book issued by the British 
Pharmaceutical Confei-ence has now become an event in 
the pharmaceutical year second only in interest and im¬ 
portance to the Meeting of the Conference itself. AY hen, 
nine years ago, the first meeting of pharmacists was held 
at Newcastle as a kind of experiment, some doubts were 
expressed by many people as to the probabilities of suc¬ 
cess and permanence for the young association. But 
these doubts have long since vanished from the minds 
