THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS 
[March 30, 1872. 
791 
iused in some of the wards for treatment of diseases of 
the eye; and one of the doctors said that it was usual to 
.serve it out to such of the officers as required it for that 
purpose in small phials containing 1 a drachm apiece, 
which were labelled poison. It further appeared that 
Mrs. Lythgoe and a Mrs. Clark (each of whom was an 
•officer in the workhouse) had tasted the milk served to 
Dr. Harris, and had suffered severely in a manner indi¬ 
cative of poisoning by atropine, although they ultimately 
xecovered, one of them after two months’ treatment in 
the hospital and the other more speedily. The doctors 
who were called swore that the symptoms in Dr. Harris’s 
•case were such as are exhibited in the case of the admi¬ 
nistration of atropine, and a phial on the doctor’s mantel¬ 
piece was found one-third full of spirits containing some 
of that substance in solution, while the post-mortem ex¬ 
amination pointed conclusively to the same result. 
A great many witnesses were called, including the 
matron and the master of the workhouse, and it was 
proved that the prisoner had been in the room of Dr. 
Harris that mornimr after the milk had been taken 
o 
there from the kitchen as usual, and that she knocked at 
the door as she went in; as, also, that she was there 
•■subsequently, about 9.30, while the deceased was at 
breakfast; and in order to show a motive, it was proved 
that two days before the occurrence Dr. Harris had com¬ 
plained of the prisoner to the authorities for not report¬ 
ing a case of illness in proper time, and that they had 
reprimanded her. A witness also stated that on that 
occasion the prisoner had said on leaving the room, 
“Dr. Harris has been telling a good few lies; I’ll give 
him enough reporting before the week’s over.” But as 
to this it was proved on behalf of the prisoner, as also 
by way of accounting for her presence in the doctor’s 
room, that it was her duty to report to the doctor every 
morning any case of illness which might arise in her 
ward, and after leaving certain papers relating to such 
ceases there for his signature, to return and take them to 
the chaplain; and, further, that on the morning in 
question there were papers to which it was her duty to 
•obtain the doctor’s signature, and a conversation which 
had been overheard indicated that she had asked for the 
.signature, but that the doctor had declined to give it. 
It was, however, made out that the poison must have 
been put into the cream jug after it had been taken to 
the deceased’s room, and the prosecution insisted that in 
addition to the actual fact of her presence there that 
morning, the prisoner’s guilt was proved first by her 
behaviour after the occurrence, and by certain expres¬ 
sions used by her to the two women who tasted the 
milk, and, secondly, by a statement made by the doctor 
when in a dying state, which, after some discussion, his 
Lordship admitted as evidence, and which was to the 
effect that he thought Mrs. Steele (the prisoner) had 
•done it: and that hearing some one move in his sitting- 
room that morning while he was washing in his bed- 
Toom, he had opened the door and seen the prisoner 
standing there; and that the phial had not been these 
the night before. 
For the prisoner it was contended that the offence had 
mot been brought home to her; that the evidence of the 
witnesses for the prosecution was uncertain and contra¬ 
dictory ; and that the behaviour of the prisoner had been 
•entirely that of an innocent woman who had nothing to 
conceal. Further, that considering the frequent use in 
the workhouse of the poison in question, its presence in the 
cream jug might be the result of carelessness on the part 
of one of the nurses. Witnesses were also called, who 
gave the prisoner a good character. The doctors who. 
were called stated that atropine is an extremely deadly 
poison, and that even the hundredth part of a grain of it 
is sufficient to injure life. It should be added that since 
the fatal occurrence the system under which the phials 
containing this poison were carried freely about by the 
nurses has been discontinued, and that it is now kept 
under lock and key. 
After a careful summing up by the learned Judge, the 
jury retired for a short time, and eventually acquitted 
the prisoner. 
Poisoning by Mrs. Winslow’s “Soothing Syrup.” 
An inquest was held at Wandsworth on Tuesday, 
March 19th, before Mr. Coroner Carter upon the body 
of a child aged two years, who died suddenly on the 
loth inst. Dr. Hooper stated, in evidence, that the child 
had been suffering from cerebral disease, and that death 
was caused by an overdose of Winslow syrup. A verdict 
was returned in accordance with the evidence.— Wands- 
worth and Battersea Times. 
A Dictionary of Chemistry and the Allied Branches 
of other Sciences. By Henry Watts, B.A., F.R.S., 
F.C.S. Assisted by Eminent Contributors. Supple¬ 
ment. Longmans, Green and Co. 1872. 
It was a bold idea, but no less a happy one, which in¬ 
spired Mr. Watts when he thought of putting the whole 
of chemistry into a dictionary. Probably no other 
scheme would have met the requirements of chemists so 
satisfactorily, or have proved so thorough a success in 
every way, notwithstanding the unfavourable circum¬ 
stance that it was produced at a time when the science 
was passing through a series of rapid and profound revo¬ 
lutions. Nevertheless, whilst it at once comprehended 
all other works, and, so far as English chemists are con¬ 
cerned, almost displaces them, it became obvious long 
before the publication of the last of the five annual 
volumes, that a supplement was essential, if only to ren¬ 
der the original work complete. Hence the volume be¬ 
fore us. 
But chemistry, if not yet an exact science, is one of 
the most prolific conceivable fields of research, and as 
each year rolls by, a vast body of facts, to say nothing 
of theories, is placed upon record. It is difficult to say 
what we are to do with this crowd of observations unless 
they can be rendered accessible. In Germany they have 
long had the ‘ Jahresbericht,’ a work which is much ap¬ 
preciated, even in this country, as a chronicle of the pro¬ 
gress of chemistry throughout the world. The last part 
of the issue for 1869 has not yet made its appearance, so 
that in this “ Supplement,” “ which brings the record of 
chemical discovery down to the end of the year 1869, 
including also several additions to and corrections of 
former results, which have appeared in 1870 and 1871,” 
we have fairly the start of the ‘ Jahresbericht.’ What 
we now want and sincerely hope to see is an annual 
Supplement like the present, to serve as a Year-Book of 
Chemistry and the English representative of that work. 
For this task there is no one so competent as the editor 
of the Dictionary, whose extensive acquaintance with 
chemical literature could not be more usefully employed. 
Before proceeding to notice the contents of the Sup¬ 
plement before us, we must express a feeling of regret 
that articles of a merely general character, on heat, 
light and electricity should have been included in the 
Dictionary. The space they occupy in some of the 
earlier volumes necessitated extreme condensation of 
more special matters in the later, which detracted con¬ 
siderably from their completeness. And we think it 
desirable that future articles on physical subjects should 
be rigidly restricted to treatment of those observations 
which have a direct relation to chemistry. 
The progress of chemistry during the last few years 
has been marked chiefly by the establishment of the 
spectroscope as an ordinary instrument of research, by 
immense developments in the chemistry of carbon com¬ 
pounds, commonly called organic chemistry, and by the 
very free use of graphic forms of notation. This last 
circumstance seems to indicate, on the part of the majo- 
