180 
PROFESSOR TAYLOR’S REPORT ON POISONING. 
The cyanide of potassium is another deadly poison, which is fatal to life in small doses, 
and from its great solubility in liquids it admits of being easily administered in a poi¬ 
sonous dose. It is largely used in photography, and under the pretence that it is required 
for this purpose, it may be easily procured at a cheap rate in large quantities from dealers 
in photographic chemicals, and from druggists generally. It is not irsed in medicine, 
but is much employed in the arts, and has caused death in numerous instances. 
The trade in poisons in this country, may be considered to be as open and free as it 
possibly can be. I doubt whether by any Act of Parliament, greater facilities for the 
purchase of poison for criminal purposes could be given. No one wishing to destroy 
another by poison and having the knowledge to make a selection among drugs, can meet 
with any difficulty in carrying out his design. If refused at one shop, he can procure 
the poison at another. If refused by a druggist, he can procure it at a grocer’s. If 
refused at a grocer’s, he can procure it at a village general shop, where poisons are retailed 
by girls and boys, and no questions are asked. So long as a person of any age has the 
command of threepence, he can procure for this sum a sufficient quantity of one of the 
most deadly poisons to destroy the lives of two adults. There is.surely here great and 
unnecessary facility given for destroying human life, under the pretence that the poison 
is intended for the destruction of vermin. 
In the course of more than thirty years’ experience in investigating charges of poison¬ 
ing, I have met with a large number of cases in which murder and suicide have been 
perpetrated or attempted, as a result of the dangerous facilities which exist for the pur¬ 
chase of poisons. 
I believe that respectable druggists in town and country throw every impediment in 
the way of the purchase of poison. Some poisons would not be sold to strangers under 
any circumstances ; others, of a quasi-medicinal character, would be sold only under the 
prescription of a medical man, or upon the written order of some medical practitioner 
known to the druggist. They will also question the person who proposes to purchase 
a poisonous drug, respecting the intended use of it; and if his answers are not quite 
satisfactory, they properly refuse to serve him. A leading chemist of London who deals 
in poisons of a deadly kind, informed me that about the time of the trial of William 
Palmer, when the public mind was so much excited on the subject of secret poisoning, a 
respectable person entered his shop, and required him to make up a grain of aconitia, the 
alkaloid of monkshood, into ten pills, representing that they were required for medicinal 
use. The druggist, knowing the properties of the alkaloid, refused to serve him, and 
informed him that if he had any knowledge of the drug, each pill would form a danger¬ 
ous, if not a fatal dose. Admitting that public safety is thus in some cases well looked 
after by respectable druggists, it must be borne in mind that they form only a small 
proportion of those who are allowed to retail poisons ; and that after all, health and the 
security of life are to a certain extent left to their discretion. The lower class of drug 
dealers, including grocers, oilmen, and the general shopkeepers of villages, have no such 
scruples; and although, if we except strychnia, many of the more potent poisons are 
not found in their shops, they have still a sufficient number of noxious drugs to endanger 
health and life, by reason of the facility w r ith which they dispose of them to the 
public. 
The careless custody of poisons is a fertile source of danger to the public. They are 
either not labelled, or so imperfectly, that they are liable to be used on a large scale 
by mistake for other substances which they resemble. Orpiment may be sold by mis¬ 
take for chromate of lead, turmeric, or mustard. In a set of cases which occurred in 
June, 1862, about forty members of a volunteer corps suffered from symptoms of 
arsenical poisoning in consequence of having eaten cheese which was found to contain 
arsenic. The poison had probably been ignorantly used in the state of orpiment for 
colouring the cheese. In December, 1859, six persons suffered severely from the usual 
symptoms of poisoning by arsenic, owing to their having eaten some Bath buns pur¬ 
chased of a confectioner at Clifton, near Bristol. This confectioner, wishing to improve 
the appearance of his buns by giving to them a rich yellow colour, sent for some chrome 
yellow (chromate of lead, which is itself a poison), and mixed wffiat he supposed was the 
chrome yellow with the dough. The druggist to whom he applied, ignorantly supplied 
him with orpiment or sulphide of arsenic, and this mistake gave rise to a degree of illness 
the real extent of which could not be ascertained. An analysis of the buns proved that 
sulphide of arsenic, or orpiment, was the yellow-colouring ingredient. 
