183 
professor taylor’s report on poisoning. 
could not distinguish arsenic from plaster of Paris, was not a proper person to send to 
make the selection upon a conjecture. Had the cask of arsenic been labelled, as it should 
have been, in a visible and conspicuous manner, this great destruction of life and injury 
to health would not have occurred. It will be seen that the evil of adulteration in selling 
plaster of Paris for white sugar was the main cause of this wholesale slaughter. 
A large number of cases of poisoning by sugar of lead occurred at Stourbridge, some 
years since. By some negligence or carelessness, about thirty pounds of sugar of lead in 
powder were mixed at a miller’s with eighty sacks of flour, and the whole was made into 
bread by the bakers, and supplied as usual to their daily customers. According to the 
report of Mr. Bancks, no fewer than five hundred persons were attacked with symptoms 
of lead poisoning, after partaking of this bread. In a few days they suffered from a 
sense of constriction in the throat, pain at the pit of the stomach, violent cramps, drag¬ 
ging pains in the loins, and paralysis of the legs. There was obstinate constipation; 
the pulse was generally slow and feeble; the countenance anxious and sunken, fre¬ 
quently of a peculiar livid hue. Other symptoms characteristic of lead-poisoning were 
present. It is remarkable that not one of the cases proved fatal; for among the more 
severe there was great prostration, with collapse, lividity of the face, universal cramps, 
and other alarming symptoms. After apparent recovery, some of the symptoms returned 
in a more aggravated form without any obvious cause, and for a long time the patients 
were out of health. The quantity of sugar of lead taken by each person could not be 
determined, as on analysis the samples of bread were found to be very unequally im¬ 
pregnated with the poison.* 
The following is an additional illustration of the danger to health and life which may 
occur from the reckless - use of poison under circumstances in which such use would not 
be suspected. In December, 1857, I was consulted on the chemical nature of a liquid 
which had caused symptoms of poisoning among the children at a large industrial school 
at Norwood. Soon after their usual breakfast on bread and milk, three hundred and 
forty children had been suddenly seized with violent vomiting, purging, and other 
symptoms of irritant poisoning. The only cause to which the illness could be assigned 
was a green-coloured liquid, some of which had been put into the steam boiler on the 
previous night, for the purpose of cleansing it of fur. A portion of this water had been 
drawn off in the morning, in order to mix it with the milk for the children’s breakfast. 
An analysis of the liquid speedily showed that it consisted of a strong alkali holding 
dissolved a large quantity of arsenic: it consisted of arsenite of soda in its most concen¬ 
trated form. Remedies were suggested accordingly, and all the children were placed 
under active treatment, which was so effectual that not one death took place. The 
history which I obtained of this wholesale poisoning was as follows :—The engineers 
who had fitted up the steam boiler had directed one of their workmen to employ two 
gallons of this cleansing liquid, of the poisonous nature of which no information -was 
given to any one in the establishment,—to remove the calcareous deposit in the boiler. 
This quantity, containing, as I found by analysis, about nine pounds of arsenic , was well 
mixed with the water in the steam boiler. Fortunately, only four gallons of the poisoned 
water were drawn from the boiler on the following morning. It was mixed with thirty 
gallons of milk, and divided among 340 children, about a gallon of the mixture being 
shared by ten children. Upon an average each child took a grain of arsenic , more 
or less. The symptoms from which these unfortunate children suffered were severe pain, 
vomiting, purging, shivering, and discharge of mucous fluid from the nose. Seven had 
cough of a croupy character, three vomited blood, and one passed blood from the bowels. 
Some suffered from inflammation of the stomach; of these, six only were under treat¬ 
ment at the end of the first week, and one did not recover until after the second week. 
The escape of these children may be attributed to the great dilution of the arsenic in 
the water of the boiler, its still further dilution by the large proportion of milk with 
which it was mixed, and the early and active treatment to which they were subjected. 
As there was no loss of life, no legal question arose here in reference to simple, gross, 
or criminal negligence. No proceedings could be taken against the parties under the 
Arsenic Act, because the poison had not been sold. The great danger to life, however, 
was unquestionable ; and had the workmen put eight gallons instead of four into the 
boiler, to give it an additional cleansing, it is probable that there would have been 340 
* See Report by Mr. Bancks, Lancet, May, 5, 1849, p. 478. 
