MISCELLANEA. 
341 
of 5 s. for the offence itself, and 2s. for the summons, and a guinea additional for the ex¬ 
penses of the company’s solicitor. 
In another case, Mr. Henry Joseph, a pipe-maker, Houndsditch, was prosecuted by 
the London and North-Western Railway Company for having sent by their railway a 
quantity of combustible goods without indicating that they were of a dangerous cha¬ 
racter. The charge for the package if marked “ dangerous ” would have been 42s., but 
by the omission of this precaution it was charged only 2s. 6d. At one of the receiving- 
houses a strong smell of phosphorus having attracted attention, the package was opened, 
and found to contain a quantity of articles labelled “ Blazing Fuzees.” The defendant 
was fined £20 and costs. 
Poisoning by Tobacco. —A young man, named Richard Edmondson, a cotton- 
piecer at Messrs. Garnett and Horsfall’s, Low Moor, near Clitheroe, died somewhat sud¬ 
denly, with all the symptoms of having been poisoned. His pulse was quick and feeble, 
his eyes dilated and insensible to light; the heart was perfectly paralysed, his muscles 
rigid, and he was unable to swallow. This was his condition before death. The 
coroner ordered a post mortem examination of the body to be made by Dr. Scott, of 
Clitheroe. He found the vessels of the brain swollen and filled with black blood, toge¬ 
ther with extravasation of blood in the ventricles of the brain. “ These appearances,” 
he deposed, “ led me to conclude that the deceased had taken some narcotic poison, as 
we find them in persons having taken opium. I attribute the appearance of the blood¬ 
vessels on the brain to narcotic poison. The deceased was very much emaciated. After 
hearing all the evidence, I attribute the cause of his death to the chewing of Limerick 
roll tobacco and his having swallowed the juice. It is a poison that acts on the brain. 
It is not used in medicine now. I should not like to give a person 30 grains of the un¬ 
prepared tobacco. Tobacco gains power according to the way in which it is manufac¬ 
tured, and the Limerick roll is exceedingly strong tobacco.” The coroner summed up, 
and the jury returned a verdict “ That the deceased died from the effect of having 
chewed Limerick roll tobacco and swallowing the juice thereof, which has acted upon 
the stomach as a narcotic poison.” 
Poisoning by Epsom Salts. —A singular case came before Mr. Humphreys, 
coroner, on Tuesday evening, September 27th, at an inquest held on view of the body 
of a carman named Thomas Crooks, aged 53 years. Elizabeth Crooks, 23, Radnor 
Street, St. Luke’s, said,—Last Tuesday, the deceased, being ill, got some medicine 
from Dr. Bletchley. After taking it he got into a state of great suffering; his stomach 
swelled enormously. He exclaimed, “ I am poisoned. The doctor’s medicine has poi¬ 
soned me.” He died soon afterwards. Mr. F. J. Gant, pathological anatomist to the 
Royal Free Hospital, said that the deceased died from inflammation of the small in¬ 
testines, caused by an excessive quantity of Epsom salts. He had actually taken a 
quarter of a pound of Epsom salts before he sent to Dr. Bletchley for medicine, 
and the enormous quantity had poisoned him. It generated a gas in the stomach 
which caused the swelling which he attributed to the doctor’s medicine. Deceased’s 
wife, recalled, admitted that he had taken a quarter of a pound of salts after a 
drinking-bout, but she said she knew that the quantity could have done no harm, 
for he had often before taken 32 doses at one draught, and he was a man that 
could stand a great deal. Mr. Scott, solicitor for Dr. Bletchley, said that he was pre¬ 
pared to prove that the medicine furnished by that gentleman was not poisonous in its 
character. The coroner said that evidence upon that point was quite unnecessary after 
the testimony of Mr. Gant and the admission of the widow of the deceased. The jury 
concurred with the learned coroner, and returned a verdict “ That the deceased was 
poisoned by an excessive quantity of Epsom salts taken medicinally, and not for the 
purpose of destroying life.” 
Death from Drinking K"aphtha. —On Monday, September 12th, Mr. Richards, 
deputy coroner, held an inquest touching the death of Samuel Neal, aged 28 years. 
J. Neal, brother of the deceased, said that last Saturday evening his brother returned 
home to No. 4, North Street, Whitechapel. He was very ill, and he expired the next 
morning. He was an assistant to a wholesale druggist, and had been addicted to drink 
for the last eight years. Dr. Lewellyn said that he had made a post-mortem examination 
of the deceased. The lungs were congested, and the coats of the stomach were inflamed 
