POISONING BY COltllOSIVE SUBLIMATE. 
539 
the outer surface, but docs not interfere with its properties in other respects. 
Magnesium may be obtained from the salts of magnesia and from the magnesian 
limestone, but its extraction in bulk is attended with considerable labour. In 
truth it cannot be denied that, looking at the question of magnesium illumina¬ 
tion as a whole, there are difficulties which we do not quite see our way out of 
at present. But, remembering the rapid progress that has already been made, 
we look forward with something like confidence to ultimate success. Coal gas, 
when introduced, was a great step in advance ; but such is the brilliancy and 
magnificence of magnesium, that should it ever be made to form an efficient 
substitute, it will constitute one of the most splendid and important discoveries 
of this marvellous and progressive age. 
27, Bishopsgate Street Within , February 23, 1865. 
MYSTERIOUS DEATH CAUSED BY CRIMINAL SUBSTITUTION OF COR¬ 
ROSIVE SUBLIMATE FOR STEEDMAN’S POWDER. 
On the 1st of March, 1865, an inquest was concluded before J. Wybrants, Esq., M.D.. 
coroner for the Eastern Division of the county of Somerset, at Emborough, a small 
village situated between the cities of Bath and Wells, and about six miles from Shepton 
Mallet, on the body of William Coles, an infant, seven months old, who mysteriously 
came by his death through poison. 
It appeared that at the beginning of January the mother of the child procured a 
packet of Steedman’s Powders from Mr. Habgood, a chemist, at Wells, one of which 
was given, to the great relief of the child, who was a little ailing. A month afterwards, 
the mother, who had not seen the first powder administered, and consequently did not 
know what it was like, mixed a second one in some moist sugar, which was administered 
by the little nursemaid, and killed the child in ten minutes. This led to the examination 
of the remaining powders, when it was found, of the six left in the packet five were in 
their normal condition, but from the sixth paper the original powder had been removed, 
and about ten grains of corrosive sublimate substituted. On a post-mortem examination 
by Mr. Cartner, of Oakbill, the same substance was found in the child’s mouth; so that 
there could be no doubt of what had caused its death. 
The natural and first impression was, that some mistake had been made in the factory 
of the proprietor of Steedman’s Powders, but the evidence of Mr. Faulconer, the manu¬ 
facturer of the medicine, completely set aside the idea of such a possibility; while that 
of Mr. White, managing clerk of Messrs. Barclay & Son, also of Mr. Habgood, the 
chemist, of Wells, who supplied the packet, and the messenger who fetched it for Mrs. 
Coles, proved that the packet had not been tampered with. 
Mr. Charles Coles, the father of the child, kept corrosive sublimate, in lump, for the 
pupose of touching the sores of sheep infected with “ the fly,” and a lump which had 
been used for that purpose was kept wrapped up in a drawer of a bureau in his sitting- 
xoom, which drawer was not kept locked, so that the contents were accessible to any 
one besides himself. This sublimate, as well as the packet of Steedman’s Powder, was 
taken possession of by the police, and a portion of it, as well as a portion of the false 
Bteedman’s Powder, properly labelled, were handed over to Dr. Wybrants, the coroner, 
for microscopic analysis, and, at the request of Mr. Faulconer, were submitted for 
examination to Mr. Henry Deane, whose evidence we now give. 
Mr. Henry Deane, a microscopical analyst, from London, said :—“I am a member of 
the Pharmaceutical Society, one of the council, and an examiner of that society. I 
hare very carefully examined the contents of the two packets given me by the coroner. 
One packet was marked ‘ Corrosive Sublimate ’ and the other ‘ Steedman’s Powder.’ 
That marked ‘ Steedman’s Powder’is not so, but is corrosive sublimate, and exactly 
rorvesponds with the packet so marked. On examination with the microscope, I find 
the crystals in both papers soiled and stained in a peculiar manner, and both containing 
icies of hair or wool and other fibrous matter, all much rubbed. The two packets 
* i^-responded entirely (except in the disintegration of the crystals, which were much 
finer in the Steedman’s Powder paper).” 
