44 
AN OVEEDOSE OF MOEnilA. 
been ill—for the survivors are all more or less likely to be invalids for life; and the 
inquiry having been put into the hands of the county constabulary, the body of John 
Bushby was disinterred, and the viscera were analysed, the result of which left no doubt 
that he had died from the effects of arsenic. Notwithstanding, however, the long and 
patient inquiries which have been made by the coroner and jury, no clue has been found 
as to how the poison had got into the persons of the deceased men, whether it had been 
administered wilfully or had got into their food by accident, Mrs. Bushby, of Allendale, 
who went to the farm while the men were ill and dying, and who appears to have 
been poisoned also,—for she is quite paralysed, and has been confined to her bed sixteen 
weeks,—being unable to attend, and the coroner and jury feeling disinclined to close the 
inquiry without having first penetrated the mystery of the violent death of the three 
brothers, they have adjourned the inquest until the 30th of August. 
AN OVEEDOSE OF MOEPHIA. 
On Saturday June 2nd, Mr. Charles St. Clair Bedford presided over a jury at No. 15, 
Park Street, Westminster, on the body of Mr. William Gravatt, engineer. Mr. A. C. 
Lewis, of Furnival’s Inn, attended for the nephew of the deceased and the nurse who 
had attended him; and Mr. Lewis, sen., of Ely Place, represented Dr. Poole, his medical 
attendant. Mr. W. Gravatt Cobbe identified the body as that of his uncle. The de¬ 
ceased had been ill about ten months, and on the previous Tuesday had been visited by 
Dr. Poole, in the absence of Mr. Lee who generally attended, who w'rote a prescription, 
and said, “ This is to be given at night if necessary, but not otherwise, and then only 
the half of it.” It was given at eleven o’clock by the nurse. About half-past six in the 
morning, the nurse asked Mr. Cobbe to look at Mr. Gravatt, who was making a curious 
noise. Dr. Poole was sent for, but being out, Mr. Langston was called in. He asked 
the nurse what had been given, when she showed him the bottle, and said she had given 
the whole of the draught. He administered brandy, but death soon ensued. The 
bottle was here produced, the instruction upon it being, “ The half of this draught to be 
taken at once.” Dr. Poole did not say that it would be dangerous to take the whole 
of the draught at once. Mr. Samuel Chaplin, chemist and druggist, of 11, Tothill 
Street, said he prepared a prescription on Tuesday afternoon last, and the label on the 
bottle produced was in his handwriting. He made up a mixture and a draught. The 
draught contained four grains of muriate of morphia, the half of which was to be taken 
at once. If witness had been going to administer such a draught in a case of delirium 
tremens, he should have thought two grains would have been a heavy dose, and four 
grains probably a fatal dose. From one-quarter of a grain to a grain is a dose. Mr. 
Thomas Longston, surgeon, of 29, Broadway, Westminster, deposed to having been called 
to the deceased on Wednesday morning at seven o’clock. He was in a half comatose 
state, the face looking ghastly and the lips livid. There was a loud mucous rattling in 
the throat, the pupils contracted, the pulse imperceptible, and the body covered with 
cold perspiration. From these symptoms he thought he was dying from narcotic poison, 
and inquired what he had taken. He made a post mortem examination on Thursday. 
The stomach was placed in a jar for future examination, if necessary. He considered 
the cause of death to be an overdose of muriate of morphia. Four grains, to a certainty, 
would destroy life. That did not apply to opium-eaters, persons under delirium tremens, 
or those accustomed to take large doses of narcotics, Tw'o grains was a very large dose, 
but would not of necessity be fatal. In general cross-examination, witness said if he 
gave one grain of morphia he should like to watch the effect. He certainly would not 
give two grains. Euth Henny, the nurse, was then called. She gave Mr. Gravatt a 
dose of medicine, thinking it was the same as Mr. Lee had sent. She had no notion 
that it was poison. When she was in the room no one ever said anything about the 
half being taken. She did not look at the bottle, because he had had similar bottles 
before. The jury consulted for a short time, when they returned the following verdict:—• 
“We find that William Gravatt W'as accidentally poisoned by an overdose of morphia, 
given inadvertently by his nurse, to whom, in the jury’s opinion, sufficient caution was 
not given by the medical man in attendance on the deceased.” 
