557 
MISCELLANEA. 
Poisoning of Korses by Strychnine. —During the month of January a number 
of domestic animals were wilfully poisoned in Cambridgeshire. Mr. G. S. Hull solicitor, 
of Ely, lost within a few days a valuable dog, a sow pig, and finally two horses of great 
value, the cause of death in each case being proved to be the administration of strych¬ 
nine. The services of Sergeant Clarke, an officer of the Metropolitan detective force, 
were secured, and on Thursday, February 14th, as the result of his investigations, Dr. 
Henry Pearson, a physician of about twenty years’ standing at Ely, was arrested on a 
warrant and charged before the Isle of Ely magistrates with poisoning two horses, the 
property of Mr. Hall, on January 21st. The examination lasted nearly five hours. The 
evidence went to show that on the 21st of January last Mr. Hall left home at about 
half-past eleven, to attend the skating match at Littleport. Before starting, he went 
into his stables and saw the horses in question in excellent health, and on his return 
home he found them both dead and rigid, their jaws so closely locked that they would 
break rather than open. On the same afternoon, after ascertaining that Mr, Hall, his 
chief clerk, and his groom were out of the way. Dr. Pearson was seen coming away from 
the stable, and he evinced a good deal of confusion at this discovery. It was proved 
that a day or two previously he was seen with strychnine in his possession, and he asked 
a veterinary surgeon how much was necessary to kill a horse. Before going to Mr. 
Hall’s stable he was proved to have provided himself with about a handful of wet bran, 
and on the discovery of the death of the animals, though they were left at noontime 
without the slightest particle of food in their manger, a small quantity of bran was ob¬ 
served, which Mr. Hall gathered together and showed Dr. Pearson, who was present, 
and he at once stated that it contained crystals of strychnine, which he alleged he could 
see w'ith his naked eye. Mr. Wontner, solicitor, of London, for the prosecution, applied 
for a remand to Saturday, which was granted, bail being refused. At the adjourned 
inquiry, Professor Tuson, of the Koyal Veterinary College, having proved that crystals of 
strychnine had been found in the bran, and also in the stomachs of the horses in quantity 
sufficient to cause their death, and other witnesses having been examined, the magistrates 
committed the prisoner for trial, accepting bail, the prisoner’s own recognizance of £500, 
and two sureties of £250 each. Bail had not been procured up to the rising of the Court. 
Koorchee, a New Remedy for Acute Dysentery. —A. C. Castogree, sub- 
assistaut-surgeon, Burrisaul, describes an acute case of dysentery in a child fifteen 
months old, in which ipecacuanha failed. He endeavoured to get a drug which, with¬ 
out irritating the stomach, would specifically act on the diseased intestine, and fortu¬ 
nately he pitched upon koorchee. This is the bark of the Wrightia antidysenterica, 
growing in jungles as large trees, indigenous in most parts of Bengal. Its seed is the 
famous indro-job, used as a vermifuge by the natives, and in the last cattle-plague of 
Backergunge extensively used as possessing certain specific virtues. A fresh decoction 
of the bark of this plant, in the proportion of two ounces of the bark to two pints of 
water, boiled down to half, was given to the child in four-drachm doses four times a 
day, with a drop of laudanum in each dose. The effect of this was plainly marked, 
after seven or eight doses had been taken ; in two days the number and quality of the 
stools became changed; in place of blood and slime, faecal matter was discharged, and 
from that time the patient gradually recovered. The child subsequently suffered with 
bilious diarrhoea, which also defied all astringents, but was finally removed by extract 
of logwood in four-grain doses, three times a day. In acute dysentery, with great irri¬ 
tability of the stomach, where the use of ipecacuanha is worse than useless, the native 
koorchee is its appropriate substitute.— British Medical Journal. 
Poisoning' by Camphor. —A boy, twenty months old, well grown, and strong, 
got hold, during the absence of his mother, of a glass containing a solution of cam¬ 
phorated oil, and swallowed a small quantity. Two hours and a half alter swallowing 
it, the child fell down in a state of insensibility. Dr. Leinchen was called, and found 
the child perfectly stiff, and in an early stage of opisthotonos. The smell of camphor 
in his throat was distinctly perceptible. The tetanic stiffness was followed by convulsive 
agitation in the limbs. Dr. Leinchen administered an emetic of ipecacuanha ; this gave 
relief, and following up the treatment by cold applications to the head, etc., he succeeded 
in restoring the child.— Journal fur Kinderkraak and British Medical Journal. 
