382 
VARIETIES. 
requested that he might be allowed to see his wife before he was taken away ; 
and Mr. Suckling readily assented. While he had his arm around his 
wife's neck, the unhappy man swallowed the contents of a phial : Mrs. Cal- 
lum noticed the act, and screamed. When the officer entered the room, 
Callum managed to utter " No," to his wife's statement, and could not ar- 
ticulate more. The phial had contained prussic acid. A surgeon was sent 
for ; but before he could obtain any remedies, if such there were, the pa- 
tient was dead — in fifteen minutes after swallowing the poison. The ap- 
pearance of the body a short time after death, showed that a large quantity 
of the poison had been taken. The jury referred the act to " temporary 
insanity." — Lon. Pharm. Joum., Aug. 1851. 
Poisoning with Oil of Bitter Almonds. — On Thursday, July 24th, Mr. 
William Carter, the Surrey coroner, held an inquest of some hours duration, 
at the Queen's Arms Tavern, Spa Road, Bermondsey, on the body of Mrs. 
Sarah Spencer, aged twenty-six years, the wife of Mr. Spencer, the perru- 
quier and perfumer, of King William Street, City, who died from the ef- 
fects of prussic acid, at her private residence, No. 4, Spa Road. A great 
number of witnesses were examined, but the following are the short facts of 
the case as detailed by the coroner: Some few weeks since the deceased 
was confined with her firsc child, and ever since she has been in an exceed- 
ingly low and desponding state, but from what arising no one was able to 
form the slightest conception. She frequently spoke to her attendants of 
her unhappy state of mind, and more than once said that she should soon 
die. She also said that she was not like some other parties, or she would 
have died some time back, (alluding, as the witnesses thought, to her having 
taken poison on previous occasions.) On Monday last, she went out and 
purchased at the shop of Mr. Elkington, the chemist, of 10, Bamford Lane, 
Bermondsey, a drachm of the essential oil of bitter almonds and a penny- 
worth of linseed meal. She made application for a quarter of an ounce, 
under pretence of wanting it to scent some pomatum, but Mr. Elkington 
refused to sell her'a larger quantity than one drachm. On leaving the shop, 
she remarked that it was useless for Mr. Elkington to be so determined, for 
if she chose she could get a small quantity at each shop in the neighbor- 
hood ; and smiling, replied with all his precautions, he could not bottle up 
the Thames. She then repaired to her home, and the next morning her 
husband found her in bed in an insensible state, Dr. Paul, who had at- 
tended her in her accouchment, was sent for, and on his arrival found her 
suffering from the effects of prussic acid, Everything was done to save her 
life, but without effect, and she died in less than half an-hour. The jury 
having consulted, returned a verdict of temporary insanity. — Ibid, from 
Observer, 
