462  DEATH  FROM  AN  OVERDOSE  OF  CHLOROFORM. 
til  the  hydrogen  ceases  to  be  contaminated  with  phosphuretted 
hydrogen,  which  is  conducted  into  the  silver  solution  and  esti- 
mated, as  indicated  before.- — (Annalen  d.  Ohem.  und  Pharm. 
cxii.  214—220.)  J.  M.  M. 
DEATH  FROM  AN  OVERDOSE  OF  CHLOROFOM. 
An  inquest  has  been  held  at  Doncaster,  on  the  body  of 
Frances  E.  N.  Mansell,  wife  of  a  commercial  traveller  in  that 
town.    The  deceased  had  been  for  years  in  the  habit  of  taking 
chloroform  ;  and  notwithstanding  that  both  her  medical  atten- 
dants and  her  husband  had  used  all  means  to  prevent  her  ob- 
taining it  from  the  druggists,  she  was  supplied  with  no  less  than 
five  ounces  on  one  occasion.    She  used  an  ounce  at  a  time,  and 
on  each  occasion  she  went  to  bed,  her  daughter,  only  ten  years 
of  age,  attending  upon  her,  and  removing  the  cloth  (upon  which 
the  chloroform  was  poured)  from  her  mouth  when  she  thought 
she  had  inhaled  sufficient.    The  deceased  took  the  last  dose  at 
ten  o'clock,  having  procured  it  a  short  time  before,  and  at  eleven 
o'clock  the  children,  who  were  alone  in  the  house,  found  her 
dead.    From  the  examination  of  witnesses,  it  was  shown  that 
the  deceased  had  procured  the  chloroform  from  Mr.  Martin, 
druggist,  against  the  wish  of  her  friends.    The  jury  returned  a 
verdict  that  the  deceased  had  died  from  an  overdose  of  chloro- 
form incautiously  taken,  and  they  further  added,  "  The  jury 
cannot  separate  without  strongly  censuring  Mr.  Martin  for  per- 
sisting to  supply  the  deceased  with  such  a  dangerous  agent  after 
the  repeated  warnings  of  Mr.  Moore,  one  of  the  medical  men, 
and  Mr.  Mansell ;  and  the  jury  further  recommend  that  in  any 
future  bill  for  the  sale  of  poisons,  chloroform  be  included  under 
the  same  restrictions  as  other  poisons." — London  Pharm.  Joum. 
July,  1860. 
