ACCIDENTAL  POISONING. 
503 
powder  was  placed  upon  the  same  shelf  and  almost  side  by  side 
with  another  bottle  of  the  same  size,  form,  and  appearance, 
which  contained  strychnine.  Between  these  two  there  was  only 
one  other  bottle,  of  the  same  description,  the  strychnine  bottle 
being  the  second,  and  the  James's  powder  the  fourth,  from  the 
end  of  the  row.  Before  the  powder  was  handed  to  Miss  Witter 
it  was  passed  on  to  Mr.  Whitten,  who,  after  looking  at  it  and 
smelling  it,  gave  it  to  the  young  lady.  The  powder  was  given 
to  the  deceased  the  same  night,  at  bedtime,  and  almost  imme- 
diately afterwards  he  complained  of  feeling  ill.  His  symptoms 
rapidly  developed  into  such  as  accompany  strychnine  poisoning, 
and  in  the  course  of  an  hour  he  died, 
Mr.  Aspinall  told  the  jury  that  the  real  question  they  would 
have  to  consider  would  be,  not  so  much  what  was  the  cause  of 
death,  as  whether  or  not  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
prisoner  made  up  the  prescription  had  been  such  as  would  bring 
home  to  him  the  charge  of  manslaughter.  In  order  to  make 
out  the  charge  in  a  case  of  this  description,  it  would  be  neces- 
sary to  show  that  the  prisoner  had  been  guilty  of  gross  and 
culpable  negligence.  The  row  of  bottles,  to  which  allusion  had 
already  been  made,  had  been  placed  in  a  box  in  precisely  the 
same  order  as  that  in  which  they  had  stood  upon  the  shelf,  and 
were  in  court ;  and  the  jury  would  see  that  the  strychnine  bot- 
tle had,  in  addition  to  the  label  "  strychnia"  on  it,  a  second 
label,  bearing  the  word  "  poison."  He  submitted  that  if  the 
other  facts  of  the  case  were  proved,  the  jury  would  be  of  opinion 
that  the  negligence  was  made  out,  even  though  the  two  bottles 
might  at  the  time  have  been  reversed  as  to  position  on  the 
shelf. 
Dr.  James  S.  Smyth,  of  Rodney  Street,  deposed  that  he  saw 
deceased  before  death.  He  was  sent  for  at  half-past  ten  ; 
reached  deceased's  house  at  twenty-five  minutes  to  eleven ; 
death  took  place  a  quarter  before  eleven.  The  deceased,  when 
first  seen  by  witness,  seemed  in  comparative  repose.  He  in- 
quired from  Dr.  Harris,  who  was  in  the  room  on  his  arrival,  if 
he  had  seen  the  previous  convulsion,  and  what  was  the  nature 
of  the  attack.  Dr.  Harris  said  that  it  seemed  to  be  epileptic. 
Mr.  Merrick,  partner  to  the  deceased,  was  present,  and  re- 
marked that  Lingard  told  him  that  there  must  have  been 
