464 
EDITORIAL. 
€Mt orial  ID ep ailment 
The  Meeting  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  Wash- 
ington.— We  are  informed  by  Mr.  John  L.  Kid  well,  one  of  the  Committee 
of  Arrangements  of  the  Apothecaries  Association  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, that  Professor  Henry  has  granted  the  use  of  the  commodious  lecture 
room  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  to  the  Association  during  its  sessions. 
It  will  therefore  be  understood  that  the  meeting  will  convene  on  Tuesday. 
September  the  14th,  1858,  at  three  o'clock,  P.  M.,  at  the  Smithsonian' Build- 
ing, Washington  City. 
The  Kirkpatrick  Poisoning  Case. — The  medico-legal  aspects  of  this 
case  claim  a  short  notice  in  this  Journal.  From  the  testimony  it  appears, 
that  in  January  last  the  family  of  E.  Kirkpatrick  received  a  minced  pie. 
purporting  to  have  been  sent  by  a  favorite  relative,  which  subsequently 
proved  to  have  been  poisoned.  Although  all  that  partook  of  it  were  sick- 
ened, a  suspicion  that  it  was  not  right,  excited  by  the  remark  of  a  child, 
prevented  its  being  eaten.  For  various  reasons,  which  appeared  in  evi- 
dence, the  family  suspected  the  pie  to  have  been  sent  by  R.  B.  Kirkpatrick 
(a  brother)  and  his  wife,  who  were,  in  connection  with  two  others,  indicted 
for  conspiracy,  etc.  The  trial  commenced  on  the  6th  of  July  and  con- 
tinued through  the  entire  July  term,  lasting  more  than  a  month.  The  two 
principals  were  convicted  of  an  assault  with  intent  to  kill,  in  the  technical 
language  of  the  law.  As  the  circumstantial  evidence,  sustaining  the  charge 
that  the  pie  was  sent  by  the  accused,  was  very  strong,  it  became  highly 
important  in  the  defence  to  invalidate  the  chemical  witness,  and  the  chief 
interest  of  the  case,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  centered  in  this  point. 
After  several  preliminary  testings  of  portions  of  the  pie  by  non-profes- 
sional chemists,  about  a  quarter  of  the  whole  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Prof.  Robert  Bridges,  of  the  College  of  Pharmacy,  with  the  simple  request 
that  it  should  be  examined  for  arsenic.  At  this  time  no  legal  action  had 
been  taken.  From  the  published  testimony,  we  learn  that  Dr.  Bridges 
first  examined  the  sugar  sifted  over  the  surface  of  the  pie,  which  was  found 
to  be  free  from  poison.  He  then  examined  the  whole  of  the  contents  of  the 
pie  and  afterwards  all  of  the  crust  by  decocting  them  in  water  in  a  por- 
celain dish,  applying  the  liquid  tests  to  the  filtered  decoction,  subsequently 
treated  them  in  Marsh's  apparatus  using  a  separate  instrument  for  each 
decoction.  Owing  to  the  abundant  evidence  of  the  presence  of  arsenic 
by  the  latter  test,  Dr.  B.  did  not  take  the  usual  steps  to  destroy  the  organic 
matter,  so  as  to  get  unequivocal  results  from  the  liquid  tests,  to  prove 
in  what  state  of  combination  the  poison  existed,  which  occasioned  a  tern- 
