EDITORIAL. 
181 
bers  by  the  recent  action  of  the  coroner's  jury  in  their  verdict  as  to  the 
cause  of  the  death  of  George  Murray  Thompson."  Mr.  Burnett  was 
called  upon  to  state  the  case,  which  he  did  much  as  in  the  fore  part  of 
this  notice,  and  then  testified  to  the  careful  habits  of  and  his  entire  con- 
fidence in  Mr.  Hedges.  Dr.  Bates  stated  that  he  had  prescribed  for  Mr. 
Thompson  as  a  case  of  incipient  mania  a  potu.  Dr.  Quinlan  stated  that 
when  he  first  saw  Thompson  his  pulse  was  100,  that  he  considered  him 
suffering  from  delirium  tremens,  and  that  he  died  of  the  same.  He  did 
not  believe  that  aconite  could  be  found  in  the  medicine,  and  offered  to 
wager  $500  that  no  chemist  can  extract  aconite  from  a  mixture.  He  re- 
flected strongly  on  the  coroner,  charging  him  with  malpractice,  and 
blamed  the  chemist  for  not  reserving  a  portion  of  the  stomach  and  con- 
tents. 
Dr.  Grey  had  seen  two  deaths  from  aconite,  and  in  both  cases  the  pulse 
became  almost  imperceptible  before  death. 
Prof.  Price  said  that  a  chemist  could  separate  aconite  from  anything 
admixed  with  it,  but  afterwards  he  could  only  recognize  and  identify  it 
by  its  efi'ects  physiologically. 
Mr.  Burnett  asked  why  the  chemist  looked  for  aconite  instead  of  mor- 
phine, and  said  he  should  not  be  blamed  for  the  contents  of  that  bottle 
after  it  had  been  in  Wakelee's  drug  store,  and  thought  it  preposterous,  at 
the  same  time  disclaiming  any  intimation  that  Wakelee  had  tampered 
with  it,  though  he  was  positive  some  one  had. 
After  some  further  discussion,  the  Society  passed  the  following  resolu- 
tions : 
"■Resolved^  That  after  due  investigation  as  to  the  matter  of  the  death 
of  George  Murray  Thompson,  this  Society  believes  that  his  death  was  not 
the  result  of  a  mistake  in  compounding  the  prescription,  as  alleged  by 
the  coroner's  jury. 
''Resolved,  That  we  deprecate  the  action  of  the  coroner  in  accepting 
unsworn  testimony  before  an  unscientific  jury,  without  giving  the  apothe- 
cary, who  was  indirectly  implicated  as  having  caused  the  death,  an  oppor- 
tunity of  shaking  the  evidence  by  cross-examination  or  counter-testi- 
mony." 
In  reviewing  the  evidence  and  facts  as  stated,  and  assuming  that  Mr. 
Hedges  was  innocent  of  a  mistake  (and  that  is  the  ground  taken  by  the 
Pharmaceutical  Society),  it  would  have  been  right  to  have  sought  in  the 
mixture  for  all  the  ingredients  proper  to  it.  If  they  were  all  there, — and 
all  but  the  scullcap  could  be  readily  detected  by  sight,  taste  and  smell, — 
the  inference  would  have  been  powerfully  in  favor  of  the  innocence  of 
Mr.  Hedges,  and  of  the  introduction  of  the  poison  in  some  other  way. 
But  if  it  had  been  proved  that  the  lupulin,  the  valerian,  or  even  the  scull- 
cap, was  not  present,  it  would  have  been  'a  strong  evidence  that  Mr. 
Hedges  had  inadvertently  substituted  aconite  for  the  missing  ingredient. 
In  his  evidence  before  the  coroner,  Mr.  Hedges  testified  "  that  the  pre- 
scription was  composed  entirely  of  vegetable  productions,"  and  was  not 
questioned  as  to  what  he  did  put  in;  nor  was  Mr.  Hedges  in  evidence 
