The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-02 00:00:00

POISONING BY MISTAKE.

Yesterday an adjourned inquest was held at the
Britannia Inn, Moxley, near Wolverhampton, by
Mr. Hooper, coroner, on the body of John Albert
Vann, aged six years, the eon of an iron-roller. The
evidence showed that on the evening of that day
week the child complained of a pain in the bowels,
and his sister was sent to a neighbouring druggist,
named Woolley, for a pennyworth of tincture of
rhubarb. The medicine, which was about a tea-
spoonful, was administered, and the child was put
to bed. Whilst taking it the child complained that
it was very bitter. In about two hours and a half
after the child was put to bed his mother heard a
moaning noise, and upon going up stairs found the
child lying upon his left side, stiff and insensible,
and with his eyes fixed. In about a quarter of an
hour he said—" Oh, mamma, I am so giddy, I can-
not see you. It is what the man sent that has made
me so. Oh, mamma, I shall die; and if I do, you
hang that man." He was very drowsy, and gasped
for breath, and again said—" Oh, mamma, I
thought I was dying then ; and if I do you hang
the man." Mr. Woolley was sent for, and, pre-
scribing an emetic, said the vomiting that would
follow was to be kept up, and the child prevented
from continuing asleep. When he was shown the
cup in which the supposed tincture had been
served, and told that he had sold laudanum
instead of tincture of rhubarb, he said he
must confess there was a little laudanum in it.
The emetic acted, and an officious woman threw
away the product. The child grew worse,
and at four on Wednesday morning, when the child
was dying, Mr. Larkin, surgeon, of Bilston, applied
the tube of the stomach-pump, but the warm water
injected returned uncoloured, and in five minutes
the child was a corpse. Mr. A. W. Latham made
a post mortem examination of the budy. He found
very large quantities of blood in the organs of the
brain, and the hired generally in a very fluid state.
The stomach was empty. There was no trace of
poison in it, but all the vital organs of the system
were healthy. He was of opinion that death had
resulted from some narcotic poison. The child who
had been sent for the tincture of rhubarb pointed
out the bottle,from which she had been served, and
said that the medicine had been given her from that
bottle only. This bottle proved to be one in which
laudanum had been kept.
The Coroner, in addressing the jury, remarked
upon this part of the evidence in connection with
the admission of Mr. Woolley, that there was a
little laudanum in the medicine that had been in the
cup, and said that if any portion was laudanum it
was all laudanum. It was a misfortune that the con-
tents of the stomach, before the emetic was admin-
istered, had not been preserved ; nevertheless, such
were the evidences on the body that the surgeon
had come to the conclusion that the child had been
poisoned. After the jury had deliberated, and the
public were re-admitted to the inquest room, the
coroner, addressing Woolley, who had a solicitor
with him, said the jury had found a verdict to the
effect that there was no direct evidence to show
the cause of the deceased's death. Both the
jury and himself felt that the medical evidence
had, to a certain extent, failed. But there
was no doubt in the minds of the jury or in
his own mind that this child had died
from having had poison administered to him
that had been sold by him (Woolley) for the tincture
of rhubarb. Had the vomit been preserved there
would have been no legal doubt in the minds of the
jury, and then he (Woolley) would have occupied a
different position; but inasmuch as it had been
thrown away, and the medical evidence had in con-
sequence not been of sufficient strength to justify a
verdict of manslaughter, a legal doubt had been
occasioned, and, acting upon his instructions, the
jury had given him (Woolley) the benefit of that
doubt. He had, howover, to caution him in their
names; and to remark upon the very serious conse-
quences which might result from a repetition of
such conduct. In the event of another accident
happening through Mr. Woolley's dispensing, this
case would be remembered. He was sorry, he must
add, to find, from inquiries he had made since last
Friday, that this was not the first time he had sold
prison by mistake. He should like the public to
know clearly and distinctly that the poison had been
sold by him in mistake, and he trusted that the cen-
sure he was then called upon to administer would
exercise a salutary influence on his (Woolley's)
mind, so that consequences of a more serious nature
might not hereafter follow in that locality from the
use of drugs which he (Woolley) might dispense.
" There is no doubt whatever (concluded the coro-
ner) that this child has been lost by the poison, but
the jury give you the benefit of the partial failure
of the medical evidence. Do consider that you are
very seriously to blame, and that you deserve the
reprimand that I have now given." Mr. Woolley,
who is a young man, apparently about 25 years of
age, who has been an articled apprentice to a sur-
geon, was very much affected during the delivery
of the coroner's reprimand, and, burying hie face in
his handkerchief, gave free vent to his tears.

How the Emperor Nicholas said Prayers at

Warsaw.

At the head of each regiment is an altar—a priest
before it—and, at the instant the Emperor kneels,
each individual of the countless mass upon the plain
prostrates himself. The electrical effect of the
thousands who throng the space before at St. Peter's
at Rome, when the papal head of the Catholic
Church stretches forth his hand to bless the world
from the balcony at Easter, ie as nothing to that
produced by this movement of an army, at the
moment that the head of the so-called orthodox
Greek Church himself, kneels before the altar of his
faith. It has a staggering and bewildering effect.
The Greek priests have begun the service in the
chapel pavilion. Although every head is bowed in
seeming devotion, no one appears more absorbed in
the exercise of his religious duties than the emperor.
But, from time to time, he gently turns his head
to glance at the line of guards to the right and the
left ; and it is easy to see, that there is more of act-
ing than reality in the attitude he assumes. 'This
is the first time I have seen the Emperor Nicholas.
I had several opportunities, during my stay in
Warsaw, and in after years, to look upon that face
again. I cannot but feel that the portraits I have
seen have never done justice to his extraordinary
beauty. His form, tall beyond that of coletnon
men, seems perfect in its symmetry. lie looks a
living copy of the Apollo Belvedere. In after yeas
his legs shrank f,om their full proportions as his
body swelled. Now he appears faultless in modelling
of limb. The face is one of classical beauty. The
features are of the purest regularity. I stand long
where I can study his profile. His high forehead
bestows a look of power and intellect. No wonder
that his personalty should have inspired feelings of
mingled admiration, reverence, and awe, or that his
people should have looked upon him, alternately,
as a beneficent or an avenging spirit. The ex-
pression of the face—afterwards seen under various
aspects—is calm, very calm, far too calm for real
beauty : and so it remains, even when the lips
smile with so much grace and blandness. But
what ehietly mars the expression of the face
is that cold,
chilly, frosty, blue eye, which
have called " mild." If it really beothers
asmild
as moonbeams" it must be those moonbeams which
glance sharply and cuttingly upon the ice-blocks of
the Neva. The Emperor Nicholas is said to have been
a man of strong family affection, and, in moments
of festive relaxation, of "infinite jest." But
surely that eye must have frozen all warmth
of love, and given to the joke the air of chil-
ling irony. His movements, as he shortly
rases, are full of admirable dignity, and even of
grace, spite of the tight prison of uniform. The
prestige he influenced was naturally great. Nature
had vied with destiny to place him on a lofty pinnicle.
-But was that uncommon form to represent the type
of an Archangel or a Lucifer ? The service in the
chapel-pavilion is concluded. The emperor rises from
his kneeling position. At the same moment, the
thick groups of officers on the steps, the overwhelm-
ing masses of men upon the plain, rise also. This
simultaneous movement has an effect upon the ner-
vous system, still more exciting and inspiring than
that of the prostration. The emperor now turns,
faces the plain, and bows several times, with a wave
of the hand, to the army below, to the assembled
people around.—Dickens' "All the Year R•und."

MR. SCHOLEFIELD, M.P., ON THE AMERICAN
WAR.--Mr. Seholefield, member for Birmingham,
dined with the Birmingham Retail Brewers Protection So-
ciety last week, and acknowledged the toast of "the borough
members." He said that the principal point on which he
and his colleague in the representation (air. Bright) dif-
fered was with respect to the Americancivil war, Mr. Bright
looking upon it probably as a war for the emancipation of
the slaves. Ho thought that when an impartial history
came to be written of that conflict, it must be stated to be,
on the part of the North, as against the South, the most
cruel and causeless war that was ever waged by a powerful
against a weaker nation. He believed when men talked of
emancipating the slaws by force of arms they talked of that
which was the most difficult measure of emancipation that
could possibly be. He was as favourably disposed towards
emancipation es Mr. Bright. He hated slavery as much as
any man in the world could hate it, but he believed from
the bottom of his heart that slavery was not to be abolished
by force of arms. It must be abolished by the same moans
which we in this country employed in our own colonies, by
remonstrances and by put!ing our hands in our p-ekcts to
compensate these whom we had induced by our own laws
to consider slaves, as tluir property.

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, HALF-PAST 4 oCLocK.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.--Thfs Days

DERBY RACES—Ting DAY,
lOC ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

TRIAL STAKES.

Clown
Lord Zetland
CHESTERFIELD STAKES.

Greenland
Loafcr
....
Garotter

Four ran.
NURSERY PLATE.

Little Swage t
Rothschild
Redcap 2
a

Six ran.
DERWENT STAKES.

Mousley
Disdain
2
Six ran.
TRADESMAN'S PLATE.

Tippler
Jack'. Alive
2
Warhorse
Five ran.
NURSERY PLATE.

Izaak Walton ...
................ ..
Hebern
1................ 2
Agatha
............ 3
Fir© ran.
GRAND STAND PLATE.

East Sheen ...... 1
Gipsy Girl
Five ran.

GRAND STAND PLATE—Paddy O'Rourke has not paid

forfeit.

ST. LEGER.
sto 1 agst Lord Clifden (offered)
sto 1 agst Ranger (offered)
6to 1 agst Queen Bertha (taken)
13 to 1 agst Avenger (offered)
14 to 1 agst Golden Pledge (offered)
33 to 1 agst Mogador (taken)
33 to 1 agst Blue Mantle (taken)