The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-23 00:00:00

ARSENICAL PAPER.IIANGINGS.

Mr. John Humphreys, the coroner for the county
of Middlesex, received information yesterday from
Mr. Coningham, summoning officer of the parish of
St. Ann's, Limehouse, of the deaths of four children,
from the effects of arsenic, under the most extraor-
dinary circumstances. It appears that the four
children resided with their parents at Tomlin's-
terrace, Salmon's-lane, Commercial-road,Limehouse,
and the father (Richard Turner), who is a journey-
man bricklayer, occupied a sma:l tenement. with his
wife and four children, at the place above-named.
The house was well drained, and the family were
in perfect health un!il about six weeks since, when
one of the younger children was found to be unwell.
A surgeon of the district (Mr- Horton) was called
in, and the child was placed under his care. He at
first could not account for the prostration of the
little sufferer, and he pronounced the child to be
suffering from diphtheria, from which it, died, and
death was registered accordingly. A few days
afterwards another child was seized with similar
symptoms, and the same gentleman prescribed for
it. This child also died, and death was registered
in the same manner. A third child also fell a victim
to the same complaint with a few weeks; and on
Saturday last, Ann Amelia Turner, aged three
years, also died. The features of the four cases were
all of one character, and. some alarm sprung up in
the neighbourhood at the fearful mortality in the
family, and on Saturday morning last the attention
of Dr. Orton, the medical officer of health, White
Horse-lane, was called to the serious character of
the case, and he was directed by the Board of Works
for Limehouse to make an inspection of the house
where the four children died. Dr. Orton, who is
one of the most experienced officers in the east end
of London, repaired to the place, and found the
house in capital condition, well drained, and venti-
lated. He could not find any local cause for the
deaths of the four children in a sanitary view, but
he subsequently went to the room where they had
slept, and there he found that the walls of the
apartment had been papered with a green-coloured
paper. He examined the walls and found that
large pieces of the paper had been torn off by the
children while in bed. They had played with por-
tions and licked the green colour off the surface.
He had tested the substance, which was easily re
moved by the slightest moisture, and discovered by
experiments that the paper contained immense
qualtities of arsenic, which, he believed, had been
the cause of the four children's deaths.

A reverend sportsman was once boalting of his
infallible skill in finding a hare. " If," said a Quaker,
who was present, " 1 were a hare, I would take my seat in
a place where I should be sure of not being disturbed by
thee from the first of January to the last of December."
"Why, were would y,,u go ?" " Into thy study."
EXPERIMENTAL PAVEMENT IN THE POULTRY.—
Operations were commenced on Monday by a numerous
party of workmen for the re-paving of this principal tho-
roughfare in the City. The work commences at the corner
of Charlotte-row, Mansion-house, and extends about 100
yards westward from that point. As an experiment the
roadway is being laid with Knapp's patent pa, ement,
which consists of hollow iron block, divided into small com-
partments, the latter being filled up with concrete level
with the surface. Four of these blocks will make a square
yard. On each side of the road, close to the edge of the
fivtway, are being laid hollow cast-iron tram-plates, six
feet in length and 18 inches broad, which are first filled
with concrete, and then turned over, leaving the indented
iron face upwards, thus forming solid tramways. To keep
the paving level at each end iron girders 18 feet 9 inches in
length will cross the roadway. As each of the blocks are
cast in the same mould the whole of them will lock into
each other, and form a solid mass of iron and concrete of
great strength and durability, which will have a fair oppor-
tunity of being well tested by the extra traffic caused by the
Exhibition.

COMPENSATIONS AND SUPERANNUATIONS.—In
the public offices in the year 1861 compensation annuities to
the amount of £11,596 ceased, but new annuities were gran-
ted, amounting to £25,000; in the Inland Revenue depart-
ment alone to the amount of £10,528. OR the other hand,
Ihe superannuation allowances which fell in amounted to
£49,371, and the new grants were only £36,076. So that
upon the whole the annual amount of compensations and
superannuation allowances at the end of the year—a74,6B4
—was almost exactly the same as at the beginning.

A SCENE AT A VESTRY MEETlNG.—Yesterday,
at noon, the select vestry of the parish of Plumstead as-
sembled at the central school-room, Plumstead-common,
for the purpose of appointing churchwardens for the ensu-
ing year. At the commencement of the proceedings the
Rev. W. Ackworth, vicar, who occupied the chair, observed
that he saw present four ratepayers who were not members
of the vestry, and therefore he must request them to leave,
The gentlemen referred to, Messrs. Mason, Arnold, White,
and Price, positively refused to leave the room, and main-
tained that they had a perfect right as ratepayers to attend
and vote. This view of the matter was also supported by
Mr. Large, a vestryman, who contented that the election of
churchwardens by a select vestry was illegal. The chair-
man then suggested that he should send for the assistance
of the police to eject the parties from the room, but the
matter was ultimately settled by an adjournment of the
meeting to a private residence near, to which vestrymen
only were admitted, and the churchwardens were then ap-
pointed.