The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-19 00:00:00

TILE CATASTROPHE AT TAIUA

Later particulars of the explosion at the Sorbonne sheit
that it was caused by a new powder, which M. Fontainp,
one of the proprietors of the manufactory, had invented
for marine torpillos. A barrel containing bichrate
of potassium, which is one of the component
parts of the newly-discovered powder, had been that
morning deposited at the manufactory, to be for•
warded by Tuesday night's train to Toulon. One of the
workmen, wishing to carry home a specimen of this
bichrate of potassium, took a small portion out of the
barrel; and let a few particles of it fall 011
the ground, and by accidentally treading on it set
fire, not to the fallen particles alone, but to the whole
barrel. The explosion was frightful. The earth shook,
the neighbouring houses tottered, the foot passengers
were thrown on their faces, and on the Place de Is.
Sorbonne alone 5,000 panes were shivered to powder.
The first and second floors of M. Fontaine's house
were torn open, and men and women, inhabitants
of these floors, were precipitated into the flames. The
staircase caught fire, and a stifling stench prevented all
access to the incandescent volcano. Trunks of human
bodies, arms and legs, and fragments of smoking flesh
were found 290 yards distant. A washerwoman was lite-
rally reduced to powder ; the concierge was flattened
against the wall.

SHOCKING OCCURRENCE AT SUDBURY•

An inquest has been held at Sudbury on the bodies of
Mary Ready, aged 70, and of her daughter Mary Ann
Ready, aged 34 It appears that the deceased women
lived at No. 56, Cross-street, Sudbury, and that they
were discovered dead in their residence on Tuesday
morning. The mother and daughter were known to be
eccentric, and according to the medical testimony the
younger woman was not of sound mind. Owing to want
of work as staymakers and milliners, they had been
in a state of great poverty for a considerable period'
but would not apply to the parish for relief. Nothing had
been seen of the mother for some three weeks or a month
past, and very little of the daughter. Between nine and
ten o'clock on Tuesday morning the attention of a police'
man was called to the
_cottage by seeing a crowd of
people against it, and he was told that there was a woman
lying inside the house naked. He entered the cottage'
and found the bodies of the two deceased women, one in
lower apartment, the other in an upper room of the
cottage. The place was in a wretched and dilapidated
•:ondition, destitute of furniture and of all traces of food
ar fuel. The body of the mother presented the apPer.
ance of a skeleton merely covered with skin. It lay
naked on the floor of the upper room, with a sort of coverlid
thrown over it, and had apparently been " laid out" after
leath. The postman had delivered a letter at the
house on Friday morning, and it was taken in by the
younger woman, who partly opened the door for the Pur
pose. Mr. Mason, surgeon, deposed that there were n°
narks of violence on the bodies, that they were very
emaciated, that the elder female had probably been dead
eight or ten days and the younger one from twenty-four to
forty-eight hours, and that death appeared to have resulted
from starvation. The inquest was adjourned to enable
a post-mortem examination of the bodies to be made.