The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-04 00:00:00

THE POISONINGS AT BRADFORD.

• The excitement caused by the calamity at Brad-
ford increases. New returns of illness and death
are made almost hourly. The total number of per-
sons reported to be ill is now 169. The names of
those who have since died are, SosephHouldsworth,
aged seven years, Rutland-street, Bowling; Briggs
Ramsdell, aged 24, of Thornton, elogger ; and Mark
Clover; Low Moor.
On Tuesday the borough magistrates made an
inquiry into the circumstances of the selling of the
poisoned lozenges. The Mayor presided over a full
bench of magistrates. Captain Cobbe was also
present.
William Goddard, the youth who sold the arsenic,,
was placed in the dock. He is the son of a widow
living at Colne. Mr. Lees appeared on his behalf,
and Mr. Watson for
.Mr. Neal.

William Burniston, detective officer of the police
force, said that he heard 'on Sunday that several
children had died, and he went to the house of
Mark Burran, Jowett-street, Brick-lane, where he
found two children dead, and learned that Burran
himself had taken some of the lozenges ; and having
learned from whom he had bought them, he
went up to the house of William Hardaker, North
Wing, and inquired respecting them of that person,
whom he found in a state of suffering. Hardaker
at once stated that he had purchased them from
Joseph Neal; of- Stone-street, and , that :he had
got four parcels of 101bs. each, insall 40Ibs. He
then found that Police Constable Campbell had got
possession of them, and he went directly to Mr.
Neal's, who told him the lozenges were made partly
from a mineral called daft," and that he had pur-
chased it from Mr. George Hodgson, druggist, of
Shipley. He (Burniston) then took Neal with him
to Shipley, but when they went to Hodgson's
house he was from home, and they saw the young
man Goddard, and asked him if he had. not sold a
man some stuff about a week ago, on the previous
Monday ; and in reply he asked me if it was " terra
album," or " daft." He then said he had sold 121bs.
of it. He took them to the cask from which he
had taken the quantity named, and showed them
the material, which Mr. Neal immediately said was
not "daft." As they were further examining the
article Mr. Hodgson came in, and at once told them
that the cask contained arsenic, and held 1 cwt.
After some further conversation the officer left,
bringing Goddard with him, accompanied by Neal.
Goddard had only been about three weeks with Mr.
Hodgson, and knew little about the business. The
statement had got abroad that the cask was
labelled poison; but Burniston says 'that they
examined it minutely, and could not find any such
label upon it.
James Archer, the man who purchased the
" daft" from Goddard, said that he was requested,
when going to Baildon, to bring_ t to Mr. Neal in
his cart, and he accordingly did so. He Asked for
Mr. Hodgson, but was told that he was sick, and
when he said that 121 b. of the " daft" would oblige
him, Goddard went and brought it, wrapped up in
two bags, and he took it away and laid it on the
floor of Mr. Neal's shop, and it was afterwards
given to the man who makes the lozenges, whose•
name was James Appleton, and he was employed`
by Mr. Neal. Witness had been with Mr. Neal
for two years,-but had-never been before for'" daft."
In answer to a question from Mr. Lees, solicitor,.
who watched the case for Goddard, Archer admitted
that Goddard told him that Mr. Hodgson con-
sidered it would be better for hini to let it alone,
until he -could see about it himself, and that it was
after he asked to be obliged with the 121 b. that he
received it.
Mr: Bell, surgeon, stated that he had attended
the children of Mark Burran, and that . when he
saw them first, about 4 o'clock on Sunday after-
noon, they were both evidently dying ; their pulses
were low, their-cheeks blanched, and the pupils of
their eyes dilated. Both died shortly afterwards.
From all symptoms And appearance, his impression
was that death had resulted from poison. Mark
Burran himself, who also took part of the lozenges
which he had purchased,- laboured under similar
symptoms, as also did Isaac Tillotson and his wife
,Mary. Witness analysed one of the lozenges, and
found it to contain arsenic.
Mr. Felix M. Rimmington, analytical chemist,
who was requested by Mr. Bell and Dr. Bronner to
analyse one or more of the lozenges (many of which
had been received from various patients), said that
he had done so, but did not at the time estimate t he
exact quantity of arsenic contained in each, and had
no orders to that effect. Each of the lozenges,
however, he ascertained to contain nine g(ri amsfof
arsenic, one half of which was • an ample ose or
he said, was
any adult ; 4f-grains of arsenic was generally con-
sidered a poisonous dose.. Daft,"
simply plaster of Paris,or sulphate of
James Appleton, r. Neal's working confec-
tioner, stated his having received the papers con-
taining the arsenic from Archer, and told how he
had made it up with gum, and sugar, and mint,
into what, when dried, made 401bs. of llizenges
which had been ordered by Hardaker, and which
contained more daft" owing to the lowness of the
price. Hardaker's assistant also proved 'having
sold part of the lozenges- in the market, after his
employer (who had taken one of them) had to be
Velit home in a cab. This was further prtived by

James Hardaker,who waited at the stall in the
.market {luring part of the day.
Joseph Neal was afterwards called upon and put
through a severe examination, in which he con-
Tessed to the liberal use of " daft" in making the
lower qualities of spices. He fenced 'elaborately
with several of the questions, and some of his
statements appeared in some respects to contradict
each other. Nothing, however, was ' elicited to
criminate him in any respect.
Mr. Hodgson, whose arsenic had been sold, was
then ordered into the dock, and the further hearing
of the case was adjourned to Wednesday, in order
to allow time for a post mortem examination of
some of the bodies to be made.

Mr. Jewison, the coroner, opened his inquiry on
several bodies, at the Packhorse Inn, Bradford ;
but, after examining several of the witnesses who
had been examined at the Court-house, he adjourned
the inquiry to Tuesday next.
Mr. George Dyson, coroner, also opened an in-
quiry at Low Moor ; and Mr. Taylor, of Wakefield,
opened inquiries at East Ardsley, on two bodies
lying dead in his district.

THE SUFFOCATION OF A FAMILY AT

NEWPORT.

CONCLUSION OF THE INQUIRY.

The inquest upon the body of the unfortunate
man Webb, who, with his three children, was suf-
focated three weeks since in his dwelling, in Jones'-
court, Pillgwenlly, was resumed at the Tredegar
Arms Inn, on Tuesday, before the deputy-coroner,
Mr. W. H. Brewer. The wife has, since our last
reference to the melancholy subject, been removed
to the workhouse, and still lies there in a condition
of great prostration. Should she recover, of which
the medical gentlemen give but the faintest hopes,
the probability is that she will have lost her reason.
The first witness called was Ann Powell, wife of
Chas. Powell, living in Church-street, who stated
—On Thursday night, the 16th, I smelt gas in the
house very strongly—in the pantry more particu-
larly. I never smelt it in the house before. I live
in the front, above Webb's, and there is a house
between us. _

The Coroner—Can you account for the smell of
gas, and did you see anything done to the drainage ?
Witness—No ; I saw nothing, except the mud
cart going after the drain had been filled in. I
don't know that it touched the pipes, but it was
somewhere where the pipe burst. The ground had
been opened, and the clay was being removed.
The Coroner here intimated that during the ad-
journment a person had stated herself to be ready
to prove that the supports of the soil during the
opening of the trench had been drawn away by
horses, and after they had been so drawn, away
there came a very strong smell of gas. If that
were so, it might naturally be supposed that the
pipes were fractured just at that moment.
Mr. Bryan, the manager to the gas company,
said the person referred to was Mrs. Saunders, and
he had informed the superintendent of it.
Superintendent Huxtable—Yes, this morning ;
and I immediately promised she should be fetched.
Mr. Nicholson, overseer of the drainage works (to
Mrs. Powell)—You stated to the court that you saw
the cart drawing away dirt on Thursday ?
Witness—Yes.
Mr. Nicholson—Then I must bring evidence to
rebut it. Our books will prove that not a load of
dirt went out of that street on the day mentioned.
The last time was on the Tuesday evening before.
Witness said she was correct, and after the wheel
sank a piece of board was placed under, so as to
prevent it again.
Mr. Nicholson remembered a case somewhat
similar, and felt it must be that alluded to by the
witness. The dirt slipped away, and the offwheel
of the cart became imbedded about four feet from
the wall, and consequently at least nine feet from
the pipes. . .
The Coroner put it to the jury whether it would
be desirable to go into the evidence alluded to by
Mr. Nicholson. For his own part, he did not see
it would be of any service.
The jury thought no good would result, one of
them observing that if they entered upon extraneous
matter the inquest might last a month and no satis-
faction be given at the last.
The Coroner—Then we will examine Mr. Bryan.
Mr. Joseph Bryan was accordingly sworn. He
said—Before alluding to the cause of the death
of these poor persons, I should wish to say a few
words upon some of the evidence hitherto given.
In reply to the allegation of the witness, Mrs.
Dunstan, that a letter had been sent to the gas
works and no notice taken of it, it can be shown
that on reference to the men's time book there
appears on the 29th and 30th of March three
men William Gillman, William Palmer, and
George Redman—were engaged, on the one day
ten hours, on the other day eight hours, in
searching for escapes of gas in. Church-street. As
no materials are entered for the repair of mains on
those days, it is presumed they either found no
leaks or that they had occasion to set up the joints
only. And, further, the same time book shows
that on the 6th of July last a new service pipe was
laid through the passage immediately under the
witness's house to supply Mr. Gammon's skittle alley
" with gas. Had there been an escape of gas any-
where in that locality at that time, it must have
been discovered. I myself was on the spot more
than once then, and certainly smelt no escape, nor
heard any complaint. Mrs. Dunstan, therefore,
not having observed the last, may not have noticed
when the men were employed ,the first time in
searching for leaks before her honse—in other
words, her notice was attended to without her
knowledge. Although the circumstance may be,
and is, irrelevant to the present inquiry, yet I beg
to observe that on Friday last, Mr. Phillips, the
drainage contractor, informed me that his men
employed in sinking the drain opposite
High-street, in Church-street, experienced so
strong a smell of gas the day before that they were
unable to breathe in it, and that the smell still con-
tinued, but not so. bad. The nearest point where
our gas main is at this time is 75 yards from the
spot. I went down into the drain and discovered
that it was not the gas we make but sulphuretted
hydrogen gas, the product of decayed and putrid
animal and vegetable matter, a gas very common
and prevalent in low marshy land ; and about six
months since an explosion of the same kind of gas
took place in one of the drains from the east side of
Commercial-road ; and for weeks afterwards I was
employed with some of my men examining the
main to discover the possibility of some of our gas
having escaped into those drains, but found it was
not so.. I have frequently been called in to exa-
mine for leaks of gas which eventually have been
proved to be this kind of gas. And if you examine
a Mrs. Saunders she will state that on the Thursday
evening before the accident she was watching the
drainage men removing the surplus earth, and more
especially removing a plank which had been used
as a support to keep up the side of the drain ; but
as a portion of the earth had been filled in, the men
were.eompelled to apply a chain to it, and with
horse-power to effect its removal ; that immediately
afterwards there arose such a strong smell of gas
that she was compelled to retreat into her house ;
that her husband took off his coat to lay it at the
bottom of the door to prevent the
gas getting
through there ; that she went for two hours out of
the way, and on her return the smell was not quite
_so bad—no doubt owing to the subsidence of the
soil driving the escaping gas elsewhere. Mrs.
Powell will corroborate' witness. She remembers
four years ago, when 'she first came to the house in
Victoria-row, some little girls were playing, and
said they smelt gas from a hole in the raised pave-
ment in front of her house ; she went herself and
discovered it was so. Now, this hole was made for
the purpose of carrying the rain-water from the
spout immediately over it, which being connected
with some drain must have conducted a large quantity
of this sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which prevails
from time to time in this part, but more especially
previous to rainy weather. I know_ that since the com-
mencement of the drainage the pipes have been
loosened at the joints; and leakages must take place
—but a man has been sent from time to time to set
them up to the best of his power.
The Coroner (to Mr. Bryan)—You are satisfied
the men were there ?
Witness—I did not see them myself, but I have
no reason to doubt it. In answer to a remark from
the jury he added that he did not pretend to deny
that there had been a smell of .L. gas during the pro-
gress-of the drainage works, but men had been em-
ployed, when the pipes could be got at, to tighten
.
the joints and assist in moving them. Escapes oc-
curred over the whole district. It was rather the
duty of the town surveyor, after the drains were
made, to see that such gas pipes as were disturbed
were properly redeposited, and the earth which had
been removed rammed under them again in a pro-
per manner.
The Coroner entirely dissented from the witness,
believing it to be his and the company's duty to
see to the pipes. Therefore the witness should not
attempt to put it off upon the town surveyor.
A Juror—Perhaps a pipe may break to-night.
The town surveyor may not notice it. To-morrow
there is some accident.
Witness remarked that his attention was called
to an escape of gas, and he repliedthat it could only
be remedied when the ground had settled. He
passed over the place, but perceived nothing to lead
him to believe there was anything wrong under.
neath.
In answer to the Coroner,
In my experience of 23 or 24 years I have heard •
of such accidents as this. There was a ease near i
Mr. Saunders's. lie complained of the smell of gas. 1
We couched, but could find no leakage. I went i
:I I .'I ,