The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-16 00:00:00

Death from an Overdose of Gout Medicine,

Last evening Mr. Langham, deputy-coroner for
Westminster, held a very lengthened inquiry at St.
Martin's Vestry-room into the circumstances of the
death of Dr. Thomas Hall, inspector-general of hos-
pitals, who died under very distressing circumstances
on Wednesday night last, at a lodging-house, 3,
Northumberland-court, Strand.
Robert Hall, an accountant, living at South-
ampton, said deceased was his brother, and 69 years
of age. He hadreturnedfromJersey after 12 months
absence, and seemed in his usual state, although still,
as for years past, a martyr to gout. Witness noticed
that deceased was only lucid at times in his conver-
sation. He had never threatened to take away his
life while suffering from paroxysms of gout.
By a Juror—He was not in the habit of drinking
to excess.
Mr. J. Mason, an attorney, of Maddox-street, said
he had known the deceased intimately, and acted for
him for more than two years and a half. He returned
from Jersey on Saturday fortnight and sent for wit-
ness. He (witness) receivedletters from Cox and Co.,
and
11111115
the army agents, andthelast witness, in conseq
of which steps were' taken to issue c 0
of lunacy. He suffered under delusionsrae_joal of SlOll.
v
gentle-
ous kinds, and was visited by three.
Dr.
Denny, of
men—Dr. Ree, of Walhanirf_e
their opinion, and
sell-square. In consequerancind,
Brompton ; and Mr. HaVer3e,
an attendant from
of their
Rus-
the evident state
not
.end
comfortable with him.
hist
for, and stayed with him,
didolnchicum, and had told him (wit-
bMuutnsdteecrehalsoeduse waosf
He used to takLe co.la
one of his former pupils, had
ness) that Dr.
french preparation, which he
Butler and Crisp's, chemists, in
St.
obtained
h rch ard and his gout was relieved to
raurs-c-u Y
recommendedat
iessosomr:el
some extent thereby. On the 10th inst. deceased
told hint (witness) that he had taken two bottles of
thledinedicine, but witness did not pay much atten-
tion to it, as the deceased's mind was wandering at
the time, and he talked about invisible spirits.
By a Juror—He was excited at the presence of
the attendant.

Henry Ridsdale, the attendant, said that he was
called in to wait on the deceased, who was labour-
ing under delusions that there were spirits in the air,
and always on the watch for him. Witness attended
him for about a week, and on the 9th the deceased
took some medicine from a small bottle which he
took out of his portmanteau. He drank it all, and
he (witness) found another empty bottle of asimi-
I
lar kind on the drawers. Mr. Havers saw them

By .a Juror—Although witness was there as an
attendant on an insane patient he did not prevent
his taking the medicine. Witness was not told to
interfere with him as to his physic. Mr. Mason and
Dr. Denny saw him, but the doctor did not ask if
deceased took anything. Deceased had no feinale
attendants. He took the medicine between 8 and 9
in the morning, and died about 12 hours after.
John Havers, F.R.C.S., 10, Bedford-place, Rus-
sell-square, stated that he was called to see Dr. Hall
on the afternoon of Wednesday, to give an opinion
as to the state of his mind, but found that unless the
body was at once attended 0 there would be no need:,
of troubling about the mind. He found that de-
ceased had taken two bottles of Lavillo's anti-gout
and rheumatic specific, a quantity that was mode-
rately certain to kill au old man, and pretty nearly
certain to kill a great many young ones. The in-
structions with the medicine were very specific, and
no sane medical man would take 36 doses at once as
deceased had done. From what he (witness) had
seen the deceased had some very strong delusions,
and was clearly out of his mind. There was no in-
dications of delirium tremens.

Robert Perry Middlemist, M.R.C.S., partner of
last witness, proved that death resulted from syncope
produced by diarrhoea, but that the post mortem in-
dicated no natural cause for the purging that had
been described. The medicine described would fully
account for it.

The Deputy-Coroner, in summing up, said there
could be no doubt upon the evidence as to the un-
sound state of the mind of the deceased, and that
he took the medicine which killed him. The only
question was whether he took it with intent to de-
stroy life. Was there sufficiant evidence for the
jury to determine that point? if not, they could re-
turn a verdict accordingly.

After considerable deliberation the following ver-
dict was returned :—" We find that the deceased,
Thomas Hall, died from the effects of purging pro-
duced by an overdose of Laville's mixture kilo colo-
cynthine ; and we are of opinion that the medicine
was taken while the said Thomas Hall was in a state
of unsound mind."

The Deputy-Coroner—You think he took it by
mistake?

The Foreman—Yes, we think so.
The inquiry then terminated.

The Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture.

On Saturday afternoon a large and influential
meeting of farmers and agriculturists was held at
the George Hotel, Shrewsbury, for the purpose of
establishing a Chamber of Agriculture for the county
of Salop, the preliminary steps towards the forma-
tion of which were taken at a meeting held a few
weeks ago. The chair was occupied by Mr. R. Jasper
More, M.P. for the southern division of Shropshire,
and vice-president of the Central Chamber in
London.

Mr. MORE, in introducing the business to the
meeting, said it was necessary to point out the
ground intended to be occupied by the chambers of
agriculture which wire being established all over the
kingdom in connection with the Central Chamber,
and to define their reference to politics. The gather-
ings of farmers and landowners at agricultural
dinners were, as they all knew, useless as far as the
discussion of political questions bearing upon agri-
culture was concerned. There were many excellent
farmers' clubs, which did good service by the discus-
sion of the theory and practice of agriculture ; but
by their rules these and similar associations were
specially prohibited from discussing political matters.
Now, the principal aim of chambers of agriculture
would be the unrestricted discussion of everything
connected with agriculture in any way affected by
the action of the Legislature, and to promote their
favourable consideration in the House of Commons.
(Cheers.) The connection of the chambers with

politics would not, however, be a party connection.
Each party in the State had a common interest in
the soil, and those who tilled the soil had a political
creed peculiarly their own, its leading tenet being to
get the greatest possible amount of good out of
whatever party happens to be in power, whether
they be Whig or Tory, Radical or Conservative.
(Cheers and laughter.) The exclusion of the dis-
cussian of all political topics from farmers' dinners
suggested the reason that farmers were either too
stupid or too quarrelsome to be permitted to open
their mouths upon state questions, or that a class
which annually expended upon the cultivation of the
soil one-eighth of the national capital had not suffi-
cient interest in the management of its finances and
arrangement of its taxes to entitle them to express
an opinion thereon. The value of the opinions of
farmers as a class was, hoWever, he ventured to say,

as important as that of any other department of
trade. (Cheers.) In the question upon which, last
session, the late Government was defeated, as to

whether the franchise should be based upon a rating

or a rental qualification, the question as to what
figure the county franchise should be fixed at, and
in the question of the repeal of the malt tax
(cheers)—few men were better able to give an opinion
than the farmers and landowners were. (Cheers.)
With respect to the malt tax he might tell them that
Mr. Disraeli had told a deputation which lately
waited upon him that, as regards dealing with the
repeal of the malt tax, he should be guided entirely
by the amount of support he saw he was likely to
receive from the country party. He complained that
that party did not give him the degree of support
which he had expected when he proposed the reduc-
tion of the tax in 1852. That might have been the
case then, but he (Mr. More) was prepared to show
Mr. Disraeli that if he now brought in a bill pro-
posing to repeal the tax on malt and to put it upon
beer, there were a sufficient number of Liberal
members in the House of Commifonuesc
hesitate to vote with him, and, o
againstu l d not
With respect to
such a measure. (Loud cheers.)
their own party, in order to ensure the. passage of
that they should adopt
met to form, he would suggest Chamber of Agriculture,
the business arrangements of the chamber_ they_ were
the rules of the llereford whoes aryl',
• sme early date the me
of abrs
with such slight alterations as the committee might
think it necessary to introduce. And he would fur-
ther suggest that ato discussion
should have a meeting for the m
toe pic
to be agreed upon, the meeting to be followed by ft
public dinner, either on the same day or during the
following week. (Cheers.)
A vote of thanks to the chairman brought the
proceedings to a close.

MR. BRIGHT AND THE ATLANTIC CABLE...77Th
following appears in the Lynn Advertiser :—«,f any
illustration be needed of the thorough one-sidedness iifMr.
Bright's mind, and of his practical incapacity for justice, we
need only turn to one sentence in his speech in the evening
meeting of a manhood suffrage demonstration at Leeds on
Monday. Speaking of the Atlantic cable, and praising the
institutions of America,
he said--' A friend of mine, Cyrus
Field, of New York, is the Columbus of our time, for after no
less than 40 Passages across the Atlantic in pursuit of the
great aim of his life he has at length by his cable moored the
New World close alongside the Old.' Now, in this short sen-
tence there are as many misstatements as Mr. Bright could
possibly have crushed into a single sentence. I speak front
facts for I know Cyrus Field as well as Mr. Bright knows
him. It is not true that the cable is Cyrus Field's ; it is
not true that Cyrus Field laid the cable; it is not true that
Cyrus Field had anything to do with the laying of the
cables of 1865 and 1866 f urther than writing endless corres-
pondence, offering endless and equally futile suggestions,
boring boring the life out of engineers and electricians ab,,oaalrone I
Great Eastern, and finally taking all the creditt—r
that he had done nothing in the mattleiic-tesxtcielp Y
I they produced
. . did ir—when he got to Newfoundland, thtewitihith_abnekinege
pertinacity hold on to English ea
as
Field had obtained for
profitable the concession Mr. Cyrus
_outciand.
This is Mr.
the money which was to lay the capitalists
landing cables on the shores of -fißr4f d
ht's accuracy. No one
which was to make
Bright's Columbus ;
h perfectly consonant to
but it is a little too much,
to assert that Mr. Cyrus Field
Mr. Bright's want of troth,
Canning,'
need grudge Mr.
Glass, t
Cyrush ;this
Clifford, Smith, Gooch,
Fisietldholuligs rewsrd for what he did ;
' laid the ca
more than Field; but they are
I Anderson, all these did.
• Englishmen;
1
Mr. Bright reserves his admiratiou fur
i Yankees.

IF Ei3 OAT SE RVI C
months the N
Institution, by its life boats and other means, contributed to
coastsvin;• 1,25) ersona from flifferent wrecks on our
Tilelnstitution also expended £12,420 in the same
period on its lifeboat establishments, in addition to granting
£3,362 as x ewards.
The Committee of the Institution earnestly A ?PEAL to
the public for ASSISTANCE to enable them to meet the
continued heavy demands on the Institution's 172 lifeboat
establishments.
Contributions are received by the London and co
atunthe
try
bankers ; and by the Secretary.
Richard Lewis, Esq.,
Institution, 14, John-street, Adelphi, London.

THEATRE ROYAL DRURY-LANE.
Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr. F. B. Chatterton
THIS EVENING iv 11 be performed tshalkspere's Tragedy
of INIACBETIi Mr. 11. Ta.Lbot ; Mesin's. sinctair, T. "cad,
W. M'lntyre. Hen. i Lr yton ; Amy Sedovick,
Jenny Bauer, Rebecca Isaac. a c
COUCIUCIC with Tllr. OrERA. Captain
3laAteath, Mr. W. Harris At.

raence at Seven.

--
T-
Sole Lee See and Manager, Mr. Bucks., he,
THIS EVr:NIN,;, IHE ()V RUG rE. Messr-i.
Chat le Ma: hews, Buckstone. Coin, ton, Chippeue alMathewse, hoge,
Chi rs,
Clark, Braid. Gordon, White, ,Itc. ; nesdaiut s t,
pendale, Gill. v.. right, &c.
Atter which, 1114 BALLET DIVERTISSEMENT. The
Misses Healy.
To be tollowed by TIIE CRITIC. Mee ars. C. Mathews,
Compton, Rogers; Mrs. Flizwilliam, &c.
To conclude with MY HUSBAND'S GHOST.
Commence at Seven.

ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE.-
Sole Lessee and Manager, Mr. k'echter.
'PHIS EVENING, BRUTUS AND CESAR. Miss
Henrade.
-At a Quarter before 8, the new Drama, in F our Acts, THE
LONG STRIKE, written by Diou Boucicault. The New
Scenery by Mr. T. Greive and assistants. Mess.s. S Emery,
Widlicornb, Fitzpatrick, Dalton, D. Evans, Anderson,
kiewbound, Stanley. Lomas, Moreland, Andrews, Reynolds,
and J. C. Cowper.
To conclude with TWEEDLETON'S TAIL COAT. Toby
Tweedleton, Mr. 11. Widdicomb ; and Miss uratton
Acting Manager, Mr. IL Barnett. Stage Manager, Mr. W.

West.
Box-office open daily from Ten till Five.

THE LONG STRIKE.-ROYAL LYCEUM
'MEAT &E.—Johnny Reilly (an Irish Sailor), Mr. D.
Boucioault; Jane Learoyd (a Factory Girl), Mrs. D. Bouci-
Can't. At 7 o'clock.

OYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and .Manager, Mr. Geo. Vining.
WINTER SEASON.
N.B.—Doors open at Half-past Six, performances to com-
mence at Seven.
THIS EVENING, a Comedy, in Three Acts, by John
Oxenford, Esq, entitled THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE Mr.
Vining, Mr. J. G. Shore; Miss K. Rogers, Miss Neilson, and
Mrs. Buckingham White.
Atter which, at 9 o'clock, THE HUGUENOT CAPTAIN,
by Watts Phillips. Esq. Mrs. Stir.ing, Miss Neilson, Miss A.
Thomson; Mr. Forrester, Mr. G. Honey, and Mr. J. G. shore.
Grand Ballet of Bohemians, in which MM. Flageolet, Clo-
docile, Comete, and Normande, will appear. Scenery by Mr.
F. Lloyds.

THEATRE ROYAL ADELPHL
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING, at 7 precisely (3d time), E ; or,
ONLY A LIFE. Miss Ka; e Terry, Mrs. Allred Mellon,
Miss Furtado, Miss Emily Pitt ; Messrs. Billington, Stephen-
son, Asnley, Roma', C. J. Smitn, &c.
To conclude with HELEN ; or, TAKEN FROM THE
GREEK. Mrs. A. Mellon, Miss Furtado. Miss Emily Pitt ;
Messrs. Paul Bedford, R. Phillips, F. A. Shaw, Ashley,
Eburne.

110YAL STRAND TIIEATB.E.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. 6Wanboroug.
THIS EVENING, THE MARRIED BACHELOR.
Messrs. Thorne and Price; Misses Johnstone and Hughes.
To be followed by IN TilE WRONG BOX.
After which, will be produced a Grand Burlesque of
DEil FREISCHUTZ ; or, A Good CaPt for a Piece.
Messrs. borne, Jamer, and Robson; M
es.esdames Swan-
borough, Raynham, Johnstone, and ;h
To conclude wiZh WAITING FOEI. TUE UNDER-
GROUND.

Commence at Seven.

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tins DAY.—Merning, 6h. 20m.—Afternoon, 6h. 40m.
T a-Mow:to w.-Monaing, 7h. 6m.—Afternoon, 7h. 40m.

at it FO-‘l,7l:ZUlt.‘ SI lit
4+444

LONDON, TUESDA}, OCT. 16, 1866.

There is one advantage attending the quiet
autumn months, which are usually characterised as
" the dull time of the year." Subjects of what may
be called chronic importance, which vitally affect
and influence the well-being of the population and
the destinies of the country, are likely to obtain a
fair share of attention. In the whirl and hurry of
the Parliamentary session, the excitement of the
political campaign, there is not much hope that
time or thought will be given to the solution of
those social problems which, after all, belong of right
to the province of the statesman and the legislator.
National education is undoubtedly a matter of the
very highest importance, and it is one which it is
most disastrous to neglect or postpone. While we
are wasting time in careless and occasional discus-
sion, in fierce polemical contentions, and in the
indulgence of party feeling or local jealousies, the
precious months are slipping by which are turning
children into men and women. Politicians may be
indifferent, or, if not indifferent, more eager
for the success of their own particular schemes
than for the eventual gain of the country, but the
consequences of the delay are becoming every
day more serious. Olr population is rapidly in-
creasing, and in spite of all that schools of various
denominations have done and are doing the members
growing up in absolute ignorance and heathenism
are reckoned by hundreds of thousands. We talk a
great deal about the elevation of the masses, and
aPeeulate as to the best mode of raising
them
the scale of intelligence and civilisation, but
there are
two most important means of elevation
ready to our hands which we have hitherto scarcely
heeded. These
are the improvement of their dwell-
ings and the education
of their children. As it is,
in spite of all drawbacks, the working classes of our
day are immeasurably superior to men and women
of the same rank thirty or forty years ago ; and this
is due to the increased •
Stimulus given to
popular education. Still itivi •
koua comparisons
are of ton made, unhappily, without reason
between this county and others. America and Pro-
sia are both in advance of us in this reelect} but
then circumstances it must be admitted aredifferent.
America is not so thickly peopled, and from tl,o
liar circumstances of her history she has been able
to frame her Govdrnment nations upon theory than
older and more complex . In Prussia a
certain amount of education is compulsory, and
some entbudasts advocate the adoption of the
inter-
same system here. But to Englishmen any
teteence with individual freedom and independence
would IA simply intolerable to the people, who
hold, and rightly, the blessings and advantages of
civil freedom and independents to be above any
other boon Iyhich the Goyernment can botor