LAMENTABLE LOSS OF LIFE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 656, 19 February 1859, Page 4

LAMENTABLE LOSS OF LIFE.

A terrible case of accidental poisoning has occurred at Bradford, resulting in the death of 20 persons, and the dangerous illness of about 170 more. The following are the particulars given by the l Times':-—There is a certain Joseph Neal, a confectioner at Bradford,, who was in the habit of adulterating his lozenges and wares of the like kind with a substance which in the trade slang is called "daff," but which is in reality plaster of Paris. This substance, when used in such proportion as JNeal and;others like him are in the habit of usingl it, is not destructive of life,nor to any noticeable degree deleterious to health. Neal wanted to make up; a quantity :of: lozenges, and accordingly !he sent over to Shipley, to the shop of an ajpothecary there named Hodgson,-; wijfch directions to bring him back 121b"; 'of " daff," '.;, Hodgson was ill in bed when Neal's; messenger arrived, and when the application was made known to him, sent down word thaYthe messenger had better let the' matter, stand over till he himself could come dbwn and attend to it. The man, however, persisted, and at length Hodgson desired Go^dard^ his assistant, to supply him with; the, articles he desired. Hodgson told (xoddard to go down into the cellar, and there he would find the " daff" in a cask. Now, in this cellar there was a cask without any distinctive label. The lid was broken in three places, and it was as unprotected as any other article in the cellar. The contents appeared to be the "daff" of which the assistant was in search, and he accordingly weighed out 12 lbs. of it, and delivered it to Neal's messenger. It was deadly poison—it was arsenic, which he had given to him by mistake. Neal's assistant returned to hini with the supposed "daff" and he handed it over to one of his workmen to be worked up into lozengers. This man, James Appleton by name, stated Wore the magistrates that after working at his job from 6in the morninff until about 11 o'clock he was taken ill with vomiting, he suffered great pain in his face and arms, and was ill for some time afterwards. It did not, however, occur to his mind to connect his illness with the stuff upon which he had been engaged. The lozenges in due course were made, up and deposited in stock, no one having- any suspicion that aught was amiss. William Hardaker, a person who appears to keep a stall or booth in the market-place at Bradford on market days, presented himself < at Neal's shop, and asked to be supplied with 40 lbs. weight of the lozenges, which were handed to him, as usual, without remark. Any one of the lozenges which were thus delivered by the dealer to the retail chapman contained arsenic enough to destroy two human beings! Bradford market-day was the 80th of October. Hardaker got his little piles of sugared death ready, and the.tragedy began. As the habit was, upon that day one person after another went to Hardaker's stall, and bought, some one pennyworth, some two

pennyworth, of the deadly stuff. Some of the purchasers slipped the delicacies into their own mouths; some gave them to the children they had with them. These fell.the first. The lozenges were scattered all about Bradford and in the villages around. Presently in the streets arid" in the houses lamentations arose. Then deaths occurred,, and the alarm spread over the town. It was soon discovered that wherever there was a sufferer there had been a lozenge, and so the police soon found their way to Hardaker's. His stock was seized, and lozenges were handed over to an analytical chemist in Bradford, who discovered that they contained arsenic jn large proportions. Each of them, by calculation, must have held 9^ grains of arsenic, —pleasant confectionery. Nor could the inhabitants of Bradford feel secure, that with

the seizure of Hardaker's stock there was an ', «nd of the mischief. From his hands the lozenges were traced to those of Neale, the ;• dealer. This man stated that after Hardaker b had been supplied, all that was left of the j,' lozenges, including the scraps, was put into £i " Scotch mixtures" of their own shop: Where ■} was this to end ? Nealandhis wife had, since v they were apprised of the calamity, endeavoured to pick out the poisoned lozenges from . their stock, but the man admitted that a con,»siderable quantity yet remained. The officers •; were at once most properly directed to go and -'' make a clear sweep in Neal's shop. When 1 this was done Neal took: to his heels and ran 1 away from the officers, who followed him to his workshop, and found that there were there in an upper room fragments of the poisoned lozenges, of which he had not made mention. He was taken into custody, and Hodgson, the ; chemist, was also apprehended. [At the } magisterial inquiry.held on the whole case, on the sth of November, Hodgson, Goddard, his assistant, and Neal, were committed for trial for manslaughter, bail being accepted.]