ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 77, 31 July 1863, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

A 'very destructive fire, attended with fatal consequences; took place on iMay 23, in the centre- of the business part of Devonport, and a large quantity of valuable property was destroyed thereby: ,The,fire broke out about 9.15 p ; .m. on the premises of Mr Emmett, grocer, at the corners of Tavistock-street, and; Princes-street. It < arose from the following accidbnt : — A neighboring tradesman, Mr. Earl,; painter, sent into Mr Emraett's shop for a qHart of Cazeline oil, Mr'Emmett was? present, and knowing the highly inflammable character of this oil. a large cask of which was kept in a cellar underneath the prer mises, he refused to allow either of his assistants to fetch the' article, but went himself with a candle, followed by a porter. Almost immediately after Emmettreached the bottom of the stairs in the cellar, a fearful explosion took place. The poiter, who had arrived at the top of the ladder, attempted to go down to assist his master, but the great rush of fire that ensued up the opening leading down to the cellar, entirely prevented his reaching Mr Emmett, who fell a victim to the accident. The Gre extended with terrific violence to all the adjoining premises. Mr Emmett's premises were totally destroyed, as were the adjoining tenements on both sides. Mr Emmett's remains were dug out of the ruins on the following morning, reduced to a few charred bones. News has been received of another melancholy shipwreck. The vessel Mooresfoot, Captain Coulthurst, with a crew i>f forty-two men and four passengers, was on her homeward voyage from Calcutta, and called in at St. Louis, Mauritius. On February 1 a storm arose and drove the vessel on a reef, and in a short time she was a total wreck. Thirty-one of the crew, including the captain and first and second officers, were drowned in the ship. Some time ago statements were made in three or four of the police courts in London in reference to proceedings of a most disgusting kind. By one means or another a fellow in the garb of a gentleman had succeeded in .getting out of various workhouses young women who were near their confinement. Piofessedly, he wished to engage them as wet-nurses. Really, he took them to low houses for improper purposes. At first no clue was obtained by which the scoundrel could be traced. Subsequently, however, the police got upon his track, and on May 25 he was brought up at Bow-street charged with the offences. He is described as possessing a gentlemanly exterior. He ret used, j however, to give his real name or address, although he was defended by a solicitor. One or two of the cases against him were gone into, and finally he was remanded — the magistrate expressing his intention to commit him for trial in each. ! The International Dog Show at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, was opened on May 25. The Prince and Princess of Wales were there previous to the public opening. The number of dogs exhibited is about 2,500, inclusive Of spirting doge in all varieties, toy and fancy dogs, and various foreign animals. Some families of workingjpeople at Bradford under Jmedical treatment were lately found to be suffering, more or less severely, from arsenical poisoning. It appears that William Johnron, a woolcomber, and his daughters, became ill, and a medical man was called in to see them. He found them exhibiting all the symptoms of poisoning, and treated them accordingly, by applying the stomach pump and other remedies. A mixture of cream of tartar and magnesia, j some of which they had taken as a medicine, was submitted to chemical tests and ascertained to contain arsenic in sufficient quantity to produce nil the bad symptoms. The presence of arsenic was also detected in the fluid ejected from the stomachs of the patients. These facts were communicated to the police, and the chief constable of Bradford went to the shop of a Mr. Potter, chemist and druggist, where the cream of tartar which the suffering family had swallowed had been purchased for them by a girl named Emma Bibby. more than a week before. Mr Potter staled that I he had not sold the {girl any arsenic, a<id that he kept his stock of arsenic in a reom behind the shop, quite away from the cream of tartar drawer which is in the shop. This he also pointed out to the chief constable, and the girl Bibby remembered the cream of tartar was taken out of the drawer in which Mr Potter said he kept it The chief constable obtained a sample of the cream of tartar which was then in the drawer, and the sample, on being tested, proved to be free from any mixture of arsenic. This was accounted for by the fact that Mr Potter had lately put a fresh supply in the drawer, having sold the whole of his previous stock. The cream of tartar supplied to the Johnsons having been administered with magnesia (the latter bought at a provUion shop) doubts might have arisen as to where the arsenic really came from, bad not a portion of cream of tartar purchased at Mr Potter's shop about the liirre when the Johnsons got theirs been found in the house of a family named Simpson, in Croft-street. This had Mr Potter's label upon it, and contained a considerable proportion of arsenic ; while the stock of magnesia in the possession of the provision dealer of whom the Johnsons bad bought their magnesia was found to be entirely free from that poison. Mrs Simpson and her son, a tailor, on taking a small quantity of the cream of tartar, and finding it made them sick, discontinued the use of it, and did not suffer so much as the Johnsons, whose lives were at first in great jeopardy, and they are not yet considered out of danger. Other personshave been similarly affected. The cream of tartar in which the arsenic has been found, was from a stock supplied to Mr Potter by a large wholesale house in a distant town. Between five and six years ago 17 persons were poisoned at Bradford by eating peppermint lozenges in which arsenic had been mixed by mistake, instead of plaster of paris, with which the maker had intended to adulterate them.