- tigate it. An elderly woman, who kept fowls which occasionally
trespassed on a neighbour's fields, one morning observed four of them very sickly; and in the course of the day they became so ill that she killed them. She cleaned and prepared two of them for cooking, buried another, and gave away the fourth to a beggar, who was afterwards lost sight of. Next day soup made with the half of one of the fowls was given to a little girl, who suffered severely from sickness and vomiting, and also to a cat, which was similarly affected for the whole evening. On the day afterwards the woman herself and a female lodger, took broth made with what remained of the fowls, and also eat the gizzards; but the remainder was thrown with the offal upon the dunghill. In the course of five or six hours both women were attacked with severe illness. One had sickness, vomiting and great coldness; but after encouraging the vomiting with hot water and then taking some spirits, she got better in the nighttime, and next morning was pretty well. The other, who was the owner of the fowls, was seized somewhat later than her friend with great thirst and shivering, and next day with pains in the stomach, severe sickness, and fruitless efforts to vomit. On the sixth day, when a medical man first saw her, she had great pain throughout the abdomen, much thirst, difficult breathing, a red, dry tongue, and a very frequent, small pulse. Next day the pain and difficult breathing became worse; and in the evening, after an attack of sneezing, she became gradually insensible and motionless, in which state she remained till the tenth day, when she expired. The stomach and intestines did not present any distinct morbid appearance; but the vessels of the brain were turgid, there were about two ounces of serosity in the lateral ventricles, both corpora striata were softened anteriorly, and a clot of blood as big as an almond was contained in the right anterior lobe of the brain.—A judicial investigation being ordered, it was ascertained that the fowl which the woman buried as well as the remains of the other fowls which were thrown upon the dunghill, had been carried off. But on searching the dunghill more carefully afterwards, the contents of one of the crops, which had been taken out and examined by the lodger, were discovered in the rubbish; and in the mass Mr. Jamieson detected a considerable quantity of arsenic.
This incident happened in 1836. More lately the same gentleman met with another extraordinary attempt of the same kind. A farmer, about to be married, gave directions for killing in the evening some fowls which were to be sent to the house of his bride where the ceremony was to take place. The killing of them however was accidentally delayed; and next morning, on the hen-house door being opened, the fowls ran furiously to the well, drank water incessantly, and died in an hour. On examining the bodies, Mr. Jamieson found arsenic in large quantity in their crops and gizzards.
On each of these occasions a particular individual came under suspicion; but the evidence against them was too slight to justify the authorities in bringing a formal charge; and consequently the pro-
