Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, Fifth Series, No. 49, Vol. I, December 6, 1884

No. 49.—Vol. I.
Price 1½ d.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1884.
An examination of the Registrar-general’s annual Report for 1882 gives some interesting and suggestive statistics as to cases of poisoning, which we think it may not be out of place to call attention to. Probably few of our readers will be aware how frequently cases of poisoning occur in the ordinary course of events. In the year 1881, for example, there were five hundred and sixty-nine deaths recorded in England alone from poisoning; while the year 1882 shows a record considerably in excess of this, namely, five hundred and ninety-nine, or one in every eight hundred and sixty-three of the total deaths registered. Fully two-fifths of these cases are classified under the heading ‘Accident and Negligence’—the remainder are suicides, of which we will have a word to say by-and-by—and as it is not too much to assume that in nearly every instance such cases are preventable, we purpose calling attention to some of the more common causes of these fatalities, in the hope that the suggestions and warnings thrown out may not be without their influence in producing more care in the handling and use of these dangerous substances.
Glancing over the various poisons, we find that the well-known preparations of opium, laudanum, and morphia—opium itself being included—head the list, having caused eighty-five deaths through accident or negligence. This might have been expected from preparations so largely used in domestic remedies; but the seventy-eight deaths from lead-poisoning which follow do surprise us, in view of the fact that the conditions which produce as well as the conditions which mitigate or counteract the effects of this subtle poison, are now so well known. Lead is followed by the four stronger acids—hydrochloric, nitric, sulphuric, and carbolic, which amongst them have caused thirty-four deaths under the same category. Arsenic, again, caused nine; phosphorus, eleven; chlorodyne, six; chloral, fourteen; chloroform, four; soothing syrup, four; with a host of casualties from substances of minor importance.