sagacious man. The result was, that the child
went figless away, and that I—my edges curl
as I record the humiliating fact—was nailed
to the counter as an example to others. Here
my career ended and my biography closes.

CHIPS.

DEATH IN THE SUGAR PLUM.

AT this present writing, there lie on our
desk a half-a-dozen sweetmeats. They are
about the size of pigeon's eggs; captivating to
the eye, being of a bright red colour; tempting
to the taste, being almonds encased in a sugary
compound; and easy to be procured, being
about a penny per dozen. They are sold in all
manner of shops; and, as if they could not be
sufficiently disseminated among the juvenile
population at large, are very generally
hawked about in poor neighbourhoods, at a
great reduction in price.

They are rank poison! and we give a
melancholy history connected with them,
transmitted to us by a mourning father,
whose name and address are appended to his
letter:—

"My daughter" he says, "aged nineteen,
purchased on the 19th of October, and ate an
ounce of a fancy sweetmeat called Burnt
Almonds (I find that she had eaten some of
them previously in the course of the same
week) and during the following night she
was taken with violent pains and sickness.
and exhibited all the symptoms of having
taken poison. She suffered intense agony
until the 4th of November, when in
consequence of the inflamed and weakened state of
the intestines, collapse or strangulation of
them took place, and after dreadful sufferings
she died on the Sunday following, having
about seven hours previously underwent a
painful surgical operation.

"I am influenced by no personal motive.
My daughter has lost her life, when a long
duration of it and its enjoyments appeared
before her; and it is in order that parents
may escape the mental sufferings that I have
experienced, and that their children may
escape the agonies that my daughter endured,
that I court publicity to these painful facts.
These poisonous sweetmeats are sold in every
street; and they not only contain poison in
the colouring matter, but sulphate of barytes,
a species of plaster of Paris procured from
Derbyshire, enters largely into their composition
in the place of sugar. I send you a
sample of the burnt almonds, the same sample
with Dr. Letheby's letter, and a more detailed
account of my daughter's case I forwarded to
the Home Office, innocently supposing that
protection of life from poison might be of sufficient
importance to engage the attention of Government;
they were returned with a formal
acknowledgment of the receipt of my letter; it
therefore rests, as Dr. Letheby intimates, with
the public "to put a check on the practice."

Dr. Letheby, one of our most eminent
toxicologists, in his answer to the above
application, communicates his analysis in the
following terms:—

"In reply to your letter of yesterday, I
have to state, that, on Wednesday, the 6th
instant, I received, from Mr. Byles, a parcel
of red-coloured sweetmeats, which are, I
believe, sold under the name of 'Burnt
Almonds.' I have made an analysis of the
material, and I find that it contains portions
of lead; but I cannot venture to say, without
learning more of the history and progress of
the malady, that this metallic impregnation
was the cause of the disease from which your
daughter suffered. This, however, I may
state, that lead is a very insidious poison, and
that it cannot be taken, even in very small
quantities, for any length of time, without
producing serious effects on the animal
economy; it ought not, therefore, to be introduced,
under any circumstances, as a constituent
of our food. Should the disease in
question have been occasioned by the colouring
matter made use of in the preparation of the
sweetmeat, it is a disaster which cannot, I
think, create much surprise, when we
consider how recklessly the manufacturers of
cheap confectionery are permitted to practise
their art."

We have Dr. Letheby's authority for adding,
that, within the last three years, as many as
seventy cases of poisoning have been traced,
in this country, to the deleterious pigments
in fancy sweetmeats; and, unless the public
themselves make some effort to put a check
on the practice, more serious results will yet
follow.

Although it is understood that carelessness
exists in the general manufacture of
confectionery, yet it is not in all sweetmeats that
the existence of poison should be suspected.
The playful beauty at a ball supper, who pulls
a "cracker" with her simpering swain, need
not be more afraid of the ruby comfit which
the explosion discharges into her lap, than of
the equally harmless motto that surrounds it.
The colouring matter used for the best
confectionery is comparatively harmless. In this,
as in most similar cases, it is the poor alone
who suffer. Our warning is raised more
especially against cheap sweetmeats; and against
these —as against poison in any form — the less
educated and affluent ought to be protected;
but in this country, when a deadly evil affects
chiefly or wholly the poor, it is allowed to
have full sway —the check, if it ever be put
on, is slowly and often ineffectually applied.
Hence, the poison-sold-everywhere system
which we noticed in our number thirty-three,
is permitted to go on killing its hundreds per
annum, without one member of Parliament of
sufficient influence rising "in his place" to
legislate a preventive measure. Even when
several guests are poisoned at a mayor's feast,
there is not influence or earnestness enough
amongst the whole corporation, to endeavour