The 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning was the

arsenic poisoning Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but o ...

of more than 200 people in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, England, when

sweets Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called '' sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, i ...

accidentally made with

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...

were sold from a market stall. Twenty-one victims died as a result. The event contributed to the passage of the

Pharmacy Act 1868 The Pharmacy Act 1868 (31 & 32 Vict c 121) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was the major 19th-century legislation in the United Kingdom limiting the sale of poisons and dangerous drugs to qualified pharmacists and druggis ...

in the United Kingdom and legislation regulating the adulteration of foodstuffs.

Background

William Hardaker, known to locals as "Humbug Billy", sold sweets from a stall in the Greenmarket in central Bradford (now the site of Bradford's

Arndale Centre Arndale Centres were the first "American style" malls to be built in the United Kingdom. In total, twenty three Arndales have been built in the United Kingdom, and three in Australia. The first opened in Jarrow, County Durham, in 1961, as a ped ...

). Hardaker purchased his supplies from Joseph Neal, who made the sweets (or "lozenges") on Stone Street a few hundred yards to the north. The lozenges in question were peppermint

humbug A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a "nautical phrase". It is now also often used as an exclama ...

s, made of peppermint oil incorporated into a base of sugar and gum. However, sugar was expensive (6½d per ) and so Neal would substitute powdered gypsum (½d per ) — known as "daff" — for some of the required sugar. The

adulteration An adulterant is caused by the act of adulteration, a practice of secretly mixing a substance with another. Typical substances that are adulterated include but are not limited to food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fuel, or other chemicals, that ...

of foodstuffs with cheaper substances was common at the time and the adulterators used obscure nicknames ("daff", "multum", "flash", "stuff") to hide the practice.

Accidental poisoning

On the occasion in question, on 30 October 1858, Neal sent James Archer, a lodger who lived at his house, to collect daff for Hardaker's humbugs from druggist Charles Hodgson. Hodgson's pharmacy was away at Baildon Bridge in Shipley. Hodgson was at his pharmacy, but did not serve Archer owing to illness and so his requests were seen to by his young assistant, William Goddard. Goddard asked Hodgson where the daff was, and was told that it was in a cask in a corner of the

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building; an attic may also be called a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because attics fill the space between the ceiling of the ...

. However, rather than daff, Goddard sold Archer of

arsenic trioxide Arsenic trioxide, sold under the brand name Trisenox among others, is an inorganic compound and medication. As an industrial chemical, whose major uses include in the manufacture of wood preservatives, pesticides, and glass. As a medication, i ...

. The mistake remained undetected even during manufacture of the sweets by James Appleton, an "experienced sweetmaker" employed by Neal, though Appleton did observe that the finished product looked different from the usual humbugs. Appleton was suffering symptoms of illness during the sweet-making process and was ill for several days afterwards with vomiting and pain in his hands and arms, but did not realise it was caused by poison. of lozenges were sold to Hardaker who also noticed the sweets looked unusual and used this to obtain a discount from Neal. Like Appleton, Hardaker, as one of the first to taste the sweets, also promptly became ill. Arsenic trioxide

Regardless, Hardaker sold of the sweets from his market stall that night – reportedly at a price of 1½d for . Of those who purchased and ate the sweets, 21 people died with a further 200 or so becoming severely ill with arsenic poisoning within a day.

Consequences

Originally the first deaths—those of two children—were thought to be owed to

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

, a major problem in Britain at the time. The growing number of casualties soon showed that the purchase of lozenges from Hardaker's stall was the cause, and from there the trail led to Neal and Hodgson. Goddard was arrested and stood before magistrates in the court house in Bradford on 1 November with Hodgson and Neal later committed for trial with Goddard on a charge of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

. Dr John Bell identified arsenic as the cause, and this was confirmed by Felix Rimmington, a prominent druggist and analytical chemist. Rimmington estimated that each humbug contained between of arsenic, though a contemporary account suggests , with being a lethal dose. Thus, each lozenge would have contained enough arsenic to kill two people, and enough distributed by Hardaker in total to kill 2,000. The prosecution against Goddard and Neal was later withdrawn and Hodgson was acquitted when the case was considered at York Assizes on 21 December 1858. The tragedy and resulting public outcry was a major contributing factor to The

which recognised the chemist and druggist as the custodian and seller of named poisons (as medicine was then formally known). The requirement for record keeping and the requirement to obtain the signature of the purchaser is currently upheld under the

Poisons Act 1972 The Poisons Act 1972 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (citation 1972 c. 66) making provisions for the sale of non-medicinal poisons, and the involvement of Local Authorities and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain ...

for "non-medicinal" poisons.

W. E. Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

's ministry of 1868–1874 also brought in legislation regulating the adulteration of foodstuffs as a result of the events.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bradford Sweets Poisoning, 1858

1850s health disasters Adulteration Arsenic Food safety scandals Disasters in Yorkshire History of Bradford Mass poisoning Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances Health disasters in the United Kingdom Food safety in the United Kingdom History of forensic science 19th century in Yorkshire October 1858 events