A letter to the Right Honourable Lord Campbell, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, on the clause respecting chloroform in the proposed Prevention of offences bill / by John Snow.

  • John Snow
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Right Honourable Lord Campbell, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, on the clause respecting chloroform in the proposed Prevention of offences bill / by John Snow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/28 page 14
    bill presented by your Lordship*. All the dietetic and medicinal, as well as other narcotics, are capable of causing stupor when taken in sufficient quantity. The stupifying or overpowering matters in most frequent use in this country, are ardent spirits, wine, and beer. I conclude that the clause under consideration does not apply to spirituous and fermented liquors, when openly given, with whatever intent, but to the fraudulent ad- ministration of other substances, similar in action, but more powerful. It cannot be denied that opiates are sometimes exhibited, with felonious intent, in malt liquor, the bitterness of which disguises their taste, and such a crime cannot be too severely punished; but it would be a great error to conclude that the offence called hocussing is so common as the statements of prosecutors at the Police Courts would imply. Persons who have been dead drunk are very unwilling to admit, even to themselves, that the result was the consequence * The clause runs as follows. And whereas it is expedient to make further provision for the punishment of persons using Chloroform, or other stupifying things, in order the better to en- able them to commit felonies: be it enacted, that if any person shall unlawfully apply or administer, to any other person, any Chloroform, Laudanum, or other stupifying or overpowering drag, matter, or thing, with intent thereby to enable such offender or any other person to commit any felony upon the person to whom the same may be applied or administered, or attempted to be ap- plied or administered, or upon his or any other person's property, every such offender shall he guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the Court, to be trans- ported for life, or for any term not less than seven years.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3