1858 Bradford Sweets Poisoning - Accidental Poisoning

Accidental Poisoning

On the occasion in question, Neal sent the lodger who lived at his house – James Archer – to collect daft for Hardaker's humbugs from druggist Charles Hodgson, whose pharmacy was located 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 William Goddard. He went to Hodgson as he was unclear on where the "daft" was to be found, and was told that it was in a cask in one corner of the cellar. However, rather than "daft", Goddard sold Archer 12 pounds of arsenic trioxide.

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; reportedly, he was suffering symptoms of illness during the sweet-making process. Reportedly, Appleton mixed the 12 lb of arsenic with 40 lb of sugar and 4 lb of gum to make the sweets. Forty pounds 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.

Regardless, Hardaker sold 5 lb of the sweets from his market stall that night – reportedly at a price of three halfpence for two ounces. Of those who purchased and ate the sweets, around 20 people died with a further 200 or so becoming severely ill with arsenic poisoning within a day or so.