Background
William Hardaker, known to locals as "Humbug Billy", sold sweets from a stall in the Green Market in central Bradford (now the site of Bradford's Arndale Centre, then named Kirkgate Market). 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 humbugs, made of peppermint oil incorporated into a base of – in theory – sugar and gum. However, sugar was expensive and so Neal would substitute a cheaper, inert substance known as "daft" for the sugar. The adulteration of foodstuffs with "daft" was common practice at the time. Ian Jones reports that "the precise identity of "daft" was variable: plaster of Paris, powdered limestone, and sulphate of lime had been reported."
Read more about this topic: 1858 Bradford Sweets Poisoning
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