Friedrich Accum - Life and Work - Scandal and Lawsuit

Scandal and Lawsuit

The process that ultimately led to Accum's departure from England and return to Germany began a few months after the publication of his book on the poisoning of foodstuffs. For a long time, many contradictory accounts have been given of the exact circumstances of his exile. Finally in 1951, Cole, in an addendum to the minutes of Royal Institution, proved that the presentation of the events adopted in the article in the Dictionary of National Biography, and also later in the Allgemeinen Deutschen Biographie (according to which Accum was embroiled in charges of embezzlement as librarian of the Royal Institution and escaped to Germany), did not correspond to the facts.

Cole completely reprinted the minutes of an extraordinary meeting of the Royal Institution of December 23, 1820, which show that these events were initiated through an observation made by a librarian of the Royal Institution named Sturt. Sturt reported to his superiors that on November 5, 1820, a number of pages were removed from books in the reading room of the institution, books Accum had read. On the instructions of his superiors, Sturt cut a small hole in the wall of the reading room to watch Accum from an adjoining room. On the evening of December 20, as recorded in the minutes, Sturt could see Accum tear out and walk off with a paper concerning the ingredients and uses of chocolate. The paper had been in an issue of Nicholson’s Journal. Accum's premises on Old Compton Street were searched on the order of a magistrate for the City of London, and torn pages were indeed discovered there. These could be matched to books belonging to the Royal Institution.

The Magistrate after hearing the whole of the Case observed that however valuable the books might be from which the leaves found in Mr Accum’s house had been taken, yet the leaves separated from them were only waste paper. If they had weighed a pound he would have committed him for the value of a pound of waste paper, but this not being the case he discharged him.

The Royal Institution committee that met on December 23, 1820 was not, however, satisfied with this judgment, and decided to take further legal action against Accum. On January 10, 1821, an open letter directed to Earl Spencer, the president of the Institution, appeared in The Times defending Accum. The letter was signed "A.C", and Cole supposed that the author was the surgeon Anthony Carlisle, who had been friends with Accum since the first years of the latter's stay in London. This unsought support availed Accum little, as the minutes of the Royal Institution from April 16, 1821 show. These report the commencement of a lawsuit against Accum for theft of paper valued at 14 pence. Two of his friends were included in the indictment: the publisher Rudolph Ackermann and the architect John Papworth. These three appeared in court and paid altogether 400 pounds sterling as surety. Accum did not make an appearance at the court session. He had fled England and returned to Germany.

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