On the 30th of October 1858 a batch of sweets which had accidentally been
adulterated with arsenic were put on sale at a market stall in Bradford,
England. More than 200 people consumed them, with the vast majority becoming
severely ill as a result. 21 people, including many children, died as a result
of what turned out to be one of the first mass poisonings in British history.
William Hardaker was a renowned sweet maker based in the Greenmarket in
central Bradford. So popular was he that he was known as humbug Billy after the
black and white humbug candies that were one of his most popular products.
Hardaker obtained these candies on a regular basis from Joseph Neal who
owned a small workshop not far from the market.
Neal made a range of products and often adulterated them with non-standard
ingredients in order to save money. Expensive sugar, for example, would often
be switched out with inexpensive powdered gypsum. This was a common
practice at the time. Everyone did it, but everyone knew that it was wrong, too.
So much so that the adulterators would often use obscure nicknames like "daff"
and "flash" for their ingredients in order to escape detection. On the 30th of
October 1858 Joseph Neal sent a lodger to pick up some ingredients from a
druggist on his behalf. The druggist in question was ill that day and a young
assistant was filling in for him. So it was that neither person undertaking the
transaction was an expert, and so it was that a terrible mistake was made. The
druggist's assistant packaged up or he thought was 12 pounds of powdered gypsum...
but he had got the wrong barrel. What he actually sold to Joseph Neal's lodger
was an equal amount of arsenic trioxide. The lodger returned to Joseph Neal's
workshop and handed the poisonous substance off to one of the sweet makers
employed there. This man, named James Appleton, proceeded to whip up a batch of
humbugs, becoming terribly sick in the process. He was ill for several days
thereafter, vomiting and experiencing pain in his hands and arms... but he did
not realize his condition was down to poisoning. Neither did anyone else.
The poisoned sweet maker, James Appleton, noted that the finished humbugs looked
different from usual, but was too sick to investigate further.
Joseph Neal, the workshop owner, noticed that they looked off too, but was still
keen to sell them and make a profit. William Hardaker, Humbug Billy, used the
odd appearance of the humbugs to press for a discount, and happily sampled a few
of the candies before putting them up for sale from his market stall. That
evening, of course, William Hardaker soon took ill... but not ill enough to stop him
from selling his deadly produce. The first few deaths were children. At first
look it was as though they had been killed by cholera, a common illness at
the time. Those poisoned suffered from vomiting, abdominal pain, and bloody
diarrhea. It was a messy, painful and protracted way to die. Soon enough, though,
dozens of people had died or been taken ill and police were able to identify the
cause as the poisoned humbugs. The sweets were confiscated and tested, and found to
contain all in all enough arsenic to kill 2,000 people. Thankfully the final
death toll came to just 21, with around 200 people suffering severe ill effects
as a result of consuming the sweets. The druggist and his assistant as well
as workshop owner Joseph Neal were hauled before a magistrate, but were
ultimately either acquitted or discharged once the circumstances of the
poisoning were fully known. Tather than punishing the individuals responsible,
legislation was drafted to ensure that no such disaster could ever happen again.
This included a crackdown on the adulteration of foodstuffs and a
requirement for better record-keeping by all druggists. So it was that one of the
worst cases of mass poisoning in UK history ultimately resulted in better
regulation, more accountability, and better quality food for everyone. We live
now in a world where it is extremely rare that anyone should lose their life
because of mixed up ingredients or adulterated food. The Bradford sweets
poisoning, terrible though it was at the time, contributed to making the safe,
clean, regulated world of today a reality.