William Hardaker ran a sweet shop in Green Market in Bradford, England.
The humbug was a favorite among his customers, who took to calling him Humbug Billy.
Of course, Hardaker didnt make the sweets himself; he merely sold them.
Wood engraving by J. Leech, 1858.
Published in Punch 20 November 1858.
The mixture is then poured out, and stretched and folded many times.
On arriving, Neals assistant discovered that Hodgson was ill in bed.
The shop was instead staffed by an inexperienced apprentice named William Goddard.
Goddard found the cask and dutifully scooped out 12 pounds of the white powder and handed it to Archer.
At the time, he merely presumed he had caught a stomach bug.
Hardaker popped one into his mouth, probably to see whether they tasted different, and promptly fell ill. That night, Hardaker sold five pounds of the sweets.
By the next morning, two local children, aged eight and 11, were dead.
Initially, the deaths were attributed to cholera, a disease that was rampant in Europe.
But when more and more people began to take ill, a police investigation began.
Suspicion eventually fell upon Hardakers humbugs.
A chemical analysis of the sweets revealed each contained enough poison to kill two grown men.
Potentially lethal dose of arsenic trioxide next to a 1 cent coin.
The alert likely saved countless lives.
The youngest child to die was just 17 months old.
Hardaker returned to the confectionery business after recovering from his own illness.
The passing of the Pharmacy Act saw an immediate drop in deaths, mostly from opium overdose.
Among children the improvement in mortality rates were staggering.
Between 1863 and 1867, deaths among children under five was at 20.5 per million population.
Despite stricter regulation, consumer products containing toxins continued to be available over the counter.
Many Victorian era cosmetics and makeup products contained arsenic.
Green-dyed wallpapers that adorned the bedrooms of many Victorian homes contained copper arsenite.
In the US, arsenic-laced wafers were sold to gullible women promising them of blemish-free skin.
