1 APRIL 2000, Page 28

Expiring perspiring

From Mr E.S. Turner Sir: Paul Johnson muses on the conditions in which the human head can give off steam (And another thing, 25 March).

There was an impressive example to be seen in the criminal dock in Dublin in 1795 when the Revd William Jackson, libeller, blackmailer and spy, was awaiting sentence for high treason. According to a life by Thomas MacNevin, the prisoner was in such a state of perspiration that 'when his hat was removed a dense steam was seen to ascend from his head and temples'. This phenomenon may have been caused less by a state of apprehension than by the effects of a powerful poison Jackson had taken in order to cheat the hangman, in which he was successful.

E.S. Turner

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