The Rev. John Henry Timins, Vicar of West Malting, the
clergyman who was found to have poisoned Sarah Ann Wiight, by: administering to her a teaspoonful of bitter almonds by mistake for sweet oil of almonds, was acquitted of all criminal liability on Weduesda,y by the jury at Maidttone. Mr. Justice Day, who tried the case, seems to have summed up with great impartiality, pointing out that the chemist had warned Mr. Timins of the dangerous nature of the drug, and that it was for the jury to say whether his negligence in administering it had been criminal. The jury decided, after live minutes' considera- tion, in the negative, and every one will rejoice that Mr. Timins, who has lung held a high character in a parish where he has been vicar for nearly a generation, was so leniently dealt with. Nevertheless, negligence of that kind is hardly excuse- able, especially in one who, like Mr. Timing, had studied medi- cine in his youth, and must have known the terrible danger of confusing a very poisonous with a somewhat similar, though perfectly harmless drug. Reckless doctoring is about the most dangerous form of reckless painstaking. If you take pains to interfere in the struggle between life and death, but interfere on the side of death after all, the reckh-ssuess had better have come a. stage earlier, and prevented the interference.
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