A prisoner was tried on a presentment framed under sec. 56 of the Crimes Act 1890 for supplying a noxious thing, knowing that the same was intended to be unlawfully used or employed with intent to procure a miscarriage. The evidence showed that the police laid a trap to catch the prisoner, and wrote a letter stating that a woman was three months with child, and asking for something to cure her, but there was no such woman in fact. In reply, the prisoner, believing that there was such a woman, sent certain pills containing half a drop of a certain drug. Witnesses for the Crown described the pills as being dangerous to a pregnant woman; they might injure one woman, though not another. Witnesses for the prisoner stated that the pills were harmless. The learned Judge, in directing the jury, told them that the offence charged might be committed although there was no existing woman in question, and that the prisoner would be guilty if he unlawfully supplied a poison or noxious thing knowing or believing at the time that it was intended to be used with the intent of procuring a miscarriage, even though it now appeared that no such intent actually existed in anyone’s mind, and that the prisoner’s belief as to the effect of the thing supplied was beside the question, for if he unlawfully supplied a noxious thing, knowing or believing it was to be used for an unlawful purpose, his opinion that such thing was not noxious would not excuse him. The prisoner was convicted.