The 1861 Offences Against the Person Act passed by the UK Parliament covered a range of offences, including: assaults, rape, abduction, defilement of women, child-stealing, and bigamy. It also addressed the use of chloroform, laudanum, and other drugs with the intent to commit a crime, and the use of poison or other substances to procure an abortion. “Offence” can be traced to its origins in a hypothetical Indo-European root meaning to strike, wound, or kill. The Act aimed to consolidate and mitigate offences against the person by combining various earlier acts into a single one. It also imposed corresponding penalties for different offences.
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When I use a word . . . Medicines regulation—pharmacological offences against the person
