One of the items in the purse of the deceased boy's mother was bromide of potassium. Potassium bromide was the first effective medication used to treat the seizures from epilepsy, first being identified as effective by Sir Charles Locock at a meeting of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1857. Potassium bromide remained the most effective treatment for epileptic seizures until the discovery of phenobarbital in 1912. It is still used in modern veterinary medicine to treat seizures in dogs.
The episode title "Some Conscience Lost," is spoken by Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen). "This order, this marvelous efficiency, this systematization, I believe that here yet attends some unforeseen evil, some coldness to humankind, some conscience lost."