THE TIMARU POISONING CASE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1331, 2 September 1886, Page 2

THE TIMARU POISONING CASE.

[Pkess Correspondent ]

After the luncheon adjournment yes* terday the following evidence w»s taken :

Patrick Maclntyre, examined by Mr Martin—l am a duly qualified medicd practitioner, residing at Timaru. I knew the accused Hall and his wife. She was a patient of mine. I attended her in 1885. I attended her early in November of that year. The meat marked symptoms she then had were retcl’ing and vomiting. I prescribed for her. About the 14lh of the month she became de cidedly better. Bhe was very prostrate for some days, due to the sickness, but very quickly recovered. She became fairly well on the 14th, and was able to drive oat. 1 took the sickness to be due to pregnancy. I next saw her on the 9 h of June, but had seen her previously a few times, bat not on an important occasion till her confinement on Jane 19 h. I noticed nothing special about her confinement, which took a favorable course. On the fourth day the sickness came on again and the retching and vomiting continued more or less to the 15th last, and the early morning of the IGoh, accompanied by steadily increasing prostration There were periods daring which she seemed to be better. On the

fifth day after her confinement, inflammation of the right breast set in. The vomit was sometimes mucous, sometimes mucou -bilious matter, and sometimes consisted of copious watery matter. Just . before (he attacks of sickness and during them the skin assumed a very yellow or jaundiced color. There were repeated attacks of diarrhoea, the first of whion I prescribed for on the 27th June. She complained of a hot burning feeling in the throat an'* stomach. Bha often experienced a feeling as if the throat were ~ being rasped by the hand. There was

a tenderness over tbe stomach and region a of tbe liver. This extended over the 3 upper part of tbe belly. Ic involved the a whole of tbe abdominal area. During the * fart nine days prior to the 15;h August, o t hare was an itching of the skin affecting 3 the body and the limbs. There was also - soreness of the eyeballs, and mnch itching of the eyelids. She comp'aiaed of e a feeling as if her nose were enlarged, and the nostrils sore and irritable, The lips became dry, sore and cracked, and she complained of a nasty disagreeable taste in the mouth. On Saturady, August 14, she had twbehing of the • rms There was sometimes retention of urine—on one o-.cisu n lasting from h the lUh to the night of the 12 ,h. On the e 14th Jay her symptoms were so grave

that I sugg ated 10 ihe husband the advisability of having another medical man to see her for my own protection, Draw then saw her on that date, and wo prescri bed a certain course of treatment. The patient seemed to improve for two or three days, and then the symptoms returned again on the 28th July. The same month I suggested a further consultation to Hall, and then Dr Staopoola saw her Whey and lima water were ordered, with nourishing injections to be given through the bowels, and she Improved a little, but got worse again. On the 12th of August she was so very ill that I wished for another consultation, and suggested that Dr Lovegtove be called. I suggested this to Hall. Mrs Hall expressed a wish to call Dr Drew, If possible, and he, Dr Lovegrove and 1 held a consult itlon that evening at eight o’clock. We decided to give her no food by the mouth, but that I she he allowed to suck Ice and drink iced water. She was to be fed every three hours by the bowels with beef tea, pepsins, or pancreat'ne and brandy, to stop, as far as poasib’e, the retching and vomiting which occurred from time to time. She became weaker, and kept on becoming rapidly weaker. On Sunday, the 15th, when I saw her at 1 30 she was in a state of collapse ; her pube was at 116, features pinched, the eyes sunk and glassy, and the breathing hardly perceptible, being very feeble. The pulse, I may state, ways very irregular, and could hardly be felt at the wrist. She had then partially recovered from a severe attrck ot retching and vomiting. On Friday I secured two bottles—one of nrine and the other of vomit. I took them to the Hospital, and Dr Draw and 1 tested the contents of tlum. We came to the conclusion that they contained atimony, I then put a portion of each into bottles, sealed them, and forwarded them to Professor Black, Dunedin. On Sunday, August 16th,

when I was at Mrs Hall’s, at 1.30 p.m. in Mrs Hall’s bedroom, the nnrse dre' my attention to the fact that Hall hai given Mrs Hall some lead watar whicl Mrs Hall complained of as having a ver nasty taste. She also described it a having a somewhat bitter taste, and s unlike the iced water she had been ii the habit of having from the nurse At the same time <he nurse signaller to me that she had secured a portioi of the iced water, which she held h her hand. She gave it to me, and oi that afternoon I made an analysis of i portion of the contents of the water, ii company with Dr Drew. We found in it very decided indications of antimony. On completing the analysis I sealed th( bottle and then banded it over to Mi Broham. On the 16th of August Mrj Hall felt very much improved. She had had one attack of vomiting the previout night There has ba»n no return oi that symptom. On that day (the 16th) she took a considerable quantity of liquid nourishment by the stomach. On the following night she retched once or twice. Since then the retching has not returned. On the 17th she still more nourishing food—considerably more than she took on the 16. th Ever since then she has undergone a steady and decided improvement. She is now completely out of danger, though weak. The temperature all the time was about no mal, except when she had inflammation of the breast, when it was higher. She suffered twelve or fifteen days from the bad breast. Her tongue was furred and coated, generally speaking, and for some days after the Inflammation had ceased. Since then it has been comparatively clean, :hcugh nnduly red round the edges. On me or two occasions during the last seek of illness she complained of the >ack of the tongue feeling sore. On he 16th her tongue seemed too large or her mouth, as if much swollen, nd her voice was very weak. On he X6th 1 could hardly hear her, her oice was so remarkably feeble. She omplained of thirst throughout the rbole course of her Illness, and there ras much prostration, more especially uring the latter part of her illness, 'rom time to time after her confinement

she improved, and at times was so ranch better that she was able to get out of bed, and would sometimes go into another room. On one occasion she went for a drive, feeling ranch better on hsr return in the evening, bat on the following day vomiting began again. I coulu not ac-

ountforthe symptoms, and was exceedogly puzzled over them. I looked for ome organic disease of the internal

organs to account for It, or displacement of the womb, or any affection of the womb which might account for the symptoms. I failed to satisfy myself as to the presence of any disease or diseases existing which weald account for the symptoms. None of the medicines I pre scribed for her contained either antimony or oolchicnju ; the symptoms described by Mrs Hall are such as are caused from poisoning with antimony. Arsenic wonld also cause such symptoms. I only knew of such diseases as chronic gastroenteritis, or oancerons affection of the stomach, affto"lng the bowels, which might produce such symptoms. My patient was not suffering from any of these diseases. Tbs drslnsge of the boose w»«

t<ood I know- Dr Ogston. I took him • o Bali’s house and showed him Mrs Ball's room. X uava this iced water to Sir Broham. X received it from the nurse, Mr Ellison. X do not know this hot tie. I shall have to look at my note*; they were copied at the time from a Hat made out by Mr Broham. I see from the list that this bottle contains vomit of the 12 h. The bcut’e was left at Watkins’ chemist s shop for me. This bottle contains urine passed cn the 12th. This part is of the stuff I examined with Dr Drew. I sent these things by express train to Professor Black, sealed with wax with my seal, on the 14th. There were the two bottles, nrine in the one, vomit in the other. The seal I marked them with is my finger ring. Since the 14th [ have examined vomit, urine and motions »f Mrs Hall. There were indications of antimony working its way out of the system. The indications were strongly marked, bat not so much in the latter two

or three days. I last examined the nrine on Friday the 20th. 1 have examined them at my house. Professor Black has examined them there, and they have beau locked up. I got some jelly in a glass from Mrs Ellison and banded it over to Professors Black and Ogston. I have passed all the things to the Professors except some small bottles, the result of the analysis on Sunday, the 15" h. The things I banded over were partly secured by me from the nurse; Others were given to me by Mr Broham To Mr Joym—l cannot fix the data that it first occurad to me that Mrs Hall’s state was showing symptoms of an irritant poison. It was four or five days before the 12th. The suggestion was mine. It arose in conversation with Drew in this way— Mr Joynt—We don’t want the cenretsation

Witness—l did not make up my mind as to the particular poison. £ was not quite sure I thought on the 13th that it was antimony poisoning Mrs Hall was suffering from That was after Dr Drew and X made the analysis. 1 had never before in my experience met with a case of antlmonial poisoning. 1 had bad some experience of poisoning by an irritant — hydrochloric acid—two or three years ago in Timaru The symptoms of hydrochloric acid do not resemble those prodneed by antimony except in being an irritant. In making the anayls s of the 13th we need Reinsoh’s test. We boiled the wine with hydrochloric acid and copper—about one-sixth part of acid with a piece of copper in it. We boiled It until we got a decided violet colored metallic deposit on the copper. This was the result we wanted, and completed the analysis. If there had been no acid there wonld have been no deposit at all. In arsenical poisoning by this I tea- you get a greyish white deposit. The j analysis oa Sunday. 15th, was not made in the same w ly. I tasted the iced water with litmus paper. The reaction was slightly acid. Dr Drew and I evaporated a portion of the iced water on glass to dryness and examined it under a microscope. We found it to consist of crystals of tartar emetic. We then added nitric acid to a portion of the iced water, and a white precipitate was left soluble in tartaric acid and in excess of nitric acid. Feirocyanide of potassium showed no precipitate Sulphur©;ted hydrogen gas gave an orange precipitate, which on being diied was Insoluble in ammonia and soluble on heatingjwith hydrochloric acid. Boiling with this acid on copper gave a deep violet deposit on the copper. These analyses were the only ones 1 made of the iced water. We next analysed the exc e:a. I exam ned these by Reinsch’s method. On the 15th I only analysed the iced water, and what I have just stated rtlitea solely to that. Or Drew assisted me on the 13th and 15th, snd in some Oises afterwards, rot in all the cases. The witnesses’ depositions were then read over and signed, and the Court, it befog 4.25 p.m , decided to adjourn to 10.30 next morning.

TO-DAY’S PROCEEDINGS.

Timabu, September 2. Professor Black was the only witness examined in the Hall case to*day np to the lancheon adjournment. His evidence was to the effect that be had analysed the contents of bottles sent to him. In the vomit and urine he found antimony and in the powder fonnd in Hall’s pocket at the time of arrest he fonnd tartar emetic. The ice water sent to him did not contain antimony. The bottles sent by Dr Mclntyre through post to Dunedin had bean|aoa’yjed. They contained excreta, and traces of antimony were found in them. Professor Ogaton assisted In several of the analyses. Professor Black’s examinatlon.in-chlef lasted only a short time, but Mr Joynt cross examined him at great length, the professor having to explain all the stages of his acalysia, which seems to have been thoroughly exhaustive.