ACID CAUSES DEATH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 118, 4 June 1937, Page 7

ACID CAUSES DEATH

Telegraph— Presa Astoaiattan.)

Efiects Not Realised

(By

AUCKLAND, Last Night. A case oi fatal poisoning brought about by the exteraal .application of carbolic acid was the subject of comment by the Coroner, Mr W. R. McKean, S.M., at the adjourned inquest into the death of Viadimir Watson, aged 37, married, labourer, of Ararimu, whose body was found in the iayatory on the Newmarket railway station on May 10 shortly after groans W6re heard. Watson was discovered lying on the fioor suffering from a severe Wound in the forehead and a burn from corrosive poison extending along the right arm. There was hd trace of his having swallowed poisOn. A post mortem examinatlon of the body was detailed by Dr. Gilmour, ; pathologist at the Auckland Hospital. He said there was a laceratioa wound above the left eyebroW and a large burn on the right arm pfdduced by carbolic acid, which had been applied to the' upper arm and had run down the f ore"-arm and wrist. There was no corrosion in the lips, mouth or stomach, and, in his opinion, death was due to poison being absorbed through the skin of the right arm. , The purchash of * smaH bottle of carbolic acid by deceased on the morning of his death was described by a chemist. He said Watson explained he intended to use the solution for treating foot-rot in sheep. The Government analyst at Auckland, Kenneth Griffin, said the examination of the internal organs of deceased resulted in the recovery ^of 0.0022 grammes of poison. One gramme of carbOlip .acid might rapidly prove fatal if introduced into the wounds. In returning a verdict that death was due to carbolic acid poisoning, the poison having been absorbed through the skin of the right arm, Mr McKean said deceased could have had no thdught that fatal results would follow its application. The fact that he had a bottle of clive oil in his posSessioh ■ suggested he intended to use the poison as a relief for rheumatism. He muri have; been in com^lete ignorance thal it could be completely absorbed througi tlie Skin.