Curious Poisoning Case.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 4 February 1892, Page 2

Curious Poisoning Case.

The Wairarapa Daily says a man named Blackler was recently admitted to the Masterton Hospital suffering from violent fits of vomiting and purging. His eyes were swollen, he complained of excruciating abdominal pains and he had unquerichable thirst. Dr Hosking at once concluded that he had been poisoned with arsenic, and treated him accordingly, with the result tha,t he is now almost fully recovered from the poison. From the statement made by the sufferer, it appears to have got into the system of the man under most peculiar circumstances. He was working with a number of other men on a station at Castlepoint, and. had been using sheep dip in large quantities. As the whare in which they were living was overrun with fleas, an effort was made to destroy the vermin by sprinkling the floor with sheep dip. The floor was afterwards swept by Blackler, and it is thought he must have inhaled arsenic. This theory is borne out by the fact that the whole of the men who were in the room when the floor was swept were attacked more or less by fits of vomiting, and presented other symptoms of poisoning- The only one, however, to become seriously ill wai Blackler.