LILY POISONS BOY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 24 July 1929, Page 8

LILY POISONS BOY

FATALITY IN SYDNEY DEADLY NEEDLES IN HOOTS Three little children, two girls and a boy, were playim? at ''grocers" in their buck yard in Sydney on 30th May. The little girls chopped up the root, of an arum lily and the little boy ate come. A few minutes later 'ho was screaming with pain, and the nest day bo died. The rily coroner, Mr May, investigated the death of the .child— Percy Francis Allen, aged 2 voars and 3 • months—last week', and tiie inquest was considerod import ant, because tho prum or cunjovoi lily grown in so many suburban gardens is generally considered to bo harmless. Mr May found thai, death was due to the child accidentally eating the lout. Sidney Gilbert Walton, senior assistant Government analyst, described bow the root of the lily contained an immense number of microscopic needles of calcium oxalate. These had an extremely irritating effect upon the tongue and throat, probably due to the penetration by the needles of the mucous membrane. Dr. Stratford Sheldon, Government medical office: - , staled that ho bad found calcium oxalate in the stomach of the dead child. This created the condition which eventually resulted in death.