SINGULAR CASE OF POISONING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 770, 30 September 1878, Page 2

SINGULAR CASE OF POISONING.

Nearly a score of cases of poisoning, under very extraordinary circumstances, occurred in town yesterday, the whole of which appear to have been caused by the sufferers breakfasting upon brawn purchased at one of the butcher's shops. Nine of the cases occurred at the board-ing-house of Mr. Cunningham, in Tyaestreet, the sufferers being Mr, and Mrs. Cunningham and seven ci" their boarders, named Thomas L'ttle, Arch. M'Fadjen, Chas. Gardener, Walter Conyers, John Griffiths. Frederick Gattwood, and Win. M'llwraith. The other boarder, named Munro, dues not appear to have eaten any of the brawn, and was the only one who did not suffer. Little was the first to be affected, complaining about an-hour after breakfast of sickness and pains in the stomach; and within a short time afterwards the whole of the others showed similar symptoms of poisoning, Dr. Fleming was sent for, but was not at homo, and Dr. was at once c tiled in. On arriving at the house he found the sufferers lying about in all directions, undergoing the most intense agonies. V<ith the assistance of Messrs. T. H. Brown and Eairnett, who reside nest door, and Munro, the sufferers were placed in bed, and strong emetics administered, and the stomach-pump brought into requisition. Still the patients suffered great pain accompanied by sickness, and in some cases, particularly Mr. Cunningham, cramp in the lower extremities was experienced. One of the boarders (M'llwraith) after breakfast, went on a visit to a friend, but became so ill that he was compelled to consult Dr. Garland, by whom he was prescribed for. During yesterday three other cases of a similar nature occurred in other parts of the town, while inquiry elicited the fact that a ease of the same kind had occurred on Friday and two others on Saturday. In all these cases the sufferers had eaten brawn obtained at the same shop. To-day we have learnt that within the last week or so several caaes of a precisely similar kind have taken place, although | perhaps not of so severe a nature. The sufferers in these instances also assure us that they had also partaken of brawn from the same shop, but until now had not thought of attributing their sickness to that cause. There would seem to be j no doubt, therefore, that by some means j matter of a poisonous nature has found ] its way into the brawn sold at the shop, in j question, the name of the owner of which j we, for obvious reasons, refrain from publishing, pending the result of the j chemical analysis being made known. Dr. De Lautour and the police visited the shop yesterday, and inspected the boiler in which the brawn was boiled. This was found to be of iron, so that the theoryset up that the brawn was impregnated with verdigris cannot prove the correct solution of the rr.ystery. The brawn, a quantity of which was taken away for analysis, appeared to be wholesome enough, the nature of the deleterious matter with w.hich it is supposed to be impregnated not having made anyperceptible difference in its appearance. A piece of the brawn which had been partaken of at Cunningham's was taken possession of by the police, and we will shortly learn the result of its analysis. Since writing the above we have learned that several other cases of poisoning under similar circumstances occurred last night, the whole of which are attributed to the same cause. We also learn that the

whole of the sufferers are entirely out 01 danger, though nearly the whole of them still feel the effects of the poisoning. Tha butcher from whom the brawn was procured has sent a sample of it to Professor Black, for analysis.