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Southland Times, Issue 1153, 25 October 1869, Page 2

The Lancet has recently been the medium of a very curious discussion, illustrative of a singular property of strychnine. It is stated, on high* medical authority, that a nursing woman, taking strychnine under medical direction, in very small quantities such as to produce no injurious effects upon herself, may, nevertheless, poison the child at her breast ! Professor Harley, physician to the University College, London, refers to the case of an infant that died at Lynn, according to Dr Letheby, from the effects of strychnine. Dr Letheby said he hardly thought that the child could have absorbed it through the breast of its mother, though " it might be possible." Dr Harley, however, citea a case in point, and maintains conclusively that a child may be poisoned by sucking the breast of a woman taking strychnine medicinally, although she herself was in no way injuriously affected. This is an equally strange and important discovery.