TRAGIC MISTAKE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 661, 13 May 1929, Page 1

TRAGIC MISTAKE

ACETIC ACID FOR CASTOR OIL DEATH OF OLD MAN A dose of acetic acid in mistake for castor oil resulted in the death of Richard O’Rourke, according to evidence given at an inquest held this morning. Cyril Alexander Sneddon described deceased as a retired farmer aged 70. Witness had known the old man for some years and it was his custom to spend each winter in Auckland. His home was in Waipawa. Rosetta Elias, of 6 Pitt Street, said that Mr. O’Rourke had been renting a room in her house. On April 28 the old man had asked witness’s husband for a dose of castor oil. "Witness had put a bottle on the table and later heard Mr. O’Rourke struggling and crying in the lavatory. He was taken to the hospital where he had died at two o’clock on the morning of April 29. “I threw the bottle over the Grafton Bridge when I was coming back from the hospital,” said witness. “The acid was in the a castor oil bottle and I kept it for preserving herrings. Mr. O’Rourke evidently took the acid by mistake.” The coroner, Mr. F. IC. Hunt, returned a verdict that death was due to posoning by acetic acid. The occurrence was quite accidental.