UNUSUAL FATALITY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 450, 4 June 1937, Page 5

UNUSUAL FATALITY

POISON ABSORBED THROUGH SKIN Use Of Carbolic Acid Press Association —Copyright. Auckland, June 3. j A case of fatal poisoning brought | about by the external application of. carbolic acid was the- subject of com. < ment by the coroner, Mr. W. R. Me- i Kean, S.M., at an adjourned inquest ; to-day into the death of Vladimir; Watson, aged 37 years, a married | labourer, of Ararimu, whose body j was found in a lavatory on the Newmarket railway station on May l 10. Shortly after groans were heard Watson was discovered lying on the floor suffering from a severe wound in the forehead and a burn from a corrosive poison extending along the right arm. There was- no trace of his having swallowed the poison. A post-mortem examination of the body was detailed by Dr. Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland hospital. He said that ther e was a lacerated wound above the left eyebrow and a large burn on the right arm, produced by carbolic acid which had been applied to the upper arm .and had run down the forearm and wrist. There was no corrosion in the- lips l , mouth or stomach and in his opinion death was due to the poison being absorbed through the skin of th e right arm. In returning a verdict that death was due to carbolic acid poisoning, the poison having been absorbed through the skin of the right arm, Mr McKean said that Watson could have had no thought that fatal results would follow its application. The fact that he had a bottle of olive oil in his possession rather suggested that he intended to use the poison as relief for rheumatism. He must have been in complete ignorance that it could be completely absorbed through the skin.