ARSENIC POISONING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1938, Page 8

ARSENIC POISONING

DEATH OF YOUNG CHILD. VERDICT OF INADVERTENCE. By Telegraph.—Press Association. HASTINGS, April 12. The verdict that deceased died from poisoning by arsenic inadvertently taken when he was in a drying yard used by sheep after being dipped was returned by the coroner’s jury which heard evidence before Mr F. J. Hull. J.P., at Hastings, today, when an inquiry was made into the death of a child aged 21 months, George Douglas Smith, Te Ante. The verdict added that death was accelerated by the fact that the child had an enlargement of the thymus glands.

“It is tire first time in 30 years I have come across a case such as this,” said Senior-Sergeant G. Sivyer. The child had been taken over to the sheep pens while its father and his employer put sheep through the dip to treat them for foot rot. Senior-Ser-geant Sivyer said the child had complained of feeling sick and had been taken borne. Later in the day. the father, realising the child was ill. had taken it to a doctor but the child died before it arrived. The only explanation of the death seemed to be that the child had placed something in its mouth impregnated with dipping solution, which contained arsenic. The child had been in the drying-out paddock at one time. Although no sheep had been put through at the time traces of arsenic would be about from the previous dippings.

An autopsy had revealed traces of arsenic in the child's stomach. There was no evidence to show that the parents had been at all neglectful, said Senior-Sergeant Sivyer. but the public should be made aware of the danger from this source.