POISON MYSTERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1938, Page 3

POISON MYSTERY

SEVERAL YOUNG SCIENTISTS STRICKEN. PROMPT MEASURES SAVE LIVES. Calling up Scotland Yard, Dr ,F. J. Marlow, principal of Chelsea Polytechnic, told detectives how seven young, highly-trained research workers were mysteriously poisoned in the laboratory while drinking tea. The lives of the men, he related, were saved only by the quick action of other laboratory workers who administered emetics. The scientists were drinking the tea during theii’ usual evening interval, when they noticed it had a bitter taste'. Immediately symptoms peculiar to atropine poisoning developed. The pupils of their eyes became dilated and fixed, their pulses speeded up, a,nd their faces became flushed. Prompt treatment gave them relief, and Dr Harlow ordered an analysis of the liquid in the teacups, teapot, and kettle.

Mr C. Morton, head of the department of pharmacy, and Mr A. Hebdon, lecturer in chemistry, made the tests. They found that each teacup contained atropine in doses sufficient to kill several men.

Water in the kettle with which the tea had been brewed also contained atropine.

How the poison got into the kettle is the problem Scotland Yard is determined to solve;

On the night of the happening a new supply of atropine was brought to the laboratory.

The police are convinced that all the officials and students have adhered to the strict college rules in regard to poisons, and that there is nothing slipshod about the organisation or conduct of the laboratory. The mystery has been kept a closelyguarded secret at the polytechnic. Of the dozens of instructors and more than 1,000 students, fewer than a score know of the police investigation which is being carried on in the vast building. Atropine is made from belladonna, the juice of the deadly nightshade. It paralyses sensory nerves and, in very large doses, stops the heart.