DEATH FROM POISON.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20103, 5 December 1930, Page 4

DEATH FROM POISON.

DOCTOR DESCRIBES HIS EXPERIENCE. fr-KITED PHESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT.) LONDON, December 3. A remarkable diary describing his town slow death from poison, left by r - Hugh Lonsdale Hands, aged 63, an inoculation expert at Brighton, "Was produced at an enquiry, at which * verdict of suicide while of unsound Jnind was returned. The entries were made 111 bold handjrriting, as follow :-r----"Taken half an ounce of aconite, and fcn ounce of chloral hydrate. Both nice. Except for a tingling, waiting feeling, •I am happy. It. is the first time 1 ever felt without worry, as though free.

"My heart must bo strong—it won't give way. It is a long time—so slow. .The Japs are right, death is lovely.. "I feel fine. Ihero is no pain. I have not told my wife everything. I did not want to worry her. I feel sleepy, tout my puleo is still good. "Please have my vein opened. I may find myself alive in the coffin. It is a terrible thought. I await the next manifestation. "I believe now in a just God, and Jto man's laws. I am very comfortable. "Half the furniture and the piano are to go to my wife. "Pulse still good. I am just getting slightly dazed, but quite happy. Surely 3 cannot live on. I am comfortable. Have just been sick; must take prus*ic. Pulse good." There followed other technical comments, then : "Extraordinary, juv piilse is running well, and I feel fine. When will it all be over?" Then finally: "God seems to be over me. I am just leaving for a lovely voyage,- but it's slow. For the first time I am ■without worry. Money is nothing." The evidence showed that the doctor saw two patients after taking the poison. A letter to his wife said he was heavily in debt. He asked what there •was to be gained by all this study anil research. The answer was nothing. Meanwhile general practitioners made fortunes out of humbug.