POISONING BY TUTU
Recent Case Reported (N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, October 19. It might be advisable to consider declaring the tutu shrub, which poisoned elephants on the West Coast at the week-end, a noxious weed, for it had also poisoned humans, the head of the pharmacology and pharmacy department at the University of Otago, Associate-Professor F. N. Fastier, said today. The poisons information centre at the Dunedin Hospital had recently given assistance in a case of human tutu poisoning, Dr. Fastier said. Cases were recorded of tutu poisoning in New Zealand’s early history when children died from eating the berries. In one instance four of 12 French sailors who ate the berries died. Sir Julius von Haast recorded the death of an elephant from tutu poisoning:
"The animal was marched inland by its owner for a considerable distance, and on arriving at a suitable halting place, where the vegetation was abundant, was allowed to feed.
“The grass had been burnt off during the previous season, and had shot up again, together with a large crop of tutu shoots. The elephant fed for four hours, and then drank freely from a neighbouring stream. It then began to reel, fell on the ground, and died in three hours."
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 18
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206POISONING BY TUTU Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 18
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