SPIRITS KILL CHILDREN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 90, 9 January 1908, Page 5

SPIRITS KILL CHILDREN.

AN AUSTRALIAN CASE.

EI TELEGRAPH—FEEBS ABSOOIATIOS—COPTttioHI

' Adelaide, January 8, Two children at Gankalila (P), aged nine and sis years respectively,..found.a bottle of. whisky, and drank tho contents,.' Tho elder died; the other is*'recovering. f • . . ~ - ...

A LONDON INCIDENT.. The London "Daily Mail" ,iri September reported a peculiar case of a child, Gladys btaitc, aged three' years,, and,, nine., months,, dying of an overdose of Bin, » , At thei inquest, James:.Staite,''the father,''a' milkman, said that the''Hight before 'he- had brought lionie for his wjfo'ia quartern of giri, pome'of which hnd been'lgft ill a bottle: on Ihti mantelshelf in, tho chilli's-'bedroom, and .the mother's explanation was, (hati "feeling, tlii'rsty, the child had got up,' poured;;thq gin into a cup, diluted it- with' water in'thlj liathrpom, and then drunk it. Thovparents assorted that the child had never drunk! spirits before; she had been insured just oyer three, months. . The mother stated that she drank stout eyery day. The'child'had never tftkeni Stout,' 4s';.\vitness': always took particular care-to'-pat it out (if'the way. v: ■ Dr. Wheelwright- said; he found the child unoonsgiotis, and she died, after convulsions, without regaining cpnßciousposs, If lie jind seen similar appearances pf tjie liver and other organs in tin adult he would bo quite convinced that they were dne to chronic alcoholism-. Tho liver was and its co'p : dition could not be due to_ acute alcoholism. With these inferences 'Dr." I'reyberger, who made an autopsy, agreed.- -The child, he Baid, had an adult brain, l'ho abnormal condition of the liver, spleen, and 'kidneys could not have been produced by any single dose pf alcohol! As to the enlargement of. the brain, Dr. l''roybergcr said the result might.be that the child would be precocious, with. intelligence' beyond its age, abnormal wit, and abnormal tastes. ' An inspector of the National.Society for the Prevention of Cruelty tP Children stated that lie had been unable to trace in any quarter whatever details of alcoholic drink having been taken into the house or ÜBed for this..particular child. The child, hp" was. inforjnqd. Was lively far beyond its years':. Everything tended to show that the parents .were' of' the highest degree of respectability, arid had done (heir duty towards their children., The coroner said thero.must be a certain amount of doubt in the. case. , The child had dearly died from an overdoso of gin. Ho did not think there was any-doubt at all about tho child having taken the gin itself. Ho did not think there could be any suggestion that it was administered to the child. But medical men said they knew nothing except clironic alcoholism which could produce such n condition as had been found. If the mother did not notice what was done with tho draining? of her glnss of stout, tho child-might have taken them. He wished the parents had said soinething more definite to account for tho child's chronic condition, 1 This-child was said to have been very lively and-vary clcyer, and was mentally developed a great deal beyond tho normal of its ago. "Jf might be its tastes were abnormal, that was to say, tho taste of alcohol might not have, been disagreeable to it.

Tho jury returned a verdict of accidental death.