LITTLE GIRL'S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 45, 21 February 1918, Page 8

LITTLE GIRL'S DEATH

POISONED THROUGH EATING

RADISH SEEDS.

The adjourned inquest concerning the death of Dorothy Haselden, aged nine years, who died at the Hospital on 31st January, was concluded this morning, before Mr. W. G. Riddell; S.M.

Br.'J. S. MacLaurin, Dominion Analyst, who made an examination of the contents of the stomach and certain exhibits forwarded to him by the police, reported that radish seeds were found. No reference could be found to these seeds being poisonous, though they might be expected to have irritant properties. Tests were made, and from these experiments it would appear that radish seeds are poisonous, and it was therefore highly probable, that they were the cause of the child's death.

Cecil.C. 'W. Haselden,. father of the deceased, gave evidence that immediately prior tti the death of the little girl he had some radish seeds, the remains of a packet bought for planting, in an outhouse, to which the children had access. Witness later found the seeds lying on a bench, where the children had evidently upset them. The Coroner said that without the Analyst's report it would have been impossible to tell what was the cause of death. -. Although radish seeds were generally considered harmless, it was shown that they we're not. There was nothing to show that death was due to anything else, and a verdict was returned in accordance with the medical evidence.