FAMILY’S FATAL MEAL

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 February 1935, Page 4

FAMILY’S FATAL MEAL

BUCKLAND WOMAN’S DEATH INFECTION TRACED IN FOOD DISCOVERY BY PATHOLOGIST A case of fatal food poisoning in tlie Pukekohe district was investigated by Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., coroner, at an inquest concerning the death in the Auckland Hospital on December 13 of Mrs Lucy Nicholson, aged .40, of Jericho Hoad, Buekland. The police were represented by Detective-Ser-geant McHugh. Hazel Moren Weare Flay, married, said she lived about a quarter of a milo from the home of the Nicholsons, with whom she was friendly. On the morning of December 10 she visited their home, and assisted Mrs Nicholson with cooking. Some Spanish cream was made, the ingredients being gelatine, three eggs, which witness thought were duck eggs, three pints of milk, half a cup of sugar, a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of vanilla. {The ingredients were taken from a cupboard by Mrs Nicholson and her daughter, Mrs N. Dennison. Deceased was evidently in good health and spirits when she spoke with witness over the telephone in the evening, but on the following morning her son, her daughter and herself were ill. Mrs Nicholson said they must have been poisoned, and she thought that it was the meat that was responsible. Later, Mrs Nicholson said her husband had become ill.

ALL CONSUMED SIMILAR FOOD

Witness added that she found the four members of the Nicholson family ill in bed on tlie morning of December 1:2. She communicated with a doctor and remained in the house to attend them. The doctor subsequently ordered the admission of the victims to the hospital. A son of deceased, Eric Archibald Nicholson, aged 24, said he had been in hospital for eight days as a result of food poisoning, With his father, mother and sister he had eaten a meal of roast beef, boiled potatoes, Spanish cream and banana custard between eight and nine o’clock on the evening of December 10. Norman Nicholson, husband of deceased, said as far as he knew all the family ate the same food. His wife seemed slightly better on the morning of December 12, but became worse in the evening. ISOLATION OF BACILLUS The coroner said Dr. Walter Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, had made a post-mortem examination, which had resulted in the isolation of the bacillus aertrycke, and the pathologist’s opinion was that death was caused by food poisoning. He had examined other articles, including those obtained from the house, and the bacillus was isolated from the Spanish cream. It was not possible, however, to say from what ingredient iu the dish the infection came. Detective-Sergeant McHugh said the police had a large file on the matter, there having been other cases about the same time. There was only one death from food poisoning. The coroner said the infection might have been in anything. The weather at the time was hot. He understood the germ had been known to occur in duck. eggs. A verdict of death by food poisoning was returned.