“I’VE EATEN ALL THE LOLLIES.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 94, 3 April 1912, Page 3

“I’VE EATEN ALL THE LOLLIES.”

CHILD’S FATAL MISTAKE. An inquest concerning the death ~f Sidney Will’am Francis Hunt, the infant son of Mr. and Mrs J. S. Hunt, of Sylvan road, Hastings, who died as the result of eating tab-’c-ts containing strychnine on Monday, was held at the residence of the hild’s parents yesterday bv the Dis.i'ict Coroner (Mr. S. E. McCarthy,' Detective Butler conducttd tin inquiry on behalf of the police. Ida May Hunt, wife of John Sidney Hunt, and mother of the deceased, gave evidence that about 9 a.m. on Monday, the Ist April, she went intc the washhouse to start her washing and tb.e deceased, aged two years and nine months, was with her Subsequently she missed him anc' -ailed for him, but received no reply. She then vent inside to see where he was, and found him crouch?d in a corner of the kitchen. The child had a guilty smile on his fact ".nd she asked him what he had beer-

doing. He replied, “Mamma, I’ve - atc-n all the lollies out of the bottle,” referring to a little bottle (produced) which he had in his hand. Did not know what was in the bottle, which was kept in a vase or a whatnot in the front room. It was quite four--years since the bottle was placed there, but "he could not re member who put it there. Deceased

dd not have reached the vase fron f-he floor, and must have used a little "hair. This was found in front of the whatnot, out of its usual portion. There was nothing left in the bottle when witness found it. Witness picked deceased up in her arms .-ind rushed into a neighbour's place, and finding no one home brought him back again. She then mixed some salt and water and tried to force it down bis throat, but could not manage it. The bottle was labelh d poison. Witness then rushed to t Mrs Anderson’s, who mixed some salt and water and held deceased while witness poured it down his throat to try to make him sick, but .vas unable to do so. She then sent for her husband. In the meantime, she washed the. child’s face and put bis coat on to have him ready for his father to take him to a doctor. t)n arriving home his father lifted deceased off the table and be began :o cry. His father then took him to a doctor. It was about 10.30 a.m. ■.■ ben -witness discovered that l:e had ‘ "ken the tablets, and about 11.15 ?.m. when he was taken to the doctor. Deceased was quite lively during the intervening time, and when he '■as being dressed said “Daddie is taking me up town to buy 'nanas and : hocolates.”

John Sidney Hunt, husband of the ■ revious witness, and father of the -let-eased, deposed that he was called '■nine on Monday morning, and when he arrived he found the deceased

:*tting on the end of tlie dining room able. In consequence of what his

i.-ii’e told him, witness took the decr.scd to Dr. Storey. He seemed ;il right when witness left with him. He remained at Dr. Storey’s till he iod in v. itness’ arms. Witness bought the tablets about four years igo for his stomach and could not have taken more than three or four loses. One tablet constituted a lose. The bottle was nearly full. Deceased cried on being lifted off be table, but never spoke again. Tie shuddered once or twice on the wav to the doctor’s.

Dr.Storey deposed that the last witness brought deceased to his sur•rery between 10.30 and 11 a.m. on Mondav the Ist inst. From the boy’s condition and from a statemen made bv his father he judged tha' 'he tablets had contained strychnine The father sat down on a sofa ir -.he surgery with the child in his laj and witness put in a mouth gap vliich his father held, and a stomacl übe. Deceased was in a violent ti tanic convulsion. Water was pourec ■n.to the tube whilst witness tried tc ■vphon the contents of the stomacl 3 it. The process would not act. be acse pieces of undigested food kept ’ locking the tube. Witness then ’n jeeted a tenth of a grain of apo-mor >Hn, an antidote usually given ir siu-h cases, anil poured suflSc-ien’ water into the funnel of the tube tr fill the stomach, but the convulsio: “ad lasted so long that he could no' feel pulse or heart, and decided tha' •t was no use doing any more. Th< ’’Cv appeared to be dead. Thtube was removed and the chih came out of the convulsion. The tub< vas passed again, but the child ini mediately went ino another convulsion ard died. The symptoms wen 'hose of strychnine poisoning. Wit ■tess susequentlv held a post morten on the bodv. External’v, there wet < no marks of violence, but, there were •narks of post mortem lavidity round the loins and rigor morris had pass "d off. Gn opening the abdomeT everything appeared normal, but •?? opening the stomach he found un li -rested food in small pieces, me ;oi seeds and pieces of melon. On the wall of the stomach thc-r- appeared little bits of debris which may have

been part of the unabsorbe 1 p.ll. The appearance of the stomach was quite normal. ■ which usually the r ise in strychnine poisoning. A portion of the small intestine, about ten inches long, was congested, and a very large number of the mesenteric glands were .enlarged, which was a .-ffronic condition and indicated t-u--’?urculc.r symptoms. Some of the blood vessels were also congested. T.he bowels were empty and witness -mild find nothing like the tabless in the contents of the stomach. Yf-:-?r the post mortem witness asked deceased’s father is he had looked '■'/Y any of the tablets. He looked on the floor, but could nob find any. Witness examined the edge of the vainscotting and looked in the vase, where he found six of tlie tablets'. Deceased’s father also found one. Dne tablet had a thin coating of r.igar which did not seem brittle. In ide of the sugar coating there was > granular pill mass, which easily I’.ssolved, and this would account Dr there being no traces in the itomach. The post mortem was coniistent with the symptoms of strychnine poisoning, and witness did rot enow of any other substance which vould have caused similar convulsions. He judged that the child hrd ;aken an eighth of a grain ■of strychnine, whilst the mcximiub dose --as one-fifteenth of a grain. De•ngsed had also taken a grain of belledonna, a deadly poison, which

vas part of the tablets. The tablets 'nroduced) were an ordinary remedy 'or constipation.

The Coroner found that the deceased died from strychnine poisoning. which had been taken bv deceased in the form of a laxative -tabloid without the deceased being atvare of the nature of such tabloid.