INFECTED SOIL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 148, 24 May 1934, Page 2

INFECTED SOIL.

ON SCHOOL FIELD. BOY DIES OF TETANUS. NEW PLYMOUTH, May 23. A simple cut on his leg while playing caused the death of Irwin Dick, the nine-year-old son of Mr and Mrs T. Dick, of Lemon Street, New Plymouth. He was rushed into New Plymouth Hospital at 3 p.m., and at 11 p.m. he was dead of tetanus. The cut was received while the boy was playing on a grass section at the Central School, of which he a Standard 111 pupil. Soil from an excavation for a new Masonic temple had been spread on the grass at the school for top-dressing, and Dick was pushed on to a piece of glass hidden beneath the soil. As his leg was cut rather badly he was treated and removed to his home opposite the school. The cut healed fairly quickly, and before the end of the week the boy was back at school. Then poisoning was noticed, and when medical advice was called the boy was rushed into hospital, but lockjaw set in and he died. The fact that the soil used in topdressing came from ground formerly used as stables is one reason advanced for the boy being infected with germs after he received the cut. His condition was not considered serious enough to warrant medical attention, and con. sequently he was not inoculated, as is the rule with wounds of that nature.