POISON ABSORBED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 157, 4 June 1937, Page 2

POISON ABSORBED

MAN'S UNUSUAL DEATH. INQUEST AT AUCKLAND. ' Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 3. A case of fatal poisoning brought about by the external application ol carbolic acid was the subject of comment by the coroner, Mr W. R- McKean, 8.M., at an adjourned inquest into the death of Vladimir Watson, aged 37, married, labourer, Ararimu, whose body was found in a lavatory on the Newmarket railway station on May 10. . Watson was discovered lying on the floor suffering from a severe wound in the forehead and a burn from corrosive poison extending along the right arm. There was no trace of his having swallowed poison. A post-mortem examination of the body was detailed by Dr. Gilmour, patiiologist at the Auckland Hospital. He said there was* a lacerated wound above the left eyebrow and a large burn on the right arm produced bv carbolic acid which had been applied to the upper arm and had run down the forearm and wrist. There was no corrosion in lips, mouth or stomach, and in his opinion death was due to the poison being absorbed through the skin of the right arm. The purchase of a small bottle or carbolic acid bv Watson on the morning of his death was described by a chemist. He said Watson explained that he intended to use the solution for treating foot rot in sheep. The Government analyst at Auckland. Mr' Kenneth Griffin, said an examination of the internal organs resulted in the recovery of 0.0022 ot a gramme of poison. One gramme o carbolic acid might rapidly prove latal if introduced into wounds. . In returning -a verdict that death was due to carbolic acid poisoning, the poison having been absorbed through the skin of the right arm, Mr McKean said Watson could have had no thought that fatal results would follow its application. The fact that he had a bottle of olive oil in his possession rather suggested he intended to use the poison as a relief for rheumatism. He must have been in complete ignorance that it could be completely absorbed through the skin.