POISON TAKEN BY MISTAKE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11620, 6 April 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

POISON TAKEN BY MISTAKE

In the King's Bench division, recently " Wainwright v. Day's Metropolitan Drug Company (Limited)" was an action to recover damages under somewhat peculiar 1 circumstances. - The plaintiff, Alfred Wainwright, was a . music-hall artist, and his case was that on June 14 last he went to one of the defen- ;-, dants' stores in King-street, Hammersmiths, to obtain drugs, which a fellow artist had suggested to him as a cure for rheumatism. He asked for a pennyworth of nitre and a pennyworth of bi-carbonate ; oi potash, and was served by a young man behind the counter. The. potash was wrapped nt paper, but the assistant neglected to put a . label upon it. After taking the potasn when he got home he became'seriously ill/ was in great agony, and for a time his -lift was in jeopardy. It was then discovered that ho had been served, nob with W" 0 I bonate, but with bi-chromate of potash, the ! latter being described as a poison. p , ! On behalf of the defendants, a chemists assistant named Turner, who said 29 years of age and had had 12 years ex* ._ in the business, stated that-the plaintiff asked him for bi-chromate of potash. - He prepared a poison label to affix on the pafcket but he could not swear that no had actually fixed it. ~ . " In cross-examination, the witness said he did not ask what use the poison was to be , _ put to, and he did not warn the customer, x Bi-chromate was in the poison schedule. ;• After medipal and other evidence the jury found for the plaintiff* damages £75. • / His lordship gave judgment for than , ' amount, with costs.