DEADLY HEMLOCK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18631, 12 February 1924, Page 8

DEADLY HEMLOCK.

LITTLE GIRL POISONED. TAT/ END TO s A PARTY. NEW PERIL INTRODUCED. * _ [P,T IELMBAPH.—OWN COBUESPC'NDMIT.] WELLINGTON. Monday* The story of the tragic outcome of a. children's party was told before Mr. E. Page, S.M.. coroner., in Wellington this morning, at an inkiest concerning the .death of Daphne Holland, the Si-years-old daughter of Mr, and Mrs. Holland, of Rintoul Street. The fatality occurred on February 8, in Rintoul Street, following J a party at which several very small children had "tea," using a children's toy tea--set. ■ The party was held on a vacant section near the brick kilns in Rintoul Street. Water was obtained from near by, and the children used this for the tea and hemlock seed for sugar. Hemlock, sometimes called "wild" or "fools' " parsley, contains a violent poison. Dr. Hector stated that one drop of the poison was said to be. a fatal dose. The child who died had taken nearly a dessertspoonful. He had no recollection of any previous case of poisoning by this plant in New Zealand, though it was frequent in England. He did not know previously that the plant existed in the Dominion. It must have been imported. Residents in the Rintoul Street area state that there is a quantity of the plant about. It is somewhat like parsley gone to seed, though the leaves are not so bunched. Hemlock has numerous purple spots on the stalks. The poison is contained in the roots, stalks, leaves, i and seeds. The last-named, sometim.es called berries, are green in colour. Daphne Holland was taken home suffer, ing with severe pains. As it was not, known at the time that she had been Eoisoned, she was put to bed and given ousehold remedies. Two hours later ft doctor was c&Hsd in, but he could only pronounce life to be extinct. The coroner found that death was due to misadventure. He suggested that the attention of owners of sections growing the plant should be called to it, and that if practicable it should be destroyed.