FOUR CHILDREN POISONID BY ARSENICAL PAPER HANGINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 567, 11 October 1862, Page 6

FOUR CHILDREN POISONI D BY ARSENICAL PAPER HANGINGS.

This morning', Mr. John Humphiey's, the Coroner for the county of Middlesex, received infbvinati.'ii f i om Mr Coningham, f-unimotiing officer of the parish of St. Ann, Limchou-e, lelative to the deaths of four ciii'dren, who had died from the effects of arsenic, under the mo-jt ettiuoidinaiy ciicumstances.

It appears Hipl the four chi'dieu lesidod Nvith their parents, .it Tom!in"s terrace, Salaion's-liine, (/emniercial road, Limciionse, and the father (llijliard Turner) >vho is a journeyman bricklayer, oc«:upipd a snwill tenement, with liis wife and four children, at t lie place above-named. The hou.se was well drained, and the family weie in peti'ect licaltb until al)out six wecKfj .since, when on-> ot the younger children vwi-> found to beunwe'l. A surgeon of the distiict (.Mr llortou) was called in, and the child was jilaced under l.is care. He at fir.st oouid not accounr for the piostiation of the little s.ulier.;r, an I he p.-onouiiced the deceased to besuiiuiiin fiom diptheria, fiom which the child died, and death was rt^iateie 1 accordingly A few day-; afterwards, another uliild iv.-w sti/.ed v, t li similar symplouis, and the same pyntlemau presciibed for it. This child als> die I, and death was registered in the suna mi'iner, for which the usual certinciile v/.is i;i\en. A third child al«o fell a victim ti th>j smne c >mp!aint within ,i k-w weeks; and on Saturday la*-t, Ann Amelia Turner, aged three years, also expired. Thy features ur' tii (l four cases were all of oi;e ch.u-iicter, and h mic alarm sprung up in thu n-iglinouriioud at tlie feirlul uio.taht\ in the family, and on Saturday morning hist the att'jnuon of Dr. Oilm, tliu medic i! ollivr oi" health, White Horse-lane, w;,s called to the .sorir.u-, chaiMcter c.f the case, and ho was directed by t 1 c Board of Works for Limehonse to make an iiu-pjc-tion of the hout,e where the fiiir childien had died. Dr. Oiton, who is one of tlie most ' xperienced ofiiceis in tho ei&t eid of London, repaired to t!ie plac\ Mid found th« house in capitil c.mdition, well-drainj I, and vcnt'lated. lie could not iind an} p local causu fur the dcvtiis of the four children in a sa litary measure, but lie subsequently went to the room where til'" 1 lour c'lildien h.ul hlcpt, and there he found that the wa'ls of the apartment had been papered with a green coloured paper. He examined the walls and found that laige pieces of the paper had been torn oil" by the children when in bed. They had played with portions and licked the groeri colour off the hurface. He had tested the sub.st nice, which w.u easily removed by the slightest moisture, and discovered by experiments that the piper contained immense quantities of arsenic, which, he believed, had been the cause of the four children's deaths.

These facts he at once communicated to the coroner, who li:is given orders to Dr. Orton to make a pisfc mortem examination of the body of the child unlmneJ, and tlie contents of the stomach removed and carefully scaled up for analysis by Dr. Lethoby, the chemical lecturer of tho London Hospital.

Mr. lluiuplneys, the coroner, hn^ iked the iu-que-'t for to-morrow, at the I'le^masons' public-house, Sairaon's-lane, and' tlic utmost interest lias been manifcste'l in the di^tnet, both by the inhabitants and the members of the medical profr.s>iou.

It is fully expeKel th.it iho Coroner will give an order for the disintn-ment of the bodies of the other three children. — English Paper.