OVERDOSE OF DRUG

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19768, 9 April 1934, Page 10

OVERDOSE OF DRUG

DEATH OF SOCIETY WOMAN EVIDENCE AT INQUEST At the resumed inquest at. i lton, Hampshire, on Mrs Marion Lilian Hamilton-Russell, wife of Major the Hon. Arthur Hamilton-Russell, and sister-in-law of Viscount Boyne, the Coroner recorded a verdict that Mrs Hamilton-Russell died from an overdose of dial self-administered with a view to inducing sleep. Mrs Hamilton-Russell died on January 15, at her home at Neatham Manor, Alton, after lying in a deep coma for two days. She had gone to bed on Saturday evening apparently in normal health. When called by a servant next day she could not be wakened, and in spite of the attentions of a specialist and another doctor, died the following night No Suggestion of Suicide. The Coroner, who sat without a jury, giving his verdict, said: “I have thought this question over very carefully, and I can see no suggestion of suicide. She was living a perfectly normal happy life—a statement which is justified by the letters which she wrote almost up to the last hour of consciousness—and had made happy plans for the future. “I think the explanation must be that it was a very rough night, and when Mrs Hamilton-Russell took a strong dose of dial it did not act, and she took another, perilhps even a stronger dose, without realising what she was doing. There is only evidence of the purchase of a single tube of dial, but she must have been buying it elsewhere. She was in London on the Friday before her death, and could have bought several packets there. “I think I should emphasise the extreme danger that there is in taking poisons of the barbituric group such as dial and veronal, unless strictly under a physician’s orders. There may be a perfectly proper dose of what is a harmless narcotic in the conditions existing under a physician’s care which can become a deadly poison under other circumstances. People should realise that these tablets are not just sweets to be taken at will in order to gain a night’s rest. Major Hamilton-Russell said that some time last August he bought a packet of dial tablets for his wife. That was the only purchase of the kind he had ever made. Normal Leiters. The Coroner said he had copies of letters written by Mrs Hamilton-Rus-sell. There were five letters and one postcard written between January 10 and 13. Three letters were written to Major-Hamilton-Russell. The Coroner (to the witness): I do not propose to read these letters, but were they perfectly normal letters? — Yes. Did she in one complain of a rat or mouse in her bedroom, which kept her awake at night?—Yes. Ralph Fincham, a qualified chemist, produced a register which showed the sale of one tube of 12 dial tablets to Major Hamilton-Russell. The Coroner: What is the strength of each tablet?—One grain and a-half. How many can you sell at a time?— There is no law to prevent you from selling as many as you like. Mr W. J. Wenham (appearing for the manufacturing chemists): Is dial one of the barbituric derivatives, and within part one of the schedule of the Pharmacy and Poisons Act, 1908? Yes. You knew Major Hamilton-Russell as an esteemed customer? —Yes. In every respect did you scrupulously and faithfully observe the provisionof the Pharmacy Act and the Dangerous Drug Act in this sale? —Yes, in every way. Mr George E. Slim, anal., tical chemist to the Hampshire County Council, said he found in the orguns a small quantity of substance which gave the reactions of dial. He was satisfied it was dial. The total substance found gave an amount of at least half a grain of dial. Dr. Cecil Henson, of Harley Street, London, who was called in when Mrs Hamilton-Russell became unconscious, said that dial did not act immediately. It had a delayed action.