A SAD FATALITY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2607, 15 September 1909, Page 5

A SAD FATALITY.

LITTLE CHILD POISONED BY PILLS. rPiiR Press Association.! CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 14. The three-year-old son of Mr. Charles Luney died at Lyttelton yesterday morning from the effects of eating some tonic pills which he had got out of a drawer in his mother’s' bedroom. At the inquest the boy’s mother stated that the little boy was playing in her bed yesterday morning, and noticing the pill box in his hand she asked him what he had done with the pills. He said he had eaten them, and shortly afterwards he began to complain of pains in his stomach. Becoming alarmed she went to the chemist from whom she got the pills about two years ago. The chemist looked up the prescription, and finding they contained strychnine gave the mother an. emetic for the child and. telephoned for a doctor, who attended the child, which was in convulsfons when they aurrived. Chloroform was administered, and the boy s stomach was pumped out, but the child never rallied, and died shortly ■ afterwards. , Dr. Guthrie' said he had prescribed tlie pills about two years ago. They contained strychnine, and one would be dangerous for a young child, and four would be fatal to it. . The child’s mother stated that the pills had been lying in a drawer for nearly two years, and the child had to get on a chair to reach them. A "verdict Was returned to the effect that death. Was due to heart failure caused by strychine -oisoning accidentally taken'.