River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1881-01-27
A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
Two Little Girls Poisoned nv II Drug
gtst's Error In Giving Nor
prime tor CSuInIne.

Occasionally the sudden death of pa
tients, while under medical treatment,
reveals little of the carelessness so
prevalent among druggists, or the re-
suit of the hurried manner in which
physicians are made and sent out
among people to dispense their unfn-
ished knowledge of medicine.
Yesterday the sudden death of two
little girls brought to light a case of
criminal carelessness which the author
tiles should sift to the bottom and bring
the parties responsible for it to speedy
justice. The victims were bright lit
tie girl named Ella Blank, hardly two
and half years old, and her sister
Martha, but a year the senior of Ella.
1t appears that early Sunday morning
Ella was taken suddenly i'll, and Mrs
Engert, female physician, who has
an office at the corner of Randolph and
Halsted streets, was summoned. She
responded promptly to the call, and on
examining the child, which was lying
i'll at her parents home, No 129, Ca
nalpOrt avenue, found symptoms Of
diphtheria. She gave Il prescription,
the principal part of which called for
muriated quinine. The prescription
was taken to Kussman's drug store, at
the corner of CanalpOrt avenue and
Halsted street, and was put up by
Kussman himself The child was very
i'll, but after taking the first powder be-
came much worse, and II second was
administered about seven o'clock. In
less than an hour after the child was
dead. In the meantime her sister
Martha was taken i'll with the same
symptoms, and the same medicine was
prescribed, and at $3.50 o'clock yester-
day morning she died, less than twenty
hours after the death of her sister Ella.
The parents were wild with grief, and
the suddenness of the sickness, COM
bined with more sudden deaths, gave
rise to horrible suspicious. Shortly
before Martha's death they summoned
other physicians, among them Drs.
Louis Braun, of No. 12S, Canalport av-
enue; Donald Frazier, of No. 257, Blue
Island avenue; and Andrew Sterl, of
No. 361 Blue Island avenue. They
gave it as their united opinion that
there was no diphtheria in either case,
and followed that assertion up with the
startling announcement that morphine
had evidently been administered where
quinine was undoubtedly intended.
The coroner was notified but will not
hold an inquest until after Dr. Blut-
hardt, the County physician, has COM
pleted his post-mortem examination,
and analysis of the medicine. DR.
Bluthardt later informed the Inter Ocean
reporter that he found inflammation of
the throat and lungs, and also conges-
ton of the brain, but since the EARL
case experience, he has learned to say
nothing of probable causes. He says
he will thoroughly analyze the medi-
cine, and when he is certain, he will
speak, but not before.
There is no doubt that the mistake,
SO sad in every phase, was made in the
drug store. The police have the pre-
scriptions, and DR.. Biuthardt admits
that they could not, if filled properly,
have produced the result that is only
too apparent in the death of the chill
drrn.
Kussman, the druggist, was arrested
and admitted to $1,000 bail for one
week by justice Ingersoll. The drug
gist is so terribly excited over the af
fair that he can hardly give any ac-
count of it. He had put up the pre-
scription he says, and when doing so
was certain that he put muriated qui-
nine in it, as called for. He admits
that the powders contain morphine,
but asserts that it is the work of some
enemy. He brought drug bottle to
the station marked "muriated quinine"
but which was found to contain NOR
phine. This bottle, he said, was as he
got it from the wholesale druggist He
thought it possible that some one with
intent to injure him, had substituted
the morphine for the quinine, but could
not explain when, where or why it was
done. The finding of this stone bottle
with morphine in it instead of quinine,
as its label would indicate, is evidence
enough of the mistake in the fatal pow
ders, but as yet the police have been
utterly unable to find the perpetrators
of the change, if Kussman's story is
true, nor vet have they been able to
prove that Kussman made the charge
to acquit himself of the charge of
criminal carelessness. In either case,
the affair is an unfortunate one.
Kussman bears good reputation, and
as a druggist is REGARDED among the
best and most careful.