The Evening critic., 1883-02-26
MYSTERIOUS POISONING.
Five Patients in u Virginia Lunati
AsyIum DrDp Dead.

Staunton, Va, was startled Saturday by
the news that five of the patients at the
Western Lunatic Asylum had been poisoned
to death and several moro were dying. In
less than 15 minutes after their medicine
bad been administered, about 7:30 in the
morning, five male patients dropped dead.
They are Leonard It. wilkins, of North
ampton County, 20 years old; Thomas w.
Adams, of Loudoun, aged 40; J. NJ. Holo-
man, of Spottsylvania County; John w.
Hines, of Bath County, Isaac Sperry, of
Frederick County. Four are sick. Matthew
Vaughan, of Prince Edward County, will
probably die. Edward Miles, Of Augusta
County; Joseph Thomas, of Rockingham
County, and William Windle, of Frederick
County, are almost out of danger antidotes
having been promptly administered. DIR.
r. S. Hamilton, the superintendent at
once notified the city attorney, and coro-
ners jury was summoned, and although
the officers of the institution and of the
city and the jury have been carefully in
vestigating the circumstances connected
with the tragic affair, nothing in the
least satisfactory has been discovered.
The mornings medicine is gen.
orally mixed at $50 p. M, in
the prescription-room, then taken
by th several attendants to their apart
ments and locked up until morning, when
il is administered before breakfast This
was done as usual Saturday morning, and
strangely enough out of dozen or more
prescriptions ON waiter, perhaps only one
would contain the fatal dose.
City Attorney Echols, who had been at
tending the autopsy of the poisoned pa
tients at the asylum, all day yesterday in
vestigating the tragic affair, does not
think the case is yet ready for the coronor's
inquest, and has postponed the matter un-
NAtl tnrr hne rnt fro,
pired to fix the crime upon any one. The
theory of Dr. Hamilton, superintendent, is,
that after DR.. w. S. Butler, the druggist,
had mixed the medicines in the dispensary
and placed them in the hall outside, while
remaining there an hour before the attend
ants called for them, lunatic got to them
and sprinkled the poison in nine cups out
of the fifteen or twenty that were on the
three walters. He does not think it was %
mistake Of the druggist, from the fact
that some forty other doses of the
same iron tonic in which the poison
was administered was given safely to
others. Nor does he think that the attend
ants could have administered the poison,
as the fatal doses were carried to four
different wards by as many different at
teIdants, and so many would not likely
have been in collision in so heinous a
crime. He and Professor Mallett, who
came last night, agree that the whole affair
is as yet mystery, and that the mystery
is much complicated by the mental char
acteristics of the asylum people, In the
autopsy, which has engaged the attention
of the asylum officials to-day, con-
Quoted by Drs. II. II. Henlle and
w. S. Butler and closely watched by Pro-
fessor Mallet and the city attorney, the
heart, liver, brain. kidneys and stomachs of
the bodies have been carefully examined,
and the indications as we'll as the symp-
toms which preceded death point to poison
ing by prussic acid or aconite. 1t could not
have been strychnine or arsenic. The
stomachs all show more or less congestion,
according to the period of time the patient
lived after taking the fatal dose or the
quantity of poison supposed to have been
taken