The San Francisco call., 1898-04-08

vestigate 1t. If crime has been com mitted In this case only the body and the contents of the stomach can reveal 1t, and he is the proper official to deter mine that fact. He is physician, and he, by his professional knowledge. could ascertain if the woman died other than a natural death. It is his place to ascertain that, and when he reports to me then it is my time to act'
 Coroner Hawkins says he has been ready to go ahead with an investiga- ton ever since the case was called to his attention. The case was reported to me-" he said, "by Detective Anthony about five days ago. The officer said he was going to investigate it, and he asked me to do nothing in the matter until I heard from him. He gave the impression that if anything was done to arouse the suspicious of those whom he suspected of committing a crime, if one had been committed. it might inter- fere with his plan of probing the mys- tery. I promised to do nothing with the body according to his request, but since The Call gave publicity to the matter I have been trying to get in communi- cation with Detective Anthony to find out what I should do. I have so far been unable to reach him."
 "The certificate of death was not II have been, according to the law gov erning such cases. pr. Artigues was called to attend her only few hours before she died"
 pr. Artigues, who attended the woman, said he was called to prescribe for the sick woman at about noon of the day she died. He said he found the patient suffering from asthma, and in one of his prescriptions was a small quantity of morphine. The patient was directed to take that prescription every three hours until relieved. Each dose as prescribed would only administer fifth of a grain of the morphine.
 The directions were evidently not fol- lowed closely. The morphine was in powder form, and the prescription when 1t was filled called for ten powders. They were delivered to the woman less than twelve hours before she died. In that time eight of them were taken. If taken regularly that would mean powder every hour and a half or just as often again as was prescribed. In addition to the morphine in the pow ders that were prescribed by the phy- scian the husband and the nurse of the woman gave her several large doses of a cherry pectoral, a patented medi- cine, that contained a large quantity of opium. Between the two medicines sufficient narcotic poison might have been given the woman to cause death.
 'I do not understand how it was that the death certificate that I signed was not vised by the Coroner I signed it with the understanding that it was to go to that official, and I took the pre- caution to write on the face of it that I had only attended the woman but few hours before she died. At first I refused to sign a certificate, but finally agreed to do it, with the understanding that the case should be reported to the Coroner Why it was not taken there I do not know, nor can I tell how it was passed by the Health Department with out some inquiries being made when I was careful to call attention to the fact that the woman had died without hav ing the necessary medical attendance as provided by law. l have no doubt but that my diagnosis of the case was right and that death was due to natural causes, but at the same time the cir cumstance as told in The Call gives good reason to believe that there might he something wrong with the death ct the woman, and an investigation should be feld.'