Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-22
A Strange Case in the Family
of MIR. Chouinard.
TWO OTHER CHILDREN ILL
Or. Sheerin Will Hold an Autopsy
This Evening to Determine
Cause OF Death.

The case of poisoning mentioned in a
! paragraph in yesterdays Inter Mountain
| referred to the child of German Chouin-
ard who died about noon yesterday under
suspicious circumstances and one of the
attending physicians gave it as his opln-
ion that the death was due to poison.
Coroner Julien was notified of the affair
at a late hour yesterday afternoon and
made an investigation last night.
The Chouinards live at No. S07 Utah
avenue. The dead child was named Alma
and was four years old. She was of a
delicate frame, but up to Thursday had
! enjoyed good health. She had been play
ing about the house and yard all that day
and about 6 o'clock went to the kitchen
and asked a woman h acts as nurse for
a drink of milk. She was given the milk
and soon after was taken with a fit of
vomiting. During the night she suffered
intense pain and had violent commissions
In the morning she slept a little. DR.. st.
Jean, who was attending two other
patients in the house, was appraised of the
little girls illness and after visiting her
discovered that she was nearly dead. he
administered such aid as he could under
~unavailing n about noon yesterday she
died
What lends color to the theory Of pois-
| oning is that two other children of the
Chouinards are i'll and one of them is in a
precariOus condition. Both of them eX-
hibited symptoms similar to those of the
child that died yesterday. After the
| coroner had been notified last evening. he
questioned the parents. nurse and other
inmates of the house but was a to
gain much information. They claimed
| that there was no poison Of any kind
about the house and the nurse stated that
the only medicine given the child was a
a couple of calomel tablets. DR.. st. Jean
would not state positively that death was
due to poisoning but DR.. Hansen was GER
tain that all the children had partaken of
poison.
1t was at first supposed that the poison
might have been contained in the food or
drink, and the milk was suspected. AS
none of the other members of the family
had been taken i'll, however, this theory
was not given much weight. From the
Investigations of the coroner, captain of
police and city detective they gave it as
their opinion that there was no seeming
cause for anyone to have administered
the poison to the children.
|, Coroner Julien stated this afternoon
that at his request DR.. Sheerin would
perform an autopsy to decide the cause
of the child's Heath The autopsy will
probably be held this evening at the resi-
dence of the parents as they absolutely
refused to allow the body to be operated
on at an undertaking establishment.
DR.. Shultz, the health officer, and SAM,
tary Inspector Tobin also visited the
Chouinard residence today. DR.. Shultz
is not inclined to accept the theory OF
poison in the milk. The milkman whc
furnishes the Chouinards also supplies
about POO other families and no sickness
from that cause has been reported to the
health authorities. The health officers
also learned today that a dog had dice
a few days ago in the yard of the Chouin.
ard residence from poisoning. Whethel
that had anything to do with the case O.
the little girl. they could not ascertain.