The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-02-22
INV TURN TO INQUEST
DR.. Douglass Tells the Story of Bar
nets Death.
POISON IN KUTNOW POWDER.
The Physician Explains why He DID
Not Report to the Board
of Health when the
CIubman Died.

New York, Feb. 21.-The inquest into |
the poisoning of Mrs. Kate j. Adams
was taken up again before Coroner
Hart and jury of II men in the coro-
ner's court in the criminal couSs build |
ing. This makes the eighth session OF |
the court, and there seems no reason TO |
doubt that it will take the district at
torney more than a week to present to
the jury all the evidence that he has In |
his possession.
Assistant District Attorney Maurice
Blumentha said before court began
that he did not think the case would be
finished this week. He also said that
Colonel Gardiner confidently believes
that indictments and arrests will follow
the close of the inquest.
Before the end of this week." he said,
you will see what line we have been
following, and then questions that may
have seemed absurd will appear in their
true light. We have not asked unneces-
sary questions, and that fact Will be APP
parent very SOON"
The first witness was Harry A. King,
one OF Cornish's chief friends. He told
about the narrow escape he had had in
the Knickerbocker club from samplng
the bromo settler and explained that
the only reason he did not take any of
1t was that there was neither water in
the cooler nor a glass. DR.. Douglass
who attended Barnet in his fatal ILL
ness was then called to the stand. He
was asked:
please tell all you know of Barnet's
death"
ION Oct. go 1885, was called to at
| tend Mr.. Barnet at the Knickerbocker
Athletic club. / met him in the cafe.
He was talking with DR.. A. M. Ranney.
1 met him in the adjoining room, when
he was with Colonel Austin. I asked
him what the trouble was He said he
had sore throat. I could not examine
him there and we went to his room.
Then examined his throat. I told him
he probably had a mild case Of diph-
iberia
Kutnow Made Him Sick.
Upon the morning of Nov. / found
some evidences of merourial liberation
in the throat He told me on Oct. 30
that he had taken a small dose of Kut-
now powder, which made him very sick,
so much so that he had almost vomited.
"Thsn on Nov. 4 I looked at the Kut-
now powder and took II to some chem
lists for examination. I supposed there
might have been some calomel In 1t.
Mr.. Ellison, the chemist, smelled It and
said there could be no calomel in 1t, but
there probably was a bichloride. He
analysed it and found cyanide of mer-
curry He then labeled the box in my
presence as having been analysed by
him.
II took the box back to Barnet and
informed him what the powder contain
ed. I suggested that the mercury may
have been responsible for his symptoms
II asked him how the poison got there.
He said he didn't know. I asked him If
I should keep the box or IL he wanted it.
He said should keep 1t, and he would
attend to 1t when he got we'll
II thought the case of enough mpor-
lance to institute search for the wrap
per in which 1t had come through the
mail We never could find 1t. I asked
him If he wanted to tell me who he
thought sent it to him, and he said:
No; I'll attend to this when get WE'LL
you came to the conclusion before
his death that Barnet had diphtheria? p
Eyes, SIR"
what was the cause of death given
by you in the oertiicate?"
Cardiac failure and a dphtheritic
throat"
Made No Report.
you did not think it necessary to
inform the board of health that he had
diphtheria ?"
"Well, took advantage of a technl-
cality in that respect. He did not have
meteorological diphtheria but he did
have clinical diphtheria AS I did not
find in the culture had taken from his
throat any real diphtheria germs I did
not regard it as incumbent upon me to
report the case as diphtheria."
"Then when you took advantage OF
this it must have been to the advantage
Of some one, Who was that persona"
mo one in particular-not to me. The
only idea was that it would be better
for him.
WAS there any person who spoke to
you and asked you to suppress the fact
that he had diphtheria?"
mo"
1T seems very strange that you
should have acted as you did. The rules
Of the health board are very stringent
are they not?"
"They are"
"They call for isolation, don't they?"
"They do, but we had practiced isola-
ton there"
do you mean that? Don't you know
that the nurses were going about the
club and that the members were going
in to visit him?"
1T don't know that. I never saw 1t.
Orders were issued to allow no one in"