The Hawaiian gazette., 1901-01-25
SAILORS DEATH
IS MYSTERIOUS
A Chemical Examination of
Stomach aud Blood Show
Suflocation.

1t now appears that the man who
was found dead in bed at the Sailors
Home came to his end through poison.
There were no signs that the man had
died in any other way tnan through
apopexy or heart disease until a post
mortem examination was made. In the
event of it's being proved that death
was due to poisoning, the police will
have a job on their hands in which
considerable mystery will figure.
1t has developed that the man an
swers the description of one j. Sham
an, who arrived here on the Miowera
from Canada the other day.
The coroner's jury in the case met
yesterday at noon, but was unable TO
finish, as DR.. Shorey has not yet had
time to complete his examination for
poisons. DR.. Pratt has stated that the
heart of the dead man showed signs
of disease, although not sufficiently so
to make it at all certain that he died
as the result of trouble with his heart.
Some traces of poison were found,
and DR.. Shorey is engaged in trying to
find what the poison was. A man by
the name of e. l.. Straut has testified
to having had conversation with man
on the Miowera who is said to be the
man who went to the Sailors Home
ana uleu tnere. Inc ueCedSeu tOlu
Straut that he had a brother connect
ed with one of the newspapers in Hio,
and that he was going TO Hilo on the
next steamer He told the purser of
the Miowera that he was a sailor. A
sailor in bunk near Shaanan, while
he was at the Sailors Home, says that
he heard the man groan several times
only few hours before he was found
dead.
Captain Bray testified that the man
arrived at the home between l and
o'clock Oh Sunday afternoon and en-
gagged a room, paying for it two days
in advance, and that he thinks that
he gave his name as Samuel. He was
not sure about the name. The man
did not register, and he only asked him
his name out of curiosity. Straut, the
dead mans fellow passenger on the
Miowera, said that Shaanan had told
him that he was troubled with heart
disease, and that recently his trouble
had bothered him great deal. At
one time on the voyage down he was
compelled to call upon one of the pas
sengers for assistance in order to get
to the portfolio for air. He was very
weak after this, and appeared so for
the remainder of the trip to port. The
coroner's jury meets again tomorrow,
when it is expected that DR.. Shorey
will have completed his examination of
the contents of the stomach of the
dead man.
Chemist Shorey stated yesterday that
from the appearance of the stomach
there had evidently been an irritant
poison in it, for it was scanned where
the ridges had contracted, leaving the
spaces between clear and almost in
normal condition. When the contents
We're removed from the stomach these
irritated ridges were red; now they are
black. This gave him the impression
instantly that something besides heart
disease was responsible for the mans
death.
one of the strangest of the phenome-
ma connected with the sailors mysteri-
Gus demise is the condition of his
the skull was opened, the blood was
almost in the condition of that found
in living man. When the physicians
laid him upon the slab his face was
dark and purplish, and with every in
dication of death having ensued from
suffocation. AS the process of remov-
ing the skull was being performed, and
the blood ran from the orifice, 1t was
noticed that the blood actually left the
dead mans face which took on the pal
lor usual with dead men.
The strange action of the blood was
observed by the physicians, and the
chemist took particular note of it.
From the heart and the abdominal
cavity he also scooped up some OF the
b God, which he deposited in glass
jar.
Yesterday the blood was in the same
condition. thin and liquid, and of the
color of crushed raspberries. 1t had
not coagulated in the least In the
twenty-four hours during which 1t had
stood. Blood usually coagulates in a
few minutes after being removed from
a body. but that taken from the sailor
Shaanan had not thickened at all, nor
has scum formed over the surface. In
DIR Shorey's opinion the case has many
puzzing features, and some which are
decidedly novel.