The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-03-07

ing for his medicine bags. He came
back to the room with two bags and
prepared some medicine; also prepared
| hypodermic injection. For short
interval the rigidity of her muscles re-
Taxed. I comforted her by the remark
that she was better. She was in a pro-
fuse perspiration, as discovered when
rubbing her spine.
Then she remarked to the doctor
Another spasm is coming on saying,
oh, God, forgive me my sins and Is
my soul prepared to meet my dear
ones?' Then she said, This is a horri-
BILE death to die!' Dr. Humphris gave
her some medicine. A violent spasm
came on. from which she did not re-
cover. This must have been about u
o'clock I heard some one say so, but
who il was 1 don't recall.
Mrs. Stanford was born in Albany,
n Y. August %, 1925. and at her death
was in her nth year"
ANDREWS ASKS QUESTIONS.
At this point Attorney General An
drews asked Miss Berner about Mrs.
Stanford's use of bicarbonate and wit
ness stated that she did not use it
when under the care of physicians as
she used only what they prescribed.
The maids and the housemaid. Nora
Hopkins, knew of Mrs. Stanford's habit
of using the soda. She did not believe
the present maid or the new butler
knew. The duties of none but those
persons would lead them into the place
where the soda was kept. Witness was
not present when the Poland water
was given Mrs. Stanford in San Fran
cisco but understood that Miss Rich
mond had brought the water from the
kitchen where the bottle was uncorke1
by Chinaman and had heard that the
bottle stood a long time before Mrs.
Stanford drank it. The cascara cap
sules were Miss Berner's own.
ATTITUDE TOWARD SUICIDE.
In response to questions from the
Deputy witness stated that Mrs. Stan
ford never read about suicides and
said that the details of such cases dis
tressed her and expressed pity for peo-
pie who could be driven to take their
lives.
In regard to the room in which Mrs.
Stanford slept there was a dresser
against the door leading into the next
room. The windows were screened.
there was a balcony outside. Witness
thought that the room was locked
when Mrs. Stanford was out, that was
in the maids charge.
Mrs. Stanford never stated any s'is
picions regarding the San Francisco
poisoning to witness and the only con-
versation relating to it in Honolulu
was that with Mrs. Henry Highton.
Mrs. Stanford did not refer to this con-
sr "a 70
water taken in San Francisco had a
bitter taste, witness tasted it. In a
postscript statement Miss Berner ex-
planned the unusual interval between
the doses of soda taken New Years
week and that on the fatal night by
saying that Mrs. Stanford was under
the doctors care until a week before
leaving for Honolulu and that she had
eaten very sparingly while packing and
on the steamer so that she probably
was not troubled with acidity of the
stomach and did not need the medicine
Witness described the San Fran
cisco poisoning affair and said that
Mrs. Stanford felt no i'll effects after
she had got the poison out of her
stomach by vomiting. Her stomach re-
jected the poisoned water as sooE as
she drank it.
DIR. WOODS TESTIMONY.
DR.. C. B. Wood of the Queens Hos
pital who performed the autopsy was
the next witness. He described the
condition of the body in detail. There
was a most marked rigidity of the
muscles such as accompanies strych
nine poisoning. The blood vessels were
full and a small quantity of dark liquid
were no blood clots.
These two important statements were
made by DR.. Wood.
There are no post mortem appear
ances which are absolute proofs of
death due to strychnine, but all the APP
pearances generally found in known
cases of strychnine poisoning CORE
spond to the appearances found in this
autopsy.
THE examination of the organs fail
ed to show any sufficient cause of death.
THE appearances We're those given
in the textbooks as those following
strychnine poisoning, but no other suf-
ficient cause of death was found-that
is. no disease was found in the bodily
organs which could have caused death
STATEMENT OF DIR. DAY.
DR.. F. r. Day was next called and
TOLD of ibis being summoned to attend
Mrs. Stanford She died just before
ne arrived. When he first saw the
body he was struck by the rightly of
the position of the feet, suggesting
death in a spasm. He tasted the soda
from the bottle and it had a bitter
taste.
Dr. Day completely corroborated Dr.
Woods statements concerning the au-
topsy and strengthened the poisoning
theory. The absence of CLOTHING in the
blood was a condition usually found in
cases of strychnine poisoning. All the
organs were in q normal condition,
practically. Or. Day stated that ne
came TO the conclusion that there wa
no pathological cause for death-that
is. there was no disease of any of the
organs to account for it. There was
no reason for death naturally.