The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1910-02-11

Swope died under conditions that
caused much apprehension among the
attending nurses. John G. Jaxton, the
executor, and Mrs. Logan Swope,
mother of Christian, instituted a Wig
orous investigation. DR.. Edward l..
Stewart came forward with the state
had obtained from him an active ty
phoid culture After DIR. Stewart had
divulged this information Dr. Hyde
was placed under the constant sur
VIGILANCE of detectives. Dr. Stewart
in telling his story to the attorneys
for the Swope estate and to Prose
cutor Virgil Conkling, explained that
a typhoid culture consisted of a tube
filled with media on which the ty
phoid bacteria lived. A healthy
growth of bacteria covered the media.
The test tube given DR.. Hyde, he
said, contained algae meria and
millions of typroid bacteria.
On December 20 DR.. Hyde himself
suffered an attack, stated to be ty-
phoid fever DR.. Stewart later supplied
the prosecuting attorney with interest
ing evidence bearing on DR.. Eyde's
illness
When DIR. Hyde became ILL.," said
DR.. Stewart, 81 was asked to make
an examination of his blood for ty-
phod. He asked that l make the wild
al test. This will show typhoid few
er, even if the subject whose blood
is examined suffered from the dis
ease several years before. An exam
nation of the blood of DR.. Hyde
Il then asked permission to make
the culture test This is an absolute
test This is an absolute test for
typhoid if it is actively present in the
blood when the blood is taken from
the patient"
DR.. Stewart said that although DR..
Hydes blood was placed side by side
in an incubator with blood taken from
a typhoid fever patient in a Kansas
City hospital, it remained absolutely
sterile of typhoid and contained no
typhoid germs.
After it was decided that the bod
les of Colonel Swope and Christian
Swope should be disinterred, Mr.. Pax
DR.. Hyde's insistence that he be per-
nitted to act as physician for the
family, although DR.. G.. IT. Twyman
had for years served in that capacity.
DR.. Hyde prescribed for Colonel
Swope in the latters illness The pat
lent was given digestive capsule on
October 3. Twenty minutes later,
when reading a newspaper, he went
into commissions His neck and limbs
stiffened and he groaned in great pain.
He rallied long enough to say: Il
wish I had not taken that medicine"
Then with greater effort the dying
man gasped: 81 wish / were dead"
He died few minutes later
Miss Keller, a nurse, was alone with
Colonel Swope when the commissions
began. She said the patients face
was pale throughout and that she
was amazed upon hearing that the
malady has been diagnosed as apo
plexy.
Only two days before James Moss
Hunton. Colonel Swopes cousin. and
named as an executor of the Swope
will had died of apoplexy in the pres
ence of DIR. Hyde. In this case there
was every symptom of apoplexy.
On December 2, nurses attending
Chrisman Swope. who was being
treated for typhoid fever. were sur
prised when he also had commissions
and became unconscious exactly as his
uncle had done two months before.
Chrisman Swope died December 6.
Miss Margaret Swope, Chrisman's
sister, also had commissions in mild
err form Her illness was diagnosed as
typhoid fe.er.