Widnes Examiner. — 1894-03-10 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

ISONING CA4I S AT ST. HELENS.  IoitICING OXALIC ACID FOR EPSOM SALTS, tlutit. Saturday Mr. Brighouse held two inquests at Helens Town Hall, on the bodies of Charles tr,'"4l,s ilton, a painter, aged 24 years, of 5 house, 2 Buke-st., and Robert Bickerstaffe, a chemical thalts' labourer, who lodged in Graham-st., Parr, 'Of whom had died from poison.—ln the first tet 'Mrs. Hamilton said her hvsband had been upitß,4,hd in a rambling state. About three weeks iiip-bile attempted to hang himself, and on Monday beet he drank some eye lotion. On Thursday when beeZeTit to his work his employer said his place had te ot " tiled. At nine o'clock at night he sett her for his , t, . ili4 01', and just as they returned he had a Wineglaos in toisim,abd. He said, " Here gees," and drni.t• it. He eel; 'hem it was carbolic acid, and he had tal'en it be?o:veryone was against him. A bottle siNich had flirt lined carbolic acid was found in his pocket.—A yen' • %lied. r Suicide whilst temporarily insane" was re-14 Ih h l'athAt -e second inquiry, the Coroner said the case was Dect;r,,a mysterious one. Bick !rstaffe was a decent resV,a,s7u'e man, and appeared to have no trouble. He IvorlcliE"d spirits, and jovial, and the last man in the hI3P , they would expect to do anything to himself. It sil•;,'r ed that he went home to his lodgings at six o'clock bteorsday morning. He said to another man named tile 15;:, that he would take adose of salts. He went into Nilli„a-Ox kitchen and returned with something in a cup, be drank. He went back again and washed the hlter, 4ohnost immediately he said he thought he had ttiecc,Pdison, and mixed salt and water himself, and ,Ibtali,;° vomit. He died at half-past six. A post mortem . tliciiViation bad been made, and it appeared that kost-r,ttaffe had died from some kind of poison, but the Iliatic, wYsterious part was that although the police had th l e i every inquiry, they could not trace any psison la *her2ll,BLe, nor that. Bick-erstaff had had any, poison, nor kid iil"la Poison had come from.—Dr. Fred Knowles Itkvou,e Whole post-morten .evidence was strongly in ' 'lXalii; of death from irritant.poisoning, and pointed to ,taier,;" acid as the cause. That was further borne out by - *lll thAs,ecTic and chemical examinations of the contents ' otaii- intestines. The doctor preduced two samples,one leaenleha',6cl and other Epsom salts. Thor bore a striking Nhti-ance, the acid being rather larger crystals. The :Aik 1 Part of an ounce was-sufficient to kill. a man, and 11:beer-Zee pf salts was generally taken as a dose. The 'Lhirt;' Showed that deaths occurred on an average 4cljou'' thiuntes after taking oxalic acid. The case was - . )11 "ed• b r 14 • ' 44a.lif -rlghouse, county coroner, at the St. Helens Town tiek;,°,l Tuesday, resumed the inquiry into the death of 21 dataffe on Thursday morning last from the effects qad 1,-:jug 'oxalic acid in mistake for Epsom salts. It It h 5 0 ,-..-- rl suggested that deceased might have obtained AlkaFano acid from Mr. All Bryde's works mf the United 'clioni C°lnpany, where he was employed, and an Ity to-rnrnent had been taken to give the police opportunkeel r itirther inquiry into the matter.—Inspector Wm. bad : said he had made full inquiries at the works, and ' Ave otertained that the laboratory was locked up from . No o„el°01 each night to nine o'clock the next morning. vzas 4 Was allowed to enter during the night and no one hem, ,•,,c7f-'d in during the day except on special busiberson 4ne place was never unlocked except when some 4t ail th_.was in charge. The police had made inquiries Di °isoo -IT,,,ebemists' shops in the town to see whether any ;a4, t 8 10-7,', been sold, but could only ascertain that the at of Poison was on 2.5 th February, and that was Zue sli,,-suh." No oxalic acid had been sold at any of ',ad sear,! 01 A long time.—The Coroner said the police eentatebed Hanlon's house' but found nothing there Ltler',,,,„Psom salts and Dr. Knowles had certified that l'etiarn,:,re Epsom sa . lts,lie having tasted them.—The jury ',•altiri„-' a verdict that death was due to the effects of 'Alt tEI". 2xalic acid poison in mistake for Epsom salts, kot erf evidence did not show how the oxalic acid was L letit r°l3l where it came. Death was due to misadire.  154 t the time of the Ashanti war, Lord Wolseley had to alailt(l,7oat‘wenty-five pounds for every hundred pounds n.s Tritp ni life. ,kat ,p 4 WRITE STAR STEAMER —The White Ole 41,7,5aYal Mail Steamer " which left Belfast on Of March, after taking in coal at Cardiff ,has pro',',Lte London to take her place in the Shaw, Sav!ll, ha % "'°ion Company's New Zealand line. The "lonic, qf beenh— undergoing extensive alterations at the hands builders Messrs. Harland and Wolff. She has late'tted with new quadruple expansion engines of the 117 r,s' tYpe.Her Passenger accommodatian has been entirethi —rranged On the lines of the new twia screw steamh,l3"Gothic,, belonging to the same owners; and eh e has 113,78.1 Provided with new refrigerating apparatus—Hall's to,Pa—napable EA dealing with 36,000 earcases,and 217 fr,7 af dairy produce, me "lonic "is intended to sail London to New Zealand on the 22nd March. APpc., e glor