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14. It is, however, almost impossible to speak with absolute certainty on the latter point. It is true that with the sole exception of a single specimen of Datura Stramonium, Linn, discovered on this Island in 1887,* only one species of Datura viz., Datura alba, Nees, has been recorded from S. China. Mr. MORRIS, the Assistant Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, writing under date 21st of October, 1887, informs me however that "in all probability one, or more, other species exist." Moreover there are numbers of Solanaceous plants throughout China the flowers of which, when cut up and incor- porated with food, it would be difficult to distinguish from those of the Thorn Apple, and which may contain alkaloids that cannot be distinguished, in cases of poisoning, from atropine.
15. In the case under notice a man, who had assisted in the preparation of the stew, was charged with administering a stupefying drug and tried at the Supreme Court, but the case fell to the ground through lack of evidence.
16. Alleged tea drugging.-In August an examination was ordered by Government of some tea infusion which it was alleged had produced dizziness in two women who had drank thereof. Unlike the case quoted above there was no real trustworthy evidence of poisoning. Both women when brought to the Hospital by the Police appeared to have nothing the matter with them, and as they refused to remain until the arrival of a Doctor, the analyst was left without the clue which could have been given by a physiologist had they been only slightly under the influence of some poison or other. 17. In this instance, although according to the Police report there was reason to suppose that the women had been under the influence of some drug, all the attempts made to discover a poisonous principle in the tea failed.
18. Where the Police have suspicion of poisoning it is of the greatest importance to let a Doctor see the supposed victims with the least possible delay. In a case of poisoning by the Chinese drug
Tin Cheung-tso, the active principle of which was first isolated in this laboratory in 1884, and identified with Gelsemium elegans, Benth., a loss of time may mean the life of a victim. In a trumped up case of poisoning a Medical man could, by early observation, probably save weeks of fruitless work on the part of the Analyst.
19. The circumstances of this case would suggest the desirability in all instances where the Police consider it necessary to take persons to Hospital who are alleged to have been poisoned, of their receiving standing orders to detain the suspected persons until a Doctor arrives on the scene.
20. Before leaving this section of my report I would respectfully urge on the Government the necessity of introducing measures for controlling the sale of certain medicines which are used by the Chinese for criminal poisoning. The value to the Police of a Sale of Poisons Ordinance in their en- deavours to secure the detection of the Crime of poisoning would, I believe, be considerable.
21. It will of course be urged that the usefulness of such a measure, in respect of the sale of vegetable poisons, is by no means evident, seeing that there are, growing wild in the Colony, the very plants which furnish the drug the sale of which it is proposed to control; and that a criminal would be hardly likely to purchase of a druggist or herbalist a poison which he could gather without much trouble in the Colony. Objections of this character are of course entitled to some weight. A perusal of the records of the crime of murder by poisoning will, however, show that the criminal, in matters of detail, is by no means so astute as people imagine.
22. I will only incidentally allude to this matter now as it is my intention to lay my views on this subject before the Government in the form of a special communication.
23. Poisonous cheese. In July an analysis was ordered by Government of certain articles in connection with the poisoning of a number of men belonging to the Band of the 58th, Northamptonshire, Regiment.
24. The facts of the case are as follows:-
About 10.30, on the night of the 22nd of July, the men of the Band after the usual per- formance in the Botanical Gardens, had a supper, consisting of coffee, bread and cheese, soon after their return to barracks. All the men, viz. 38, had coffee and bread; but only 25 ate cheese. Out of the latter number, 22 were taken ill between 1.30 and 5.30 on the following morning. Three of the men who had partaken of the cheese did not experience any ill-effects.
The symptoms displayed by the sufferers were :-"Burning pain in the stomach and violent vomiting, causing partial collapse." This information was obligingly furnished by Dr. H. A. THOMPSON, A.M.S., the Medical Officer in charge of the 2nd Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment.
Thirteen of the sufferers were so bad that they had to go to Hospital, and of these, two were very seriously ill. All the men ultimately recovered. None of them had been ill before from eating cheese. All had enjoyed their former meals that day and were in perfect health before going to the Gardens. They did not have any refreshments while in the Gardens.
* Report of the Colonial Surgeon (Hongkong) for 1887. Enclosure No. 3, foot note 4.
+ Pharmaceutical Journal, (3), XVI, p. 95: XVII., p. 924. Lancet, 1885, vol. I., p. 1181: 1887, vol. II., p. 80.
China Review, vol. XV.,
p. 215.