3.05
Enclosure 3.
Report of the Government Analyst.
GOVERNMENT LABORATORY,
HONGKONG, 20th June, 1896,
SIR,---I have the honour to submit a statement of the work done in the Government Laboratory during the year 1895.
2. A larger number of analyses have been conducted than in any previous year and the work may be conveniently summarized as follows :—
Description of cases.
Toxicological, .
Potable Waters,
Petroleum,
Milk,
Morphine Ordinance,
Alcoholic Liquors,
Miscellaneous,.
Total,..
No. of articles examined.
11
53
108
23
17
29
245
TOXICOLOGICAL.
3. The toxicological cases investigated during the past year include three cases of human poisoning. In the first instance, Orpiment was detected, the second was a case of Datura poisoning, and the third a case of death from the administration of Gelsemium elegans.
4. Orpiment.-In October, application was made by the Principal Medical Officer, Army Medical Department, for the analysis of a sinall quantity of curried beef that had been prepared for six men of No. 3 section, "A" Company, Hongkong Regiment. It appears from the report of the Medical Officer in charge of the Station Hospital, Kowloon, that, twenty minutes after partaking of the food, all the men were seized with vomiting, heartburn and giddiness, followed soon by bodily pains and a burning sensation of the skin. There was no diarrhoea in any of the cases. All the men recovered. The substance submitted for analysis was taken from the cooking vessel and weighed less than one ounce. It contained 33.74 grains of Orpiment--the yellow or ter-sulphide of arsenic. It is believed that the poison had been placed in the cooking vessel while the men were absent on parade. There was, however, no evidence to support a charge before the Magistrate. To my knowledge Orpiment, as well as Realgar, the red sulphide, is readily procurable at an Indian store in this Colony.
5. Datura.-In the second case of poisoning, an alkaloid, analogous to the active principle of Nau yung fa, (Datura alba, Nees.), was detected in a number of exhibits forwarded by the Police. The man charged in this case with administering a stupefying drug was tried at the Supreme Court and convicted.
6. Gelsemium elegans.-In November a mysterious case of death by poisoning occurred at 32, Temple Street, Yaumati. According to the statement made by the father, the victim, a Chinese girl 18 years of age, had a quarrel with her parents on the evening of the 25th and again on the following morning. At 2 p.in. on the 26th he came home and found the girl suffering apparently from the effects of poison. He did not report the matter to the Police until about 3.30 p.m., and when the Inspector arrived on the scene (3.45 p.m.) the girl was dead. The parents disappeared soon after enquiries had been instituted: the affair could not therefore be further investigated and consequently did not come into the Police Court. At the Police Station the father declared that the girl admitted having poisoned herself with a decoction of a drug which she had prepared in the kitchen. The remaining portion of the drug in question was found in a cooking vessel and forwarded to the Laboratory for examination. An alkaloid was extracted and found to display the characters of the active principle of the root of Tün Cheung ts'd,
(Gelsemium elegans, Benth.) which were first
described in my annual report for 1884. This is the second case of poisoning by the root of Gelsemium elegans that has come within my experience during the last thirteen years.