A Child’s Death from Alcoholic Poisoning
LAST week there was a death in Oakland which should, but probably will not, serve as a warning at least to parents. A woman left a glass of sherry wine standing on the table, and her four-year-old son, finding it there, drank it. Two or three hours afterwards his mother noticed that he “acted as if he was ‘tight,’” and put him to bed. In a short time the boy was attacked with tetanic spasms, and in spite of all efforts, soon died. The symptoms were those of poisoning by strychnia, but an examination of the wine in the bottle showed no trace of poison, other than the alcohol which it contained. The verdict is that the boy died from alcoholic poisoning. This will probably make no difference in the amount of wine that will be drank, either by the young or the old, for we have been solemnly assured again and again that wine is a harmless drink.