by Laurel | January 7th, 2012
Bichloride of Mercury
07 January 1916
Holyoke Man Will Die
Arthur R. Welch Takes Bichloride Tablets — Hoped For Appointment as Fireman
Arthur R. Welch, 26, of 260 East Dwight Street, Holyoke, is dying at the House of Providence from the effect of a dose of bichloride of mercury which he took at 5:30 yesterday afternoon. The young man is employed as a teamster and yesterday afternoon was at the office of Dr. Shinkwin on Main Street. He persuaded the son of Truant Officer T. H. Finn to go to a drug store and buy a bottle of bichloride of mercury tablets. On the boy’s return Welch swallowed 11 of the tablets, which amounted to about 50 grains of the poison. Dr. John Hughes was called when the condition of the man was discovered and found Welch unconscious. He was taken to the House of Providence Hospital and his condition was such that he is expected to live but a few hours. The man lives with his father.
Young Finn said last night that he was playing on the corner of Main and Mosher Streets when Welch called him over to Dr. Shinkwin’s office and asked him to go to a drug store and get him a bottle of bichloride tablets. The boy told Welch that he didn’t believe the druggist would give it to him and Welch told him to tell him who it was for. He went to the drug store, but Walter Moynihan, the clerk, refused to give the boy the tablets. He went back and told Welch, who then told him to go to another drug store, where he secured the tablets. When he brought them back to Welch, he said that the young man began to take them and the boy advised him not to take so many, as he thought he was taking too much.
Welch, it was stated last evening, was despondent over his being turned down in the recent appointment of permanent firemen. He had taken the civil-service examinations and stood fourth on the list, but when the appointments were made he was not named. Late last night he was still alive but there is no hope held out for his recovery.
From The Springfield Republican, image Creative Commons public domain via Wikipedia.
