84  Two  Toxicological  Investigations. 
A  RECORD  OF  TWO  TOXICOLOGICAL  INVESTIGATIONS.1 
By  Geo.  M.  Beringer. 
The  intent  of  this  paper  is  to  record  for  scientific  reference  the 
toxicologic  investigations  made  in  two  celebrated  trials  in  Burlington 
County,  N.  J.,  in  both  of  which  women  were  defendants,  and  indicted 
for  murder  in  the  first  degree.  These  have  heretofore  been  re- 
ported only  in  the  newspapers,  which  reports  are  not  permanently 
available  records  or  sufficiently  accurate  for  scientific  reference. 
The  case  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  vs.  May  L.  F.  Haines.  On 
March  31,  1 901,  Gwendoline  Haines,  a  frail  child,  aged  two  years 
and  nine  months,  stepdaughter  of  the  defendant,  died  without  having 
had  sufficient  medical  attendance,  and  under  circumstances  that  were 
considered  suspicious.  The  only  other  occupants  of  the  house  at 
the  time  were  Mrs.  Haines  and  her  infant  son,  about  one  year  old* 
About  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  that  day  the  mother  called 
at  the  office  of  a  physician  nearby,  explaining  that  Gwendoline  was 
suffering  from  a  slight  cold,  and  he  prescribed  a  few  homeopathic 
pellets  of  aconite.  About  one  hour  afterward  she  again  called  and 
requested  his  immediate  attendance  on  the  child,  who,  she  said,  had 
a  convulsion.  The  physician  responded  promptly,  as  he  lived  but  a 
few  hundred  yards  away;  but  on  arrival  at  the  house  found  the 
child  dead.  He  discovered  no  evidence  of  convulsions,  but  numer- 
ous bruises  on  the  body,  and  as  the  neighbors  told  him  of  harsh 
treatment  and  punishment  having  been  administered  by  the  step- 
mother, notably  a  severe  beating  the  day  prior,  he  declined  to  issue 
a  death  certificate  and  referred  the  case  to  the  coroner. 
The  undertaker,  however,  was  promptly  summoned,  arriving  at 
midnight ;  he  immediately  embalmed  the  body,  injecting  into  the 
abdominal  cavity  near  the  navel  about  1  pint  of  fluid.  The  follow- 
ing day  the  coroner  issued  a  burial  permit,  and  within  a  few  days 
the  body  was  interred  in  Harleigh  Cemetery,  at  Camden,  N.  J. 
Relatives  on  the  child's  maternal  side,  noticing  the  scars  and 
bruises  on  the  child's  corpse,  demanded  an  official  investigation,  and 
on  Saturday,  April  6,  1 901,  the  body  was  disinterred,  and  a  post- 
mortem examination  made  by  Dr.  R.  H.  Parsons  and  Dr.  A.  H.  Small, 
the  authorities  anticipating  the  finding  only  of  evidence  of  severe 
^ead  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  held  at  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy,  November  15,  1904. 
