Suicide or Accidental Poisoning?

[Russell]

Hi Wini and David

You are both correct. Oxalic acid is toxic in larger quantities but the small quantity in Wini's stalk of rhubarb only stimulated and irritated the lining of the large intestine, hence the bodies' desire to get rid of it quickly.
P.S. Rhubarb wine - the home made variety - was only palatable once the oxalic acid was neutralised with precipitated chalk.

Sheila

In an earlier post to this you questioned whether this g-aunt was into self medication. !
Remember that prior to 1948 everyone was into self-medication. Doctors needed to be paid in the days before the National Health Service so, if you couldn't afford it, grannie's favourite remedy was tried.
Remember 'Jack and Jill' He went to bed to mend his head with vinegar and brown paper Now you would have a scan; be kept in overnight; given triple action anti-inflammatories; and have hourly checks for level of consciousness.
Have you ever had a Kaolin poultice applied to your chest to ease lung congestion ?
Epsom salts and glycerine were very good as a poultice for drawing boils and abscesses.
Upset stomach ? Sugarallie water i.e. liquorice dissolved in water with a little sugar. Lo and behold years later they discovered that there were actually active ingredients which helped mouth and stomach ulcers

I remember the pre-NHS days and would not want to go back to them.

Russell

[emanday]

In my search I found out that my grandmother had a sister who was a few years older than her. I cannot recall my mother ever mentioning this aunt.

It's only a few months ago that I discovered that my Grandmother had THREE sisters, and not just the one I knew about.

I can only assume that the other two were never mentioned because of what appears to have been a rift after their mother's 2nd marriage to the man she'd been "housekeeper" to for over 20 years. That took place on the same day as their 21 year old daughter got married

[DavidWW]

Hi Wini and David

You are both correct. Oxalic acid is toxic in larger quantities but the small quantity in Wini's stalk of rhubarb only stimulated and irritated the lining of the large intestine, hence the bodies' desire to get rid of it quickly.
P.S. Rhubarb wine - the home made variety - was only palatable once the oxalic acid was neutralised with precipitated chalk.

.....snipped..................

Russell

Thanks Russell

As with tatties, it's all a question of the amount ingested ............

David

[sheilajim]

Hi All,

David, that was informative on poisonous plants. I knew about the potatoes, but I am not going to worry about them. I also know that the leaves and stems of tomatoes are very toxic.

I am going to assume that the poisoning was accidental. It happened in 1921 and I suppose that this great aunt of mine, named Elizabeth, might have been medicating herself.

As for my mother, she was always contemptuous of "Folk Remedies". Maybe the reason for this was knowledge of her aunt's death. The only thing that might come near being called "Folk Remedy" that my mother practiced, was to rub Vick's Vaporub on our chests if we had a very bad cold.

We had wild rhubarb growing around us where we lived in the suburbs of Montreal. It probably had escaped from someones garden. Mom used to warn me never to eat it, telling me that it was poisonous. She would occasionally buy a rhubarb pie from the store. I didn't care much for it. It seemed to be too tart and too sweet at the same time, tons of sugar trying to cover the sour rhubarb.

I was in contact with a lady who married the grandson of my great aunt, Elizabeth. She said that Elizabeth was cut off from her family because she married a coal miner. This doesn't make any sense to me, because the family, that she and my grandmother belonged to and supposedly cut her off, lived in very modest circumstances. I guess that I will never learn the truth of what happened.

Regards

Sheila