The Northern News March 26, 1898 March 26 1898 The Morphia Habit

March 26 1898 The Morphia Habit

THE MORPHIA HABIT. YOUNG DOCTOR'S SAD DEATH. At St. Martin's Church Hall, MR. TROUTBECK held an inquest on the body of MATHEW CARTER, a registered medical practioner, of 197, Liverpool-street, Islington, who died under extraordinary circumstances in one of the private compartments at St. Martin's Baths, Orange-st., on Tuesday evening.  He was found in his bath bleeding from the arm and unconscious. GEORGE CLARKE, a surgeon of 23, Gerard-st., said that when he was called to the baths, deceased was dead.  There was a quantity of blood in the room. The right arm was cut with some sharp instrument, and all down the arm were marks of morphia injections.  Lying near was a morphia syringe with the needle broken. It was witness's idea that deceased had cut his arm and then injected morphia into the vein.  That, as all medical men knew, would almost certainly be fatal.  The cause of death was a sudden injection of morphia into a large vein.  There was no sign of suffocation. MAUD SALTMARSH, who was very much affected in giving her evidence, said she was unmarried, and lived with deceased at 197, Liverpool-rd.  Deceased, who had once had rheumatic fever, was accustomed to take morphia injections. Latterly he had tried to break off the habit, and witness, who took possession of the hypodermic syringe, used to inject the morphia for him three times a day.  If he did not have the morphia, he used to go almost mad. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased died from morphia poison,  self-administered,  but that there was no evidence to show with what intention the morphia was taken.

 

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