Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1885 — A Sad Occurrence. [ARTICLE]

A Sad Occurrence.

Last Monday Morning, Millard B. infant son of Capt. and Mrs. F. W. Babcock, while playing about the room, picked up and drank from a bottie containing a strong solution of carbolic acid, which was being used about the bouse as a disinfectant, there being sickness in the family. Mrs. Babcock’s sister, Miss Patton, had been using the acid a short time before, and setting it down, the child found it and drank, as above stated. The action of the acid was to instantly corrode and turn white the tissues with which it came in contact.. Dr. Hartsell reached the house within two or three [minutes and a little later Dr. Washburn was called. But the fatal substance had done its work before any remedies could be applied, and after lingering for about 12 hours, part of the time in an unconscious condition and part of it in great agony, the little sufferer died at 8 o’clock in the evening. Owing to the very feeble heart action the doctors did not ventnre to administer any opiates, to relieve suffering, for fear of immediately fatal results. The child’s age was 18 months, and 1 day. The funeral was held Tuesday afternoon, from the Catholic church, the Rev. FatherZumbuelte,officiating. Death, coining in such a method as this, necessarily brings with it a degree of sorrow to the the bereaved ones, far in excess of what would be felt in the ordinary course of events, and the grief of these afflicted parents was ot a kind to evoke the deepest sympathy of the whole community.