Suggested edit: Kansas City Journal, Kansas City, Missouri
Thursday, December 8, 1898, page 12
SETTLE POISON MYSTERY
There Was No New Development Yesterday - Funeral Will Be Held This Afternoon
The funeral of Henry C Settle, who died at his residence, 2536 Olive street, Tuesday morning under mysterious circumstances, will be held this afternoon at 1:45 o'clock from the Christian church, Twenty-third and Prospect. The interment will be in Union cemetery and Elder Thornton will conduct the services.
W W Settle, of Mexico, Mo, a brother of the deceased, and Mrs T N Burkhead and Mrs J T Stephens, sisters, of Moberly, Mo, arrived in this city yesterday morning and were joined in the evening by Mrs Settle's mother and her brother, John Fleming, who came from the home farm near Moberly.
Dr Moechel resumed his experiments on the food used by Settle and his organs yesterday morning, but is not yet ready to report progress. The cats and guinea pigs , although subjected to frequent injections of supposed poisonous fluids, are still alive and frisky. The guinea pigs have been replaced by two kittens. They were first fed on food from the Settle table and then subjected to the injection process. Both were alive and apparently contented in their caged quarters last midnight.
Columbus Settle reiterated his belief yesterday that the sickness of the family was due to the food, but he cannot reconcile his brother's death with the fact that the wife and son recovered. Their cases were not as severe as Mr Settle's and he, in order to allay his suffering, was given, it is said, three hypodermic injections of morphia and strychnia and a rectal injection with the same object in view.
"I cannot anticipate what the outcome of the investigation will be," said Mr Settle, "but if there was poison in the food I want to know it. My brother fell asleep long before he died and I understand that the clot the doctors found near his heart was white in color and what is known in medicine as an ante-mortem clot. Dr Hardin, the family physician, was not called in until after death, but I wanted him there and so sent for him. He was not present at the post mortum, although I requested him to attend."
Contributor: Anonymous (48825891) June 8, 2019
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SETTLES' DEATH
MYSTERY DISSIPATED BY EXPERT
CHEMIST MOELCHER.
TOXINE FOUND IN MILK USED.
BUT IT ONLY ACTED AS AN IRRITANT.
Investigation Showed That the Food
Contained No Poisonous Matter
And That the Coffee Was
Pure—Interesting Case
For Physicians.
The death of Henry Clay Settle, who died last Tuesday morning at his residence, 2536 Olive street, under mysterious circumstances, was not, according to the conclusions of Dr. J. R. Moelcher, the expert chemist, due to poison. The chemist mad an exhaustive examination of the food used and of the contents of the stomach of the deceased as well as of his heart, kidneys and a piece of his liver, and was unable to find a trace of either mineral or alkaloidal poisons.
But the chemist found a toxine in the milk drank by the deceased at his last meal, and his discovery was hastened by the fact that a three weeks' old kitten which he experimented upon evinced the same symptoms that Mr. Settle did prior to his death. The kitten, however, recovered, and is now as frisky as though it had never digested the deadly tyrotoxicon, a ptomaine poison.
Dairyman Not to Blame.
The chemist does not place the blame on the dairyman who supplied the milk for its presence. It could be due, he says, to a variety of causes. An unclean vessel, for instance; poor sanitation of the premises; exposure to noxious vapors, and to innumerable other causes to be found about premises which are not vigilantly cared for and kept from decaying substances and refuse.
Neither does he ascribe death to the ptomaine. In his opinion it acted as an irritant. According to his investigations, Mr. Settle was a rapid eater; the coffee he drank was poured from a vessel which had an accumulation of coffee grounds in it. The coffee when first used was pure and unadulterated. The chemist says that in quality it was above the average. His analyses showed that it contained tannic acid, potassium and caffeine. Owing to the accumulated grounds its taste was bitter, but its condition was not due to poison.
Mr. Settle, he also found, had eaten heartily of beefsteak, sauerkraut and biscuit, and bread. He found in the stomach forty pieces of tough, fibrous meat, the pieces ranging in size from a pea to a piece one and one-half inches long, one and one-quarter inches wide and one and one-quarter inches thick.
The sauerkraut contained a great deal of salt and acid. The biscuit and bread had been fried in grease and were hard and heavy.
Suffered From Stomach Trouble.
An examination of the stomach, of which photographs have been made for use in an expected medical discussion, showed that for a long time Mr. Settle had been a sufferer from stomach troubles; that his digestion was greatly impaired, and that because of these conditions, his system had become weakened.
There were also indications that food eaten days before had not been properly digested. Pieces of meat found in vomit said to have been expelled by Mr. Settle were found to be carbonized almost to the consistency of coal. The chemist declines to express an opinion regarding the carbonized meats, as he has no proof that it was expelled by Mr. Settle. The fluid of the stomach was found to be alive with active bacilli and the presence of mucus demonstrated that there had been a violent disturbance. The stomach showed depressions in some spots, some being worn thin.
The cause the chemist declines to discuss or give an opinion of. He says that physicians are the proper parties to furnish the explanation.
So, if Dr. Moelcher's conclusions are correct, as they undoubtedly are, Mr. Settle's death was not due to poisin administered in his food, nor to ptomaine, but was simply an accident.
The Chemist Talks.
"Toxine," said the chemist last evening," is a poison which forms as the result of putrefaction. I found it in the milk used by Mr. Settle. It acted as an irritant in his case; and owing to the state of his stomach, the character of the food he ate and his impoverished condition, he was unable to recover."
"That being the case, how do you account for Mrs. Settle and his son, Harry, who were taken ill at the same time, recovering?"
"The surrounding conditions were the same, it is true," was the reply, "but their systems were in better condition, and they probably are not afflicted with stomach troubles."
Dr. Moelcher filed his report last evening with Dr. Von Quast, Mr. Settle's attending physician. That gentleman will present it to the coroner, who will then determine whether or not an inquest is necessary.
Dr. Von Quast's Views.
"Thrombasis was the cause of Mr. Settle's death," said Dr. Von Quast, last evening. "The toxine, together with the other causes set forth, caused a violent retching and an excessive flow from the bowels. Bacteria poisoning of the blood resulted also, and a great deal of fluid drained from the blood channels. To that cause is due the formation of the ante-mortem clot found in the left auricle of the heart. The result of the chemist's examination, which I urged, corroborates the opinion I had formed of the cause of death, but I did not deem it incumbent upon me, as the attending physician, to discuss the case until after a thorough examination had been made. Everything that could be done was done for Mr. Settle, but his death was due to the causes you already know."
The Kansas City Sunday Journal
Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
Vol XLI, No 184, p3, c3
Sun 11 Dec 1898
(transcribed as it appeared, including misspellings, by J F-B)
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Missouri Death Records Database: Transcript
Jackson County Roll C 19509 # 7641
Settles, Henry Clay
~male, white, married, 45 years old
~Death: Dec 6, 1898
~Place: 2536 Olive
~Cause: Poisoning (accident)
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Union Cemetery Records
~Henry Clay Settles
~45 years old (about 1853) white
~Burial: Dec 8, 1898
~Undertaker: Duffy
~Fee: $4
~Section 17 Lot 2 Grave 7
~Journal, Dec 10, 1898, page 10