27 Deaths at Hangchow: Doctors Called in from Shanghai A terrible tale of a series of deaths at the First Provincial Normal School of Chekiang, Hangchow, was brought to Shanghai in message received on Sunday night by the Shantung Road Hospital. - A telegram confirming this was received on Monday from Dr. Main's hospital.
The first message received came direct from the school and was in Chinese. This message, which reported that the whole school had been poisoned, called for immediate assistance and asked that doctors should be sent immediately to Hangchow. In view of the fact that the message was received on Sunday night and had to be decoded it was too late for the local doctors to travel by the night train, but on Monday morning Drs. A. ©. Price and Chang left for Hangchow and arrived there shortly_after midday.
Meanwhile a telegram had been despatched to Dr. Main's hospital asking for particulars and a reply was received stating that 19 deaths had taken place from suspected arsenic poisoning. The reply, which was received after the local doctors' had left, said "Afraid too late for help."
It appears from reports to hand that the poisoning evidently took place on Saturday when evening supper was served, and that most of the deaths took place on Sunday. Altogether about 250 pert sons were affected, and among the 19 dead were several servants.
It is surprising that the telegram in the first instance should have come direct from the_ school to the Shantung Road Hospital and not from Dr. Main's_ hospital, several foreign doctors- being stationed there. Dr. Main is himself present in Hangchow.
Inquiries made on Monday failed to elicit any information as to how the students were poisoned. The students of this school are said to be well-behaved men who have taken little or no interest in politics,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.