To all intents and purposes

•  The Times Recorder (Zaneville, Ohio) July 2, 1926.

GOVERNOR TOLD OFFICERS OF "U" BLAMELESS

    COLUMBUS, O., July 1. (AP) Unknown persons deliberately mixed strychnine capsules with those containing quinine resulting in the death of two Ohio State University students in January 1925, the state board of pharmacy reported today to Governor Donahey today. The poison was dispensed with quinine from the university dispensary.

    While the report by the pharmacy board is to all intents and purposes complete, so far as can be made at this time, Governor Donahey declared the investigation will go forward so long as he's the state's chief executive in the hope that clues will be developed which will result in the "identification and prosecution of the criminal or criminals responsible."

    Students who died from taking the poison capsules thinking they were quinine were Charles H. Huls of Logan and David I. Ruskin [sic] of Canton. Four others were made ill by taking them but recovered. The report states that slow diagnosis by attending physicians or failure to report the diagnosis to university authorities, was in a measure responsible for the two deaths.*

    The report says that the origin and responsibility for the poison mixture with the quinine still is unsolved and that there is no direct clue "except that the strychnine evidently came from outside sources."

Not From Dispensary

    The report was positive that the poison did not come from the university dispensary. It also is contended that carelessness or accident in the compounding as the source of the poison is "proven absolutely absent" as all the strychnine was in separate capsules as though it had been added to the quinine stock.

    In its final conclusion, the board said that "the capsules were filled with strychnine and deliberately placed in the quinine dispensing bottle by persons filling them or they were placed there by direction of some one who knew their contents."

Officials Absolved

    Governor Donahey said that if the university dispensary which has been closed since the tragedy is again to be opened it must be under rules, regulations and management approved by the state board of pharmacy. The report absolved university officials from charges they were operating a drug store illegally as no laws had been violated in dispensing quinine and that they were nut responsible for the poison.

    The report made to the governor was voluminous and contained thousands of pages of testimony. It was ordered by Governor Donahey in February 1925 and has been under way almost continuously since that time. Prepared by Secretary M.N. Ford, it was officially approved by the board June 25.

Sadly, it appears that every single copy of this report was either lost or destroyed, but I am still looking. 

 

*I do not know why this was set bold and indented.

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