‘The Hall Poisoning Cases’, in The New Zealand Medical Journal, Vol. 1

[1888]

Med: NZ Coll: Per

Dunedin: J. Wilkie

‘The New Zealand Medical Journal was first printed in Dunedin as a means of communication for "Medical Men in the Colony". It acknowledged New Zealand’s own idiosyncratic advantages and disadvantages that influenced disease, especially in comparison with Australia. Frank Ogston’s article on page 46 details the forensic analysis in the notorious Hall Poisoning Case. Thomas Hall allegedly fatally poisoned his father-in-law and attempted to poison his wife; he was convicted of the latter but escaped the noose in the former, on appeal. The University of Otago Health Sciences Library has perhaps the only complete run of this journal from this, its first volume in September 1887.' Item chosen by Richard German, Health Science Librarian, University of Otago.