Barber, Michael

The Barbers lived In Westcllff-on-Sea In Essex and had been married for over 10 years by 1981. MIohael, who worked In a local factory, was unskilled and had been In trouble with the polloe several times. His wife, Susan, had married him at 17, already with ohild although, unbeknown to Michael, the child was not his. 

In September the histological slides were returned to Professor Evans, and again he saw evidence suggestive of paraquat poisoning. He called a conference of staff involved and, while preparing for it noticed that the notes made no mention of a test for the presence of a poison such as paraquat having been carried out. A check soon found that the National Poisons Unit had never received the samples. Fortunately the serum and other tissue samples from Michael Barber had been preserved and were still available. Analysis by both the National Poisons Unit and the manufacturers of paraquat, ICI Ltd, revealed that paraquat was indeed present. 

M.S. Barber, The Chemica Useful Book Amoxicillin, Michael Barber and Associates, Caterham, Surrey, UK (1991). 

Department of Biomolecular Sciences Michael Barber Centre for Mass Spectrometry UMIST, PO Box 88... 

---