THE DEATH OF MRS CHILDERS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 523, 21 February 1876, Page 3

THE DEATH OF MRS CHILDERS.

(Home News, Dee. 16.) The very sad and sadden death of Mrs Childers is an event which will be heard with as much regret in the colonies as in this country. The particulars are contained in the following report of the inquest, which has appeared in the papers Mr and Mrs Childers left town on Monday, the 29th, on a round of visits, the first of which was to be paid to Mr F. G. Dalgetty, at Lockerly Hall, about eight miles from Romsey, and about three from the Dunbridge station of the London and South Western railway. Here they arrived on Monday afternoon, and on Tuesday morning Mrs Childers was found dead by her husband’s side, under circumstances rendering a coroner’s inquiry necessary, which accordingly took place yesterday before Mr H. Harfield, the county coroner, at Lockerly Hall. The first witness called was the Right Hon H. E. Childers, M.P., who deposed that he was the member for Pontefract, and that, with his wife and daughter, he arrived at Lockerly on Monday afternoon. His wife was forty-eight years of age. They left the drawing room together about eleven o’clock, and sat for : about an hour in the dressing room, reading and writing, when she wept to bed, and he joined her, About ten minutts afterwards I she complained of the cold, and jhe got up i and threw his dressing gown over the bed. : He was very tired, having had a hard day’s 1 work in London, and he went to sleep in a few minutes, and did ; not wake till between i seven and eight the ne?t morning. He got .out of. bed to look at his watch, and in turning round saw that his wife’s head, instead of being On the pillow, was near the side of the bed, face dqwnwards. He called to her twice by name, but she made no answer, and then, feeling alarmed,he ran round the bed,and placed his hands under her head, and lifted it up on the pillow. He had noticed a strong smell of chloroform, and saw that the bed

I under her, the front of her nightdress over her chest, and the pillow, were wetted with it. She held in her hand, which was under her, a 4oz bottle which had contained chloroform, but was then empty, or nearly so, and the paper in which it was wrapped was saturated, as well as the bedclothes. There was also under her a medicine “ drop” glass, and the glass stopper of the chloroform bottle, A good deal of water came from her mouth. He felt her heart, but there was no pulsation, and then he rang all the bells in his room, and called his daughter, who was in a room not far away. The house was alarmed, and Dr Fox, of Broughton, was sent for. Her teeth were tightly clenched, but he forced them open with his hand, and poured in some brandy. She did not swallow—indeed, there was no movement of any kind after he found her. They also applied mustard leaves to the soles of her feet, to the back of her headland to her chest, and either tea or coffee was put in her mouth, but without effect. His late wife was subject to slight attacks of indigestion, which occasionally produced sleeplessness, and the loss of a night’s rest was a source of great discomfort to her, sometimes for a day or two, and for a few years past she had frequently had in her room a little bottle which would contain eight or ten drops of chloroform. If she had happened to have a sleepless night, she would unstop her bottle, sniff at it two or three times, and then go to sleep. She was a very temperate person, and had a great horror of stimulants, but dreaded sleeplessness, as totally prostrating her. The bottle now produced, which was found in her hand after her death, was in the washing stand drawer on Monday night. They were going on a round of visits which would last till January, and she had brought it with her as a matter of precaution. The night was bitterly cold, but her dressing gown was still under witness, thus showing that she had not put it on. He thought she must have got out for the chloroform, and, finding the room very cold, have taken the bottle into bed with her, intending to pour the ten drops into the drop glass. Three or four sniffs were quite enough for her. She must have gone to sleep with the bottle in her hand, but the heat must have forced out the stopper, and the contents then have flooded the bed. Her last words to him were, “ I am so fidgety,” and it was then |he put the dressing gown over her.

Dr Robert Ellis, of Sloane-street, London, said that Mrs Childers had been a friend and patient of his for 25 years. She consulted him professionally on Friday and Saturday, but for what she termed a new pain, and said that as she was going away on her visits, she wanted him to give her such relief as would obviate the necessity of her having another medical man. She had found advantage from the injection of morphia, and he on both days administered small quantities, the anodyne effects of which would last over Sunday, and probably part of Monday, but doubtless, finding her pain returning, she resorted to her old method of relief—by chloroform. Witness did not originally recommend chloroform, because her system was not favorable to its inhalation, as she had a weak heart, and she was well aware of witness’s objection to her taking it. He could never induce her to take enough wine or brandy, and the cold probably had a depressing effect upon her. Her having said she was fidgety indicated a loss of nerve power, which a good glass of brandy and water would have restored. Dr Fox, of Broughton, said death must have take place at least two hours before he saw the body, at half-past 8,

A verdict of accidental death was returned. The jury and coroner at the same time expressed their sympathy with the right hon gentleman.