WEALTHY WOMAN’S FATE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4435, 3 July 1922, Page 4

WEALTHY WOMAN’S FATE

DELUSION AND A STRANGE MALADY. The death of a wealthy widow at the Hans Crescent Hotel, Hans, Crescent, London, after she returned from South Africa, was the subject of an inquest at Chelsea. The woman was Mrs Janet Mary Smith, aged 37. The coroner, Mr H. R. Oswald, said. Mrs Smith had been suffering from a very natural complaint, and the doctor who attended her said that that seemed to be the cause of death, but traces of carbolic acid were afterwards found, and the question arose whether it was. possible that she> might have died from carbolic poisoning. That was the reason for. the in? quiry.

Evidence of identification was given by Horace Alistair Maben, of Inverness, who said Mrs Smith w,as his widowed sister. She had been inSouth Africa since last June, and had. just come back from Cape Town. He did not know his sister had been staying at the Hans Crescent Hotel until he received a telegram from the doctor, and he was unaware that she was in a delicate state of health. He had. not heard her threaten to take ner life and he knew of no reason why she should. She had ample means, and was not, .he thought, in debt. Emma Yallop, a reception official at the Hans Crescent Hotel, said Mrs Smith arrived at the hotel on Novemi her 21 with a man who gave the nam? > of Smith and a child. A room was engaged for Mr.s Smith and the child: |

and another room Ifor the man, who

left the following Friday (November 25), saying he would return in a few days. Mr Oswald: He has not turned up again, has he ?—No. Did he give you cheques at the hotel to pay for, the rooms ?—Yes.. They have not been honoured. Mr. Smith's JowW* May .Florence Wilson, a maternity nurse, of the Imperial Nurses’ Club, Ebury Street, said, irf answer to a telephone message she saw Mr Smith at the Hans Crescent Hotel bn November 22. She went for a doctor and returned to the hotel, sitting with Mrs Smith who seemed depressed. She (the nurse) bad heard her say, “I could kill myself.” Mrs Smith thought she was pregnant and did not want to have a child.

Mr Smith told her he was going to Scotland to see Mrs Smith’s people and to explain her illness. As soon as Mrs Smith discovered that- Mr Smith had gone, added Nurse Wilson, she was very much worse, and declared he would never go to Scotland, and she was sure he was in a club iu London. Mrs Smith also said he hail taken her money during the week, and what worried her most was that she had not enough money to get to Scotland Mrs Smith found an envelope with “Good-bye! I’m off,” written on it, and this convinced her that Mr Smith had not gone to Scotland.

Mr Oswald: What sort of terms did they seem on with each other ? I should not say affectionate terms. There was no quarrel, but she never replied to anything he said.

Doctors’ Evidence.

Dr. E. Williams Hedley, of! Pont Street, S.W., said he attended Mrs Smith on November 21, pn her arrival at the hotel. She was depressed and had the permanent delusion that she was pregnant, whereas she was not. She suffered from myxoedema (a flisn ease first described by Dr. Murray, of Newcastle, as being due to the absence of secretion from the thyroid gland. It results in changes *n physiognomy). He had no suspicion that she had taken lysol, and he and the consultant were prepared tp give a certificate immediately after death to the effect that she died from myxoedema. The man whp gave the name of Mr Smith asked permission to go and inform Mrs Smith’s people, and he went, with the permission of Dr. Hedley. Dr. Robert Donaldson, of St. George’s Hospital, gave evidence of a post-mortem examination, said he I did not detect any signs of the odour of lys.pl or corbolic, nor was. there any sign of recent pregnancy. Death was consistent with coma and myxoedema. The coroner recorded a verdict of [death from natural causes.