THE FATAL HAT-PIN.
The death of a girl from bloodpoisoning caused by a hat-pin penetrating her nose was recently enquired into at Stockport, Cheshire. The deceased was Mary Elizabeth Thornton, aged 24, daughter of a Stockport tradesman.
The father said that on Saturday evening, April 20th, his daughter was speaking to a friend, Mrs Pickford, outside the shop. On the following Monday she complained of her nose being sore. Next day she again complained and said, “It must be the hat-pin.” While talking to Mrs Pickford, she explained, Mrs Pickford’s baby stumbled on the footpath. They both stooped to pick it up, and a hat-pin in Mrs Pickford’s hat caught her in the nostril. His daughter gradually got worse and died.
Mrs Pickford, wife of a paper merchant, said that some minutes alter the deceased had picked up the child she said, “Do you know I scratched my nose on your hatpin ?” Mrs Pickford was wearing the hat-pin in court, It projected two inches from the hat, and was about twelve inches in length.
Dr. Howie Smith said that septic inflammation was set up as a result of the wound, and tiavelling to the brain caused meningitis. The coroner said that not many cases came before coroners in which death was directly traceable to the hat-pin, but there must be a very large number ot cases in which the hatpin caused injury, in some cases loss of sight. It was no uncommon thing to see these deadly weapon protruding three or four inches from the hat. In Hamburg women were compelled by statute to put shields of protectors on the points of hatpins. In England nothing had been done, but this case showed that it was high lime something was done. If women insisted on wearing hatpins they should take the precaution of wearing also a shield or protector, which would prevent them inflicting injury on other people. The juiy returned a verdict ol accidental death and expressed the opinion that long hatpins ought to be done away with, or their points protected.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19120704.2.20
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1065, 4 July 1912, Page 4
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343THE FATAL HAT-PIN. Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1065, 4 July 1912, Page 4
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