MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT BALHAM.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 138, 5 August 1876, Page 2

MYSTERIOUS DEATH AT BALHAM.

A considerable amount of excitement has been caused at Balham and the neighborhood in consequence of the death, under mysterious circumstances, of Mr Bravo, at Ins residence, The Priory, Bcdford-hill road, brief mention of which was made at the time by the local press. The Medical Examiner now publishes a detailed account of the circumstances connected with the case, which cannot fail to bring about an earl}" solution of the mystery : Mr Bravo, a rising barrister, aged 30 years, lived at The Priory, Balham, with his wife, to whom he hail been married about six months, the lady having a housekeeper, Mrs Cox, also in the house. On the night of Tuesday, the 18th April, Dr. Moore, of Balham, was summoned to attend Mr Bravo. He arrived between halfpast nine and ten o-clock, and found Mr Bravo lying back in a chair, breathing heavily and totally unconscious. He was partly undressed, and Mrs Cox was rubbing his chest. Dr Moore, who feared the pulse would cease to beat at any minute, made inquiries of those present, but could get at nothing to account for the alarming symptoms. The heart’s action was so feeble that Dr Moore had the patient immediately placed in bed, and administered an enema of brandy ; a mustard poultice was applied over the region of the heart. Mr Harrison, the usual family attendant, had arrived by this time, and the heart’s action began to improve. Dr. George Johnson and Mr Bravo’s cousin, Mr Royes Bell, both of King’s College Hospital, having been sent foi’, arrived about half-past two. Just before their-arrival, the patient vomited for the second time, and Mrs Cox remarked .

that she had given him mustard, _ which might account for it. The first time he vomited was just before he became ill, the vomited matter being the undigested contents of his stomach, stained with Bur-, gundy wine ; tire second vomit was black, and consisted of blood. He gradually improved and at last became conscious, complained of intense pain in the abdomen, especially in the region of the stomach, and passed a large quantity of blood and mucus ; he also vomited a large quantity of bloody fluid. After this, he had constant tenesmus, which was most distressing. He took freely of iced champagne and milk, hut always vomited after an interval of a few minutes, the vomit being quite free from blood. Mrs' Cox told Dr. Johnson and Mr Bell that he had said, “ I have taken poison,” but Mr Bravo himself, when quite conscious, denied that ho had taken anything but some opium for neuralgia of the lower jaw, from which he was suffering ] Dr Johnston knd Sir William Gull both pressed him on the subject, but he gave the same account of his illness. It was suggested when he was first taken ill that chloroform or opium had been taken, but the pupils were not contracted, and there was no smell of either drug. When he came too, it was clear that the symptoms were duo to a powerful irritant poison. The poor fellow suffered a good deal of abdominal pain, and vomited constantly. Tic died at 5.80 a.m. on Friday, April 21, of exhaustion, being conscious up to the last. Opium was given from time to time, and iced milk and champagne ad lihilum. The jwst-mortem examination was made with great care by Dr Bayne, of #i. Thomas’s Hospital, in the presence of Johnston, Dr Moore, Mr Bell, and Mr llarrison, There was no change in the month, tongue, pharynx, trachea, oesophagus, stomach, or small The stomach and small intestines contained a yellowish fluid ; the large intestine, however, was injected with blond in parts, and was filled with bloody mucus ; the rectum also showed signs of having been inflamed. There was hypostatic congestion of the lungs, but tli© organs of the body were quite healthy. Portions of the intestines and organs were removed for careful examination and analysis. Professor Red wood had submitted to him for examination a sealed jar containing bloody vomit and matter passed by the bowel, also some wine and portions of the intestines and liver; in all ho had no difficulty in finding antimony, and he considered that it had been received into the body as tartar emetic, and pointed out at the inquest that antimony was a poison little resorted to by suicides, but that it had been used by criminals to poison others, being generally used as a slow poison.” The adjourned inquest was held on the evening of Friday, April 80, and the funeral took place next morning, the grave being at Norwood Cemetery. The hearse was an open one, fringed with violet trappings, and the coffin, covered with costly white flowers, was exposed to view. “A Friend" of the deceased gentleman writes as follows to a morning contemporary :—On April 8 Mr Bravo was at the. Quarter Sessions at Brighton, dining at iness, and with me on the following evening, in apparently perfect health and spirits. He asked me to pay him a short visit during the following fortnight, which it was my intention to do. The day of his seizure, ton, he had actually arranged to play lawn-tennis with a friend on the following day. As far as outwa'-d appearance, manner, and cmiversa'inn can be taken as indicative, he was the last man to tliink of, still less to commit, suicide. His worldly position and prospects relieved him from any anxiety as to money matters. But, independently of Ids solemn asseveration that lie had n Ver taken any poison with a \iew to destroy lib—an asseveration made by a truthful man, wlmn he was ftrlv aware he was dying, and must shortly meet his Maker, the po : son actually found in his body rebuts any idea of se! C-desM'ne-tion. The doetois I have spoken to (mere Ilian 20) say in the whole course of their expermnee they have never known a case of suicide, by antimoiiial poisoning. A wonld-he suicide wishes to leave the world at once. Ho chooses a mode of doing so which can carry out his views. But anti; uioiiy is poison which must produce a long and "lingering death. On the other hand, it is poison which in its effects on the systemis akin to those produced naturally, and for this reason is often selected by those who would commit a crime. Was it not so in Palmer’s case, the strychnine being used only at the last ? If, then, we jjjSTt rid of this untenable theory of suicide, what remains but this—that he partook of poison, either accidentally or designedly administered? Surely we ought to have the full particulars—who decanted the wine, who came in contact with it, and what actually became of it, and whether it ever came back to the butler’s pantry. The whole matter is, and has been, I am happy to say, in the hands of the detective department of Scotland-yard. [The above case has excited the greatest interest in London, has been the subject of leading articles in most of the chief papers, and has drawn forth columns of correspondence. That Mr Bravo was deliberately poisoned there cannot be a doubt and other evidence stated in some of the letters on the subject go to prove that, for sonic time previous to bis death, poison bad been administered to him by some one, which was gradually sapping away his life. What brought about the larger and immediately fatal dose, by whom it was given, and other facts connected with the tragedy, were undiscovered when the last mail left, but it is to bo hoped that the gui’ty will yet bo b 'ought to justice. The murder lias special interest for this district, through the fact of the victim being the nephew of Major Turner, R.MV of this place. His original name was Turner, but on inheriting a large property, one of the conditions attached was that he should assume the name and arms of Bravo, that being the name of the testxtor.l

Three hoys, the oldest not being more than sixteen years of age, were flogged with the “cat” at Christchurch last week, for breaking into offices and stealing money. Their howls and cries were

piteous. A Christchurch lawyer received a rath r S verc rebuff the other day, as witness the following:'short but very pithy dialogue :—Mr Garrick; Would anything surprise you, Mr Wilson? Witness : Well yes, it would surprise me to find you courteous, for instau a