LINDA HAZZARD PROSECUTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 182, 31 January 1912, Page 7

LINDA HAZZARD PROSECUTION

THE ACCUSED'S DEFENCE. In reference to the recent cable messages concerning the trial at Seattle of "Dr Linda Burfield Hazzard, of the Olaila fasting sanatorium, Washington State, who is charged with having caused the death of Claire Williamson, a spinster from Victoria, (Australia), aged 33,' it is interesting to note that in a pamphlet on her fasting treatment and on her "persecution." by doctors aud the law, Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard reviews -eight separate cases (in about half of which death ensued) in which she was accused at Seattle either with starving her patient to. death or with giving treatment calculated. to caiise death. 'ln one of these cases Mrs Hazzard was arrested and was charged with practising medicine without a license and with having placed the word "doctor" before her ijame; her conviction in this case was q'uashed on appeal. The views and state-ments-of her enemies (which Dr Hazzard quotes liberally) show that her fasting treatment, whatever its consequenses, > was regarded as being outside the reach I of murder or 1 manslaughter laws. The I case cabled is therefore of much impor-1 tance as a test. The difficulty of prov- j irig, that a diseased person died not froin the disease but from lack of food is ob-1 Vious, especially where the disease is ex-" treuie, and the patient has entered upon .the "starvation cure" with full know-. ledge and as a last resort. DEATH NOT DUE TO "CURE."

In reply to all the charges ma'de against her, Dr Hazzard argues her case with much force, and does not neglect to make any point against her accusers. Finally, she reviews the Williamson, charge (now pending) and comments that the injustice of the antagonism against her "is exemplified in the fact that virtually all financial returns froA a large practice have had to be devoted to the defence of the attacks made on me personally. Were it not.-that I am so fully, convinced of the logic and truth of the method I advocate, and I feel that I have proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that fasting is always a successful means for the restoration of health when organic disease is not present, I should have abandoned my work years ago. But in . every death that has occurred under my care, a "post mortem examination has invariably disclosed that death resulted not from the fast, .but from some irremovable mechanical, or structural defect in the body of the patient. And the successful cases are in number as the of the sea. The medical world are ij'oiSr congratulating themselves that a cat's paw»it at hand to push.the case pending to a ruinous issue for both the cause and fts advocate, but 'He loughs best who lalighs last,' and the truth cannot 6e overcome."

, REFUSED TO FAST TH'EM.' Concerning the Williamson sisters, Claire (dsceased) was aged' 33 and her sister Dora is aged 37. Both, Dr Hazzard states, had .been ill for years, and had travelled the ■ world in search of health. "They had .convinced themselves of the efficacy of the fasting cure and had fully determined to place themselves under my care. After examination I felt that I was face to face with organic disease in both sisters, and I positively refused to fast them. They begged me to reconsider, and I finally consented to place them upon restricted diet and to ply the accessories of the treatment, including the enema, baths, oesteopathic 1 manipulation, etc. The patient in question, Claire, weighed only 78 pounds in her clothes, and was emaciated to the last degree; her circulation was most and she complained of constant extreme exhaustion. "About two weeks- after beginning treatment Claire was compelled to take to her bed, and shortly after that, in order to care for her in a proper manner, I removed both sisters with their nurses to iny own home. Claire gradually failed however, and died on May 19th. The autopsy performed by a regular physician, De,putv-Coroner Borthwiek, and myself revealed a liver completely cirrhosed, intestines that were contracted and adherent to the walls of the abdominal cavity throughout their length, and which were of infantile size as well. Here was another instance in which 110 power on earth could have saved the life of the sufferer. ' THE BODY CREMATED. "Claire Wiliamson was in absolute sympathy with the method as applied. Her parents were long dead, and she, was possessed of an income that rendered her independent of her relatives. Shell was clear-minded and resolved upon lie.v own method of procedure. She had infinite confidence in me, and in the thought that the light she was waging was a matter o? last resort. When, a month before she died, T told her that her case might prove fatal, that there were discouraging signs, she calmly srt about arranging her all'airs, and prepared far what proved to be the inevitable. The autopsy revealed the conditions stated above, and the. body was.cjfomated in accordance with'her written request, under my direction. ,

"Several weeks after her death a family servant arrived from Australia to care

ifor the surviving sister, Dora. This ser-\ vant was most antagonistic to anything J i that savoured \of non-orthodoxy in the » j treatment of disease, and it developed I that she had formerly done all in her! power to prevent the Williamsons from taking such nature cures as they had. I Within a few weeks she had succeeded J in undetermining the faith of the. remaining patient, Dora, who was beginning to convalesce and had gone to the extent of reporting the death of Claire to the British Vice-Consul at Tacoma, Wash. The latter, in his zeal for fame, caused a charge to he placed against me for murder, in the first degree," It is also stated that the sister? had previously been under treatment by "nature cure specialists" and "dietitians" in England.