HORRIBLE MALTREATMENT BY A MIDWIFE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 228, 13 June 1872, Page 6

HORRIBLE MALTREATMENT BY A MIDWIFE.

The Hamilton (Victoria) Spectator of May 25, reports an enquiry held at Byadrick, before the district coroner, on the body of a woman named Margaret Tompkins (the wife of John Tompkins, farmer), who died on the previous day from injuries received during her confinement. The evidence disclosed one of the most horrible affairs ever heard of, and affords a painful illustration of what may happen in certain cases from the want of proper medical assistance. It appears that a midwife named Charlotte Ward undertook to attend the deceased, and finding the case presented some difficulty, assumed the responsibility of cutting off the infant's arm with a shoemaker's knife. The child was shockingly mutulated in the belief — whether well founded or not is not stated — that it was dead ; and, amongst other injuries, a large wound cutting internally into the abdomen was inflicted on the mother. Dr Jenkins was sent for, and succeeded in delivering the mutilated child, but found it impossible to save life, the mother dying a few hours afterwards from the maltreatment experienced at the hands of the midwife. The doctor, in his evidence, said : " Had medical aid been procured at an earlier stage, both mother and child might have lived. It is only in extreme cases that it is necessary to break up a child before birth, when malformation of the pelvis exists. The taking off the arm was a perfectly useless operation, and unjustifiable in a medical man." The jury at first wished to bring in a verdict equivalent to " accidental death," which the coroner, wirh the medical evidence before him, was unable to accept. After deliberating for an hour, the jury eventually handed in a verdict that the deceased died from the maltreatment of Charlotte Ward, and the following rider :—": — " That the wound to the said Margaret Tompkins was inflicted by accident while cutting off the child's arm." The coroner immediately committed her for trial.

During the last ten years the increase in the population ef New South Wales was 13 per cent, greater than that of Victoria. In New South Wales the population between the ages of 20 and 35 increased by 20,235 persons, whilst the population of Victoria between the ages of 21 and 35i decreased by 42,766 persons. A meeting is to be held in Melbourne to provide means for the relief of the sufferers from the famine in Persia. The Hebrew portion of the population have been the first movers in the matter.