The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-12-05 00:00:00

OP A CHILD AT

BRIXTON.

On Saturday Mr. William Carter held an inquiry
in the Board-room of the Lambeth Infirmary respect-
ing the death of a female child, which took place
under mysterious circumstances. Sergeant Hutchens,
of the L Division, watched the case on behalf of the
police authorities. Harriet Sims deposed that she
wa3 a married woman, but living apart from her hus-
band, and resided at 11, South Esk-street, Stockwell.
Her mother, a widow, lived at 8, Pulross-road,
Brixton, and let a furnished room to two young
women, who passed by the names of Ada Bailey and
Harriet Bowen. On the previous Sunday morning
witness went on a visit to her mother, and arrived at
the house about half -past ten o'clock. Shortly after-
wards Harriet Bow en came down stairs with her
jacket and bonnet on, and informed witness and her
mother that she was going to fetch a cab to take
Ada Bailey to the infirmary, as she had given birth
to a child at two o'clock in the morning. Witness
went upstairs to their room, and saw Bailey dressed,
sitting on the edge of the bed, and a baby, which
witness now identified as the deceased child,
lying on the floor, and quite dead. The
cab having arrived, Bailey , with the baby and Bowen
went away in it. In further answer to questions, the
witness said that she knew Bailey's condition, and had
advised her to go into some institution to be confined.
The young woman Bowen returned to the house, and
slept in it on Sunday night, but on Monday she went
out and had not since been seen or heard of. The
i'child when witness saw it on the floor had not been
properly attended to. No doctor was called in. The
coroner, addressing the jury, observed that in conse-
quence of the peculiar circumstances of the child's
birth and death, combined with the fact of the mys-
terious disappearance of the young woman Bowen,
who was the only person who could throw any light
on the matter, he (the coroner) had ordered a post-
mortem examination of the body to be made. Mr.
Robert Hodgens Lloyd, medical superintendent at
the Lambeth Infirmary, deposed that on Sunday
last, shortly before noon, a young woman, who gave
the name of Ada Bailey, with a baby in her arms, and
who was accompanied by a friend, applied for
admission, stating that she had been confined
that morning about two o'clock. Witness, per-
ceiving that it was an urgent case, admitted her at
once, and on exanining the child found that it had
been dead some hours. In answer to witness, the
mother informed him that she did not know whether
the baby cried—in fact, she did not remember any-
thing about it. She subsequently repeated the same
statement. Witness had since made a post-mortem
examination of the body of the child, which was of
female sex and fully developed, and which weighed
flub , and was in length 19 inches. The lungs, on being
placed in water, floated, and on being squeezed air
oozed out, indicating that the child had breathed. On
opening the head there was found to be an effugion of
blood on the brain, and the brain substance was soft.
Death, in witness's opinion, was due to the effusion on
the brain, which no doubt was caused while in the act
of parturition, through not having proper attention.
After hearing further evidence, the jury returned a
verdict " That the deceased died from effusion of
I blood on the brain, but whether it had ever had a
I separate existence from the mother they had no
evidence to show."