The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-11 00:00:00

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DEATH THROUGH DANCING.

Dr. Lankester has held an inquest at 78, Charlotte•
street, Fitzroy-square, London, respecting the death
of Miss Charlotte Gough, aged sixteen. On Monday,
it appealed, the deceased, who suffered from pains in
the hem!, went to an eveidog party in Brunswick-
square. Early the next molting she was found to be
dead. There had been rupture of an artery and great
effusion of Lb nal on the braia. The coroner said it was
a pity to say anything against so good an exercise as
dancing, hut there was no doubt that in on e cases it
brought on apoplexy. The jury returned a verdict in
accordance with the medical evidence.

The Daily Telegraph makes the following remarks on the
painful Incident : -
We so often hear of 'victims to fashion" that we
have almost come to accept the phrase as a facon de
puler. It appears, however, to be not without a cer-
tain grim reality of its own. On Thursday evening
Dr. Lankester held an inquest on the body of a young
lady, aged only sixteen years, whose death was, beyon•i
all doubt, due to apoplexy, or —to use the
more familiar phrase -- " blood to the head,"
brought on by the excessive excitement and
fatigue of a long ball. The poor girl had
been to a party in Brunswick-square, where she
appears to have danced all night. In the morning,
after she hail returned home and gone to bed, her
restlessness alarmed her amid, who bathed her temples
with water and administered the customary remedy
of a cup of tea. A deep sleep followed, from which
the unhappy child never awoke. An artery had broken
on the brain, and death must have been almost in-
stantaneous. Dr. Lankester, the coroner, remarked
that it was a pity to say anything against so healthful
and pleasurable an exercise as icancing, but that
it unquestionably produced apoplexy in certain
cases ; and in ace wilance with this summing up
a verdict was returned. That dancing is only
too often "overdone " can hardly be questioned.
Balls begin at eleven or thereabouts, and are
kept up till four in the morning, and every
other dance is a waltz. To dance for five
hours without intermission, as many girls do, and
pique themselves upon doing it, is a task involving for
its successful achievement a constitution almost as per-
fect as thatof Miss Richards, of Stapleton, who has just
accomplished the feat of walking a thousand miles in a
thousand hours ,• and the conditions meter which it has
to be performed—hot rooms lighted with gas, con-
stant draughts of cold air, an unlimited supply of
iced drinks, nocturnal hours, and, but to
often, tightly laced corsets—are such as to aggravate
its essential evils. A girl who, to use the customary
phrase, dances all night, has really tasked her heart as
severely as any University oarsman, and the only
wonder is that cases such as that of Miss Caroline
Gough are not more frequent. No one can expect
balls to be discontinued, and we heartily agree with
Dr. Lankaster that dancing is a healthful and plea-
surable exercise. At the same time, for those who
have weak hearts—as only too many girls have —or
who are at all liable to apoplexy, it is a pleasure to be
enjoyed with the utmost circumspection.