The evening times., 1898-06-24
WITH MALPRACTICE.
Two Prominent Brooklyn Physi-
clans Are Under Arrest.

<tTe
New York June 2i.-Two Brooklyn ply
sicians-Dr. Franklin ]. Vost, of No. 90
Somers Street. and DIR. Joseph c. Thoms
of No. 1880 Herkimer Street-were ar
rested yesterday, by order of Coroner
Delap, the warrant against the men
charging each with manslaughter in con-
nection with the death of Ada Cornelius
sixteen years old. of No. pos Fulton
Street. on Tuesday afternoon.
DIR. Vost was arrested at the corner of
Rockaway Avenue and Fulton Street
at O'Clock in the afternoon, by Detective
Foster, and Dr. Thoms at his home about
O'Clock last night Both men were tax
en- to the Adams Street Police Station.
Coroner Delap said last night that he
caused the arrest of the physicians upon
the statement of the dead girls mother
as TO their treatment of her daughter and
the subsequent verification by an autopsy
made on Tuesday night. There was suf-
ficient evidence. he said. to warrant
thorough investigation of the case upon
the allegations that the surgeons had
been criminally negligent in their treat
ment, either from insufficient knowledge
of their patients condition. or an i'm
proper diagnosis. The autopsy, he furth-
girls condition precluded any intimation
of a criminal operation
Miss Cornelius was taken sick at her
home on Thursday last. DR.. Ellis said
she was suffering from coi;c.
The child. not having improved on the
following day, DR.. Vost was summoned
and later DIR. ThOms. These surgeons
1t is alleged performed an operation, but
the patient died four days later GER
uhcate that death was due to peritonitis
and heart failure was made out by Dr.
Nost, but 1t was refused at the Health
Department because no cause was as
signed for the peritonitis
In this way the case came under the
notice of Coroner Deap. In the course
of his investigation the coroner was told
by Mrs. Cornelius. the girls mother, that
when DR.. Vest was called in he told her
that the operation was necessary The
mother further alleges that the operation
was done by him and Dr. Thoms. When
the autopsy revealed that the surgeons
alleged diagnosis was without foundati ton
coroner Deiap ordered the arrest of the
men.
The family were greatly relieved at the
removal of the suspicious attached to the
girl. and it was relief to her many
friends in the Beecher Memorial Church
OF which she was member.
Both Dr. Nost and DIR. Thoms are we'll
known practitioners in the upper sections
of Brooklyn The former refused posi-
lively TO make any statement when seen
in cell at the police station last night
Dr. Thoms is japanese. and bears a
good reputation in his profession.
All l knew of this case" he said, sis
that while returning from a patients
mouse last Friday night. I met DR.. Vost
in Fulton Street He told me of a case he
had at No. 220S Fulton Street. and of an
operation to be performed, asking me to
administer chloroform. l went to the
place and found the girl in room, sur
rounded by relatives. Naturally 1 sun
posed that everything was all right. and
simply attended to giving the chIoroform.
After my task was ended / received nv
Zee and left. / knew nothing of the case
then or afterward, and had no part in the
diagnosis