The times., 1898-06-25
CHARGED WITH MALPRACTICE.
Two Prominent brooklyn Physi-
clans Are Under Arrest.

clans Are Under Arrest.
New York, June 24.-Two Brooklyn ply
sicians-Dr. Franklin ]. Vost. of No 60
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. 22OS Fulton
Street, on Tuesday afternoon.
Dr. 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
s 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 20 their treatment of her daughter and
the subsequent verilication 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 criminaIly negligent in their treat
ment. either from insufficient knowledge
of their patients condition or an i'm
proper diagnosis. The autopsy he furlh-
er explained, had clearly shown that the
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 co.:c.
The child, not having improved on the
following day, DR.. Vost was summoned
and later DR.. Thoms. These surgeons,
it is alleged. performed an operation. but
the patient died four days later. A GER
tficate that death was due to peritonitis
and heart failure was made out by DIR.
Vost, but it 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 Delap. 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 DIR. Thoms When
the autopsy revealed that the surgeons
alleged diagnosis was without foundation
Coroner Delap 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.. Vost and DR. Thoms are we'll
known practitioners in the upper sections
Of Brooklyn The former refused posi-
lively to make any statement when seen
in a cell at the police station last night.
DR.. Thoms is a Japanese, and beans a
good reputation in his profession.
''All l knew of this case he said, ''is
that while returning from a patient s
house last Friday night. 1 met Dr. Vost
in Fulton Street. He told me of a case he
had a 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 a ROOM sur
/ rounded by relatives. Naturally | sup
posed that everything was all right and
simply attended to giving the chloroferm.
After my task was ended I received my
fee and left. I knew nothing Of the case
( then or afterward, and had no part in the
/ diagnosis