New-York tribune., 1910-06-10
DISAGREE ON DICKINSON
Doctors in Autopsy Differ as to
Cause of Bankers Death.
INSURANCE FIGHT LIKELY
No Accident, Says Company, but
Surgeons for Family Hold
Opposite View.

! The Casualty Company of America. in
which Charles c. Dickinson. the promoter
of the Carnegie Trust Compaay and for
merlv ;ts president had an accident insur-
ance policy involving the payment Of s65,
/ 600 in case of death by accident, has de-
cided that the banker did not die the
result OF an accident. Immediately after
! his death. on May a. from pneumonia,
| brought on. II was said at the time, by
the accidental inhalation of gas at a
chemical experiment which ne was witness
/ ing at Scranton. Penn. an autopsy was
performed on Mr.. Dickinson's body at
/ Kensico Cemetery. This was done at the
instance of the insurance company. Yes
terday the company gave out the following
statement:
/ I'VE have received the report of our
physicians the autopsy of c. c. Dickin-
/ son. and the conclusions reached indicate
( that death did not result from accidental
causes. We have not yet received proofs
of claim from the beneficiary. and we are,
therefore, not informed at this time upon
what basis claim will be made. For this
! reason we are not in a position to make
any further statement in regard TO this
case at present"
HeSCh OppoSitc SORCiuslonS'
The doctors employed to represent the
| insurance company at the autopsy were
! DR.. Otto III. Schultze, coroner's physician,
who was present in a private capacity; Dr..
Harlow Brooks. Dr. James Ewing and DR..
Isador Abrah8mson. DR.. J. r. English,
who attended Mr.. Dickinson in his last
| illness. and Professor John Larl1in, of Co
| lumbia. represented the family. The two
/ nJ1,cfn
though neither will make its findings
public.
/ Dr. English, when asked Yesterday if he
had seen the insurance company's state
ment, replied:
/ Yes, I have seen the statement. The
findings on our side are different. and if We
can't come to some understanding there
will probably be a contest of some kind
There is no doubt that Mr.. Dickinson died
| from pneumonia, as our diagnosis showed
at the time. But I can't give you our
| findings as a result of the autopsy until the
other side reports the basis for its con-
| clusions and some sort of a settlement has
either been agreed upon or attempted in
vain
The insurance company's doctors We're
even more reticent. DR.. Abrahamson said
their report of the findings was not Yet
completed DR.. Brooks was willing to say:
/ There was no evidence that we could
/ find that the death was due 10 suicide"
! Stanton {. Dickinson. brother OF the
dead banker, who is treasurer of the Car
negie Trust Company. would make no
| comment on the statement of the insur-
ance company further than to say:
well. if the companies find that brother S
death was not an accident then I suppose
| they will not have TO pay his insurance
Made III by Chemical Gases.
Mr.. Dickinson accompanied his brother
! to Scranton and witnessed there with him
on May 16 the experiment which was sup
posed 10 have been an indirect cause of
| Charles Dickinson's death This expert
ment was performed i'll the laboratory of
DIR. 7. W. Langc. who asserted that he
could take silver matrix, and by adding
fiuxes produce 100 per cent more of the
chloride and nitrate of silver than had
ever been produced before. Dr. Lange was
/ anxious to interest Mr.. Dickinson finan-
cially in his alleged discovery, as well as
V. W. B. Hedgepeth, vice-president Of the
! TippecanOe Securities Company, of Scran-
ton. a friend of Mr.. Dickinson's, who was
also present.
Neither Stanton Dickinson nor the doctor
1 was made i'll as a result OF the gases which
/ escaped in the course of the experiment.
! but both Charles Dickinson and Mr.. Hedge
peth became the victims of nausea shortly
! afterward. Mr.. Dickinson returned to New
! York with his brother tho following day.
and on Wednesday. the day after his re-
| turn, went down 10 his office, at No. 115
| Broadway. That night he was taken serl-
ousy i'll and was sent to St. Luke's Hos
pital Thursday evening pneumonia devel-
| oped and he died the following Tuesday, a
week and a day after the experiment.
! OF the ss5 600 for which Mr.. Dickinson was
! insured in the Casualty Company of Amer
! lea. S55,000 had been reinsured in other &C
! cident companies. which are equally inter
/ ested in the findings as the result of the
/ autopsy. Mr.. Dickinson had also life in
surancc policy for $4,000 in the Equitable
Life Assurance Society. This. it is under
stood. will be paid to the heirs without
question.
The heirs. though fairly numerous, are
all relatives of the dead banker. In his
will. filed for probate the day after his
death, Mr. Dickinson set aside s., 900 for a
family mausoleum in some cemetery to be
picked out by his executors, and $1,000 for
/ its maintenance He left 81 900 for the
education OF his son. Charles Courier Dick
inson, in some preparatory school, and
$1,000 for his education in college. prefer
ably Cornell. Similarly he left 500 and
81. 900 for the education of his nephew,
/ Charles Dickinson. but he stipulated that
/ If his son and nephew chose to attend Cor
nell, the first time they ventured upon
Cayuga Lake they should forfeit the
! bequests.
The residue of the estate was divided
! into ninths and apportioned among his
wife. mother, father, two brothers and son.
The value of his estate was given as more
/ than $1,000"