Evening star., 1933-05-10
TWO DOCTORS FACE
ARREST IN DEATH OF
MRS. CORA BR|TTON
County Warrants Obtained
for H. R. Street and Sher.
wood Ferris.
BALTIMORE CORONER'S
FINDINGS REVEALED
Montgomery Prosecutor Launches
Inquiry Into Conduct of
Sanitarium.

Warrants charging that Dr. H. r.
Street. who conducts the Washington
Cancer Sanitarium at 14l4 Girard
street northeast, and Dr. Sherwood
Ferris of 200 Shepherd street, Chevy
Chase, Md, with "unlawfully and
feloniously" killing Mrs Cora L. Brit
ton. were obtained by Detective Theo-
dore Vollten of the Montgomery County
police this afternoon.
The warrants, Vollten said. were
ordered by States Attorney Stedman
Prescott as a result of the findings
OF Baltimore coroners jury last
night, that Mrs. Britton died as the
result of criminal conduct, gross NAL
practice and brutal treatment at the
hands OF DR.. Street and DR.. Ferris.
Early Arrests Planned.
The warrants which were issued by
Frank Davis. clerk Of the Montgomery
County Police Court, charge that Mrs.
Britton was "unlawfully and feloniously
killed by the two physicians on March
!. 1893.
Detective Vollten said that an effort
to arrest the two physicians will be
made Immediately.
The coronor's jury verdict was
brought against Dr. Street and DR..
Ferris after an inquest into the death
O. the 39-year-old New Jersey woman
at the South Baltimore police station
last night.
The jury directed that "our findings
. be communicated to the authorities of
Montgomery County for such action as
they may deem proper in the premises"
and the investigation was opened by
States Attorney Prescott when he was
this morning.
at the police station in Baltimore dur
ing a greater part of the three-hour
inquest. but who left before the verdict
was returned, were at their homes to-
day.
The former said he had been ap-
praised of the jury's findings by his
attorney, Leonard Leipman of Balti-
more, but asserted that his belief that
Mrs. Britton died from "a complicated
cancer and not from the treatment she
received" remains unshaken. DR.. Fer
ris would make no statement regarding
the jury's findings.
Explains Departure.
Dr. Ferris. explaining the departure
of DR.. Street and himself before the
verdict was returned, said that they had
not been summoned to appear at the
probe, but had merely been invited to
attend" and decided to leave for their
homes after waiting until after mid
night without being called before the
jury or allowed to enter the room where
the proceedings were held.
Mrs. Britton. wife of Mays Land
Ing IN j. physician, died at the South
Baltimore General Hospital approx
mately a month after she is said to
have been taken to that institution
from DR.. Ferris home in Chevy Chase,
where she is alleged to have been un-
der treatment for nine weeks for cancer
Of the breast
Witnesses at the inquest, conducted
by Dr. Ottom M. Reinhardt, testified
under the questioning by Assistant
States Attorney Albert H. Blum, who
investigated Mrs. Britton's death, and
Deputy States Attorney j. Bernard
Wells. that on January 30 Mrs. Britton
was brought to the Capital by her hus-
band and friends to be treated with
secret medicine that devours cancer.
She was taken to the sanitarium OF
Dr.. Street, who, they said, was the
inventor OF the remedy, and was re-
moved almost Immediately to DR.. Ferris
home. where the first application OF
dark-b salve was applied by DR..
Street, and where Mrs Britton remained
for further treatment by the Capital
physician and his aide until she was
removed to Baltimore on April 2.
DR.. w. B. D. Penniman, Baltimore
chemist, who analyzed the salve for the
inquest, declared on the witness stand
that its use had been "homicidal and
an overt act of very great gravity He
testified that the salve contained 10
per cent of strong corrosive that de-
stroys chemically as well as mechanl-
cally.
Or. John c. Krantz, jr.. chief of the
Bureau of Chemistry of the Maryland
State Department of Health, told the
jury that he, too found a corrosive
chemical that ranks with the strongest
Of destructive chemicals in the salve.
DR.. Walter D. Wise and DR.. George
Mclean, physicians who attended Mrs.
Britton at the Baltimore hospital, and
DR.. Isaac H. Miller, resident physician
at the institution, testified that the
treatment given Mrs. Britton was con-
trary to all tenets of modern medi-
cal practice" and that it was directly
responsible for her death.
They also told the jury that the
SdlVe, tIlIOuSn iiC4uCA1 oPPiASA s-S.Ao'
had destroyed tissue, charred Mrs. Brit
tons ribs and penetrated her lungs.
DR.. Howard J. Maldies and DR.. Stan
dish McCleary. post-mortem physician,
testified that Mrs. Britton's death was
the direct result of toxaemia, caused
by application of the salve, and the for
mer added that the treatment was
"barbarous ignorant and unskillful.'
Ny..-n- r:-~~ r>~xivnnnv
Among other witnesses to appear be-
fore the jury we're Miss Julia Maye
Bussard of Baltimore, graduate nurse,
who attended Mrs Britton during the
last week of her stay at DR.. Ferris home
and at the Baltimore hospital; Mrs
Nettie Elliott of Elliott, Md, Mrs.
Britton's sister-in- law, who assisted In
nursing the New Jersey woman; DR..
Roland L. Britton. the dead woman's s
husband, and Mrs. Hazel Harris of Bal
timore. a friend of Mrs. Britton's, who
accompanied her to DR.. Streets Office
and who frequently visited the patient
at DR.. Ferris home.
1t was testified by several of the ply
sicians that if Mrs. Britton had been
suffering from cancer of the breast the
salve applied by the two physicians had
destroyed all traces Of it. Examination
of parts CT the body which should have
shown evidence of cancer in a case
OF such long standing had borne no
such evidence. they said.
Dr. Britton said that Mrs. Britton
had complained for more than a year
Of 4 small lump In her breast and that
he had endeavored in vain to persuade
her to place herself under the care Of
prominent physicians in Atlantic City
and Philadelphia. but she had refused
and had gone to DR.. Street on the