Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1876-05-19 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

BIRTH OF A PRINCE.  The PrineesssarriXian--w.; ;ii !!!!! ' delivered of a son Friday morning. Her Royal Highness and the infant prince are doing well.  A MYSTERY OF _LONDON.  Mr. Br-a-vo--w-a-s--Z-s-uT:ce-4-fuli-st-e-r; about 311 years of age, well known in London, who had married a widow lady with a considerable fortune, and was living in one of the suburban dwellings which fringe Tooting-common. About the middle of last month he had got home early in the afternoon, had taken out his horse for a gallop, and returned to a six o'clock dinner. Mrs. Bravo and Mrs. Cox, a lady companion living in the house, dined with him, and left the dining-room about eight o'clock. At nine o'clock Mr. Bravo retired to his bedroom, and about half an hour afterwards rang his bell, and told the servant who answered it to fetch some warm water. The servant thought he looked strange or ill, and told Mrs. Cox, who with his wife immediately went to see what was the matter. They found him in great pain, and despatched a messenger for his medical attendant, Dr. Moore, who on arriving, some time after ten, found him IiTISCOZICiOIIi. Soon afterwards Mr. Harrison, a surgeon, came in, and together with Dr. Moore spent the night with the patient. Meanwhile Mr. Boys Bell, of Harley-street, and Dr. Johnson, of King's College Hospital, had been sum- , fumed, and when they arrived in the course of the night, Mr. Bravo had been very sick, and regained 1 consciousness. Mr. Bell seized the opportunity of asking him what he hail taken, but got (oily a: troubled look in reply. The doctors concluded that he was suffering from poisening by some metallic , irritant, and when all but Mr. Bell left in the morning he was somewhat better. The improvement con- • tinned, and in the afternoon seemed decided. Next day, however, the bad symptoms returned, and Sir William Gull was called in ; but Mr. Bravo only lingered over the Thursday, when he made his will, and on Friday, the 21st, he died. It was not really known what had cansed Mr. Bravo's death,- and a. post-mortem examination was therefore made. Sir William Gull had caused some of the contents of the stomach to he preserved for analysis before death ; awl after death, an analytical examination of the internal portions of the 'body itself was made by Dr. Redwood, and he found in them a large quantity of antimony. 3lr. Bravo had died from poisoning, and consequently a coroner's inquiry became necessary in order that it might be found, if possible, how the tarter emetic had been administered. That evidence was really adduced on this point before the Coroner is not known. It is so customary for the freinds of deceased persons to urge that no publicity dull be given to such inquiries that the Coroner was 3robably only following an unfortunate custom in keeping the investigation as quiet as posaible. The inquest was not reported; and hence rumour has hiol its full swing respectin4 it. It is, however, generally known that Sir William Gull stated that having seriously put to Mr. Bravo the question whether he had taken anything poisonous, 3lr. Bravo replied that he had only taken some laudanum for toothache. The further evidence was that at the dinner he had eaten I only some roast lamb and spinach, with eggs, and had drunk three lie of Burgundy. The wine seems therefore to be the only vehicle in which the ' poison could have been conveyed, unless Mr. Bravo I took something else during the half-hour he spent in I his bedroom before he called for the warm water. The hypothesis of suicide is discouraged, if not disproved, by Mr. Bravo's solemn assertion and the absence of any possible motive for such an act. 'rhe antimony there fore must have been administered by misadventure or by design. It is said that the rest of the wine, which had 'men specially decanted for Mr. Bravo's dinner, was not preserved ; and it might be important to know how it was disposed of. If it was poured away, when and by whom was it done? If it was drunk by the medical men or the servants, it could soarcely have been the wine which poisoned Mr. Bravo. All these speculations and a hundred others are necessarily occupying the minds of his friends and neighbours. Up to Tuesday night the authorities at Scotlandyard had been unsuccessful in their efforts to trace the source from which the antimony, which it is supposed caused the death of Mr. Bravo, was obtained, or by whom it was introduced at the Priory. The Subjoined offer of a reward, emanating fix m Mrs. Bravo, has been extensively circulated :—" Five hundred pounds reward.—Whereas, up to the present time it is not known where or by whom the antimony or tartar emetic which caused the death of the late Mr. Charles Delauney Turner Bravo, of the Priory, Balham, Surrey, was procured on or before the ISth April last, the above reward will be paid on behalf of his 'widow by the undersigned to any one who will prove the sale of the said antimony or tartar emetic in such a manner as will threw satisfactory light on the mode in which 311.. Bravo came by his death on the 21st April last. 1