The Sun. — 1855-11-17 (London, England)

THE LATE TRAGHDY AT BRIGHTON.  (From the Lancet.)  We had intended, agreeably to an intimation made in our last number, to have entered at some length into a consideration of the many deeply interesting medicolegal points connected with the mysterious deaths of Dr. Franck and his son, at the Albion Hotel, Brighton. The case is exciting the deepest interest throughout the country, and forms the subject of conversation amongst all classes of society. The awful character of the tragedy, the mystery in which it appears to be enveloped, the unaccountable omissions of the coroner in not directing post mortem examinations of the bodies, are all topics entitled to grave, serious, and patient investigation. Did Dr. Franck, sane or insane, kill his son, and then destroy himself ? Was the case one of voluntary strangulation, the suicide of the father following rapidly upon the heels of the discovery of the son's self-destruction ? Did the son die a natural and sudden death from disease of the heart or brain—as suggested by Dr. Winslow, in his letter to the Times on Tuesday, the 13th instant—and the father, in a paroxysm of temporary delirium or insanity, caused by the discovery of the son's sudden death, throw himself from the window I Was chloroform given to produce insensibility and death, or was some potent poison, like hydrocyanic acid, introduced into the stomach, thus extinguish. ing life ? How can these deeply important questions be satisfactorily solved unless both bodies be exhumed, and subjected to thoroughly searching examinations ? In the head of the father there might be found a suffieient extent of cerebral or meningeal disease to account for insane acts, and to relieve him in great measure, if not entirely, from moral responsibility, even if it should be ascertained that he was the cause of the death of his son. Ail the vital organs of the body of the son should be subjected to a most scrutinising investigation ; and should the cause of death be undiscoverable in them, the stomach and intestines and their contents, and also as much of the blood a's can be collected, should be submitted to a patient and competent chemical analysis. Of course the examination of the body would extend to a careful inquiry, in the case of the father, to the extent and bearings of the goitre on the large blood vessels in its locality; and, in the case of the son, to the condition of the parts underneath where the silk scarf was found on the neck, and the state of the air-tube in that situation. The skin of the neck in the son, and also the hands of both bodies, should be examined minutely, with a view to the discovery of the marks of finger-nails. The contents of the phial found in the room should also be exposed to a thorough analytical inquiry, and all these investigations should now be made as publicly as possible. Connected with the whole case scarcely anything ap. pears to us to be more extraordinary than the breathless haste with which the inquest was held after the deaths took place, only 7 hours having elapsed between the occurrence of the catastrophe and the assembling of the jury. Without doubt the proprietor of the hotel was desirous that the bodies should be removed from his premises as quickly as possible. That might have been done by an order from the coroner, and they might have been removed to the dead-house connected with the parochial church, or even to the premises of the undertaker employed on the occasion—a practice which is often pursued with much convenience in the metropolis. The jury might have viewed the bodies at the place where the deaths happened, and might have inspected the room where the deceased bad slept, and the window from which the father fell—and,then thebodies might have been conveyed elsewhere, and the inquest adjourned for a week or a fortnight, thus giving time for all those inquiries to be made which the peculiar circumstances of the case appeared so emphatically to demand. Even now it is anxiously to be hoped that the coroner will exercise his authority to cause the bodies to be at once exhumed and submitted to the anatomical and chemical examinations we have suggested, and in this expectation we for the present refrain from noticing further the circumstances connected with this deplorable catastrophe. We hope that the medical faculty at Brighton will not remain passive in this matter, but, exercising a proper and legitimate professional spirit, insist upon the institution of a full inquiry into these mysterious and melancholy deaths. The scalpel, laboratory, and microscope may solve the mystery, and at once satisfy the craving appetite for exact scientific information. We consequently defer any further remarks o* the case, while so much is left to mere conjecture, and when a correct course of proceeding may lead to a discovery of facts which may tend to a removal of all doubt and uncertainty on the subject.  The remains of the late Lord Truro are to be interred this day (Saturday) at Ramsgate.