SCEPTICAL CORONER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1029, 19 January 1911, Page 6

SCEPTICAL CORONER.

COMMON FALLACY REGARDING DEATHS OP BABIES, . An inquest was held at Lambeth t»» centlv concerning. the death of the two* days'" old female child'of Nellie Etheridge, which was born at the Clapham Maternity Hospital. ~ ' , , Maud Giddens, a nurse, said that when she took the child out of bed she thought it had been-overlain. The Coroner: What do you understand by overlaying? ■ , " Witness: That the mother -had laid on What did you tee?— Nothing.: Over-: laying was all that ran through my mind. The Coroner: Overlaying is a matter of reason and not a faith. Dr. Frances Saint, who made a postmortem examination, said death, in her' opinion, was due to suffocation, butwhat! gave rise to that opinion she was unable .to say. The Corner: I am bound to tell you I am very sceptical about all cases of ovar. laying. ' Dr. Freyberger, who said he had made autopsies in over a thousand similar cases, spoke to making -a second : postmortem examination, and finding that the suffocation arose; from a very common* causc in babies twenty-four hours: old. v The Coroner said there was a widely, spread feeling that if a child was found dead in oca with its mother it must have been overlain. That was a very dangerqus opinion to hold, and very often- prevented people approaching, these cases with a perfectly open mind. " The jury returned a verdict of Natural death." _______