THE PECULIAR PEOPLE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 11096, 13 December 1898, Page 3

THE PECULIAR PEOPLE.

|NO RELIANCE ON DOCTORS. VERY KIND APART FROM HIS RELIGIOUS VIEWS. Boccived Decouibor 12, 11.30 a.m. Lon) on, December 11. Thomas Senior, a working man residing at Canning Town, London, was recently committed for trial on a charge of manslaughter, and an appeal now made to the Court of Queen's Bench has resulted in the committal being sustained. It appears that Senior failed to call in a doctor to see a baby boy; eight months old, who was' sick, and the child died, Mr and Mrs Senior belong to the sect called the Peculiar People, who, relying upon passages in the Bible, refuse to call in medical aid for their sick, but have them anointed and prayed over by an elder of the sect. The Seniors have had 12 children, and seven of them have died in infancy without a doctor being called in. The appeal against the committal of the father was based upon the ground that apart from his religious viows he was a very kind parent. The Court of Queen's Bench has now decided that although Senior was admittedly a kind father his deliberate neglect to call in medical advice with regard to his sick child, the child subsequently dying in consequence of 6uch neglect, constituted manslaughter, and that therefore the committal was justified.