TWIN BROTHERS’ SUICIDE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 January 1929, Page 7

TWIN BROTHERS’ SUICIDE.

Noted Specialists of Harley Street Obsessed By Fear Of Poverty. foMwmg Thysical and Mental Resemblances. Received Wednesday. 9.50 Jall , a Two Harley street specialists, twin brothers igcd named Arthur Brown Smith, a radium cancer c *^. and S ' i‘ tv - ’ d radium therapeutist, both graduates of Edinburgh Um«rs.t> and joint authors of essays on the radium treatmeU d found dead in a service flat at St. James s, w - lo.st week. a They ‘were found lying on the floor with their throats cut. A large piece of paper contained a message, as follows; io the nation: We are doing this owing to fear of poverty. Thfeir medical colleagues describe them as brilliant radium and cancer experts and assured of a future. Their letter to the nation declared their research work for humanity had reduced them to poverty. They had devoted their lives to the study of cancer and hid their poverty from evexyone. Their friends in Edinburgh Would gladly have helped them. . It is suggested that the costliness of radium ruined them. The Daily Telegraph describes the deaths as one of the most extraordinary tragedies of recent years. The Smiths were aged about thirty. Photographs show a remarkable resemblance, confirming the remarks of friends that it is difficult to extinguish one from the other. The twins were tall and dark. Both wore pince jiez and dressed and parted their hair alike. A representative of the Daily Telegraph interviewed both on November 21 regarding the nation's need for radium. Since then telegrams'have been received and rambling lettci’s from the bi ethers suggesting that statements were made against them in the Press, hut as far as is known no such letters have been published. The Daily Express states that the brothers attended a party given by a specialist on Saturday night. They arrived early, but seemed distraught and said they wanted to confer privately on an important matter. They used the telephone. Thereafter one said that the treatise he and his brother had published in the Medical Journal had produced curious political results. “Oh, nonsense,” said the host An awkward silence followed. The brothers again conferred and finally asked for permission to slip away quietly. They departed, and the host fearing their minds were unhinged, made a final attempt to pierce the mystery. On Monday they assisted at an operation at Saint Paul’s hospital performed by a distinguished Wimpole street surgeon, who says the hospital is very poor and has no radium. Judge, therefore, his deiighi at the brothers offering their services and their x’adiura free. They brought their own private supply of radium consisting of ten needles, worth £2OOO. They left the hospital in the evening, promising to assist at another operation on Wednesday. The surgeon was certain that no thought of death had then ’entered their minds. fheir message to the nation was: "We have given our lives to the study of .cancer research. We have reduced ourselves to a state of poverty and life is not wox*th living.” The newspapers point out that the twins’ resemblance was frequently mental as well as physical. If one was distraught the other was also in a,similar condition.