DR. FORBES WINSLOW AND MAD WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13727, 18 April 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

DR. FORBES WINSLOW AND MAD WOMAN.

WELL-KNOWN MENTAL SPECIALIST SENT FOR TRIAL. Db. Forbes Winslow, whose nam© has so frequently occurred as a witness in criminal cases whereia questions of lunacy have been raise.!, was charged at Acton Police Court with an offence under the Lunacy Act of 1690. It was alleged that he aided and abetted Edith M. Lasceiles in the matter of receiving, boarding, and keeping a young lady named Ethel M. Davies in premises which had not been authorised for the reception of persons of unsound mind. Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Lester appeared for the Lunacy Commissioners. Dr. Forbes Winslow conducted his own defence, but Mr, Churchill watched it on his behalf. Mr. Bodkin said there-was no doubt Dr. Forbes Winslow was fully aware that the woman Davies was a lunatic. Her ace was 33, and Dr. Forbes Winslow had been in contact with her for two years. He treated her at the hospital in Euston Road, and then sent her to an asylum at Hassocks, in the control of a Miss Williams. Then he introduced her to Mrs. Lasceiles. The poor lunatic. Miss Davies, had created violent scenes. She had escaped for a few hours in her nightgown, fell out of the window, broke furniture, and bit Mrs. Lascelle'a arm. " However," Mr Bodkin continued, "she is now at last where she ought to have been for the last two years—viz., in proper, skilled, intelligent, kindly, and cleanly surroundings." _ Mrs. Lascelles was a person, said counsel, who ought not to have the charge of anyone, let alone a lunatic. Mr. Charles Russell Shaw, Dr. Fountain, Dr. W. L. Goodrich, and Dr. Worth gave evidence as to the mental condition of Miss Davies. Mrs. Eliza Maria Davies, of Highbury, the patient's mother, told of her daughter having been very amende and despondent at first. After taking her to several hospitals witness took her to see Dr. Forbes Winslow at the hospital in Euston Road, and received advice. Afterwards witness paid £1 Is per week to Mrs. Lasceiles. Witness went to visit her daughter once, and found her very dirty and much worse in her mind. In reply to Dr. Forbes Winslow, Mhrs. Davies said she had never paid him any fee. Evelyn Hall, of Haxman Road, Loughborough Junction, a general servant to Mrs. Lascelles at Burlington Gardens, Chiswick, stated that the patient was taken to Burlington Gardens about March, 1907. On one occasion she was violent, bit Mrs. Lasceiles, and she had seen her in tears without any apparent cause. She further said that Mrs:. Lascelles was sometimes the worse for drink.

Replying to Mr. Bodkin, the witness said she remembered Miss Davies falling out of a window. She went out and picked her up and put her in Mrs. Lascelles' bedroom. M'rs. Lascelles came in about half an hour later and put the patient to bed, afid then went for a doctor, but none came.

Dr. Winslow slept in the house three times while she was in service there, but on no occasion while Ethel Davies was a patient. He kept a nightshirt and a pair of slippers at the house. She had heard Dr. Winslow and Mrs. Lasceiles talking together, he calling her "Edie" and she calling him "King." Replying to Dr. Winslow, witness said that Mrs. Lascelles had told her he was an old personal friend of herself and her husband, and had known her for 20 years. It did not seem to witness that there" was anything strange in Dr. Winslow' staying In the house. Mr. Bodkin : Nobody said there was. Dr. Forbes Winslow reserved his defence, and was committed for trial. He was bound over in £100 to appear.