THE LINDA HAZZARD PROSECUTION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12848, 26 January 1912, Page 2

THE LINDA HAZZARD PROSECUTION.

THE ACCUSED'S DEFENCE

In reference to the recent cable messages concerning the trial at Seattle of. "].)r.'; L/inda 'Barfisld Hazzaid, of the Olaila fasting sanatorium, Washington Stat-e, who is charged with having caused the death of Claire Williamson, a spinster from Victoria (Australia), aged 33, it is interesting to note that in a' pamphlet on her fasting treatment and on'"her ■'"persecution" by doctors and the law, "Dr." Linda Burfield Hazzard reviews eight separate cases (in about half of which death ensued) in which she was accused at Seattle either with starving her patient to death or with giving treatment calculated to cause death. In one of these cases Mrs Hazzard was arrested and was charged with practising medicine without a license and with having placed the word "doc-, tor" before her name; her ioonviotdon in this case was quashed on appeal. The views and statements of her enemies (which Dr. Hazzard quotes liberally) show that her fasting treatment, whatever its consequences, was regarded as being outside the reach of murder or manslaughter laws. The case cabled is therefore of much importance as a test. The difficulty of proving that a diseased person died not from the disease but from lack of food is obvious, especially whero the disease is extreme, and the patient has entered upon the "starvation cure" with full knowledge and as a last resort.

DEATH NOT DUE TO "CUBE.'.'

In reply to all the charges made against her, Dr. Hazzard argues her case with much force, and does not neglect to make any point against her accusers. Finally, she reviews the Wii-I'Limso-n charge (.now pending) and comments that the injustice of the antagonism against her "is exemplified in the fact that virtually all financial returns from a largo practice hare had to be devoted to the defence of the aictaoks made on me personally. Were it not that I am so fully convinced of :,the logic and truth of the method I advoj cate, and that I feel that I have proved ( beyond the shadow of a doubt that fastis ing is always a successful means for the restoration of health when organic disease is not present, I should have abandoned my work yeairs ago. But in every death that has occurred under my care, a post mortem examination has invariably disclosed that death'resulted not from the fast, but from some irremovable mechanical or structural -defect in the body of the patient. And -_tfte rsuceessful cases are in number as" [ tho sands of the sea. The medical' world are, now congratulating themselves that a cat's, paw is at hand''ta push the ca&o pending to a ruinous issue for both the caus*> and its advocate, but 'He laughs best who laughs last," and the truth cannot be overcome."

REFUSED TO FAST THEM. • Concerning the Williamson sdsters, Cladre (deceased) was aged 33 and her .sister Dora is aged 37. Both, Dx. Hazzard -states, had been ill for years, and 'had "travelled the world in search of health."" ' "They had convinced them- . selves "of the ethcacy of the fasting cure and had fully determined to place themselves under my care. After examinu.tiom, I felt that I was face to face with organic disease in both sisters, and 1 positively refused to fast them. They. -begged me to reconsider, and 1 finally .consented to place them upon restrict-* ed diet and to ply the accessories of the treatment, including the enema, baths, oesteopathic manipulation, etc. The patient" in question, Claire, weighed only-78 pounds in her clothes, and was emaciated to the last degree; her circulation was most sluggish, and sho complained of constant extreme exhaustion.

" A bout two weeks after beginning treatment Ciaire was compelled to take to her bed, aiid shortly .after that, in order to care for her in a proper manner, I removed both sisters with their nurses xa my own home.. Claire gradually failed, however, and died on May 19th. The autopsy performed by » regular physician, Deputy-Coroner Borthwick, and myself reveaJed a liver completely cirrhosed, intestines that wero contracted and adherent to the walls, of tho abdominal cavity throughout their length, and which were, of im fantile size as well. Hero was another instance in which no.power on earth could have saved the life of tho sufferer. THE BODY CREMATED. "Ciairo Williamson was in absolute sympathy with tho method as applied, fcitr parents were long dead, and she "was possessed of an iinco'me that rendered her Independent of her relatives. Sho was clear-minded and resoived upon her own method of procedure. She had infinite confidence in me, and in the thought thai tho fight she was waging was a. matter of last resort. When, a month before she died, I told her that her case might prove fatal, that there were discouraging signs, she calmly set about arranging her affairs, and prepared for what proved to be the inevit- . able. The. autopsy revealed the condition stated aibpve, and the body was cremated in accordance with her" written request, under my direction.

"Scverad weeks .after her death a family servant arrived from Australia to. cam far the surviving sister, Dora. This servant was mast antagonistic to anything that savoured of non-orthodoxy in tho treatment of disease, and it developed that sho had formerly done all in her power to prevent the Williamsons from taking such nature euros as they had. W.ithi.n a few weok.s she had succeeded in inidetormi.-nng the faith of tho remaining patient, Dora, who was beginning to convalesce and had gone io the extant of rerK>rting vthe death of Ciairo to the British . Vice-Consul at Taonma, Wash. The latter. i,« his zeal fct fame, caused a charge to be placed against me for murder in tho first degree."

It i.s also sbateel that the sisters had nrovkKLsly been under treatment by "n->tKro cure specialists" and "die«tmir." in England.