From the Dover Express and East Kent Intelligencer, 23 December, 1870. Price 1d.

DEATH FROM EXCESSIVE FEEDING

On Wednesday evening last the borough coroner, W. H. Payn, Esq., held an inquest at the "King William" public house, Tower Hamlets, on the body of an infant, William John Brace, the child of a journeyman carpenter living in Tower Street, which had been found by its mother lying dead upon her arm, on awaking the previous morning. It appeared from the evidence, that the child had been weakly from its birth, and that the mother, contrary to the recommendations of the doctor who had attended it (Dr. Gill), persisted in giving it thickened food; and as the doctor considered that this practice had accelerated the child's death he declined to give a certificate, and an inquest thus became necessary.

Mr. P. Mackleden having been chosen foreman of the jury, and the body of the child having been viewed, the following evidence was given.

Mary Ann, wife of Osborn Brace, a carpenter, in the employ of Messrs. Adcock and Rees: The deceased, who was five months and a fortnight old, was my youngest child. It had been very delicate from its birth. I have always nursed it myself. I did not notice anything more than usual the matter with it up to yesterday morning, when, on awaking, I found it dead upon my arm. My husband was not at home at this time. He is working at Eastry, and returns only on Saturday. I nursed the child last thing the night before, and it went to sleep on my arm, where it remained all night. I was not aware, on waking, that it was dead; but on endeavouring to shift it from my arm I found that its head was stiff, and I then discovered what was the matter. I sent for Dr. Gill, who came between ten and eleven; but he did not see the child. I told him it was dead, and he went away. Dr. Gill said that it had died because I had fed it. I told him what I had given the child, viz., corn-flour and milk, and biscuits. I had given it some of this food at nine o'clock the night before.

The Coroner: How much?

Witness: A large cup, a breakfast cup, full.

Coroner: Were you in the habit of giving it so much as that?

Witness: Yes, I have always given it about that quantity.

The Coroner: And your other child, when it was young?

Witness: Yes.

The Coroner: Had you found any ill effects from such food before?

Witness: No, sir.

Examination continued: The corn-flour was well boiled - for ten minutes - and was cooled with milk. I am quite sure I did not lie upon the child. It was upon its back, on my arm, when I awoke, and the face was turned away from my body. I did not know the cause of death.

By the foreman: The child was alive at 5 o'clock when I suckled it.

Dr. J. B. Gill: I am a surgeon residing and practising in Dover. Yesterday morning I was sent for to see the deceased child. On arriving at the house, the mother informed me that the child was dead. I attended the child some three or four months ago, and I then informed the mother that it was naturally a weakly one, and that if fed on anything other than its natural food it could not live. I have this day examined the child's body, and state that I believe it to have died from congenital weakness and that its death was hastened by improper food. I have refused a certificate in this case in order that, if it is made public, many other obstinate mothers may be deterred from the practice of feeding their children on this description of food.

Dr. Gill, after his disposition had been taken, explained to the Jury that he had taken the unusual course of withholding a certificate in this case in consequence of the great prevalence of the practice he had referred to. Mothers would insist on feeding their children with thickened food, and the consequences was that the weakly ones, one and all, died. Some survived in spite of their unnatural treatment; but the weaker ones infallibly perished.

A Juryman enquired what a mother was to do, if, she was unable to nurse the child herself.

Dr. Gill replied that, the next best thing to the natural diet of the child was milk and water sweetened. The natural diet of the infant was animal food in the lightest possible form, and the most unnatural was vegetable food. In the case of delicate children its digestion was impossible, and here was a case in which a child had actually been famished with its belly full of food.

After the retirement of the medical witness, the Jury deliberated for some time upon their verdict. Most of them remained unconvinced by the theory advanced by Dr. Gill, one Juryman stoutly persisted that his children were the most delicate children possible, but had not withstanding survived the ordeal of corn-flour - "made thin and from a bottle." The only thing which seemed to strike the Jury was the quantity of thick food which had been given in this case; and they all concurred in thinking that a breakfast cup was too much. Hence they considered that, if they submitted the word "improper" in the doctor's evidence for the word "excessive," they would be arriving at the real cause of death.

The following, therefore, was the verdict: "That the death of the infant, William John Brace, arose from congenital weakness, accelerated by excessive feeding.