[Document 105 -1879.] 
CITY OF 
BOSTON. 
REPORT 
OF 
COMMITTEE ON CITY HOSPITAL 
IN RELATION TO DEATH OF BESSIE 
BARGEBUHR. 
In Common Council, June 12, 1879. 
Ordered, That the Joint Standing Committee on the City- 
Hospital be instructed to investigate the facts relating to the 
admission of Bessie Bargebuhr into the City Hospital, her 
treatment, and her death there June 4, 1879» and report the 
same to the City Council. 
Sent up for concurrence. 
W. H. WHITMORE, 
President. 
In Board of Aldermen, June 16, 187% 
Concurred. 
HUGH O'BRIEN, 
Chairman. 
Approved June 17, 1879. 
FREDERICK O. PRINCE, 
Mayor. 2 
City Document No. 105. 
In Common Council, Oct. 9, 1879. 
_„The Committee on City Hospital who were instructed to 
investigate the facts relating to the admission of Bessie 
Bargebuhr into the City Hospital, her treatment and death 
there, having attended to that duty, beg leave to submit the 
following 
REPORT. 
The committee heard the statements of Mr. Bargebuhr, 
Dr. J. Foster Bush, the physician who attended Mrs. 
Bargebuhr prior to her admission to the City Hospital, the 
physicians and nurse who attended her during her stay there, 
and have received a written statement from Dr. Cowles, who 
was Superintendent at the time she was admitted, but who 
is now absent in Europe. 
It appears that Mrs. Bargebuhr had been under Dr. Bush's 
care for about a month previous to her admission to the 
hospital; she was suffering from abscess of the breast, and a 
mental trouble, which manifested itself in a suicidal form. 
She had made three attempts upon her life, and it was neces- 
sary to watch her to prevent her from escaping from the 
house and committing suicide. Dr. Bush advised that she 
be sent to Danvers; but her husband and friends were un- 
willing to do so, and wished to have her treated at the City 
Hospital. Accordingly she was taken there by her husband 
on the 24th of May, accompanied by a note from Dr. Bush 
to the effect that she had a trouble with her breast, and 
cerebral symptoms. This note was given to Mr. Bargebuhr, 
with the distinct understanding that Dr. Cowles should be 
told the whole history of the case. When she arrived at the 
hospital, Dr. Platt, who was acting as admitting physician in 
the temporary absence of Dr. Cowles, was sent for, and, on 
asking the nature of the applicant's illness, was informed by 
her husband that it was abscess of the breast; and he was not 
told the history of the case. There being nothing to indicate 
that she was not a proper subject for treatment at the hospital, 
she was admitted. She was placed in a private room, and 
although in a state of great nervous excitement, - a con- 
dition incident to the disease of the breast from which she 
was suffering, - it does not appear that anything in her con- 
duct up to the time of her death indicated that she was insane, 
nor was anything said to her attendants which would lead 
them to suspect that such was the case. The local disease 
improved under treatment, but the nervous excitement in- 
creased to such an extent, that, as a measure of precaution, Death of Bessie Bargebuhr. 
3 
the attending physician caused the windows of her room to 
be fastened down; a measure which in such cases would 
usually be deemed unnecessary, and therefore indicated more 
than ordinary care. 
On the 4th of June, Mr. Bargebuhr visited his wife, and, 
as is customary in the case of private patients, the nurse re- 
tired from the room. When she returned she found the 
room vacant. At the conclusion of his interview, Mr. Barge- 
buhr had left his wife without notifying any one, although 
he knew that the nurse was in another room within call, and 
Mrs. Bargebuhr, taking advantage of the opportunity, went 
into an adjoining room and threw herself from, the window 
to the ground. Death shortly ensued. 
Such are the facts as they appear to the committee. It is 
proper, however, to state that Mr. Bargebuhr claims to have 
told several of the hospital physicians of his wife's attempts 
at suicide, and especially Dr. Cowles, whom he met in a horse- 
car when returning from the hospital after leaving his wife 
there. This statement is emphatically denied by each and 
all of the persons mentioned, and is unsupported by any cor- 
roborative testimony. It is a fact, not denied by Mr. Barge- 
buhr, that he did not give the admitting physician a history 
of his wife's case, in accordance with his understanding with 
Dr. Bush; and this, in connection with the other circum- 
stances attending his action in the matter, leads the committee 
to believe that, to say the least, he is mistaken, and that he 
did not say anything which would arouse suspicion as to his 
wife's sanity. It also seems highly improbable that a physi- 
cian of Dr. Cowles' experience would allow a case of suicidal 
insanity to remain in the hospital after it had been brought 
to his attention. 
In conclusion the committee desire to say that nothing 
was brought forward in the course of the investigation to in- 
dicate negligence or unskilfulness on the part of any persons 
connected with the City Hospital, and the responsibility (if 
any there be) for Mrs. Bargebuhr's death does not rest upon 
those who attended her during her stay there. 
LUCIUS SLADE, 
CHARLES H. B. BRECK, 
GEORGE H. LOVERING, 
GEORGE T. PERKINS, 
HOWARD CLAPP, 
Committee.