Alexandria Gazette

A Baltimore Physician Arrested on a
serious charge,

As announced in yesterday's Gazette. Dr. Hugh Nelson, of Baltimore, was arrested in Chicago Wednesday night by a private detective, on the charge of malpractice. The police have been looking for Dr. Nelson ever since he left Baltimore, on the 5th of last September. Dr. Nelson, who had his office at the southeast corner of Fremont and Lombard streets up to the latter part of September, attended a young German girl named Emma Hummel, who was then a domestic in a private house on Lombard street. The young woman becoming quite ill, was removed to the house of her mother and stepfather, on the Frederick road, a mile from the city limits. On the 15th of last September Dr. Nelson visited his patient at the stepfather's house, and was alone with her in the room during the visit. The girl after this visit became worse. John L. Hummel, a brother of the girl, when hearing of the case, became very angry, and at his instance a warrant was issued at the Western Police Station for the Doctor's arrest, on the charge of abortion. The officers, upon searching for Nelson, found that he had left the city. The grand jury, upon having the charge before it, heard testimony from the brother, mother and the girl herself. Dr. Nelson was indicted, and the authorities have been looking for him in vain, until the dispatch from Chicago was received announcing his arrest. Dr. Nelson came from Virginia, and has been practicing medicine in Baltimore for over ten years. He is about 35 years of age, and is said to have graduated at the old Washington College on Lombard street, near Hanover. Nelson was caught by means of a decoy-letter, and Wednesday night was taken into custody. He answered the questions put to him without hesitation, after first having denied that he knew wherefore he was locked up. The charge against him, he said, was malpractice in the case of Emma Hummel, a young woman whom he had professionally attended, and he claimed to have documentary evidence to prove that the girl's brother had threatened him with indictment in case he did not pay him $50. He denied that he had treated the case unprofessionally, and that there was no evidence that any such treatment had been used, and emphatically declared that he had left Baltimore only because he knew how hard it was for a man in the practice of medicine to regain his standing in the community, even after an accusation of criminality brought against him had been proven groundless. Dr. Nelson had been living part of the time during his stay in Chicago with some male friends. His wife is now in Baltimore. He does not propose to resort to a habeas corpus or any dilatory proceedings.-Baltimore American.