FATAL RESULT OF OVERSTUDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1502, 9 March 1887, Page 3

FATAL RESULT OF OVERSTUDY.

Another shocking shooting tragedy it reported from Melbourne, The viotlm was Mfci Elizabeth Johnstone, aged thirty-four, daughter of Mr JohDstono, the Footscray railway stat'oi master The deed was committed at the station, Sn «ti upstairs room, tbe window of which opens on to the itation reserve, and tho attendant circumstanced are extremely painful. Mr and Mrs Johnetone, have several sons and daughters, but they are married. 'and oil but the deceased had left the parental roof. The deceased had spent nearly all her time, it Is said, m study. She was well advanced m most Kccomplishmentß, particularly m tho classics, and m literature, and was ambitious to become an authoress. It is to the falling of the mental faculties through ovor-study that her tragic death Is ascribed. She had been indispoaod for some days, bat the morning of February 13 was the only morning she had remained m bed. Her mother went to her room to invite her to take some food, bat she declined, and expressed a wish for roefc only. She was left alone, and shorty before two o'o'.ook, her father, whilst m a room on the ground floor, heard an uncaual noise, and calling his wife, to see whether something had not fallen. Mrs Johnstons went upstairs, and found her daughter's room door looked. Entering an adjoining room used by the deceased as a Btady and so forth, she mounted a box, and, looking over the partition, saw her daughter lying on her bed m a state of deshabille, with blood flowing from her mou h and nose. Mrs Johnstone'a soreem of terror |brought up her husband who forced the door. The deceased was still alive, bit ucconioious. A amall revolver was lying on the bed olobb to the girl's right h ud. Where it came from no one knows ; n.,r do they know where the forty-two car tridges afterwards found m the etady came from. Only one barrel of the weapon had been discharged then, bnt the polloe, who were called m, found that there was a ■eoond empiy oartridge, whioh had evidently been discharged some tima ago. Dr Anderson was summoned, but life was extinct when he arrived. The deceased had simply risen from the be 3, sat on the side, put the barrel of the weapon m her mouth, aid pulled the trigger. The bullet had gone through the roof of the mouth info tbe brain. Tbe deceased was cf medium proportions, and of rather pleasing appearance. On a table near her bed lay an open book of shorthand, which was one of the things she had recently taken to i v udy. At the inquest the father of deceased stated that she was very strong-minded, and if she got a thing into her head would try to carry it out. She had not anything on her mind. She was a great student, and devoted all her time to the ntudy of languages. She had been weakly all her life, but had been a voyage to India. She usually kept to her room studying, and did not care much about company. Dr Anderson stated that as a result of the post mortem he found that deceased's brain showed signs cf o<*rebral softening, which might account for her act. The haat of the weather might have acted on a weak brain, such as that of the deceased