Untitled

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3029, 16 March 1917, Page 5

An extraordinary story was told the other day at Hackney (London), at a coroner's inquiry relative to the death of Robert Prist (46), a french polisher, of South Hackney, who was found dead in an armchair with a gas bracket, which he had wrenched from the wall, close to his face. Oji tho mantelpiece was found the _ following letter, adi dressed to the coroner:—"My heart is pending me mad, I cannot , sleep, breathe, or walk, I have tried doctors, but no cure' for me. I am a human wreck, and I cannot bo a burden to my wife any longer, eo I think this is th 6 best way out." Medical evidence showed deceased had a heart weighing 30oa.—twice the normal size—and that this was really tho caueo of d.eath, which occurred before he had inhaled a sufficient quantity of gas to kill an adult. The jury returned a verdict of "Death from natural causes." The coroner .intimated that he disagreed with tho verdict.