CHOKED IN TRYING TO SWALLOW A CAT'S EYE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3263, 16 December 1881, Page 3

CHOKED IN TRYING TO SWALLOW A CAT'S EYE.

A death under extraordinary circumstances was recorded afc an inquest held on Wednesday last in Braidwood (as reported in the Despatch). The following is a portion of the evidence :—Ah Pong deposed through his interpreter : I bought a cat for Ah Yin, and took it to him ; he wanted ifc to eat the eyes, to give him better sight than what he had ;he told me that cat's eyes were good for bad sight, and that; his eyes were bad ;he said a blue scum came over bis eyes when the hot weather would come : as soon as I gave him the cat he put ifc into a bag and I came away ; the cat was alive when I gave it him. Ah Tan, having been sworn, said : I know the dead man ; I saw him cleaning the dead cat and he gave it me to help him, as he could not see well; I cleaned the cat, and the deceased cut the eyes out and put them on a plate ; he then put a bit of sugar on one and swallowed ifc ; lie then got tho other and swallowed it, and began as if he was coughing ; I saw he was struggling, and I helped him into his bed with the, help of Hing Coon ; we then called our mates-,when they came they said he was dead •Ah Yin drowned the cat. Rees Llewellyn, medical practitioner, made a post-mortem examination of the body, and found the eye ot an animal which he believed to be a cat; in fche cavity immediately above fche vocal chords ,* it seemed to exactly fit the cavity ; Uiis would cause asphyxia, and death would \ie the almost immediate result of the eye being imbedded there unless it wa9 at once removed, and ihe removal would be a very difficult matter, as ifc exactly fitted the space. The jury found that the deceased, Ah Yin, had met his death by being accidentally choked while trying to swallow a cat's eye,