DRINKING, ITS EFFECTS

Dunstan Times, Issue 636, 26 June 1874, Page 3

DRINKING, ITS EFFECTS

—o— Thomas Deacon Hawthorne died “ suddenly ” lately at Bentley’s Hotel, Middle Indigo, Victoria. He had called at the house on his way to England ton weeks and three days 'previously, having received some money to take him there, having had 4,C00L loft him at homo. It was arranged that he should remain at the house, paying If. per week for his board, the account to be settled when ha left, the score for drinks to bo paid “as he went along.’’ What was thus expended was proved by the evidence of Priscilla Baitb y, the wife of the landlord, who'deposed at the inquest—“ The only money 1 saw with deceased when he first came to my place was a one pound note, and two or three sixpensns ; deceased paid by cheque —on the Bank of New South Wales—fo. 1 the drinks he had ; on some days deceased had as many as thirty drinks of a mixed description ; deceased ha I no chcqu o that ] know of when he came to my place ; he said he had 4,000/. loft him at homo ; deceased gave me the last cheque On last Wednesday, amounting to 10/. ; another cheque for 251. was given on the Gth April, and two smaller ones, for 15/. together, previous to that date ; deceased, at the time of his death, owed for the whole of his board.” The landlord assured the jury that he refused the man liquor “ semes of times,” but from the account rendered by Mrs Bentley, it appears that exactly 200 drinks a week were paid for, which establishes within a fraction his average of thirty a day for the whole time he was drinking himself to death. The Ovens Spectator, from which the above particulars are taken, adds—ln accordance with the medical evidence, the jury brought in a verdict that the deceased died from heart disease accelerated by hydrothorax,