INQUEST.

Evening Star, Issue 4026, 21 January 1876, Page 2

INQUEST.

Mr Hccki'r, City Uoromr, held flu inquiry at the 11- spi al at noon to-day, touching the ■o-alh Hcxton, who committed suicide. The fol owing evidence was given : Thomas PaVleliPh, lahftlord of tho Universal Ho’c|, Maclaggan street, sa : d deceased had been in Iris employ for the last nice months. bout a foHnig-.t ago he received intimation ' i his brothers death, sine; which hs had been iu low ipuitH, and i.'c-ju drinking heavily, ‘hough he U-ed to drink before. Hllen Loncrgarr, a domestic servant, employed at the Universal Hotel, said she had known deceased for Die last five months When he came ha-.k from the I‘olice Court yesterday she was siding at the bar. In passing her, lie su’d ire was going up-stairs to his bedr .oru, held out his hands to h»r, and ta : d goodhye. -'die asked him where ho was going ; and lie ivn led to bed f<n- an hoir, when sire was (o c dl Irim. 'i Linking he was goim; to have the house she followed h’rn up. •' hen she cot to his to m he told her to go down to the id chen and remove tom there, before anyone else used it, a gla.-s, out of w, ioli he said he had drunk some of the stuff he used f .r cleaning the brasses. lie was then lying on tiro bed. She d d as he directed, and oil her way down gave the alarm ey lu the glass she found a

fl ud. When she returned to his room he hnd fallen oue of bed, seemed insensible, and did not move. Dr Brown, when called in, found the deceased laying in a 1 bby at the Universal Hotel. He was quit * livid. He breathed two or three limes and died. Foil ad the inside of the deceased’s mouth and hia tongue quite white, evidently the effect of corrosive action. Professor Black had analysed the contents of the bottle (which was unstoppered and unlabelled) from which it is said the deceased d'ank, and a piece of blotting paper which Dr Brown had steeped in the vomitted matter found near deceased’s bed. The latter contained a small quantity of sulphuric acid, and the_ bottle a strong solution of oxalic acid, which is a very poweiful poison, and accounted for the co-rosive marks in deceased’s mouth. Dr Brown, re-called, said a strong solution of oxalic acid was capable of causing death in fifteen or twenty minutes. Constable Hinds deposed that he found in deceased’s papers entries which showed hj m to have been a native of Cork; he was about twenty-four years of age, and a Roman Catholic.

The Coroner said ordinary care had been shown about the contents of the bottle. The jury returned a verdict of “ Committed suicide while temporarily insane.”