A Human Ostrich's Death.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 341, 16 June 1894, Page 4

A Human Ostrich's Death.

Yesterday afternoon at the London Hospital, Mr. Wynne Baxter held an inquest respecting the death of Owen Williams, ageo about forty - threo years, late of Brick Lane, fcpualfields, a comniou lodging-house, — Mary Ann M'Auhffe, deputy of the lodging-house, said that deceased haa been a lodger on and off for seven years. — The Coroner : How did he get his living? Witness : He used to go out at ni^ht round to the public houses and amuse the people by eating all kinds of things, bottles, &c. 1 have seen him do it myself. I have known him to eat bread and cheese aud pickles, and after that the saucer. (Laughter ) That's quite right sir. I had a little new pail to fill the boiler with, and lie said if I gave him Is he would eat that. (Loud laughter.)— 1 ho Coroner: I wcnder what he would have charged to eat an elephant.— The witness aaded that the deceased had not been well for the last three days.— The Coroner : He had taken something that disagreed with him perhaps. (Ijaughter.)~On Monday witness gave the deceased an order for the infirmary, and the deceased left to go there at 10.30 a.m. — The Coroner : Did he drink as well as eat ? Witness : He never came home soberWalter Williams, porter at the Whitechapel Infirmary; deposed that the deceased walked into the infirmary at 1.40 p.m. At mianigh^Mp^ Bent to the hospital. He icwr^xvness he had, * "mother in Chelsea Union. — Df. L. G. Hill, aouse isurgeon, . - ' stated that the deceased was suffering from obstruction of the intestines. An operation, was performed, but, death ensued on Tuesday evening. There were two large perforations of the intestines, which contained a bul let, twenty or thirty pieces cf cork, twenty pieces of tinfoil, piece of string lSm. long with corks attached, and a piece ot leather 9in. long, with a hook at each end. One of the hooks and a piece of tinfoil had caused the perforation?. Deceased told witness I that he was very hard up, and used to swallow things lor a living. He gave witness a loug list of the things he used to swallow— amongst whic n were chains, sovereign purses, French coins, halfpence, pipe-stems, newspapers, &c. Death was due to pemom tis, the result of the perforation. — The jury returned che loliowiug verdict," That the deceased died from peritonitis, following perforation of the bowel caused by a piece of tinfoil and a hook, which' with other indigestible things, he had swallowed lor a reward— death being due to misadventure."