DETERMINED SUICIDE.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 656, 2 April 1870, Page 4

DETERMINED SUICIDE.

A most determined suicide took place on Monday, 7th March, at Carlton, when a man named Thomas James Philip Lamb, aged thirty-seven, committed self-destruc-tion by first stabbing himself and then taking strychnine. An inquest was held in the afternoon by Dr. Youl, when the following evidence was taken : — Frederick Lamb said deceased was his brother and a single man paving/ no occupation, but living on his income. He was ot rather eccentric habits, and occasionally had a drinking "bout," He could give no reason for his committing suicide except that he was slightly in debt. Peter Tait said- deceased had been living at his house for four months, and drank occasionally. He went out on Saturday night, and did not return until about one o'clock on Monday morning, when he went home in a cab. He borrowed some money to pay the cabman, and then commenced walking backwards and forwards from his bedroom to another room, carrying a lighted candle in his hand. In about half an hour he called witness, who found him standing in a room with his hand to his breast, and he then said, "I have stubbed myself." Witness did not take much notice, but said " Nonsense," when he replied, " I have shut the door, for all the devils in the world are after me." Witness noticed that there were a few drops of blood on a j handkerchief he had in his hand, and told him to go to bed, which he promised to do, and he then left him. He went to his room, but a*gain came out, and was wandering about, when Tait insisted on seeing the wound from whence the blood came, and he showed it to him, but it did not bleed much. A. doctor was sent for, and deceased then said he had taken strychnine. After the doctor arrived he had several violent spasms, and died about three o'clock in the morning. Upon examining the room a bottle which had contained strychnine was found on the mantelpiece. He was a little strange at times, and was in the habit of staying out all night occasionally. He had often told witness that he had strychnine in his possession to kill cats with, and as several cats had been found dead about the place, it was thought that he had poisoned them. Deceased used to say that when he lived in Royal Terrace he had killed twenty-five cats with it. He was holding a prayer-book in his hand the whole time from his first calling witness until it fell from him during one of the convulsions. Mr Charles Hardy, a surgeon, said he was called in to see deceased about two o'clock on Monday- morning, and found him very much excited. He had on a coat buttoned tight across his chest, but had no shirt on. Witness wanted to look at the wound, but he shrieked out, and said it was of no use. Having been told that he had taken poison, he used the stomach pump, and having, with Dr Hewlett's assistance, placed him under the influence of chloroform, his stomach was emptied and filled with oil. It was of no avail, however, for he was seized with tetanic convulsions, and died about three o'clock. He subsequently made a post mortem examination, and in the cartilege over the sixth and seventh ribs found a number of small stabs, such as would be produced by a small pocket-knife; Between the ribs he found a large and penetrating wound extending downwards close to the ribs for about seven inches between tho layers of the diaphragm, but there was very little blood lost. No vessels of any consequence were injured, and the wound was sach a one as a person wonld inflict upon himself. Neither his coat, waistcoat, nor shirt was cut, but his undershirt was punctured with all the stabs. The cause of death was poisoning by strychnine. Constable Slattery said he had made inquiries, but had been unable to find the cabman who drove deceased home. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased poisoned himself with strychnine, and also inflicted the stabs upon himself when in an unsound state of mind.