CORONER'S INQUEST.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1155, 25 October 1871, Page 2

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An inquest was held yesterday afternoon at the Settlers' Hotel, Shakespeare-road, before Dr. Hitchings, the Coroner, and a respectable jury, on view ,o£ body of Charles Kenny, a t ca.det in the Napier Telegraph office, and son of Colonel Kenny, M.L.C., of Auckland. Jphn Hall, the telegraphist in charge of the Napier office, being sworn, stated that he believed the deceased to be about 20 years of age. Since his arrival here he had noticed that the deceased was generally in bad health, and he complained to him that he had a difficulty in breathing. Yesterday he noticed that he seemed much worse, although he was able to perform the work of his department. When he left the office at 5 30 p.m., he told the deceased he had better lie down, but he said he preferred stopping in the office., which he did until nearly eight o'clock, when he left for the purpose of going to Mr. Duncan's. Seeing him so very bad he advised him no.t to go put into, the night air. Previous to his leaving the office, he telegraphed to Mr. Lemon, the general manager of the department at Wellington, advising that the deceased should be sent to his friends at Auckland. George Willis, being sworn, stated that he knew the deceased intimately, and that for the last three months they had their meals together at Mr. Duncan's. He always noticed that the deceased had a difficulty in breathing. Yesterday at 1 p.m. he walked up Shakespearer-road with him, and noticed that his breathing was worse than usual. The deceased took his meals as usual. He next saw deceased a little after eight p.m. at Mr. Duncan's. He came up for his tea as usual. I}e noticed, when deceased came into the room, that he looked unusually pale. He was sitting in the seat generally occupied by the deceased, and was rising for him to sit down, when he grasped his left arm. The deceased was nearly exhausted, striving to breathe. He managed to get at the other end of the table, when he sat down in a chair; he placed his elbows on the table, and leant his head on his hands for two or three minutes. He (the witness) stood by hh side, and attempted to get water down his throat with a spoon. He was all this time gasping for breath. The deceased was quite unconscious. Afterwards the deceased leant his head on witness' shoulder, and expired without a struggle, The deceased died within a quarter of an hour after he entered the house. There were several other people in the room. Dr. Spencer deposed that he had been attending the deceased for three weeks. When he first came to witness, he was suffering from bronchitis, from which he speedily recovered. He noticed that the deceased had almost always a constant wheezing breathing, which he attributed to a complaint termed bronchocela, which was a swelling of the glands. Yesterday morning the deceased called on him at his house, and complained that during the night he had been unable to sleep, in consequence of having a difficulty to breathe. He gave him a remedy which afforded the deceased relief, and told him not to go out in the evening air, and that he would call and see him. He considered him to be so bad that he informed the deceased, that should he have such another attack, he would have to have recourse to an operation. He never saw deceased afterwards alive. He had that day held a post mortem examination on the body, and had come to the conclusion that death had resulted by compression of the windpipe by the enlargement of the glands. The jury, after a short deliberation, returned the following verdict:—"That death resulted from natural causes, accordin<* to the medical evidence adduced."