INQUEST.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 97, 23 December 1870, Page 3

INQUEST.

, The inquest on view of the body of Michael Dunne, who suddenly expired m. Mr..Brookes' store on the preceding Thursday evenings took place before H.

W. Ho bin soil, Esq., Coroner, on Saturday IGth inst, at Tait's Bendigo Hotel. Michael Brookes, being sworn, said: I am a storekeeper, and reside at

iVasebv. I knew the deceased Michael Duune ; 1 have known birn for the last tliree 01* Ibitr years. He was a man who at times drafik to great excess. I have knows him to be constantly under the influence of liquor for as much as thre£ months at .a. time.T For about a fortnight previous to the Bth instant he had been drinking hea\ilv. On .the evening of the Bth instant, at about twenty minutes before eight, he came into my store. He did not then seem.' to be intoxicated, but he appeared as if he had , been drinking hard. He sat down on. a case beside the counter without'-'speaking. I was busy, and did not very closely observe hitn. After he had been sitting for- fifteen or twenty minutes I beard a noise. I looked, and saw that the deceased appeared to have slipped forward, and that Mr. Bleach was Holding l.im up. He seemed to be in a sort of swoon. I got a cup of water 5 and'sprinkled his face, and tried

to get him to drink, hut he did not appear to 1 swallow. I took .one of his

hands and began to slap it. I went for Dr. M'Cam bridge, and, brought him back in a few minutes. "When I ar- ' rived with the doctor Michael Dunne was dead. I have heard the deceased say L lie had a brother in Victoria. I think he said somewhere near Gteelong. I have not heard of his having any relations in : this Colony. I believe he was*a native of County Meath, I reland. I believe his age was thirty-eight He had an interest with George Alexander "in a.claim and tail race in Main-Grully. He had also .a hut and garden, and, I believe, a share in the Temperance Hall. J '

Daniel M'Oamftridge, being sworn, saidV 1 firn a legally qualified medical

practitioner, and reside at Naseby. I have seen the body of the deceased. I

Epcognised it t as that of Miehael Dunne, miner, of this plar-e. I have examined ; the bpdj externally. It is'my opinion that death was the result of congestion of the brain, brought'on •by excessive dr i nkinl;have known the inan for the last three or; four years. He has been addicted to occasional fits of" excessive drinking... lie' has been under

fpy care some time since ior . delirium tremens, i ll know that- he -.has lately been; drinking hard, l His mate came to

I mfe lately f : >r medicine for him. - J have I slightest doubt bun that the j causfc'df-cteSafch was _ congestion of the J brain, caused by excessive • drinking. Between eijfl.-fc and nine o'clock oil Thursd ly evening last I,was'called by Mr Brookes to see the der-easeH. When I got to Mr. Brookes' store T found s that the mail was .dead. There wer©-no j external marks of violence. By the jury jThe night before his -death I gare td His raate, for him, two ! grains'of opium, to make him sleep. I j do riot kriow whether it was' administered. . It was a small dose for a man laboring under the excitement of liquor. I have given three or even four grains -to a mail in delirium tremens. It is my belief that if he had been properly cared for his life might have been saved. I mean, that if he had been kept from excess in the use of alcoholic liquors, and had had proper diet, the congestion of the brain might not have taken place. This other witnesses examined were George Alexander, John Tyack, and Patrick Bleach, who gave evidence corroborative of the above. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that deceased had died of congestion of. the brain, brought on by excessive drinking of alcoholic liquors.