INFANTILE DEATH. DUE TO NATURAL CAUSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 70

INFANTILE DEATH. DUE TO NATURAL CAUSES.

AUCKLAND, January 8. At the inquest on the body of the infant child of Irene Snodgrass, who was found dead in bed at a boarding-house on December 13

The Coroner stated that the investigation made by the analyst was entirely of a negative character. Mrs Williams. boarding-house keeper, stated that on the morning of December 13 a boarder named Stewart said to her : " I don't mind a child crying, but I object to & child being smothered in a blanket." Mrs Snodgrass was late coming down to breakfast. Later witness heard Mrs Snodgrass scream, and her maid told witness that the baby was dead. Mrs Snodgrass said to witness, "My baby is dead," and expressed a wish that it should be taken away to ascertain from what it had died. Mrs Snodgrass had seemed well disposed towards her child. She had admitted to witness that the man Wasp, who was living with her in the house, was not her husband.

Drs Bull and Neil expressed the opinion that the child was well cared for and well nourished.

Dr Neil said he had made a partial postmortem examination of the body, and found a trace of inflammation in the intestines. As~

he was informed by the police that there would be an inquiry, he decided to proceed no further. He believed that death was caused by gastro enteritis. The Coroner said he was satisfied with

Dr Neil's evidence. Mr Stewart said that his remark to Mrs Wilson was that he objected to hear a child crying as if being smothered in the bedclothes. Though he heard the child crying in a smothered way, he did not mean to infer that it was being suffocated. The verdict was that death was due to natural causes — namely, convulsions.