PIECE OF LEMON PEEL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 153, 15 November 1912, Page 2

PIECE OF LEMON PEEL.

| MAN CHOKED IN SILVER STREET. An inquest touching the death of Cornelius Allen, who dropped down dead opposite the Public Works Office on Wednesday, was held at the Courthouse yesterday morning. The District Coroner ;(Mr. A. Crooke, S.M.) presided. Constabel Egan deposed that about 2.45 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, he and Constabel O'Neill, acting on information received, had found a man lying over the edge of the footpath in Silver street. Witness felt his pulse, and it was beating very faintly. He then loosened the clothing around deceased's neck. Dr. Home was subsequently sent for, and on arrival pronounced life to ,j be extinct. Witness took the deceased to the morgue and searched his clothing, but he had nothing whatever in his possession. His name was Cornelius Allen. He had been discharged from the Waio- • tapu gaol on June 24 last, and was out i on probation until March 8, 1914. He i understood that recently he had been i working at Awakino, but was in New >' ""Plymouth for some days prior to his death. At Awakino he followed the oe- ■ cupation of a laborer, although he was , a printer by trade. He was supposed to be married, and, it was thought, had a wife living in Australia. ' !Dr. G. Home gave evidence that the deceased came to his surgery shortly after two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon. He was then tremulous with the results of alcoholism. Witness examined him, gave him a sedative for his nerves and advised him to go to bed at the

Trocadero, where he was staying, telling him that lie would see him later on. The deceased walked away from his house, and shortly afterwards witness was rung up by the police to go and see him. He was dead when he arrived. Subsequently witness made a post mortem examination, finding death to be due to suffocation by a piece of lemon peel which had become stuck in Ms air passages. His organs were not unhealthy, but tlie liver was slightly enlarged. He had evidently started to eat a lemon, skin and all, after leaving witness' surgery, and a piece of the peel had struck in his larynx. His Worship returned a verdict ol death from accidental suffocation.