STRANGE CAUSE OF DEATH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 912, 2 February 1882, Page 3

STRANGE CAUSE OF DEATH.

A death under extraordinary circumstances was recorded at an inquest held a few weeks ago in Braid wood (as repdtred in the Despatch). The following is a * portion r<f the : —Ah Pom; - do { posed through interprets: —I boi'gVc o

' cat for Ah-Yim, and took it to him; he wanted it to eat eyes, to give him better sight than, what he had ; he told me that : cats' eyes' were good for bad sighr, und j that his eyes were oad ; he said a blue scum came over his eyes when the hot weather came ; as soon as I gave him the cat he put in into a bag and I came away; the cat was-alive when I gave it to him. Ah Tan having been sworn said : I know the dead man ; I saw him cleaning the i dead cat, and he got me to help him »s he could not see well ; I cleaner) the cat, and the deceased cut the eyes out and put | tlvm ou a plate ; he then .put a bit of sug iron one and swallowed it, he then «o> the otli rand shallowed it, and began as if he were coughi: g ; I siw he was struggling, and helped him to bed with the help of Hmg Coon ; we then called our mates ; when they cane they said lie vv.s dead ; Ah Yim drowned the cat. R. Llewellyn, medical practitioner, made a | ost mortem examination of the body, and found the eye of an animal which he belie\ed to be a cat, in the cavity immediately above the vocal ehords ; it seemed to exactly lit the canity,- this would cause asphyxia, and death would be the almost immediate result of the eye being embedded there unless it was at once removed, and the removal would be a very difficult maiter as it exac'ly fitted the space The jury found that the deceased Ah Yim had met his death by being accidentally choked while trying to swallow a cat's eye.