 |
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
DEATH UNDER SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. INQUEST ON THE BODY Some excitement prevailed in the neighbourhood of the hamlet of Glascoed, near Usk, during last week, from its becoming known that a man named Thos. Williams, residing in the parish of Llanbaddock, on the borders of that hamlet, had died very suddenly, after having partaken of medicine administered to him by a man named Kane, who practised as a quack doctor. The facts will be gathered from the following evidence given at the inquest which was opened on the 28th of February, before C.M. Ashwin, Esq., deputy-coroner. Martha Jenkins, sister to the deceased, deposed that the body shewn to the jury, was that of her brother; on Wednesday last, I, with my sister-in-law, were in the house about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. My brother came in and was followed by a man, who asked him if he would like to hear a paper read, to which my brother said- “we shall hear something.” The man read a paper about various diseases; I heard that he had been speaking to my brother on similar subjects on their way from Pontypool. My brother said he had a bad cold, when the man answered that he would remove it from his chest before he left the house; he put some powder on my brother’s hand, he did so by pinches, and at the last pinch, the man told him to take it in the name of God; he told him to cough; he told my sister-in-law to give him a pot to spit in, and to open his mouth for the stuff to run out of it; a quantity of stringy fluid came from his mouth; he gave him something out of two bottles; it had no effect at that time. In the evening, my brother went up stairs to sit with mother, who, we thought, was dying. He was not sick, and made no complaint until about 4 o’clock in the morning. I then heard a peculiar noise in his breathing, and I saw him struggling for breath. He died immediately afterwards. After the above evidence had been taken, the inquiry was adjourned, the man Kane, who was brought up in custody, being remanded. At the adjourned inquest, held on Wednesday last, the following additional evidence was given:- Martha Williams, of Glascoed, sister-in-law to the deceased, deposed:- I was in the house with the last witness on the afternoon of Wednesday last; when I came in the house I saw a stranger there, an old man, who was reading a paper; and who said he could cure my brother-in-law of his cold; he gave him something like snuff, which he put on deceased’s hand, and told him to sniff it up his nose. He did so. The old man told me to fetch a utensil for the deceased to spit in. I do not know what the old man was reading about, but he said he could cure all manner of diseases. He told deceased to spit in the pot and cough; he told me to reach him a small wine glass, which I did; he poured about a table-spoonful of medicine out of a bottle into it, and told him to drink it up. After deceased had done so, he asked him if it felt warm in his stomach, and made him sweat; deceased answered that it warmed his stomach, but did not make him sweat. The old man then gave him some more powder, similar in appearance to the former one, and afterwards gave him about a spoonful of liquid out of another bottle. He gave deceased four or five doses of liquid alternately out of each bottle, and the powder to sniff between each dose, in the course of an hour. One of the bottles held about a quarter of a pint, and the other about half a pint. Deceased spat up a quantity of stringy phlegmy stuff; he did not complain of any pain, but said it warmed his stomach. He seemed quite smart all the evening; but at one o’clock the same night, he complained of a pain in his stomach, and had some tea. He said that he had thrown up all he had taken that evening, and should be sick again. He then went upstairs to his mother’s room. I went up shortly afterwards, and he was then sitting down on a chair, and seemed pretty well; I sat upstairs with him about half-an-hour, when feeling cold, I went down to the fire. Very soon after I left the room, I heard a jumping there, and my sister crying out. I went up stairs when Martha Jenkins said her brother was in a fit. I saw deceased on the floor between two persons who were holding him; deceased was making a blowing noise with his mouth, and a frothy, bloody fluid was issuing out of his mouth. He died almost immediately. My sister-in-law, Martha Jenkins, took one dose of the medicine. Hannah Lewis, of the hamlet of Glascoed, deposed; I am the wife of Philip Lewis, laborer. As I returned home from prayer meeting, about 9 o’clock this day week, I called at the house of Martha Jenkins, to enquire how the old lady (Mrs. Williams) was. The deceased then appeared as well as I had been accustomed to see him. I went up to sit with the old lady. I went home and afterwards returned to stop the night at the request of Martha Jenkins and her brother, the deceased. We had tea about one o’clock in the night, and the deceased partook of some with us. After tea, I went again up stairs, and the deceased afterwards came up stairs. He did not complain to me that he had been sick. He remained there, perhaps, for nearly two hours, sitting at the foot of his mother’s bed. I heard a strange noise, and looked towards the old lady, who, we thought, was dying, but saw nothing particular there; I then looked at the deceased, he was leaning back in his chair, struggling, and his eyes turned up, so that I could only see the white of them; he breathed hard, and froth fled from his mouth, slightly tinged with blood. I do not think it was more than two minutes from my first hearing the noise to the time he was dead. When I saw him struggling, I went to him, to prevent his falling on his mother’s feet; and Edward Morgan came to my assistance. I thought of the wen he had in his neck, and put my finger in between his collar and loosened it. John Williams, M.D., Pontypool, deposed that he had made a post mortem examination of the body of deceased; the surface of the body was pale, cold, and rigid, throughout; there were no external marks of violence, but bloody mucus oozed from the mouth, upon pressure over the stomach; the brain was congested on its surface, but in all other respects healthy; the neck vessels were turgid with fluid black blood, which bled freely on division; there was a clot in the right venticle of the heart, plugging up both pulmonary arteries-this was, undoubtedly, the cause of the sudden death; slight recent pericardilis with three ounces of yellow serum in the pericardum; there was congestion of the posterior part of the left lung, with recent and chronic adhesions; the other lung was healthy; the stomach and small intestines appeared reddened throughout; all the other organs were healthy. Witness had made an analysis of the contents of the stomach, but discovered no trace of poison, but there was a very strong odour of some essential oil. Could not call the redness of the stomach and bowels inflammation; would not say that the medicine deceased had taken could produce the clot of blood in the vessels leading from the heart to the lung. The Coroner having placed the facts clearly before the jury, the latter returned a verdict to the effect that deceased had died a sudden death, from natural causes. This verdict of course acquitted the man Kane of the charge of having caused the man’s death, and he was taken before a magistrate on the following day, and discharged. To be Let, WITH immediate possession, MIDDLE WERNHIR FARM, situate in the Hamlet of Glascoed, about three miles from Usk, containing about 64 acres. The stock, &c. to be taken at a valuation. Apply to Mr. PARTRIDGE, Solicitor, Usk.
COUNTY COURT, TUESDAY, Before Judge Herbert. Daniel Roberts, Llanbaddock, farmer v Daniel Morgan, and Ann his wife, Tredunnock, haulier, claim, £2 8s 6d, balance for sheep – full amount by 10s a month. DISTRICT INTELLIGENCE USK GLASCOED BAPTIST CHAPEL.- On Wednesday, the 5th inst., a public meeting was held at the above chapel, when about 300 friends sat down to tea. The tables having been cleared, several suitable pieces were sung by the choir, conducted by Mr. S. Evans, New Inn. Very appropriate addresses were delivered by the Revs. D. James (student at the Western College, Plymouth), T. Williams (Pontheer), and G. Cosens (Usk). The Rev. W. Morgan, the pastor, occupied the chair. At the conclusion, the Divine Blessing having been invoked, the assembly departed, highly gratified with the afternoon’s proceedings.
USK THE EARTHQUAKE of Tuesday last was experienced by several persons in this town and neighbourhood, especially by residents in detached houses.
SHOCKING DEATH ON THE RAILWAY.—On the morning of Monday last, about twenty minutes past 4 o’clock, a platelayer named Thomas Lewis, engaged on the railway in this locality, was horrified at finding on the line, near where it passes the reformatory school, the body of a man quite dead, and partly resting on the rails of the up line. Lewis obtained assistance, and removed the body, which was recognised to be that of William Morgan, formerly of Little Wernhere farm, Glascoed, but who has been recently residing, with his wife, to whom he had been married only a few months, at the house of her father, the Pentre, in the parish of Mamhilad. Inquiry was at once made as to how the deceased had met his death, when it was ascertained that he had been seen at the Nantyderry station on the previous (Sunday) night, having arrived by the train there at nine o’clock, from Abergavenny, where he was also seen on the platform. It was further elicited that a man had been seen by a passenger riding on the outside of the train, after it had left Nantyderry station, and jumping off where deceased’s body was found. It is therefore assumed that, after ostensibly leaving the train, deceased passed round the end of it, and got on the foot-board, for the purpose of riding as far as the nearest spot on the line to where he resided, intending to jump off, as it is said he did, and thus to save himself a considerable distance to walk. A coroner’s inquiry into the circumstances was held at the Half-way House Inn, Little Mill, on Tuesday morning, when, after the above facts had been deposed to in evidence, the jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death,” at the same time expressing an opinion that none of the company’s servants were the least to blame in the matter. It has been rumoured that deceased had before been known, when living at Wernhere, to jump from trains on the Monmouth branch whilst travelling. If such be the case, his not having before come to harm from such a dangerous practice can only be accounted for by the trains not running so fast on the Monmouth branch as on the main line; and that the train in question was running at a high speed will be gathered from the fact that the road bore marks of his having literally ploughed the ground for a distance of about forty yards from the spot where he first alighted, the injuries inflicted on the body thereby being of a frightful character, and such as undoubtedly caused instantaneous death. |
|||